Best Skincare Tips for Men

Over the last few years, Soul Story noticed that more men are approaching us with skin care and anti-aging questions. Here are the eight most popular questions related to skincare tips for men:

Best Skincare Tips for Men: At night, the most important step is to wash your face and neck with a gentle pH balanced cleanser to remove oil, sweat, dirt, and every day pollutants.  Washing allows your skin to breath and restore while you’re asleep.

When should I apply moisturizer – morning or night?

Both. Moisturizers lock in water and prevent skin dehydration in heat or wind.  It is important to moisturize after you shower and wash your face to help achieve healthy skin.  You will see immediate results after using facial moisturizer, your skin texture will feel smoother and softer.

Before bedtime, moisturizing your skin will help your skin to rejuvenate on a cellular level.

During the day, moisturizing before you apply sunscreen on your face is essential.

More importantly, since all moisturizers are not made equally, make sure to find one that works best for your skin type. If you don’t know, start with a light weight moisturizer that will not clog your pores leading to acne breakouts.  It’s also important to read the label and avoid toxic and abrasive ingredients including parabens, a man-made preservative.

Should I have different routines in the morning and night?

Yes. In the mornings, the most important skincare step is using facial sunscreen.  Get into the habit of protecting your skin from harmful UVA and UVB rays by applying good sunscreen to your face before you start your day just like you brush your teeth.  It’s possible to get skin damage when sitting indoors at the office or driving in your car so this is an important step.

Tips to find the best sunscreen suitable for your skin type and complexion:

Select a sunscreen with broad spectrum protection from both UVA and UVB rays. UVA stands for ‘aging’ and 90% of aging signs are caused by UVA rays while UVB rays cause sunburns.

Avoid sunscreens made with oxybenzone, octinoxate, homosalate, octisalate and octocrylene. Oxybenzone is the most common chemical sunscreen filters found in over 80% of sunscreen products.  It scores very high on skin allergy and toxicity indexes. Research has shown that it is absorbed by the skin and can stay in your body for an unknown duration. Places such as Australia, Hawaii and Key West have passed laws banning sunscreens with oxybenzone and octinoxate as they bleach the coral reefs and hurt the overall marine ecosystem.

Find a healthy sunscreen for sensitive skin and for oily skin type to minimize the risk of acne breakouts.

At night, the most important step is to wash your face and neck with a gentle pH balanced cleanser to remove oil, sweat, dirt, and every day pollutants.  Washing allows your skin to breath and restore while you’re asleep.

If I don’t want to spend a lot or time, are there short-cuts?

Start with the most basic skincare essentials. For day, cleanse, moisturize and apply the best sunscreen for your skin type.  At night, always cleanse and moisturize to combat against aging skin.

As part of your lifestyle, increase antioxidant rich foods as your diet improves your skin health as well as your overall, health.

If I’m not outside a lot do I still need sunscreen?

Ultraviolet radiation is from the sun and does not correlate with heat, so UV radiation can be very high even on cloudy and cooler days.

Yes, UVA rays penetrate through windows, cloudy and overcast days.

‘Think UV, Not Heat’

Ultraviolet radiation is from the sun and does not correlate with heat, so UV radiation can be very high even on cloudy and cooler days. It cannot be seen or felt, but still remains the major cause of premature aging, sunburn, and eye and skin damage. It is important to protect your skin with sunscreen on your face and body on a daily basis to minimize the side effects, even while indoors as UV rays are able to penetrate through windows.

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If I never really used moisturizer in the past, why do I need it now? Convince me!

The benefits of moisturizing have been proven.

– Hydration is what allows skin to function at peak performance by allowing skin cells to rapidly repair themselves and turnover fresh cells, which means big anti-aging benefits. Source: British Journal of Dermatology

– It helps prevent and treat dry skin and diminishes the look of aging skin.

– Hydration improves skin tone and texture from dull and flaky appearance.

– It protects sensitive skin from irritation that often leads to breakouts.  Moisturizer is really your friend if you have blemishes.

As a man, I probably don’t wash my face to the extent that a woman does, should I scrub more deeply to get off the lotions at the end of the day? Like can it build up and clog pores?

Best Skincare Tips for Men: Patience is essential when using sunscreen since it’s about prevention.

As mentioned before, the most important step at night before going to sleep is to remove every day dirt, oil and pollutants.

It’s important not to scrub your skin deeply or hard as it can cause broken capillaries on your face, just use a light circular motion with a gentle cleanser.

Avoid cleansers with harsh toxic chemicals such as sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS) and alcohol as commonly found in many cleansers available on the market.  If you have sensitive skin, it’s especially important to avoid SLS. The main reason to avoid products with SLS, is that it cleans by corrosion, which causes dry skin, irritation by stripping the protective barrier from the skin’s surface, disabling it from effectively regulating its moisture balance. Source: Soul Story 

Cleansing Tips:

Do not wash your face in the shower since we use warmer water and this will dry out your skin.

The best way to keep your skin smooth and radiant is to wash your face as soon as you get home. This allows your skin to breathe. Regenerate your skin by using lukewarm to cold water before or after you shower.

Make sure to moisturize right after your cleanse your face to lock in moisture.

Ease into a regular skincare by cleansing your face at night. Allowing your pores to breath and your skin cells to revitalize.

To avoid clogging pores that often lead to acne breakouts, start with light weight moisturizer without the heavy texture usually formulated with oils.  It’s important to have anti-aging and antioxidant rich natural extracts to provide skin benefits listed above.

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What about hands, neck, arms and other areas?

The skincare routine you have for your face should also be applied to your neck and chest.  It is important to keep your neck hydrated and protected from harmful UVA and UVB rays.

When exposing your arms and other parts of your body, apply broad spectrum sunscreen, even if you stay inside all day.  Reapply every few hours and especially after you sweat or go for a swim.  The reason why it’s important to reapply your sunscreen is that SPF fades and degrades over a period of a few hours due to increased physical activity.

After years of use, will there really be a difference between someone who has a solid regiment and someone who does not?

Absolutely! You will see a difference with skin complexion, texture and signs of aging by implementing a healthy skincare routine.

Like exercise and having an overall healthy lifestyle, consistency with how you treat your skin every day is important to achieve and maintain healthy skin.

By investing only a few minutes of your time into your skin, both morning and night, you will see a difference.  Your face is going to represent you for a very long time.

Patience is essential when using sunscreen since it’s about prevention. If you can keep your skin looking pretty much the same by minimizing its damage and deterioration from the sun, it’s working.