Men have undoubtedly stepped up their game in terms of grooming. Within the last decade alone there’s been a major increase of interest in men’s hygiene and skin care. Companies are even creating more products dedicated to men, giving them more options on skin and hair care. There’s even a renewed interest in beard care, allowing more men to embrace facial hair and the responsibility of the upkeep.
Grooming practices that used to be exclusively privy to women have now been adopted by men. We see men waxing, tweezing, moisturizing, and adding other various processes to their daily routines. It’s clear that men have been taking notes from women and are no longer afraid to venture into cosmetics and skin care isles. Men now realize that skin cleansing/exfoliating, shampooing/conditioning, and manicures/pedicures are essential their lives just as much as they are to women.
Mother’s have been barking at their children for ages to wash their faces; usually, there’s an assumption that soap and water do the trick. Traditionally, men have never considered using anything beyond basic soap and water to clean their faces unless an acne breakout occurs. The concept of cleansing and exfoliating has always seemed to belong to the realm of cosmetics, which is a foreign language to men. In actuality, skincare is essential to all human beings and cleansing/exfoliating is just the most basic part of it, similar to the way that brushing your teeth is the most basic part of dental hygiene.
Our pores collect dirt, oil, and debris like dead skin cells on a daily basis. If they’re not cleansed pimps, blackheads, and acne breakouts can occur. Washing your face only affects your surface layer of skin but it does little to nothing for your pores, however by utilizing a cleansing agent all of that gunk that affects your pores and the health of your skin will be removed. Cleansing is a simple concept that men can easily grasp, however exfoliating is a different story. Exfoliating is an alien word that everyone mentions and no one seems to explain.
Twenty years ago most men probably didn’t even know what exfoliation was; that’s still sometimes the case. Remember the dead skin that gets caught in your pores, exfoliating is the process of removing that skin from the surface so that it doesn’t fall into your pores and your new layer of healthy skin is revealed. Sometimes dry skin isn’t dry skin, it’s really dead skin cells; humans shed dead skin on a microscopic level daily. Small flakes of skin that we don’t even notice fall off all the time revealing the new layer of healthy hydrated skin. Sometimes the skin doesn’t come off and when that happens it can create the illusion of dry skin or it gets caught in our pores. Clean & Clear offers a great skin care system that provides cleansers, exfoliators, and moisturizers that men and women can both use. Most of their products are also priced around or below $5.
There’s no denying that men have been doing a good job at maintaining their hair. Men have never had problems with styling and shampooing, and having a good shampoo should be enough, right? Wrong, having a great shampoo is essential, but all shampoo does is cleans your hair. The next essential step to hair care after shampooing is conditioning. Conditioner fixes any damage that has occurred to your hair follicles; this damage can make your hair look dull and dry. Just like dry looking skin isn’t always dry, dry looking hair does not automatically mean that your hair is dry. However, in addition to repairing and strengthening your hair, conditioner does add moisture.
While Shampoo cleanses your hair, it also strips it of most of its moisture. Conditioner can be used right after you shampoo your hair and even on days that you don’t use shampoo. Most companies have done the work of giving men products that combine both, but they actually aren’t beneficial. Conditioner is best used when it’s separate from shampoo and the more you use shampoo your hair the more you’ll have to use conditioner to replace the moisture.
Another concept that men have long misunderstood is manicures and pedicures. They usually think that all women do is go to a salon to get their nails painted when in reality it’s ten times more than that. Manicures and pedicures are a combination of luxury and necessity. Your hands and feet get a massage while then your dead skin, cuticles, and nails are worked on.
Also, people who constantly work with their hands and have to stand for long periods of time on their feet, are in more need of manicure and pedicure services, than most people. So, all of you construction workers and handy manly men should probably high-tail it to the salon on your days off, instead of celebrating your hard calloused hands and jacked-up feet. Fortunately, men have started making monthly appointments to get their mani-pedis, and are proud of showing off their trips to the salon on social media.
