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PRIM & PREP is a great online resource for men to learn about the latest and greatest men’s grooming products, techniques and news. It’s chock full of great content and the Grooming Lounge Crew regularly uses the site as a trusted destination to stay on top of our grooming game. So, we thought it might be a good idea to intro our readers to the site and its founder, Ben Rose. We gave Mr. Rose 10 or so questions and here’s what he had to say.

GIVE US THE ELEVATOR PITCH ON PRIM AND PREP?

"Prim and Prep is comprised of a team of experts that cover every facet of male grooming, including wet shaving, beard maintenance, body grooming and hair loss management.

Prim and Prep takes a data and research driven approach through scrupulous analysis, testing and surveys in order to determine the best grooming advice for the modern man.

We favor products that are free of harmful chemicals and that primarily use all natural ingredients for their superior results, countless health benefits and environmental sustainability."

WHY A MEN’S GROOMING ADVICE WEB SITE & HOW DID IT START?

"I grew up in a rural beach town where the majority of the population was free-spirited hippies and beach bums. When I moved to San Francisco to work in finance after college, my eyes were opened to the world of men’s grooming and style.

At the office and around town, I noticed how much better some men looked simply due to appropriate grooming and style. More often than not, these were the men with desirable women and the ones moving up within the company.

I started performing my own research on the topic and found there was persuasive evidence that better grooming can have a direct effect on your personal and professional success. That is when I made the choice to invest much of my free time into learning about all aspects of male grooming.

Through this research, as well as speaking with my grandfather, I took a particular interest in wet shaving for the many benefits that go well beyond the superior shave they provide.

I have an innate passion for teaching others and found a great sense of gratification in passing on all that I had learned about male grooming over the last couple of years to my friends back home.

One of my best friends, who took to my advice more than others, was also working in the online space and he suggested I extend my reach of passing on such information through creating a male-focused grooming website - and so PrimandPrep.com was born."

HOW HAS THE MEN’S GROOMING MARKET EVOLVED IN YOUR OPINION OVER THE LAST 5 YEARS?

"I believe almost anyone would agree the spectrum has shifted and now a much larger population of men are paying greater attention to their appearance and are more conscience of the products they use.

While investing more in personal appearance would have once earned a man the title of “metrosexual,” this has now become considered the norm.

This is resulting in a higher demand for information and guidance within the male grooming space, as well as a need for a greater variety of products that meet the higher standards of quality and specific needs of the modern man.

There are a lot of data points that are referenced within articles to portray this trend, but from a personal standpoint, I have noticed this shift through my keyword research. I use keyword research to see what people are searching for in order to gauge what people are most interested in learning about.

Through this research I have noted a significant upward trend in the volume of searches for information related to male grooming that exceeds the general increase in overall searches.

I think this is a key indicator of the expanding male grooming market and its room for even more growth."

WHAT’S THE FUTURE FOR MEN’S GROOMING IN YOUR VIEW?

"From a product perspective, I believe as men become more conscious of the products they use and what they are made of, there will be a greater demand for products that use natural ingredients and are free of the harmful chemicals that so many of the products you’ll find at your local drug store still contain.

European regulations, for example, are far more stringent on the ingredients and chemicals permitted for health and beauty products when compared to the United States.

It is my prediction, as well as my hope, that the use of these chemicals within such grooming products will decrease as more consumers understand the value of more natural alternatives and demand products of a higher standard."

HOW MANY PRODUCTS DO YOU GET SENT TO REVIEW EACH WEEK?

"My team and I are constantly reviewing a large number of products both solicited and unsolicited.

As Prim and Prep has grown into an authoritative leader in the male grooming space, it has been far easier to obtain free samples of products for us to try out compared to when we first started out – back when we had to purchase all of the products on our own dime!

We are proud to have maintained an unbiased approach to our review process as we consider each product’s quality with equal scrutiny, regardless of how it was obtained.

We have also continued to uphold our policy of not accepting sponsored posts so as to keep our website, and the information provided within it, free of any bias to assure our readers are always receiving authentic and reliable information."

FAVORITE PRODUCTS AND PRODUCT LINE?

Safety Razors: Edwin Jagger and Merkur hands down produce the best overall quality safety razors at a reasonable price point, with a large variety of options to choose from.

Shaving Creams / Shaving Soaps / Aftershaves: The Europeans take the cake on these products as well as Proraso (Italian) and Taylor of Old Bond Street (British) both produce quality products across the whole line.

Beard Products: The American companies win on this front as Honest Amish (Pennsylvania) and Wild Willies (Georgia) make great all natural beard products.

Moisturizers, Creams, and Soaps: Jack Black and Anthony Logistics both have a solid line of products and commonly make it somewhere within our “best of” lists, but I also have to give a shout out to Grooming Lounge’s Best Smeller, which just recently made the top of our list of the best smelling body washes for men.

WHAT CAN GROOMING LOUNGE DO BETTER?

"I would encourage Grooming Lounge to continue to expand on their own line of quality products. The real world experiences and interactions their grooming experts are having everyday provide invaluable insight to designing the best products for men.Grooming Lounge’s own product line as well as their other offerings within the online store use quality ingredients. This fact should be highlighted within the description of the products to help raise awareness."

FUNNIEST PITCH OR REQUEST?

"This one time a China-based company asked me to try out their semi-permanent toupee which is actually glued onto your head. I opted out of this one."