According to Rice University, the term manscaping entered the lexicon alongside the television show Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, and has outlasted the television series by over five years. If you haven’t yet started manscaping, you’re already behind; it has become an essential part of male grooming and is now practically a requirement for the professional business world — not to mention the romantic arena.
What is manscaping? It’s a fancy word for basic physical maintenance: keeping your neckbeard shaved, keeping those nose hairs in line, making sure you don’t have flaky skin on your elbows or gunk up inside your toenails. Although men can often get away with the grungy look in their 20s, by the time you hit 30 you need to be familiar with every shaving attachment on your electric razor as well as how to use a nail file, buff puff, and occasional dab of concealer to make sure you’re looking your best.
Yes, I said “buff puff.” And yes, we’re going to talk about wearing concealer in a few paragraphs. How do you think Ryan Gosling or Chris Hemsworth look so good all the time? The answer isn’t “waking up every morning and rolling out of bed.” No, gentlemen, it’s manscaping.
Here are a few of the appearance essentials you need to be taking care of at least every week, if not every day:
Hair Removal
We are lucky to be living in an age where you can go anywhere on the spectrum from clean-shaven to full beard. However, that doesn’t mean that you can let every hair grow where it wants. Even if you plan on rocking the George Clooney look, or hiding a double chin with a healthy coat of hair, you have to trim and shape that beard regularly. Remember, gentlemen: the secret to the really great beard isn’t the hair you let grow. It’s the hair you trim away. That’s what gives you the beard’s shape and line.
There are a few other hair removal products you need to keep in your arsenal. One of them, like it or not, is a set of nose hair clippers. Another is a set of tweezers for those unruly eyebrows — and for the stray hairs that grow in between them. If you have seriously unruly hair, whether on your face or body, you may need to consider a permanent hair removal treatment. The team at American Laser Skincare state that their laser hair removal treatment feels like getting your skin snapped by a rubber band. I think we can all handle that minor pain in the name of good grooming.
Skin Care
It’s buff puff time, gentlemen. Go to your local drugstore and buy the buffiest puff you can find. Then invest in some moisturizing body wash, preferably the kind with the exfoliating beads in it, and go to town. Your job is to get rid of all of that old, dead, dry skin that’s taking up space on the surface of your epidermis. Unless it is the absolute dead of winter, a gentleman does not have dry patches on his elbows and knees.
After your shower, apply moisturizer all over your body. That will help your skin stay soft and smooth all day long. All of these products can be found in the “male section” of the drugstore or supermarket, and you can get scents to match your favorite cologne.
Additional Manscaping Level Ups
You know what other neologism got coined in the past decade? The manly pedi. At least once every three months, book a pedicure to scrub off all that toe gunk and get your nails neatly trimmed.
Now it’s time to talk about concealer. In 2013, Tom Ford launched Tom Ford for Men, a cosmetic line designed to help men solve the same problems women have been using makeup to solve for generations: undereye circles, pimples, and other facial blemishes. These products are specifically designed for male skin and are there to help your face look its best, even after a night of no sleep or a bad acne day. Once you learn how to apply these types of cosmetics, no one will ever be able to tell you’re wearing man makeup.
Lastly: if you haven’t thought about your hairstyle in a few years, it’s time to visit the stylist and get a new cut that’s on trend and that flatters your face. After all, the hairstyle you rocked in your 20s is unlikely to be the most flattering look in your 30s, especially as a receding hairline and a few gray hairs start to come into the mix.
Once you start regular manscaping, you’ll be surprised at how quickly you start looking like a true gentleman. Have other manscaping tips to share? Leave them in the comments.