GeekStyle: Stop dressing up as phones guys

Welcome to GeekStyle, a column that discusses the ins and outs of geek fashion. (Also read the previous GeekStyle) We are here to help you answer your style questions and provide you with some practical tips on what’s hip (and What is Not), for geeks.

First up, The Tip of the Week:

This weeks tip is actually a suggestion on how to avoid a faux pas. In short: Stop dressing up as gadgets.

I know I know, it was fun for a while when people first started dressing up as iPods or iPads. But nowadays it’s just naff, if you want to attract the eye of the opposite sex (which let’s face it, this is what this is all about) start dressing up as yourself in your own style.

That’s not to say you can’t have fun with it though, more on that here:

Now, onto readers questions.

Timo Kouwenhoven: How do inadvertent olfactive disasters relate to geekism? Positively of negatively?
Admittedly the GeekStyle editors had no idea what an ‘olfactive disaster’ was so we had to Google it. Guess what; Google doesn’t know either! Result number one was a link back to the previous GeekStyle issue where you posted this question! We did find an anwer however through some thorough investigative journalism and let me tell you; the olfactive disasters is not something to be sniffed at. The answer is of course that accidents are generally always negative. Having said that we must also stress that us nerds aren’t shy of a bit of body odor (also see previous issue) as much as the general population. A little sweat, the occasional fart and the little biologic experiment in the form of a discarded trashcan are all acceptable means of self-expression. Hope that helps.

Zee M Kane: I tend to shave my head, is that allowed under nerd chic?

The shaved head was previously mainly associated with rough and tough alpha males like Bruce Willis. Or the average biker dude. Not anymore. These days a shaved head just tells the world that you are efficient and clean. Or bold. As long as you can display an air of ‘I do this because it keeps the dust out of my keyboard’ you should be fine. To help you achieve that here are some great facts about hair: depending on your age and health you will lose 40 & 120 strands a day. Those hairs turn into dust and stick to memory chips, choke up your mouse and get all tangled up in your keyboard. You lose most of your hair in the fall, usually between November and December. A more interesting question is what to do with the hair in your armpits and groin area but we will save that question for another column somewhere in the near future.

Read the previous GeekStyle if you can’t get enough!

Yes, we do questions every week! Have a geek style question you want to have answered? Don’t want to bother your mother? Or maybe you have ‘a friend’ with an issue that needs answering? Just email GeekStyle or leave a comment.

Illustrations by Kiersten Essenpreis from Twaggies.com for TheNextWeb.com. Feel free to display the images on your own websites and blogs but please do link back to this post.