Hims Nixes Apostrophe—And Catches WSJ Flack on Finasteride; Get a $330 Narcyss Haul; MFK's Kurky is Shy & Quirky

Oi gente, from São Paulo! I’m all types of jet lagged and happy, seeing some of my favorite friends in the world (including my partner André’s darling family). Having swapped Japanese winter for Brazilian summer, we are going HAM on the Happy Nuts and doubling down on the Bioré UV Aqua Rich (the Japan version, duh).

I need to re-shout out the foot peel I mentioned last week, from Grace & Stella (currently on Lightning Deal on Amazon); holy crap this is some serious business. Granted, my feet got so neglected these past months of living outta luggage and all the dry hotel rooms; even the constant massages and soakings couldn’t save them. But this peel is, quite perhaps-ably—the most effective I’ve had. TMI, but my feet are shedding more than a cheese grater at Olive Garden… It’s gnarly and awesome all at once. Baby Foot & Dr Scholls have a run for their money. (Email me for feet peel pics if that’s your thing—and if you’re ready to pay top dollar.)

This week I’ll meet with local fragrance expert Daniel Barros to dive into Brazil’s best Eaus, and I’ll be stocking up on tretinoin (Brazilian tret is even greater than Mexican tret… IYKYK).

Let’s get to business…

Narcyss Giveaway: Snag $330 of Luxe Swedish Skincare

I f*cking love this brand. Straight outta Stockholm, they do everything right. The quality, the branding, the new SKUs that somehow keep getting better than the last. I’ll drop my second “IYKYK” right here… Narcyss rules. I was DMing with grooming editor extraordinaire Michael Stefanov this week, and he started gushing about the brand without realizing it was already sorted as this week’s giveaway. I felt so validated!

Alright, so I could rave about their entire assortment, like Le Fix sheet masks… best in the game, revival / radiance guaranteed, as told to SPY mag, RIP. But as for the giveaway, here is what 3 people will win ($330 retail value each):

L’Eau Brut Cleanser ($40), Acid House Serum ($80), Suede L’Éclat Day Cream ($60), The Eye Cream ($70), and Beach Grass Night Mask ($80) (Beach Grass is my other favorite SKU from them—pillowy texture, exactly the remedy for well-rested and plumped skin.)

You’ve got until Saturday, March 29 to enter. Must be 18+ in the US contiguous 48/DC. Full T&Cs here.

ENTER THE GIVEAWAY

New and Noteworthy: Maison Francis Kurkdjian, Blind Barber, and Slick Gorilla

• Maison Francis Kurkdjian “Kurky” EDP: Kurky is quirky and cute, by design. It’s fruity but not quite feminine, musky but not quite masculine… this one I’ll keep around for periodic huffs and intermittent wear. It’s one I could definitely spot around the house, too. It’s raspberried on entry, almost fresh and powdery (to me) on dry down—and it achieves that dry-down rather quickly. André has really liked it on me, as he tends to prefer softer expressions. So Kurky’s “I’m shy!!” nature goes a long way.

  
  From the brand’s PR: “Kurky signifies the childhood that remains in ourselves — a poetic invitation to reveal the inner child in all of us.” // I think it’s a fitting description, given the sugary levity in this one.
  
  I hope you appreciate the on-the-fly Airbnb overhead-light styling I did here:

  

  KURKY // Product styling is my passion!!

• Blind Barber Drops at Boots UK: If you’re based in the UK, then march over to Boots (or click over to Boots.com) the newest official retailer of Blind Barber. These are some of our best exports on the men’s hair styling front—and some of our nation’s best barbershops too, should you find yourself in NYC, Philly, Chicago, LA, or Nashville.

• Slick Gorilla 2-in-1 Shampoo & Conditioner: There are a lot of product categories that I personally am not a fan of; that list actually includes dedicated eye creams as well as (you guessed it) 2-in-1 Shampoo/Conditioners. I think most men are shortchanging themselves with 2-in-1s by not having properly conditioned hair. But hey, these still sell like crazy. I DIGRESS: If you’re going to go that route, why not do it with a fab and affordable brand like Slick Gorilla? The UK-based SG is booming stateside, and this latest launch should help cement their street cred. (My favorite of theirs is the Lightwork styling clay.)

Hims & Hers Deletes Apostrophe—And Gets Centered in WSJ Spotlight on Finasteride Side Effects

Roller coaster year for telehealth behemoth Hims & Hers…

Last week, they axed Apostrophe

Three and a half years after acquiring Apostrophe for $191 million, Hims & Hers is discontinuing the skincare Rx mailer. BRB while I remove all Apostrophe links from acne content on Blue-Print.co …

Hims/Hers already offers their own skincare prescriptions (including options with tretinoin, which was sort of the tent that Apostrophe had pitched in targeting young people with acne). So while it’s a way for the entire company to focus efforts on one skincare Rx process (under two separate names, no less), maybe that $191 was a smart buyout of the competition all those years ago…

I wonder what it might have to do with the rollercoaster year that Hims & Hers is having, though: They had already seen their stock inflate with the rise of semaglutide/GLP-1 demand; because the brand-name offerings like Wegovy and Ozempic had themselves been in shortage, companies like H&H have been making a haul off their compound GLP-1 offerings.

Last year Hims & Hers recorded $1.5 billion profit thanks largely to the weight loss drugs (and grew 95% in Q4 alone); it was a 69% YOY boost. “Lose weight” is the first button on both the Hims and Hers landing pages, the former of which built its name on hair retention, then skincare/grooming, then sex/ED. (Ro has a similar trajectory, with weightloss as its first homepage button, too.) But Ozempic & Wegovy are no longer in shortage, which has led to sharp stock declines in February and March.

And now, Amazon’s own pharmacy and telehealth services (Amazon One Medical) makes it easier to get these kinds of drugs delivered home—including hair retention meds like oral minoxidil. So the Hims & Herseses aren’t likely seeing calm waters any time soon. (Shares did dip in November 2024 when Amazon One Medical rolled out.)

I’ll remain optimistic for these brands—hey, many of us owe our hair lines to them! Plus the brands themselves feel strong—but I can’t help but think of my former employer Birchbox, which innovated an entire industry and then became obsolete. Either way, I do think we’ll see the next chapter of their business soon enough. And on that note…

WSJ Audits Telehealth Finasteride Reporting (Namely Hims, Too)

More than anything else, I feel frustrated by this WSJ article reporting on the dangerous side effects of finasteride. (That link goes to an MSN syndication—no paywall.) The gist is that finasteride can cause sexual side effects, and that various percentages of those side effects have been cited in (likely outdated) studies; so, the numbers being advertised by these places might be lower than the actual risks. (And Hims cites the smallest percentage in their intake process.)

Embedding their IG post about it here too.

But the lede of the article really pins full responsibility on Hims in particular for this one guy’s side effects: “M*llich completed a 14-question intake on Hims.com and received a bottle of finasteride pills days later. He never spoke to a doctor. Soon after taking the medicine, M*llich said he felt strange symptoms. He woke up one day anxious, dizzy and slurring his words. Later his libido plunged, and his genitals shrank and changed shape.” 

That last part sounds, to me, more like a symptom of steroids, and the subject does look quite jacked up, but who am I to say? (Maybe his 1776 hoodie makes me less sympathetic, I dunno.) But let me say this: Yes, post-f1naster1de syndrome is a rare thing; this 2019 article on PubMed suggests 1,000 people worldwide. I get enough emails about it from one unfortunate guy who has made it his life mission to spread the word about post-f1n syndrome.

But to avoid sensationalism, it has always felt less responsible for me to magnify that fraction of a fraction of a percentage—and more important to spotlight the sexual side effects which are much more common AND widely understood by people who, I dunno…have conversations with their male friends? Most people who experience those sexual side effects can regain their sex drive and b*ners within days of clearing oral finasteride from their systems. A rare few aren’t so lucky—ditto for those extremely rare few who experience depressive or su*c1dal symptoms.

And if the point of the article is to challenge how these telehealth companies report percentages of side effects to their customers, then I agree, it could see room for improvement. Especially since it isn’t necessary to have face time with a doctor before getting a prescription. But this article also suggests that the lack of doctor interface is a fault here, without noting the reason these companies are so successful in the first place: convenience—a true American innovation.

Mr. 1776 in the lede should go live in the EU and see how easy it is to get any of these treatments for hair loss: While I lived there, one German doctor told my friend “you need to just embrace hair loss and deal with it” and refused to prescribe finasteride. So, guess where I get my hair loss meds from? These US telehealth companies.

So, do you want easy access—wherein the burden lies on you, the consumer, to accept responsibility?

Furthermore, you can speak with a Hims doctor; the first graf of the article ends with the punch “He never spoke to a doctor.” That’s on him, not on Hims.

The article also cites a user of Keeps who took topical finasteride and experienced sexual side effects. Topical finasteride practically eliminates side effects since it is not circulated throughout the body. (With basically identical results for the hairline.) Can someone experience sexual side effects from a topical fin application? Extremely rarely, but sure. Also, maybe he was drinking it? I really should be more sympathetic, but I’m a tough-love kind of guy.

The point of this article (I think?) is that there should just be better warnings around side effects on these sites. Yeah, I agree. But don’t let the rare cases prevent you from keeping your hair (if you want to keep it). Know your risks with these, or any drugs. (Curious about taking minoxidil? It’s likely you should avoid it if you have issues with your heart or blood pressure.)

The large majority of guys will be fine with oral finasteride options, but if you want to be extra safe, just go with topical. Read about your many hair retention options here, or watch the video below.

Alrighty Blue Princes, that’s it from me.

Boa noite from this concrete jungle—I’m gonna go peel some more skin off my lizard feet.

Parting shot: Before we flew outta the US, we spent a day at Dr. Bronner’s HQ in Vista, CA (near San Diego). It fully feels like 4 weeks ago now. Don’t cry for me but I am so sick of traveling LOL.

I’ll get a video up in coming months about that visit, so I won’t go in depth here, but it was certainly a milestone for me as a huge fan of the soapmaker (and we got some great 2-on-1 time with President Michael Bronner). We couldn’t carry 32-oz soaps in our luggage (plus they have a post in Portugal), but needless to say we stocked up on our all-time favorite hand sani.