The Grooming Manual
4 Ways to Take Your Shower to the Next Level
Used to taking a bare minimum shower? Wash your hair, wash your body, and done. If this sounds familiar, you’re missing out on a major multi-tasking opportunity.
Think about it: you have to shower regularly, and it’s a chunk of time that you’re already dedicating to body grooming and hair care. It's the perfect opportunity to level up your skincare routine without having to carve any extra time out of your day.
Here are some steps you should add to your shower routine to level up the experience.
1. Exfoliate
Exfoliation is a fundamental base of a every great skincare routine.
Why?
Your body is constantly producing new skin cells and shedding off the old ones. Proper exfoliation accelerates and optimizes this process, helping to:
- Slough off dead cells
- Increase cell turnover
- Improve skin texture
- Create a more even skin tone
- Increase skin hydration
- Diminish lines and wrinkles
- Help your other skincare products sink in more effectively
Your daily shower is the perfect time to incorporate exfoliation. Your skin is already damp - and therefore more easily exfoliated - and the hot steam can open up your pores and allow active ingredients to reach your skin's deeper layers.
For the best results, choose a high-quality face scrub for men, as well as a body scrub for men. Look for ingredients like:
- Jojoba beads and pumice to gently exfoliate. Avoid formulas that contain chunks of seeds, shells, or fruit pits. Those exfoliating particles can cause micro-tears in the skin that make your face red and irritated - yikes.
- Aloe vera, avocado butter, and vitamin E to hydrate and protect your skin’s natural barrier. Exfoliation is a cleansing process - but you never want it to overly dry or strip your skin. That’s why it’s important to use a face scrub for men that includes restorative moisturizers and antioxidants.
- Antioxidant-rich ingredients like green tea and coffee extract to protect against environmental aggressors while energizing the skin.
- Glycolic acid dissolves skin debris to reveal clearer, brighter, smoother skin.
You'll find these powerful natural ingredients in our Renewing Face Scrub and Polishing Body Scrub.
2. Give your hair some extra love
Is your hair dry or easily breakable? It might be time to up your conditioner game with our natural Revitalizing Hair Conditioner. Try leaving it on for about a minute longer than you normally would to get more hydrating benefits. A few things to keep in mind:
- Look for a product with moisturizing (but not heavy) ingredients like aloe, borage oil, and avocado oil. These will both hydrate the hair and protect it from any day-to-day stressors like heat and environmental pollution.
- Be sure to shampoo at the beginning of your shower and then leave your hair conditioner for men in while you exfoliate and wash your body. Giving it at least 5-10 minutes to soak in can make a huge difference when it comes to hair hydration.
- Avoid bad-for-your-hair ingredients like sodium lauryl sulfate, synthetic fragrance, cocamidopropyl betaine, and polyethylene glycol (PEG), as these can encourage hair breakage.
Stick to high-quality, natural men's hair care products to make sure that you’re getting extra vitamins, minerals, and extracts that can help strengthen your hair over time.
3. Invest in a purifying body wash
Find yourself dealing with body odor even when you shower regularly? Feel like your body just needs an extra cleanse post-workout or after a long, stressful workday? Level up your shower by incorporating extra purifying and antibacterial ingredients like charcoal, tea tree, and peppermint.
Activated Charcoal
Activated charcoal binds to and traps any dirt or bacteria it encounters on the surface of your skin. Try our Purifying Charcoal Soap Bar to experience its full benefits, which include:
- Deep cleaning your pores of debris, bacteria, and other facial irritants
- Getting rid of surface irritants without drying the skin
- Regulating oil production, which could be too high if you use really stripping products
- Getting rid of odor-causing bacteria on your skin that other products just can’t nix.
Tea Tree Oil
The right essential oils can provide serious results for your hair and skin. That applies, in particular, to tea tree oil and peppermint oil.
Tea tree oil is a natural antibacterial, antiviral, and antifungal essential oil that naturally fights odor, fungus, and acne. Plus, it’s a rich source of antioxidants to help fight free radical damage. Our Daily Strengthening Shampoo for men uses this powerhouse ingredient for healthier hair and scalp.
4. Bonus: Apply hair products right away
As soon as you get out of the shower, apply your favorite hair styling products. Whether you choose our Texturizing Sea Salt Spray or our Styling Clay Pomade, these products work best when applied to damp, clean hair.