You know what nobody should be doing in 2020? Ignoring their skin and letting the colder seasons wreak havoc on their faces, hands, and necks. Now, even though 90% of the skincare advice out there is for women, it sometimes seems like 90% of the people who really need the advice are men. And this is never true more than in the winter. So, here are 12 winter skin care tips for men
Balms Over Creams & Lotions
The basic gist of all skincare regimens is that you have to moisturize. This is especially true in the winter when the cold weather and biting winds are more likely to actively damage your skin. Cream moisturizers and aftershave lotions won’t cut it — you need a balm. All balms are different, but they will usually be thicker and (ironically) creamier than cremes. They’ll also do better at moisturizing your skin!
Gentle
The goal of winter skin
care is to be extra nice to your skin. This means that you have to be gentle
when washing your face, shaving, and applying skincare. Less rubbing — more
massaging into the skin. Less scraping — more gentle exfoliating. In fact,
we’ll cover exfoliating in the next tip!
Chemical Exfoliant
What you don’t want to do is irritate your skin with particle exfoliants. Instead, go for a chemical exfoliant if you don’t have any allergies to the most common ingredients. As an extra bonus, chemical exfoliants tend to smell very pleasant and take slightly less time to accomplish the same level of exfoliation.
Add An Extra Few Minutes
Most of these tips will
require you to spend a little more time on your skincare routine than you would
in the spring or summer. But, in addition to that time, please add more time.
First of all, if you do things a bit slower you’ll be more likely to do them a
bit gentler. Secondly, you need to be sure you’re 100% dry and all your
products have been 100% absorbed before you leave the house. Any “excess”
moisture on your skin will only make it more susceptible to damage from the
cold weathers of the biting winter.
Lip Scrub
The one-particle exfoliant you should keep in (or add to) your routine is a lip scrub. Even if you’re good with consistently keeping your lips moisturized with lip balm or chapstick — you’re going to want to remove the extra skin every once in a while. Bonus? Lip scrubs usually smell (and sometimes taste) amazing.
Overnight Oils
Sometimes you just might not have the extra time in the morning to gently exfoliate your skin, gently apply a balm, and patiently wait for all of those great skincare products to do their magic. If that’s the case (and your skin doesn’t suffer from being too oily), you might want to opt for overnight oils that will moisturize your skin while you sleep.
Foot care
Ideally, you should go get a pedicure. But, at the very least, be sure that you’re exfoliating your feet and cutting your nails. Winter means colder weather. Colder weather means thicker socks and heavier boots. Thick socks and heavier boots mean your feet don’t get to breathe as much, more moisture happens “around” them, and you’re more likely to have problems with your feet. So yeah, exfoliate to prevent bad smells and keep your nails trimmed to avoid ingrown nails.
Moisturize
We’ve covered it, but it
bears repeating. You have to moisturize your skin in the winter. Do it as much
as possible and as frequently as possible (without going overboard). If you
begin to notice that your skin is getting dry — you’re already too late.
Hand cream
Basically, always have some hand cream in your coat pocket or your bag. Whenever you’re not doing anything important with your hands (driving, texting on your phone, cooking, etc.) — moisturize your hands.
Chapstick
There are situations in
which moisturizing your hands is inconvenient and not entirely appropriate.
When it comes to your lips, though, any time is a good time to apply some
chapstick. As a matter of fact, apply some as you’re reading this! And then
again in about an hour. And definitely do it right before you go outside.
Full Body Moisturizer
So, like, I’ve seen on twitter that sometimes people don’t wash their legs in the shower. That’s just bad. But it also makes me think that these same people then usually don’t moisturize their entire body. You need to moisturize your entire body. Get somebody lotion and apply it generously to (mostly) everywhere when you get out of the shower. Slap some extra on your elbows, knees, and shins.
Proper Dressing
This one might seem obvious — but try to dress weather appropriately. This means that you need to wear gloves to keep your hands protected. This also means that you should be wearing a scarf. A lot of skincare is focused on the face, but you know what often gets left out of the picture? The neck. So, protect ya’ neck!
