Five Fashion Failures to Avoid

Everyone who knows me, knows that I am an impeccable dresser and that (without being too puffed up about it) my example in fashion is worth noticing. I have even written here about fashion hints for men. While it is true not everyone can be as sartorially sophisticated as I am, the very least one should strive for is to avoid the obvious fashion failures that seem to blight our general view.
1. Comb-over hair style
Some people like Donald Trump can get away with a comb-over hairstyle, because they are inherently cool. For the rest of mandom, however, the comb-over does not fool anyone for a second. I have often wondered about this phenomenon. The man grows the hair on the sides or in back exceptionally long. What is he thinking as he parts his hair just above an ear and combs it over the bowling ball above? Does this person then stand back, look at himself in the mirror and wink, giving himself a double thumbs up? If so, he is delusional. Everyone, I repeat, EVERYONE he meets during the course of the day notices the laborious engineering feat of his comb-over, and all of them, to a woman, think it looks ridiculous. Even the milder form of this, what is called a "bar code" hairstyle in Japan, does not fool anyone for even a nanosecond and makes the comber look sad. Bald is not bad; there is no need to go to extremes to pretend.
2. Lipstick excess
Lipstick applied correctly adds a luster of lusciousness to a woman's face, but it cannot be used to make up for natural deficiencies. A woman with naturally thin lips does not enhance her appearance by applying lipstick outside the lip line. Obviously, enhancing the lips so that you CAN apply a lot of lipstick has its limitations too.
Another problem with laying the lipstick on too thickly is the way it then tends to spread to other places, like teeth. Bloody looking teeth do not send out the sexy signals that most women intend when they apply lipstick to begin with.
3. Plucking and drawing eyebrows
If a woman's eyebrows meet over the bridge of her nose or could be used as a comb-over base if she should ever go bald, some judicious trimming or plucking might be called for. But for most women this is totally unnecessary and seems to automatically escalate to excess (which is true for almost any cosmetic). Some women will go so far as to completely remove their natural eyebrows and then pencil in what they think their eyebrows SHOULD look like. This is invariably an invitation to disaster as the penciled in ones are often not symmetrical or can give the face a startled or even fearful expression, which, because it is drawn on, is unchanging regardless of one's mood. Let's go easy on the eyebrow pencil and plucking, shall we?
4. Perfumes and colognes
Nothing says cheap like too much perfume or cologne even if the fragrance itself is an expensive one. Our sense of smell is amazingly acute so overloading the system with a powerful smell is likely to cause permanent damage. In fact, there are some studies that suggest that natural pheromones are important in picking the right person for you. If you overwhelm your natural smell with perfumes, you may end up with Mr. Wrong instead of the dream guy you always wanted.
5. Tattoos
Finally, we need to discuss tattoos which have become so commonplace of late that they can even be considered mainstream. While a tribal tattoo on someone from the tribe that created it might have a certain caché, on anyone else it looks silly. The tattooed person also sounds ludicrous, talking about his "tribal" tattoo while living in – say – New Jersey. Adding more tattoos to the ones you already have is generally not a good idea. As with cosmetics, the tattooing seems to escalate until one's skin looks like a disaster area. When your skin is firm and muscles underneath are strong, the dragon tattoo may look chic, but gain some weight or get to be 70 and the fetching dragon will take on an entirely different appearance. If you simply must have a tattoo, remember they are basically forever; making sure the spelling is correct is basic.

I hope these fashion hints will help you avoid some common, fashion pitfalls and gain confidence in your appearance.