Dry lips are foolish and painful, not manly. Lip balm. Get on it, Sir.
You can also tame crazy licks in your goatee, beard and wily moustache hairs with lip balm. It’s made of the same stuff as styling products – wax and essential oils – so it’s safe to apply on your face. Just dab a little on your fingers, and rub it around to warm it up. Apply to the problem area, then use a clean finger or comb to smooth things out.
Eliminate the shagginess.
Get a proper hair scissor. First, comb your sideburns forward (towards your nose), and trim any excess right along the natural line. Then, comb them back, towards your ear, and trim. Follow along the natural curve of your ear to snip away any fuzziness, making small vertical cuts, rather than big, chunky horizontal ones. You could repeat this every four or five days to keep things clean and crisp.
Then, if you’d like, comb or style your hair as usual, and begin to trim the back. You can use a secondary handheld mirror if you have one, but some small, short clips where the bottom of your scalp meets the thinner, curly neck hair will make a big difference.
Lastly, check your cowlick, part, and other transition areas, and make very small snips to naturally fade things back together. It’s amazing what removing 1/8-1/4″ of hair can do.
Exfoliate dead skin cells on your body.
Many men simply squirt shower gel in their hands, lather, and start washing. But your skin is covered with a layer of dead skin cells, so the combo of smooth hands, smooth soap, and smooth, wet skin simply glosses over that layer. Use a wash cloth or sponge or loofah (if you like them) that will lightly exfoliate the dead skin and, as a result, get you looking cleaner and fresher.
Shaving
I could write a whole piece on shaving…but for now let’s just cover:
Warm water opens your pores, and softens your beard, making it easier to cut. Keep things warm and steamy when shaving – soaking, rinsing, etc. Shaving in the shower (or just after) will make things plenty smooth.
Once you’ve rinsed and wiped down, splash your face with cold water to close your pores while everything is clean, which will further prevent burn and irritation. Only then should you lightly apply an after shave or moisturizer.
Smell like a man
I prefer you smell like you only clean. If you like cologne, body wash, lotion, how about you get different samples at a department store, wear them and ask people what they think. Your body chemistry changes the chemistry of these products. Find one you like and other people react best too.
Socks
I see a lot of socks. White tube socks are for the gym, running and sports activities. Colored socks are worn with your shorts, slacks, kilt. The stark contrast between your shoes and your pants and the (dirty) white of sweat socks works on exactly no one.
Get a mani/pedi
Seriously, the first thing I do for my lover (if he doesn’t already do this) is take him to my favorite mani/pedi salon. Back in the 80’s I noticed slick, well dressed black businessmen got manicures. Their hands were rad. What is up with you white dudes?
If you’re in the workshop, the garage, or at the gym, your hands are going to show it. And that’s fine. But for most other contexts, you want your fingernails clean and trimmed; same goes for toes, and clean up those hangnails.
Like it or not, people will judge you by your hands. Whether you care what they think is entirely up to you, but at least be aware that the state of your hands, fingers, nails and toes says something about you. Make sure you like what it’s saying.
Trim your nose hairs
As we get older nose hairs get more intense. So do the ones in your ears. Frilly annoying, I know. Trim them and keep them out of sight.
