Facial Hair and Facial Care

(When you put this much effort into it the world pretty much owes you a Megan Fox ya know?)

So a friend of mine asked if I’ve considered doing an article on how I approach facial hair. Honest’y I hadn’t thought about it but after thinking it over it does make for a great article.

I’ve run the gauntlet as far as facial hair goes. I sported my first beard probably around freshman/sophomore year, merely because I could. It was that awful unkempt facial mess that only a truly naive sixteen year old can create. It was a masterpiece in its sloppiness. But I was proud of it at the time. It made me look older and not too many other people were doing it.

Looking back on it, not the best choice. But I kept it. Through high school and all the way up to about two years ago. I trimmed up of course and experimented with mustaches, full beards, goatees and everything in between but there was always something on my face.

There was a girl I was dating and she’d made mention that she didn’t like kissing bearded men. Early in the relationship as it was, I decided to shave. Did it on New Year’s Day.

When I was done shaving I realized that I was seeing a face that I had never seen in my adult life. It was really a strange and interesting experience. The feeling of a clean face was really odd at first. Imagine that fresh just after you shave moment but feeling that for pretty much the first time.

Deciding to clean up my face was about the best part of that girl but I certainly didn’t regret the shave. In fact, I was really happy with the fresh new face I found there. But, then the problems with a clean face arose. Shave too much and you irritate the skin, shave to little and the beard grows right back.

I found that I had a sensitive face. Too much shaving bothered it and cheap shaving creams were hard on my skin as were cheap razors.

I have a naturally oily face. I talked about that in the skin care article. Oily faces break out easily. I noticed that after shaving I’d break out as well. So shaving forced me to develop a skin care routine too. Daily washing and exfoliating to keep the skin clean and new. And then alternating between a nutritional type mask and a peeling mask once a week have pretty much locked my face down into a comfortable place. That and light moisturizing for me. Certain moisturizers clog my face up so using the small applications of the one I mentioned in the skin care article helps.

All of that said and done, lets talk about you and facial hair. First thing you have to ask yourself is do you actually want facial hair. It’s a commitment. It’s not something you can slack on. Trimming needs to be done almost daily to keep everything even and neat. Styling needs to be done at least three times a week to keep the look clean. It’s work guys. Constant work.

(See, this is what happens if you just give up on your facial hair. It’s pretty sweet to look at in a movie but living with it in real life and inflicting it on real people is a whole different story.)

That being said, if you keep up with it it can look pretty slick.

If you decide you want it the first thing you need to do is understand the shape of your face. This is not just important for facial hair. It’s important for just about everything involving your head. Facial shape helps you figure out good hair styles and pick eye glass frames. Know thy face.

There are a lot of sites that will help you figure it out. Here’s just a few. 

http://ca.askmen.com/fashion/fashiontip_300/367_fashion_advice.html

http://face-shape.com/face-shape-quiz.html

I have a head that borders on being square and rounded.

(My hidious visage laid out for your enjoyment. See it in all its roundish/squarish glory)

Now, another thing to consider and that I mention frequently, is to take into account the opinions of women. Because face it gentlemen, most of what we do in life is to earn the attention of those we find attractive. It’s natural. Another site that I can’t recommend any harder is Dappered.com. They did an article about a year ago gathering up the opinions of women regarding facial hair styles. Take a look at the article but in summary, clean shaven and light stubble rate about the same in attractiveness with a slight edge to light stubble. Everything else starts to fall in general attractiveness and only women who are “into that” remain interested.

http://dappered.com/2011/03/facial-hair-styles-women-like/

My general advice would be to go clean shaven or with light stubble unless there’s a special someone in your life that you know likes more hair than that. Also, take the back of your hand or the underside of your forearm and run it over your face. That’s about what it will feel like on her lips and face when she kisses you. Keep that in mind too. If you find yourself saying “whoa, that sucked” now you know how she feels.

What am I doing at the moment? I’m alternating between clean shaven and about forty-eight hours of light stubble. I have to give my face a few days between shaves to heal up. But any more than two days and I fall hard into new born beard territory. My facial hair grows fast.

But that’s just my approach to facial hair and facial care. I’d love to hear from you.