Exploring Skin Care for Men

Most middle aged men living today can remember a point in time – just a few decades back – when the term ‘skin care’ was almost exclusively associated with women. These were the days when the mention of the world ‘skin care’ would only have drawn blank stares from men, who felt that it had absolutely nothing to do with them.

With time, things have changed. Today, skin care for men is in many developed societies seen as much of a man’s thing as of a woman’s thing. Manufactures of skin care products are even making some skin care products directly targeted to the men, with the number of such skin care for men products actually being more than skin care products for women in some outlets!

Yet there is no denying that the old view of skin care as ‘a woman’s thing’ still holds sway in some corners, with many men who as much as apply any type of oil on their faces being considered ‘sissies’ who are trying to ape the female gender – which is seen as the most ‘unmanly’ thing to do. All this would have been alright were it not for the media outlets, who in conjunction with the makers of skin care products are working hard to project the idea that the modern man should actually be very conscious about how they present themselves in terms of appearance as ‘it is crucial to their success.’ The hapless ‘ordinary’ man being discussed in all this debate is meanwhile left hanging between these two points of view – between the extreme that holds that skin care for men is ‘sissy’ and the other extreme that holds that a man should take extremely good care of his appearance (which naturally starts with skin care) if they are to fit in the modern society.

In the midst of this entire din, many men are opting to follow the ‘mid-way path’ between being too preoccupied with their physical appearance and taking absolutely no care of their physical appearance. To be sure, a man who is preoccupied with his physical appearance is a major turn off, but so is a man who simply doesn’t care about how he presents himself to others.

So for the average man who doesn’t want to appear too sissy, but who also doesn’t want to appear like they have stopped to care of themselves, the standard skin care regimen will tend to involve a shower a day (which is considered the decent thing to do), and perhaps the application of a sun-screen lotion when going out into the sun; with most men deciding to steer clear of procedures like skin exfoliation and other types of ‘advanced skin care practices’ which, in their view, are best left to the women and ‘metro-sexual’ men.

Of course, the evolution of skin care for men is likely to witness major shifts in the coming days, as the skin comes to be rightfully viewed as the ‘biggest body organ’ it is really is, and as the term ‘skin care’ comes to be more associated with health maintenance than with appearance-enhancement.