IN HANDSOME COMPANY: DALLIN JAMES

Dallin James knows something most people miss about beauty: it starts before the scissors do.

As a hairstylist, he spends his days helping everyone feel seen — reading the room, reading the face, reading the story a man is trying to tell about himself before he’s found the words. But what makes Dallin compelling isn’t just his craft. It’s the philosophy underneath it. The belief that confidence is understated. That strength is quiet. That the most handsome thing a man can do is stop needing the world to confirm it.

We sat down with him to talk grooming, identity, and the rituals that keep a man whole.

Q. As a hairstylist, you spend your days helping people feel seen. When do you feel most seen in your own life?

A. I think for a lot of us, we look to the external for validation or to feel seen, which is a powerful vehicle to get there, and part of the reason I love doing what I do. personally I feel the most seen when I’m doing the things in my daily life, to not need external validation and find comfort in my own skin. Taking care of my body and my mind to stay grounded and open to what life has to offer.

Q. Fitness is a big part of your identity! What does strength mean to you beyond the gym?

A. Strength to me is overcoming obstacles that you may not necessarily know you were capable of, and facing them head-on. From life’s big challenges to small moments where you can find pause. It’s not wanting to do something but overcoming the fear and doing it anyway.

Q. In your chair, you get a front-row seat to people’s insecurities and transformations. What has that taught you about confidence, masculinity, and being “handsome”?

A. Again, I think confidence, masculinity, and being handsome come from within. Especially with men’s grooming, so much that I do to my clients is very subtle “tweaks” to bring out their best, and I think that can be translated to our lives too. Confidence, Masculinity, and being handsome is quite understated, not needing approval-beat of our own drum type thing. Small acts of esteem build to greater self-esteem.

Q. If you had to define your personal ritual, the thing that keeps you grounded, human, and whole — what would it be?

Part of my ritual to keep me grounded has to do with “putting the oxygen mask on first. Most of the time, that’s the gym for me. Usually 1 hour where I don’t have to answer to anyone or anything other than myself. We are asked to give so much of ourselves every single day to others, whether it be at work, in our relationships, or in the world, that we forget to take care of ourselves. I learned a long time ago that I have to do at least one thing every day for myself that has nothing to do with anyone else. If I don’t,t I just end up resenting the world and people around me. I’m a people pleaser to my core, so making time to “please” myself gives me the ability to move through the world in an easier, softer way.

Dallin reminds us that the most powerful transformations don’t always happen in the mirror. Sometimes they happen in the quiet decision to show up for yourself first — before the chair, before the client, before the world asks anything of you.

That’s the kind of handsome we’re here for.

Follow Dallin on Instagram: @dallinjames