Basic Skincare Routine for Men Who Don’t Want a Routine: Three Steps, Two Minutes, One Addition if Needed
The minimum that visibly helps is three steps and two minutes, and it stops there. The checklist, the one addition for each of the three common complaints, what to expect in a month, and nothing sold.
The basic skincare routine for men is three steps and two minutes a day. Morning: wash with a gentle cleanser, not bar soap; moisturise; sunscreen on top, or a moisturiser with sunscreen in it. Evening: wash and moisturise. That is the whole routine, and done daily for a month it produces the thing women describe as healthy skin. If one of the three common complaints applies, add one thing: a lighter gel moisturiser and a wash with salicylic acid for oily skin; a heavier cream for dry skin; a spot treatment at night for spots. Nothing else is needed for how you are read.
The routine
- Morning, sixty seconds
- Wash with a gentle cleanser and lukewarm water; not bar soap, not hot water, no scrubbing
- Pat dry, and moisturise while the skin is still slightly damp
- Sunscreen on the face, or a moisturiser with sunscreen built in; every morning, not only sunny ones
- If you shave, a moisturiser or balm without alcohol afterwards, which is the same step done kindly
- Evening, sixty seconds
- Wash again, same cleanser, to take the day off
- Moisturise
- Spot treatment on any spot, if you get them, after the moisturiser has gone in
- Lip balm if your lips crack, which they do in winter and nobody notices until a date
- The one addition, by complaint
- Oily or shiny by the afternoon: a gel moisturiser instead of a cream, and a cleanser with salicylic acid in it; a tissue pressed to the forehead before a date beats any powder
- Dry, tight or flaky: a heavier cream at night, and a lukewarm rather than hot shower
- Spots: a spot treatment at night with benzoyl peroxide or salicylic acid, on the spot only, and the patience to leave it alone
- Nothing wrong: nothing added; the three steps are the routine
Why it stops at three
The reason this page stops at three steps is that three steps are what change how skin is read, and the rest is for people who enjoy the subject. Skin is read over an evening as healthy or tired, and healthy is produced by clean, moisturised, un-sunburnt skin that has been treated that way for a few weeks. A serum does not show across a table. A moisturiser does.
The skin under a bar light is either matte and even or shiny and tired, and that is the whole reading. The grooming order puts skin third, after hair and hands, for the same reason: it matters, and it matters less than the things read first.
The sunscreen step is the one men skip and the one with the longest return. Most of what makes a face look older than it is comes from sun, and the morning sunscreen is the only step on this page that changes how you look in five years as well as in one month. A moisturiser with sunscreen in it makes it one step rather than two, which removes the only excuse.
The month matters. Skin that has been washed with bar soap and nothing else for a decade takes three or four weeks of the three steps to settle, and men who stop after a week because nothing has changed have stopped at the point just before it does. Do the two minutes for a month before you judge it, and then keep doing it, because it is two minutes.
The one addition is one addition. Men who discover skincare tend to buy five things in the first week, and five things on a face that was used to none is how skin gets angry. One addition for the one complaint, given a month, and then reconsider. If the complaint is severe (acne that hurts, skin that cracks), a pharmacist or a doctor is the next step and will cost less than the five things.
Everything here fits in the night-before checklist: wash, moisturise, and in the morning the sunscreen, and nothing new tried on the day of a date, because new things on skin sometimes react and the day of a date is not when you want to find out. The hygiene checklist has the rest of the body; this page is the face, and the face is done in two minutes.
Questions
What is the simplest skincare routine for men?
Wash, moisturise, sunscreen in the morning; wash and moisturise at night. A gentle cleanser rather than bar soap, a moisturiser that suits your skin (gel if oily, cream if dry), and a sunscreen or a moisturiser with one built in. Two minutes a day, and it stops there unless you have a specific complaint.
Do men need sunscreen every day?
Yes, on the face, every morning, including grey days, because most of what makes a face look older than it is comes from the sun over years. A moisturiser with sunscreen built in makes it one step. It is the one item on this page that changes how you look in five years, not only in a month.
How long until skincare makes a difference?
Three to four weeks of the three steps daily before skin settles into looking healthy, and most men who think it did nothing stopped after a week. Give it a month, change nothing else in that month, and then judge it. After that it is maintenance, and maintenance is two minutes.
What should I do about oily skin before a date?
A gel moisturiser rather than a cream, a cleanser with salicylic acid in the weeks before, and on the night a tissue pressed to the forehead and nose before you walk in. Do not skip the moisturiser; skin that is stripped produces more oil to compensate, which is the shine you were trying to avoid.
