Men and Moisturizing, Its a Necessity

I’m not sure how or why it happened, but somewhere along the line, we started to get the wild idea that any type of self-care, particularly related to our skin, was just not manly. If your skin was dry, ashy, cracking, etc. so be it, you’re a man, man! Live with it! Honestly though, it’s a silly concept. The whole, neglecting our body’s largest organ for the sake of clinging to some thoroughly dated notion of machismo and what it means to be a man. Skincare is in many ways an important part of maintaining optimum health.

Think about it this way, you know the whole 53 man roster of your favorite football team and even the bench guys on your basketball team. Why? Because you care about the entire team not just the starters, the health of the organization on a deeper level and want to know the ins and outs of what they’re doing. Same thing with your skin. For the most part, unless you live in a nudist colony, it’s not all that visible but it’s vital to take care of as it’s a massively important part of you.

Should men moisturize their body?

Now that we’ve thoroughly and firmly established that caring for your skin is in no way a threat to your masculinity, let’s get into the nitty-gritty. Like, should we be moisturizing our bodies? Short answer, yes or no. Thank you for coming to my TED talk. But for real, if your skin is already naturally oily you can likely skip the moisturizer. It’s really for those of us with the ceaseless dryness that need that bit of help. Luckily, there are easy solutions in the form of moisturizing shower bars and lotions that you can easily swap into your regular shower routine. Pretty pain-free. According to WebMD, there are a few areas to focus on that typically dry out more easily:

• Elbows
• Knees
• Shoulder
• Lowers legs

If the additions in the shower aren’t enough for you though, you’ll want to look into picking up a moisturizer to use after. No shame in that game, we’re all built differently and may need a little extra in the skin department.

How can a man improve his complexion?

Let’s talk about complexion. First off, what exactly is it? It’s the natural color, texture and appearance of a person’s skin and aspects of it can actually be improved to get your skin clearer. The team at the incredible named Ape to Gentleman put together a solid list of things you can do:

• Respect Your Skin – i.e. Develop a skincare routine and make sure to include exfoliation in it.
• Eat a Balanced Diet – Simply put, eat healthily. We are what we eat and eating loads of fatty, greasy food will for sure show up on your skin.
• Keep Your Skin Hydrated – Drink water, easy peasy. Ideally, you’d avoid caffeine and alcohol too as they don’t really do the body good per se but I’ll be the first to tell you that I’ll never be giving up coffee. So, ya know, try your best on that one and at least stay hydrated.
• Plenty of Rest – Get 7 to 8 hours if you can!
• Exercise – This gets the blood flowing which helps tremendously for the appearance of skin.
• Breath of Fresh Air – This just does the whole body good.
• Get Some Sunshine – Getting the right amount of vitamin D is good for the skin but absolutely make sure do not overdo it. Too much sun becomes a problem quickly.
• Hair Style and Eyebrow – This is sort of a cheat code but ultimately really helpful in the appearance of your skin.
• No Smoking – It’s honestly horrible for you in all ways and you know it, you’ve seen what aged smokers look like. Enough said.
  
  

Should guys use face moisturizer?

Maybe the most important question of all since it involves our identity, what about face moisturizer? If you’ve read this far, I think you can guess what’s coming next; yes, incorporating a facial moisturizer regularly is generally a smart move. Adding this to your regimen, or the one you’re going to develop, is going to be nothing but positives.

Facial moisturizer can help keep skin looking young and more vibrant. It won’t reverse the aging process but it’ll help give you a healthy look and glow. Facial moisturizer will help you out with wrinkles, you’ll start to see some softening of those fine lines and it’ll work wonders under your eyes as well. Of course, your skin won’t be nearly as dry and you’ll get a softer feel.

Skincare for men is not Taboo, its manly

If there’s one big takeaway here it’s that skincare is not a taboo to shunned and avoided. A lot of that perception is actually derived from advertising. Up until relatively recently, skincare products have pretty much exclusively been targeted to women and that connection has buried itself deep into our subconscious. To the point that we feel that it’s not manly, which is ludicrous.

Caring about yourself, not in the conceited or self-absorbed sense, is quite manly in reality. Having bad skin unnecessarily is in some ways akin to a poor wardrobe. It’s noticeable and it doesn’t have to be that way. Among the easiest ways to improve our skin is simply to moisturize it. Selflove is an important aspect for both men and women and is a marker of our own confidence. At the end of the day, there is nothing more manly than being confident in who you are.