How much time do you spend on grooming in a typical day? You can’t expect to achieve a clean, sophisticated appearance if you simply roll out of bed and head out the door in the morning. By investing just a small amount of time towards grooming, though, you’ll enhance your look. Just check out some of the following essential grooming tips for men.
Moisturize Your Skin
One of the most important daily grooming practices for men is moisturizing the skin. This is particularly beneficial for men with naturally dry skin. When your skin becomes dry, it’s prone to flaking, cracking and other damage. Thankfully, such problems are easily prevented by moisturizing your skin on a regular basis. So, try to get into the habit of applying a moisturizing cream or lotion once daily, preferably after you shower.
Shave Correctly
Assuming you have no plans of growing a full beard, you should shave your facial hair — but make sure you are doing it correctly. Far too many men assume that a razor containing three, four or even five blades will yield a closer shave. While not necessarily false, you really don’t want a shave that’s “too” close. The closer you shave to your skin, the greater the risk for razor bumps. And trust me, no man wants to experience razor bumps. Stick with a traditional straight razor, shaving with your hair and not away from it.
Eliminate Stray Hairs
We all have: those pesky stray hairs that pop in unconventional places like your ear and nose. When you’re shaving, it’s easy to overlook such stray hairs. Allowing them to stay, however, will only hurt your efforts to create a clean appearance. So, inspect your face in the mirror when grooming, looking for stray hairs. If you find any, use a pair of grooming scissors to remove them. You’ll probably want to keep an eye on them, though, because it’s not uncommon for stray hairs to come back weeks or months later.
Don’t Forget the Eyebrows
Eyebrow grooming isn’t limited strictly to women; men can benefit from it as well. By removing excess hair from your eyebrows, you’ll create a cleaner look. This can be done either by waxing or plucking your eyebrows, the latter of which is typically preferred. But when plucking your eyebrows, it’s best to err on the side of caution by removing only a few hairs at once. If your eyebrows still look bushy, pluck a few more hairs.
Photo credit: Nan Palmero
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