Men's Grooming: Building a Routine That Works for You

Walk into any pharmacy and the men's aisle will offer you around forty products. You need roughly four of them. The difficulty is not effort — it is working out which four, and then not thinking about it again.

The short version

• Something to wash with that is not hand soap.
• Something to put back the moisture the washing removed.
• Sun protection, on the days you will be outside.
• One product for your hair that matches the cut you actually have.

That is the whole routine. Everything else is preference, and preference is worth developing slowly rather than buying all at once.

The haircut does most of the work

A cut that suits your hair and how you live will outperform any product. That means saying more at the start of the appointment than "the usual" — how often you can get back in, how much time you have in the morning, whether you will ever pick up a comb.

Shaving, without the irritation

Most shaving irritation comes from going too fast on dry skin with a blade that has done too many rounds. Warm water first, less pressure, and changing the blade sooner than feels necessary will fix the majority of it.

Consistency beats intensity. Ten minutes most days is better than an hour once a month.

Find one person and go back

The single biggest upgrade in most men's grooming is not a product. It is finding a barber who remembers what you asked for last time, and then not drifting to whoever has a free slot.