Sometimes, all it takes for men to feel better is a nice haircut. Bevel’s brand marketing director Girard Hardy has found a way to support that self-care cause for athletes. Bevel revealed their shop in the Overtime Arena for the athletes who are looking to look good, feel good and play good before their games.
Hardy spoke with rolling out about the Bevel shop, mental health and young Black men, and grooming tips.
What was the inspiration to put a Bevel shop in the Overtime Arena?
The first is our commitment to Black men, especially young Black men and Black men all across their life journey. So we wanted to create a Bevel shop here inside the Overtime arena that kind of inspired the next generation of athletes and professional basketball players in their journey to look good, feel good and play good. We felt like they needed a space within the Overtime Arena to do that.
How is mental health and grooming connected for Black young men?
Men’s grooming and mental health are 110 percent connected. I can’t guarantee that a haircut is going to change everything about your life, but I can say for me and those moments where I’ve been down, I think back to … the start of COVID. Working from home; people are sick; everything else is happening. One of the first things I stopped doing was I didn’t cut my hair. So for seven, eight, and nine months — as I was trying to make sense of the world around me — I hadn’t cut my hair [and] hadn’t really shaved, and I wasn’t really sure which end was up. But I know that the second I was able to sit in my barber’s chair and get that cut and get that lineup, all of a sudden I felt a little bit better about myself or felt like I had the skills to be able to kind of tackle what was next. We believe that haircuts and proper grooming are a piece of proper mental health, combined with professionals and therapists and all those other things — but it’s a pretty important piece.
Why was it important for you all to build another Bevel shop at Clark Atlanta University?
For us as a brand, Atlanta is our home. Since we’ve moved the brand here — since we’ve been here — this is home. It’s really important for us to make sure that we’re providing this experience of Bevel, that look good, feel good, play good — not only to the athletes here at Overtime, but also to the athletes over at Clark Atlanta University, a historically Black college and university. That’s important for us because it’s Atlanta, because it’s our community, and because we want to provide that same level of experience so that they can have that feel of Bevel. So, it’s synonymous that they look good, feel good and play good, no matter if they’re playing at Clark Atlanta University, or if they’re playing over here at Overtime, the NBA — or wherever they might go next.
What are three grooming tips that young Black men must do?
First, use face wash. Use an actual face wash and put down the bar. Don’t wash your face with body wash. Number two, I would say is wash your hair. Wash and condition your hair. There are rumors going around that if you’ve got short hair you don’t need to do that. That’s nonsense. The third, I would say, is to figure out what your smell is or your scent is or what you want it to be. There are some guys that are wearing colognes and that’s great, but maybe yours is just a great deodorant paired with a fantastic body wash. If I give a fourth, I would say wash your clothes.
