Skin Care: Not For Women Only

By Jean Pierre
Pride Skin Care Columnist

For years it has been thought that women were exclusive clients for professional skin treatments (facials).  This was never a fact it only appeared that way.

Although men were never excluded, it was rare for them to have regular professional facials. Skin care over the years has been regarded as “woman’s only” treatment and “real men” did not need them.

Fortunately we are seeing a wave of “liberated” men, sometimes called “Metro Sexual”, taking care of themselves and their appearances. As a matter of fact no right-thinking male executive wants to walk into an important board meeting or any meeting for that matter with dirty fingers nails or pus-filled razor bumps on his face.

Men suffer from the same skin condition as women. Their skin can be oily, dry, dehydrated, acnic. Many will have unsightly razor bumps, black heads, white heads, hyper-pigmentation and scarring. Yet a high number of men think it is ok not to seek professional help for their skin.

Facials – sometimes called skin treatments – differ slightly for men.  Most men when seeking out skin treatments are not looking for anti-aging treatments – wrinkles and grey hairs are said to make a man look distinguished, but for a woman, well, that’s something else.

What men generally require though, is a deep pore cleansing facial to remove build-up of dead surface skin cells, release ingrown hairs and extraction of black and white heads and at times address dehydration, excessive oiliness and hyper-pigmentation and for the more mature hyper-pigmentation can be seen normally on both cheeks which may be a concern to them.

Men who shave should also do so prior to a skin treatment. Sharp hairs can be very hard on the aesthetician’s hand when cleansing and massaging the face.

For those who do not shave, a good aesthetician will clean the beard and mustache area thoroughly to remove embedded dead cells and hairs.

Some spas do a partial facial on men with a beard, totally ignoring the beard and mustache as part of the face. There is normally a great deal of dead cells in this area due to lack of moisture. When cleaning this area, a good cleanser should be used and the hairs separated as if one was applying an ointment to the scalp. The cleanser should be massaged in well and then removed with water. An astringent should be then applied which serves as an anti-septic and neutralizer. To complete the cleaning of the beard and mustache a moisturizer should be applied and massaged in well to hydrated the area.

It is very important for men to have their skin analyzed and use a good home care program geared to their skin type. If they suffer from Pseudo Folliculitis Barbie (ingrown hairs), otherwise called razor bumps, the home care should be more stringent.

Today, laser for the quick elimination of ingrown hairs and razor bumps are offered and is extremely effective. Four to six treatments will release and kill all ingrown hairs allowing the individual to shave without ever the bother of painful ingrown hairs.

After a course of laser treatments hairs in beard area re-grow much thinner and softer, but no longer having the ability to become ingrown. One word of caution; not all lasers are not safe to use on Black skin. Not only that, the laser machine should be designed to treat Black skin. The technician must be knowable of Black skin to work within the right parameters of the areas being treated.