Boys, Wash Your Face

Skincare is not just for girls.

You may think, “But Carrie, you cannot seriously think that a product, in a pink bottle, and called “Glow Baby Glow” is for men?”

Oh it is, trust me.

The reason you walk into a store, glance at the skincare, and then roll your eyes at us girls, let’s think about marketing and advertising. If you’re selling a product, and you realize that 99% of consumers are girls, you’re not going to change your brand to pursue that 1%. So, why does the packages and advertisement of skincare products look “girly”, because not enough boys are investing in good skincare.

Now that we’ve talked about that, let’s move on.

From some of the guys that I’ve talked to about this topic, it’s not that they don’t want to do skincare, they just don’t know how. It’s not that they don’t understand that it’s good for your skin in the long run, they just haven’t been educated on the different products and needs of skin.

Well fellas, I am here to answer all of the questions and fill in all of the blanks. Let’s get into it:

Throughout this post, I’m going to be telling you all about some different skincare facts, and at the end I’ll have a little suggestion to get you started if you need it.

1 Promise vs Delivery

First off, I want to address this: there are a lot of products on the market that will promise you lots of things that they will never deliver. The ingredient list is the most important thing when it comes to skincare.

What you want, is a product with the right active ingredients. These active ingredients go after the skin concern that the product is targeting in general. So, this ingredient is “active” because it’s the one combating the skin concern.

Then we have the inactive ingredients, which are usually water -or oil-based. These are the ingredients that are used to deliver the active ingredients into the skin.

2 Exfoliants

Second, I want to talk about exfoliants. Usually when we think of exfoliating, things like sugar scrubs come to mind. Spoiler Alert – rough scrubs like this are soooo bad for your skin. You see, there’s a natural moisture barrier on our skin. This barrier helps to protect the skin against outside dirt, grime and oil as well as keeping the face hydrated. When you used extremely rough scrubs on your face, it’s like using sandpaper on fabric…it absolutely tears it to shreds. This leads to super dry but super oily skin, hyperpigmentation, and potentially acne. Of course, you can repair this barrier, but that’s a journey you’d have to commit to.

So, to get the dead skin off but still protect your moisture barrier, I suggest using an AHA, alpha-hydroxy acid. The most used are lactic (recommended for sensitive skin) and glycolic acids (good for all skin types). These usually come in a serum, mask, or cream. Make sure the product only contains between 5-10% AHAs. Any lower than 5 would have no effect and any more than 10 could severely irritate your skin! Not only do these products exfoliate, but they also help brighten up that skin, get them wrinkles gone, and potentially reverse sun-damage!

3 Facial Hair + Shaving

Here’s the thing with this one, I have no experience with growing and shaving facial hair…so if I get this all completely wrong, just forgive me and move on. First, you need to be using a shaving cream, balm or whatever. I don’t care what it is, but it better be more than just water. Don’t be dumb. Second, wash your face before you shave it. Your face has lots of dirt, oil, and bacteria that it has collected while you were sleeping or out all day. You want to get that gone before touching a razor to your face. If all those nasty things got onto your razor, and then in two days you cut yourself shaving, the bad things could infect that new wound.

Also, wash your beard. Please. The same way that we need to wash our hair and our face, we need to wash our facial hair. It holds onto dirt and grime and collects bacteria. Wash it, please.

Third – you’re going to get ingrown hairs on your face if you are not shaving, washing, and exfoliating properly. No one wants to have to deal with those evil suckers.

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What Now??

So, you have a better idea of what to look for and what your goal of skincare is – but where do you start? To be honest, your basic skincare can start with three products: cleanser, moisturizer, and sunscreen. You can start to add in more active ingredients as you discover certain skin issues that you want to specifically target.

I highly recommend starting out with very gentle and clean products. Things like CeraVe, Cetaphil, and other dermatologist approved/recommended products.

You’re going to call me crazy, but you really should be wearing a daily SPF. Skin damage and UV-caused-skin-cancer isn’t because of that one summer you mowed lawns every day and got SO sunburned…it’s from the constant exposure to the harmful rays of the sun over your 60+ years of life. Sun damage also increases fine lines, wrinkles, and speeds up the skin’s aging process.

UV rays aren’t the only negative-exposure element that our skin comes in contact with throughout the day. Air pollution, cigarette/tobacco smoke and industrial chemicals all get into our pores and cause damage. The best way to fight against these harmful elements while also protecting your skin, is an antioxidant serum. A common example of this is a Vitamin C serum – wear it in the morning under your moisturizer.

Alright we’re going to split it up here. If you have absolutely no experience with skincare, we’re going to start small to work up to the boss level.

If you’ve been working towards creating a healthy skincare routine, then we’re going to talk about what products are the best for what and how long to use them post healing.

I'm New Here

You're going to have to enter a bit of an experimenting stage here. I suggest taking a skin quiz to help you figure out what kind of skin you have, so that you can choose the right products.

Also, as you begin to be consistent with your skincare routine, you might experience what's called the "skin purge." Basically the active ingredients in your products are repairing and fixing up your skin, and that draws all of the nasty out of the skin...and sometimes that's in the form of zits and redness. Don't quit the products (unless it becomes a very serious medical issue) but push through. After you finish the entire container, you can decide your official opinion.

I want to give you guys some recommendations so that you don't really have to put too much effort into finding these products.

Cleanser: CeraVe Hydrating Face Wash, La Roche-Posay Toleriane Hydrating Gentle Face Wash

Serum: Fourth Ray Vitamin C Serum, CeraVe Vitamin C Serum, Tru Skin Vitamin C Serum

Moisturizer: CeraVe daily moisturizing lotion, Neutrogena Water Gel, e.l.f. holy hydration face cream

I'm Working On It.

Alrighty boys, there's your skincare workup. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to reach out to me or your girl friends and get some advice. There's no shame in skincare!!

ttyl,

Carrie