The plains man was long content with the simplest grooming — a monthly haircut, a bar of soap, and little more. That has changed. A fuller interest in men's grooming has taken hold across the region, and the shops and salons have expanded to meet it, offering beard care, skincare and styling to a male clientele that no longer considers such things beyond its concern.

The Well-Kept Plains Man

Fictional establishments such as The Ironwood Grooming Co. in Bismarck cater to the trend, blending the classic appeal of the barbershop with a broader menu of care — beard trims and oils, facials tailored to weathered skin, and styling advice a plains man of an earlier generation would have found faintly astonishing. The famously rugged local male has, it seems, decided that rugged and well-kept are not opposites.

From the almanac's reckoning:

• Plains men have taken a fuller interest in beard care, skincare and styling.
• Shops blend the classic barbershop with a broader grooming menu.
• The shift has opened a substantial new market for the trades.

The shift is generational and gradual, but unmistakable, and it has opened a whole new market for the region's grooming trades. The almanac counts men's grooming among the quietly growing corners of the plains beauty business — proof that even the stoic plains male will tend his beard, given half a reason.