I have been trying to figure out why I can't stop watching this World Cup.
Maybe it's the spectacle of the handsome, well-built men running around in shorts for 90 minutes, which, let's be honest, is not nothing (or is that just me?).
Maybe it's watching a Japanese fan pick up trash in a stadium he'll never visit again,
or the Viking Row,
or tourists from four continents discovering ranch dressing.
Maybe it's just the rare feeling of the whole world caring about the same thing at the same time. I genuinely don't know.
What I know is I'm not alone. Two Sundays ago, nearly 45 million Americans watched Mexico play England. That's more than watched our own team play. That's NFL playoff territory, for a match with no Americans in it.
The final match of the World Cup kicks off today at 3pm Eastern. It's expected that a billion people will watch this game.
And I can tell you one thing with total certainty about the 22 men who walk out of that tunnel.
Every single one of them got a haircut this week.
Not because they had time to kill. These are the busiest athletes alive right now. They got haircuts because at the highest level of the most-watched sport on earth, grooming is not a luxury. It is part of the job. And the story of how those haircuts happened this summer is one of the best stories of the whole tournament.
The barber who cold-called a legend
Quick credit before we start. We did not report these stories. The journalists linked below did the actual work. We are just the blog bringing them under one roof, because side by side they paint a really interesting picture.
Start with a 22-year-old barber in Dallas named Bryan Guardado. A few years back, he did what every hungry young guy with a skill does. He shot his shot. He messaged a bunch of Barcelona players when they came through Texas, offering to cut their hair.
One person answered. A 15-year-old kid named Lamine Yamal.
Fast forward to this summer. Yamal is now the biggest young star in world soccer, Spain is on a World Cup run, and he remembered the barber who took him seriously before anyone had to. Guardado has been cutting the entire Spanish national team throughout the tournament. Then France saw the clips, and before the semifinal in Dallas, they booked him too. Both teams. Same chair. Days apart.
Think about that. Two of the best soccer teams ever assembled, preparing for the biggest match of their lives, and one of the logistics they refused to leave to chance was the haircut.
He was not the only one. The US men's national team traveled with an embedded barber whose entire job was keeping the squad fresh through the tournament.
A barbershop crew north of Seattle spent eight hours cutting all 24 players on the Egyptian national team, with Mo Salah last in line, and the lead barber says he now watches every Egypt match praying his cuts bring them luck.
A barber from Waltham, Massachusetts became France's guy after a random WhatsApp message, got vetted by team security like he was entering a federal building, and ended up cutting players for Morocco too.
These teams treat the barber like essential personnel. Because he is.
Why the toughest men alive care this much
Why do the best male athletes on the planet, men whose job is physical dominance, care so much about how they look?
They are seen. These are the most-photographed faces on earth, in 4K, sweating, from every angle, in front of billions.
The haircut is part of the uniform. The look is identity.
Kids all over the world walk into barbershops asking for the Mbappe or the Bellingham.
The cut is how you are recognized from the nosebleeds and on a phone screen. It is personal brand infrastructure, maintained as seriously as the fitness.
Teams vet barbers through security and fly them between cities because the fresh cut before the match is part of being ready. Not decoration. Preparation.
The rest of the world already agrees with you
Now the part I actually want you to hear.
Those players grew up in Buenos Aires, Barcelona, Paris, Dakar, Tokyo. In every one of those places, a man who takes care of his skin, his hair, and his nails is not a type of guy. He is not making a statement. He is just a guy.
Only in America did we have to invent a word like metrosexual for a guy with good skin and a decent haircut, as if basic maintenance were a lifestyle choice that required a label. Everywhere else on earth, that is table stakes. That is Tuesday.
So if you have a routine - and if you are reading this you probably do - understand what you are looking at this afternoon. The most masculine men alive, on the biggest stage that exists, are your people. You are not fussy. You are not extra. By the standards of roughly seven billion humans, you are simply a man who has his act together.
Confidence is built, deliberately, one unglamorous habit at a time. These men know it. So do you.
I'm gonna say it again: good grooming is not decoration. It's preparation.
Enjoy the match
The World Cup's Other Competition
I have been trying to figure out why I can't stop watching this World Cup.
Maybe it's the spectacle of the handsome, well-built men running around in shorts for 90 minutes, which, let's be honest, is not nothing (or is that just me?).
Maybe it's watching a Japanese fan pick up trash in a stadium he'll never visit again,
or the Viking Row,
or tourists from four continents discovering ranch dressing.
Maybe it's just the rare feeling of the whole world caring about the same thing at the same time. I genuinely don't know.
What I know is I'm not alone. Two Sundays ago, nearly 45 million Americans watched Mexico play England. That's more than watched our own team play. That's NFL playoff territory, for a match with no Americans in it.
The final match of the World Cup kicks off today at 3pm Eastern. It's expected that a billion people will watch this game.
And I can tell you one thing with total certainty about the 22 men who walk out of that tunnel.
Every single one of them got a haircut this week.
Not because they had time to kill. These are the busiest athletes alive right now. They got haircuts because at the highest level of the most-watched sport on earth, grooming is not a luxury. It is part of the job. And the story of how those haircuts happened this summer is one of the best stories of the whole tournament.
The barber who cold-called a legend
Quick credit before we start. We did not report these stories. The journalists linked below did the actual work. We are just the blog bringing them under one roof, because side by side they paint a really interesting picture.
Start with a 22-year-old barber in Dallas named Bryan Guardado. A few years back, he did what every hungry young guy with a skill does. He shot his shot. He messaged a bunch of Barcelona players when they came through Texas, offering to cut their hair.
One person answered. A 15-year-old kid named Lamine Yamal.
Fast forward to this summer. Yamal is now the biggest young star in world soccer, Spain is on a World Cup run, and he remembered the barber who took him seriously before anyone had to. Guardado has been cutting the entire Spanish national team throughout the tournament. Then France saw the clips, and before the semifinal in Dallas, they booked him too. Both teams. Same chair. Days apart.
Think about that. Two of the best soccer teams ever assembled, preparing for the biggest match of their lives, and one of the logistics they refused to leave to chance was the haircut.
He was not the only one. The US men's national team traveled with an embedded barber whose entire job was keeping the squad fresh through the tournament.
A barbershop crew north of Seattle spent eight hours cutting all 24 players on the Egyptian national team, with Mo Salah last in line, and the lead barber says he now watches every Egypt match praying his cuts bring them luck.
A barber from Waltham, Massachusetts became France's guy after a random WhatsApp message, got vetted by team security like he was entering a federal building, and ended up cutting players for Morocco too.
These teams treat the barber like essential personnel. Because he is.
Why the toughest men alive care this much
Why do the best male athletes on the planet, men whose job is physical dominance, care so much about how they look?
They are seen. These are the most-photographed faces on earth, in 4K, sweating, from every angle, in front of billions.
The haircut is part of the uniform. The look is identity.
Kids all over the world walk into barbershops asking for the Mbappe or the Bellingham.
The cut is how you are recognized from the nosebleeds and on a phone screen. It is personal brand infrastructure, maintained as seriously as the fitness.
Teams vet barbers through security and fly them between cities because the fresh cut before the match is part of being ready. Not decoration. Preparation.
The rest of the world already agrees with you
Now the part I actually want you to hear.
Those players grew up in Buenos Aires, Barcelona, Paris, Dakar, Tokyo. In every one of those places, a man who takes care of his skin, his hair, and his nails is not a type of guy. He is not making a statement. He is just a guy.
Only in America did we have to invent a word like metrosexual for a guy with good skin and a decent haircut, as if basic maintenance were a lifestyle choice that required a label. Everywhere else on earth, that is table stakes. That is Tuesday.
So if you have a routine - and if you are reading this you probably do - understand what you are looking at this afternoon. The most masculine men alive, on the biggest stage that exists, are your people. You are not fussy. You are not extra. By the standards of roughly seven billion humans, you are simply a man who has his act together.
Confidence is built, deliberately, one unglamorous habit at a time. These men know it. So do you.
I'm gonna say it again: good grooming is not decoration. It's preparation.
Enjoy the match