David Magazine v10_i11 | Getting Hotter by David Atlanta Magazine

The Modern Man’s Grooming Guide: Haircuts &Hair Loss

By Calisto Harvalias, Master Cosmetologist & Beauty Advisor

Male grooming today is less about vanity and more about strategy. The right haircut can sharpen your features. The right skincare routine can quietly turn back time. And understanding tools like finasteride and minoxidil can help you stay ahead of hair loss instead of reacting to it. As we move into spring, this is the ideal time to refresh your look and routine.

Choosing the Right Haircut for Your Face Shape

1. Oval Face Shape

Characteristics: Balanced proportions, slightly narrower jaw than forehead.

Goal: Maintain balance — almost everything works.

· Textured quiff

· Classic side part

· Short back and sides

Avoid heavy fringes that cover your forehead and disrupt symmetry.

2. Square Face Shape

Characteristics: Strong jawline, wide forehead.

Goal: Emphasize structure without overbulking the sides

· Crew cut

· Buzz cut

· Structured pompadour

Keep the sides tight and clean to accentuate masculine angles.

Best Cuts:

3. Round Face Shape

Characteristics: Softer angles, equal width and length.

Goal: Add height and angles.

Best Cuts:

· High fade with volume on top

· Undercut

· Angular fringe

Avoid heavy volume on the sides — it widens the face.

4. Oblong/Rectangular Face Shape

Characteristics: Face longer than it is wide.

Goal: Avoid adding too much height.

Best Cuts:

· Side-swept styles

· Textured crop

· Medium-length layers

Keep volume

moderate and avoid very tall pompadours.

Managing Hair Loss: Finasteride & Minoxidil

Finasteride

Finasteride is an oral prescription medication that works by reducing DHT (dihydrotestosterone), the hormone responsible for male pattern baldness.

Minoxidil

Minoxidil is a topical treatment applied directly to the scalp.

Calisto Harvalias is a master cosmetologist & beauty advisor. Book his services at merakibysteven. com

Queer Money: Smart Tax Tips for LGBTQ+ Filers

Edited by Mikkel Hyldebrandt

the most common concerns is whether updating your gender marker or changing your name will complicate your taxes.

The key factor is that your tax return must match the information on file with the Social Security Administration. The IRS verifies your identity using your Social Security number and the name associated with it.

Tax season can feel complicated for anyone, but for LGBTQ+ people, there can be a few additional layers to consider. Over the past decade, major legal changes ≠ most notably the landmark ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges – have significantly improved tax equality for same-sex couples. Still, questions about name changes, gender markers, family structures, and healthcare deductions can leave many queer taxpayers wondering if they’re filing correctly.

The good news: with a little preparation, filing your taxes can be just as straightforward – and sometimes even more beneficial – than you might think.

Marriage Equality and Tax Advantages

If you’re legally married to a same-sex partner, the Internal Revenue Service recognizes your marriage the same way it does any other. That means you can file jointly or separately, just like heterosexual couples.

For many couples, filing jointly can provide real advantages, including:

Access to larger deductions and credits

Potentially lower tax rates

Easier reporting of shared finances

However, it’s worth running the numbers both ways. In some cases – especially when both partners earn similar incomes – filing separately may avoid what’s often called the “marriage penalty.”

Name Changes and Gender Marker Updates

For transgender and nonbinary taxpayers, one of

If you’ve legally changed your name but haven’t updated it with Social Security yet, your return could be rejected. The good news is that gender marker changes do not affect your tax filing status at all—they are not used in IRS tax calculations.

So the rule of thumb is simple: make sure your name and Social Security records match your tax forms, and you should be fine.

Filing as an LGBTQ+ Parent

Modern families come in many forms, and tax law has gradually adapted. If you’re raising children – whether through adoption, surrogacy, or blended families – you may qualify for several tax benefits.

Potential credits include:

The Child Tax Credit

Dependent care credits

Adoption-related deductions

If only one parent is legally recognized, however, the other may not be able to claim the child as a dependent. For couples navigating adoption or guardianship paperwork, this can become an important tax consideration.

Healthcare and Gender-Aﬃrming Care

Healthcare costs can add up quickly, particularly for transgender individuals accessing genderaffirming treatments. Some of these expenses may qualify as medical deductions if they exceed a certain percentage of your income.

In recent years, courts and tax rulings have increasingly recognized gender-affirming care as legitimate medical treatment, which means procedures, hormone therapy, and certain related

expenses could potentially qualify as deductible healthcare costs.

Keeping detailed receipts and documentation from medical providers can make a big difference if you plan to claim these expenses.

Watch Out for State Diﬀerences

Federal tax law has become largely inclusive, but state tax rules can still vary. In Georgia, samesex marriages are fully recognized following the ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges, meaning couples can file their state taxes as married filing jointly or married filing separately, just like any other married couple.

Georgia typically requires taxpayers to use the same filing status on their state return as on their federal return, since the state return is based on your federal income calculations from the Internal Revenue Service. If you moved during the year or earned income in multiple states, you may need to file a part-year or nonresident return to properly report your Georgia income.

Don’t Forget the Basics

Some of the best tax strategies have nothing to do with identity and everything to do with

organization. A few universal tips include:

Gather all tax documents early (W-2s, 1099s, etc.)

Double-check your filing status and dependents

Consider using a qualified tax preparer familiar with LGBTQ+ issues

Organizations like Human Rights Campaign often publish guides that help queer taxpayers understand their rights and responsibilities.

Don’t Leave Money on the Table

Many LGBTQ+ people – especially those working as freelancers, gig workers, artists, and nightlife professionals – have multiple income streams. That can mean additional deductions for business expenses, travel, or home offices.

The bottom line is that filing taxes as a queer person today is usually less about special rules and more about knowing the opportunities available to you. With the right paperwork, updated records, and a little strategic planning, you can make tax season smoother – and possibly even more rewarding – than ever.

e Lavender Lens

Haven of the South: Why LGBTQ+ Youth Keep Finding Their Way to Atlanta

By Tristan Lane for The Lavender Lens

There is a quiet migration happening across the American South. It is not driven by job transfers or tech booms alone. It is driven by something far more urgent: safety, visibility, and the hope of belonging. For decades, LGBTQ+ youth from Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, the Carolinas, rural Georgia, and beyond have packed a suitcase sometimes in celebration, sometimes in crisis and headed to one city: Atlanta.

They come because Atlanta is not just a place. It is a promise of acceptance and visibility.

A City Built on Civil Rights DNA

Atlanta’s identity is inseparable from the civil rights movement. As the birthplace of Martin Luther King Jr., the city carries a moral legacy that shapes its politics, its institutions, and its culture. That DNA matters.

When you grow up in a small Southern town where being different can mean isolation or worse you instinctively look for cities with a history of standing up for the marginalized. Atlanta has that muscle memory. The infrastructure of advocacy, legal defense, organizing, and community building was forged in racial justice battles long before Pride parades ﬁlled Peachtree Street. That history created space. And in that space, LGBTQ+ life ﬂourished.

Visibility Without Apology

Atlanta is one of the few Southern cities where being gay is not tucked into a side street it’s central. Midtown rainbow crosswalks. Black LBBTQ+ excellence on billboards. Drag brunches packed to the brim. Faith communities that afﬁrm rather than condemn.

A Southern City That Understands Faith

One of the reasons Atlanta resonates so deeply is that it does not force people to abandon their Southern identity to be gay. You can love gospel music, sweet tea, and your grandmother’s church traditions and still ﬁnd afﬁrming congregations.

Pride here is not an afterthought. It is one of the largest in the nation. For a young person arriving from a county where there isn’t even a visible gay bar, seeing thousands of people marching openly can be life- altering. It reframes what is possible.

And Atlanta’s LGBTQ+ community reﬂects the South itself diverse, Black, brown, immigrant, faith-rooted, entrepreneurial, creative. It feels like home because it looks like home.

Institutions That Catch You When You Fall

A haven is not deﬁned by nightlife. It is deﬁned by whether someone catches you when you fall.

Organizations like Lost-n-Found Youth have built nationally recognized models for supporting homeless LGBTQ+ young people providing housing, job training, and pathways to independence. Groups like CHRIS 180 offer trauma-informed services that understand how rejection, family estrangement, and systemic barriers impact queer youth. For many arriving here, these organizations are not abstract charities. They are lifelines.

Atlanta doesn’t just celebrate LGBTQ+ youth. It invests in their survival and their success.

The city holds tension better than most. It allows for complexity. It understands that for many LGBTQ+ youth from the South, faith and sexuality are not enemies they are both parts of the story.

Economic Opportunity Meets Cultural Capital

Atlanta is the economic engine of the Southeast. Fortune 500 headquarters. Film studios. Tech startups. Creative industries. The airport that connects you to anywhere in the world.

For LGBTQ+ youth, that matters. Safety without opportunity is stagnation. Atlanta offers both. You can start over here and build something. Careers, families, businesses, movements.

The city’s Black culture also shapes LGBTQ+ life in powerful ways. Black gay culture is not peripheral here; it is foundational. That authenticity creates a vibrancy that feels uniquely Southern and uniquely Atlanta.

Why We Love It

We love Atlanta because it is imperfect but striving. Because it remembers its history. Because it makes room at the table. Because when someone arrives from a rural county terriﬁed and unsure, there is a barstool, a nonproﬁt intake form, a community event, a church pew, a job fair, or a Pride march waiting. We love Atlanta because it lets you breathe.

For LGBTQ+ youth across the South, Atlanta is not just a dot on the map. It is the ﬁrst city where holding someone’s hand in public doesn’t feel like a risk assessment. It is where mentors appear. Where family forms. Where identity becomes celebration instead of survival. In a region often caricatured for intolerance, Atlanta stands as a counter-narrative a Southern city that proves belonging is possible.

And for many of us, that ﬁrst breath of belonging is why we never leave.

BARS & CLUBS MIDTOWN

BLAKE’S ON THE PARK blakesontheparkatlanta.com 227 10th St NE

BULLDOGS 893 Peachtree St NE

FRIENDS NEIGHBORHOOD BAR friendsonponce-atl. com 736 Ponce De Leon Ave NE

MY SISTER’S ROOM mysistersroom.com 66 12th St NE

X MIDTOWN xmidtown.com 990 Piedmont Ave NE

THE T modeltatlanta.com 465 Boulevard SE

CHESHIRE

HERETIC hereticatlanta.com 2069 Cheshire Bridge Road

BJ ROOSTERS bjroosters.com 2043 Cheshire Bridge Road NE

WESTSIDE

MARQUETTE 868 Joseph E. Boone Blvd NW

840ATL 840 Ralph David Abernathy Blvd

BOGGS SOCIAL & SUPPLY 1310 White St. SW Atlanta, GA 30310 boggssocial.com

ANSLEY

ATLANTA EAGLE 1492 Piedmont Ave NE

FELIX’S 1510 Piedmont Ave NE

MIXX mixxatlanta.com 1492 Piedmont Ave NE

OSCAR’S oscarsatlanta.com 1510 Piedmont Ave NE

WOOFS woofsatlanta.com 494 Plasters Ave NE

TRIPPS fb: tripps-bar 1931 Piedmont Cir NE

EAST ATLANTA, GRANT PARK & EDGEWOOD

MARY’S marysatlanta.com 1287 Glenwood Ave SE

SISTER LOUISA’S CHURCH sisterlouisaschurch. com 466 Edgewood Ave SE

LORE ATLANTA loreatl.com 466 Edgewood Ave loreatl.com

DINING

MIDTOWN

CASA ALMENARA 991 Piedmont Ave NE casa-almenara.com

LA HACIENDA lahaciendamidtown. com

900 Monroe Dr NE

TUK TUK THAI FOOD LOFT TUKTUKATL.COM 1745 Peachtree Rd NW

DEKALB

LIPS ATLANTA atldragshow.com 3011 Buford Hwy NE

RETAIL MIDTOWN

BOY NEXT DOOR MENSWEAR boynextdoormenswear.com 1000 Piedmont Ave NE, Ste A

ANSLEY

BARKING LEATHER barkingleather.com 1510 Piedmont Ave NE

GCB & PLEASURES brushstrokesatlanta. com

1510-D Piedmont Ave. NE

FITNESS MIDTOWN

URBAN BODY FITNESS urbanbody tness. com

500 Amsterdam Ave N

CHESHIRE

GRAVITY FITNESS

gravity tnessatl.com 2201 Faulkner Rd NE

SPAS/BATHS ADULT

FLEX SPA exspas.com 76 4th St NW

SOUTHERN NIGHTS VIDEO 2205 Cheshire Bridge Rd NE

Photos by: Russ Youngblood

Photos by: MH

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