Choose Your Own Arquiste, Hair Transplant Bonanza, and Managing Mind-Fullness with Shingon Monks

Konnichiwa y’all. At the time of this send, I am sound asleep in Nagasaki in far-west Japan. At the time of this typing, I am on the bullet train from Kyoto, ahead of an immersive week across Kyushu island (and two smaller islands of Kyushu, Goto and Yakushima, the latter of which inspired Princess Mononoke.) 

The focus remains on wellness, with a schedule for forest hiking, ocean vista viewing, hot sand smothering, massage receiving, and tea sipping (at a tea hotel!). Yes, I’m bragging—it took me like five months of nonstop planning to build this itinerary (with the help of some rockstar publicists, too) amidst a full-time editorial slate and launching Blue Print. SO, I’m just gonna soak in the fabulousness of this itinerary, fresh off five massages and four onsen soaks in Kyoto this past week. I’m proud of me—and my trip planning rules, if I may say so.

And you know what else rules? The Blue Print newsletter giveaways…

Choose Your Own Arquiste Fragrance

This week’s giveaway is from another brand I’m very endeared to: Arquiste, winner of one of our first-ever Blue Ribbon awards for the outstanding patchouli-powered Misfit (which I also shouted out in the Best Signature Scents roundup). 

For this prize: Three people can get a bottle of Misfit OR any other fragrance from Arquiste’s all-star lineup. 

That’s right, choose your own Arquiste scent; those winners get a full size bottle of their pick. What do you have to do in order to win? Just justify your choice. I don’t mean “beg for it”, but tell me why that scent in particular intrigues you. You’ve got two weeks from today to enroll in the giveaway, and I’ll notify the winners the weekend of Feb 15/16. 

My personal favorites from Arquiste? Misfit, Nanban, Sydney Rock Pool, Peau, A Grove By the Sea, Architect’s Club, Boutonnière No. 7, Él, all for very different reasons… I mean, the range of this assortment. So, browse your options here (of the first 20 listed there) and then…

ENTER HERE 

(See terms and conditions; mainly you must be 18+ in the lower 48 States/DC.)

And why not share this with a friend? Go on, forward this email to them! They could win a scent, I could get a new newsletter subscriber. (Note: By entering, they automatically subscribe to this newsletter.)

Hair Transplant Extravaganza: Podcast Guesting and Two New Videos

If you don’t already listen to Vox Media’s news podcast Today, Explained, I hope you’ll start. It’s my favorite daily news deep dive, thanks largely to its never-self-serious-ness. I appreciate the irreverence of co-host Sean Rameswaram and the customized jingles made by the production team for just about every episode.

Imagine my excitement when they asked me to be on an episode! It was a slow news day, yes, in a month where that seemed impossible: They phoned me up to help spotlight hair transplant tourism in Turkey. Two months ago, journalist Alex Abad-Santos interviewed me for his Vox article on the phenom of “Turkish hairlines”, and then Rameswaram and co turned it into a podcast ep too.

Listen: Apple // Spotify

And on the topic of hair transplants: All of this in the same week we published two hair transplant explainers to the YouTube channel. Both videos feature expertise from the one and only Dr. Gary Linkov, and are also sponsored by his skincare and hair-plumping line, Feel Confident (code BLUEPRINT gets you 10% off their skincare and haircare offerings, not valid on prescription hair loss meds). 

The first video is about expectations going into a hair transplant, as well as who should/shouldn’t consider one, expected costs, and red flags to look for when choosing a clinic:

The second video is a timeline from the moment you show up to your transplant, so the procedure itself, the initial recovery, and then the regrowth journey ahead:

We’re plotting a May visit to Istanbul again, shadowing a childhood best friend who will get a hair transplant to document on our channel too—and in time I’ll do a run-through of my (and André’s) personal experienced through the process as well. I promise Blue Print won’t just turn into a hair transplant channel, either. (All this time I was thinking it would run the risk of turning into a men’s fragrance channel. And speaking of…)

Notable Launches: Three Scents, and a Deodorant in Three Scents

Here are three fragrances that launched this week, only one of which I’ve been able to test, given I’m away from home for so long. (I’ll be back on my testing game in Q2, promise.) Still, they’re all super promising:

• Aesop Aurner EDP: A green floral by way of magnolia leaf, chamomile, and cedar. I suspect I’ll be loving this one, and early feedback seems glowing. LMK if you get a whiff.

• Tom Ford F*cking Fabulous Parfum: Leather, tonka, fir, orris, cashmeran… this recipe sounds like sex on a spritz. Yo quiero; I love the original F-ing Fabulous EDP.

• Calvin Klein Eternity Amber Essence Intense Parfum: I did try this one before traveling; I quite like its resinous-bourbonous build. The Eternity line is one of the best ‘cost-accessible’ designer lines you can get, and Amber Essence continues the trend.

Also Launched: Nécessaire The Deodorant

Nécessaire’s new scented deo trio launched in late January. The bodycare brand already has one of my favorite exfoliating deodorants, the mandelic-acid gel, but now they have the same alpha-hydroxy-acid formula in a rub-on stick. (You can choose fragrance free, or between eucalyptus [my fav] and olibanum; a santal option will be available soon, too.)

A Wellness Reminder from the Shingon Monks 

I am toeing two very different states of mind these days: On the one side, I am the most chilled out I have ever felt. I mean, c’mon, the hotels, the massages, the onsens… this massive assignment is the single best I’ve had.

But at the same time I feel those lingering thoughts: “Am I doing enough work? Should I be taking on more deadlines? Can we be doing more for Blue Print?” Even when I oughta be my most zen, my mind won’t turn off. (Seriously, when I’m face down in those massage beds, I’m just thinking of my to-do lists, albeit with a drooly tea-drunk smile as I nearly nod off.)

This week, there was one encounter that helped my mind push past those perturbing questions. As part of the week’s work itinerary, Park Hyatt Kyoto arranged a meeting with a Shingon monk at Kyoto’s royal Sennyū-ji Temple grounds. You can peep my IG post for more context below, but one thing really struck me from the conversation with South Carolina-native Kenmei, the esoteric monk (scroll past this embedded post):

Unlike Zen monks, who vacuum every thought from their mind as they meditate, Shingon monks focus on freeing the mind of burdens. For the Shingon, the thoughts themselves are fine; it’s human to have them, so don’t suppress or ignore the roaming mind. Instead, focus on how much value you assign to the thoughts. (Or rather, how little value.) Do not let them cloud.

No, this monk meetup didn’t change my life; I went through a Stoic randiness phase after college and feigned enlightenment. BUT… this visit was a good reminder not to let those annoying thoughts about YouTube uploads or social engagement or self-imposed deadlines burden me during such a hard-earned and rewarding itinerary. 

Maybe I’ll require less melatonin to fall asleep in the future, and get better quality rest at that. Plus, the superficial benefits of stressing less are immense, from dark circles to gray hairs to acne hair retention. “Don’t sweat the small stuff,” is damn good grooming advice in this way, so thank you Kenmei the Shingon for the reminder.

Fun Shingon facts: The monks also concoct their own signature powder scents for cloud-clearing meditation, and many esoteric Buddhists pray specifically for beauty, since “looking your best allows for less stress”. Can’t say I disagree. I mean, I did fly to Istanbul for that exact reason 5 years ago… and on a prayer, too!

As for beauty, give it up for Kyoto in January, please:

Have a great week, Blue Princes. Now forward this to a pal so everyone can try and win some Arquiste!