OCTOBER BIRTHSTONES FOR MEN SUCK

My birthday is in October.

So I know first hand that birthstones for men in the month of October…

SUCK!

BOTH OF THEM!

Now, don’t get me wrong, I love opals and tourmalines, but come on… Very few men would ever wear an opal and most wouldn’t be caught dead wearing a pink tourmaline (see image).

Who thought these birthstones up? Couldn’t they at least pick a gemstone that men would like to wear?

The common opal?

I won’t totally bash opals because there are some opals that men do wear… Just not the normal white opals with those pretty little splashes of orange and green.

More guys like the blue opals (deep, dark blue and black opals against a dark background) and the more popular choice of opal, the mosaic opal. Mosaics are opals that have bits and pieces of broken opal glued together like a stained glass window (see image below). Very cool look, but still pretty fragile.

Opal hardness:

That’s one of the biggest reasons why opal is not a good choice for men, it’s not durable. Opals are delicate. They have a hardness of 5.5-6 on the Moh’s scale of hardness. How long do you think an opal would last in a man’s ring? Not long unless they are very careful and cautious.

It goes without saying that men are rough on their jewelry. Their rings and gemstones take quite a beating (I know because we repair them all the time).

So… That leaves us with pretty in pink.

The pink tourmaline…

Can you imagine the look on his face when he opens up his Christmas gift and sees a pink ring? Ha! That would be a good one for YouTube. :)

So here’s my little bit of advice for the man born in October:

Buy different tourmaline.

Tourmaline is a durable gemstone, much more than opal (a 7-7.5 on the Mohs scale).

Just don’t buy the pink tourmalines (unless that is what you really want).

Tourmaline colors:

Tourmalines come in all different shades, hues and colors. Colors like: green, blue, yellow, orange, brown, white, and black.

You can even find tourmalines that have those awesome cat’s eye effects to them. Plus you can find tourmalines that have some very cool color changing abilities. They will change colors in different lighting just like alexandrites do. Very cool. There is a vast world of tourmalines just waiting to be discovered.

“Official” means nothing.

My point is, just because your official birthstone is a certain color doesn’t mean you’re stuck with that color. Even though October’s birthstone is opal or tourmaline, check out the other colors. Find ones that you do enjoy.

Most gemstones and birthstones come in all different colors of the rainbow (read: Different colors of birthstones). Don’t feel like there is no choice. Find the perfect color for you.

Now you know that you don’t have to wear someone else’s birthstone (put that citrine down). You can wear October and love it.

When I ordered my class ring, I didn’t buy an opal or a pink tourmaline for the center stone. I bought a green tourmaline instead! Green suited me. Who cares if the official birthstone list says “Pink“? Tourmaline is tourmaline.

Buy the color that suits you.

Orange? Sure. Why not?

Brown? Not a problem.

Camouflage? GO FOR IT!

Cheers! :)