Manly Man

My Dad is a manly man. There's very little on the ranch that he can't fix, build or do. I think, even though he's now approaching the age of 70, he's still probably the strongest person I know. When I was growing up I remember him stacking hay bales, one in each hand, like they were grocery bags. He could split wood with one easy swipe and could push a horse across a corral if he needed to.

His poor hands have taken a real beating over the years, as has the rest of his body. He's broken bones many times, has knee problems from horseback riding injuries and heavy lifting, has frequent pulled muscles, bruises and cuts. To help alleviate the discomfort from all of these things, and because he likes the quiet of it, my Dad likes to take baths. He's not a shower guy.

My Dad clearly deserves a nice Manly Man Soap. I have to say though, that when I was trying to decide on the actual scent for this soap, I had to diverge a bit from what my Dad would probably prefer. You see, even with all of his manly toughness, he's really a flower guy.

That's the other side to my childhood memories about him. He would take me on walks frequently to a place we call Flower Mountain. It's really just a hillside on the ranch, but it always had the best collection of spring wildflowers: Queen Anne's Lace, Yellow Bells, Spring Beauties and Dogtooth Violets. We would go and pick flowers for my Mom or my Grandma Evie. I remember my Dad's gnarly working hands holding the scissors to trim the stems before putting the wildflower bouquet in a jelly jar "vase" to be placed on my Grandma's Formica table.

If I had been choosing a scent just for him, it would probably be more of a Girlie Man scent than Manly Man, but that's an idea for a different day. Instead, I decided to use the traditional oils of clary sage, vetiver and lime. All of these essential oils were commonly used in men's fragrances before the age of synthetic smells and Irish Spring. It's a classic manly smell, hearkening back to an earlier time. It makes me think of my Grandpa...now there was another Manly Man...