While doing our market research and talking to different groups of men, whether they were friends, acquaintances or even strangers we roped in, one thing cropped up time and time again. It wasn’t a question from men who had already started, however sporadically, in investing in a skincare routine, it was those that that had never had one or thought about one and that is;
“Why do I need a skincare routine?”
It’s actually a pretty good question and one that we had to answer ourselves or what was the point investing our time and energy into something that wasn’t deemed necessary or wouldn’t be in demand, by the majority of men.
We both grew up in a time where men were men and in Sean’s case, sheep were nervous and men using skincare products were largely unheard of. At the age of 10 I remember my grandfather looking at me sideways because I asked if he had any hair conditioner during a sleep over; he promptly handed me a bar of soap and walked off in disgust. That was the predominant view of the time. But was that the predominant view of men and skincare throughout history I asked myself? well borrowing heavily from Wikipedia it appears it is not.
Benefits of a men having a skincare routine
The benefits of a men having a skincare routine dates back to the Egyptians where they used cleansing creams made of oil and powdered lime and moisturised with scented oil; moisturises were found in the tombs of wealth noblemen in ancient China and it is well documented that Roman men used scented oils to cleanse their skin. For some reason there was a slow decline in men using skincare to look after themselves and throughout the years pretty much wore down to shave cream, maybe a shave balm or oil and beard oils. Not much was happening on the men’s skincare front until approximately the 1990’s, it was probably in response to the countless summers of being fried to a crisp thoughtfully basted with tanning oils of the time and distinct lake of any sunscreens let alone sun awareness. The prevailing thoughts in the 1970’s was that men were supposed to look like old saddle bags as they got older.
As I mentioned things seemed to change in the 1990’s, there was some paradigm shift where men looked at their fathers and grandfathers and said, yeah, I don’t think so, I might try and take a little bit better care of my skin, so I don’t look 60 when I’m in my 40’s. Hats then came into vogue and women started to notice that they had to buy moisturiser a lot more often than before but didn’t have a clue as to why. Skin care companies since then have tried, some more successfully than others, to integrate a men’s range into their product line but we are a stubborn lot and do tend to do the same thing tomorrow that we did yesterday, regardless of the benefits and that’s where we come in, that’s what Sean and I decided was lacking. Information. Education. Great Products with Men in Mind.
We know these products work, we tested them, we use them and think so highly of them that we started GT For Men to promote their use. We want men to see that using skincare products in no way reduces your masculinity, in fact women, in our experience, are the biggest supporters in men taking better care of themselves. You don’t have to smell like a Lavender field in spring, in fact, at GT For Men, we prefer lighted scented or even no scent at all. The point is to start using something, even if it is just a cleanser and moisturiser.
Like any new routine, whether you started running, going to the gym or even dropping a bad habit; you will at first stop and start but with time it will be like brushing your teeth or having a shower and not only will you look better, but the confidence also that grows out of looking after yourself will reward you in so many areas of your life. What do they say about doing the same things but keep on expecting different results?
