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Washing Your Face. The Right Way.
The first step to clean healthy skin is washing your face properly. Here’s how to do it right, and suggestions on what to use no matter what kind of skin you have.
Every man should get in the habit of cleansing his skin correctly. Twice a day. Morning and night. It should become a routine. Like brushing your teeth. In fact, the perfect time to wash your face is right after you brush your teeth. You don’t want toothpaste residue anywhere near clean skin.
The first thing you want to do is make sure the water you splash on your face is warm water. NOT HOT. NOT COLD. A slight step up from lukewarm is perfect. Hot water shocks the skin, causes blotchiness and dries it out. Splashing cold water on your face is good when you’re tired, or right after you shave to close your pores, but that’s it. The operative word here is WARM. Comfortably warm.
As far as soaps go? All soaps are NOT created equal. The body wash or soap you use to wash the rest of you shouldn’t go anywhere near your face. The majority of shower gels and bar soaps (with the exception of unscented Dove for sensitive skin) are heavily scented and contain ingredients that may be too strong and irritating to your face. Or, they may contain overly moisturizing ingredients that can cause breakouts.
Bacteria loves bar soap. Keep that in mind the next time you are tempted to wash your face with the same bar of soap you just washed your body, pits and crack with.
No matter what skin type you have, your cleanser needs to do one thing and one thing only: GENTLY remove the dirt, oil and debris that builds up on your face throughout the day.
Since men don’t wear make up, we don’t need a hardcore heavy duty cleanser to wash our faces with. Strong cleansers strip your face of natural protective oils and leave it feeling tight. That triggers the skin to producer more oil and soon your face is greasier than a slice of pepperoni pizza. Not good.
If you have skin that is easily irritated, don’t mess around with a face wash that is scented or has artificial colors in it. Dyes and perfumes are the leading cause of irritation for people with sensitive skin.
I’m going to recommend products I have tried. These products are very affordable and easy to find in any supermarket or drugstore - because, let’s face it, most men will never step foot in the cosmetics section of a department store. (More on that in a future blog post)
RECOMMENDATIONS FOR NORMAL, DRY & SENSITIVE SKIN
- Cetaphil Gentle Skin Cleanser. It’s simple, effective, no colors, no fragrances, wont clog pores and leaves skin soft. This falls into the category of non-foaming cleanser. It doesn’t get all sudsy and lathery, but that doesn’t mean it’s not cleaning your skin. It’s probably the most gentle cleanser on the market.
- Olay Gentle Foaming Face Wash for Sensitive Skin. Just because it says OLAY doesn’t mean it’s exclusively for women. For those of you who like foam, this wash is for you. It’s a straight forward non-irritating cleanser that won’t leave your skin tight or dried out.
RECOMMENDATIONS FOR OILY & COMBINATION SKIN
- Olay Gentle Foaming Face Wash for Sensitive Skin. It’s great for oily and combination skin as well.
- Pupose Gentle Cleansing Wash. Simple, effective cleansing that wont irritate your skin. It pretty much works for all skin types.
- Neutrogena Pore Refining Cleanser. It’s got Alpha and Beta hydroxy acids, which penetrate the pores and help even out oily skin. it also has “scrub like” granules that get rid of dead dry skin. This is hybrid between a scrub (more on scrubs in a later post) and a cleanser. This is a particularly good cleanser if you have large pores as it minimizes and deep cleans them. You may need something stronger if you have a serious acne problem.
RECOMMENDATION FOR ACNE- PRONE SKIN
- Pro Activ Renewing Cleanser. Straight up, there’s nothing better to be found in a drugstore or supermarket anywhere. You have to order it online (www.proactiv.com) or you can find it at those fancy big ProActiv kiosks that are popping up in malls all over the country.
- Neutrogena Men’s Oil-Free Acne Wash Redness Soothing Cream Cleanser. I’m not a fan of MENS ONLY skin care lines (with one exception which I will discuss in a later blog post). They’re usually no different from their womens counterparts except for the bad “manly” packaging and annoying “manly smelling” fragrances. But, this is a great cleanser for oily and combination skin. It’s designed to keep irritation down to a minimum while keeping your pores clear and killing bacteria.
- Neutrogena Oil Free Acne Stress Control Power-Cream Wash . This soothing cream cleanser deep cleans without robbing the skin of moisture. Because it contains Salicylic Acid which helps purify your pores and kill bacteria, it helps keep breakouts under control. An excellent cleanser for guys struggling with acne who cant tolerate the drying effects of benzoyl peroxide
FOR THOSE WHO CANT GIVE UP THE BAR SOAP
If you want to wash your face with a bar soap, make sure it’s a separate bar of soap than the one you use on your body. Keep it in a place where it wont stay wet or get goopy. That’s one of the problems with bar soap, aside from it attracting bacteria. There are only two bars of soap I can recommend: Dove unscented for sensitive skin, and the original white Dove bar soap. These are good at not drying your face out too much. Ignore the rest of the Dove soaps you find - they are overly perfumed and contain artificial colors and other additives that can irritate your face.
DRYING YOUR FACE. THE RIGHT WAY - After you wash your face, gently pat it dry with a CLEAN towel. Don’t rub too hard or pull at your face with the towel. Gentle pats across the face work best. Clean towels keep bacteria from spreading onto a just cleaned face.
In upcoming posts, I’ll talk about moisturizers and how NO ONE needs to waste money on a toner. If you don’t know what a toner is, we’ll cover that as well.
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