In this article I’m going to cover why you should make sure to tackle grooming as a whole and not just focus on the bigger aspects of how you look, while letting others parts fall behind on the importance scale.
What I mean by that is, if you focus on looking your best by having some sharp looking clothes, are in decent overall physical shape, then most men would consider that a win for how they look.
This would be overlooking a lot of smaller parts of your overall appearance that some men tend to not think about as much as they should like; is their facial hair even, are the finger nails getting to long, or things like maybe your hair is starting to grow down your neck.
Now, I’ll stop here and point this out. I’m not talking about being a prissy boy and to be all shiny or whatever.
Gentleman throughout many generations have had a strong focus on keeping themselves looking presentable and how you present yourself does matter.
So with that lengthy introduction out of the way, I want to touch on some points that I noticed I was lacking in with my grooming habits at one point and a lot of other men tend to as well.
How You Smell
I see to many times where somebody will tell a guy he stinks and he says something like, “I’m a man, this is how men smell after a hard day’s work” or they come into the gym to work out and just stink to high heaven because they think just because your exercising you’re going to smell bad.
While I respect the hard day’s work part, especially in this type of handout day in age that we’re in, it still needs to be said you should do something to combat this, which can be mostly done through putting on some deodorant in the morning.
If you already have this covered like most of us do and want to take how you smell to another level, then look to start putting on some cologne.
There is an insane amount of variety in colognes these days so if you relate colognes to a fruity type of smell then you’d be in for a surprise because there are plenty of manly type of scents out nowadays. Note that cologne is not a replacement for deodorant!
Facial Hair
Facial Grooming tends to be where most men excel in keeping it looking well groomed, this being having a decent beard, stubble or clean shaven.
Where I do see some men going wrong when they start to get away from the clean shaven look and start to keep some facial hair is that they go in this free for all mode, where they just let the facial hair grow, while not focusing on keeping it looking neat.
A main example of this is letting the hair (stubble) grow down around your adams apple. I can tell you that I can go from looking decent with my facial hair to looking straight up like a bum if I don’t shave under my jawline.
Another main issue is when you start to grow a full on beard, same concept of just letting it do whatever while it grows.
Either take the time to get it groomed by your barber or invest in a beard trimmer to keep it looking smooth. Another great thing to add to your beard is beard oil, which I can talk about in an entire article on its own.
Keep That Body Hair In Check
Men are hairy, that’s how we are made and there is nothing wrong with that but some of us tend to have more hair in places that we really don’t want it. This tends to be a turnoff to the ladies which can kill any game that you might have.
Some of the main areas I would recommend to try to keep shaved or at least trimmed up are: ears, nose, back, shoulders and upper arms.
Most of these areas are fairly simple to keep touched up with a good grooming set for men and yes even the more difficult areas like the back.
There are shaving tools out there just designed to help you be able to reach your back, which is almost impossible to do it, unless you have someone willing to help you out.
Overall, I’m not saying to shave everything off like a swimmer but keep things looking neat.
Private Area
Think about this, we want our ladies to have a nice well groomed area down there, Same goes for what they want from us, so try to take a little time to clean it up down there. I’m not saying completely shaved, but a simple trim up can make a world of a difference.
How Your Nails Look
Think about this, one of the most powerful things is a handshake between two men. A handshake can be the start of many major things in life, especially in the professional world.
If you go to shake someones hand and the first thing they notice is that you can’t even keep your fingernails maintained, then they might start thinking, “How is he going to be able to manage our product if he can’t manage himself?”.
You may think I’m overthinking this but successful people tend to study others on everything they do personally, this includes how well you keep yourself looking.
Final Thoughts
Everyone is different out there and I would never just want to look like everyone else, but also know there is a certain level of professional type of appearance that most men should aim for. This usually isn’t anything crazy and in today’s time, this standard has become much more lax as compared to previous generations of men.
Just take the time to look at yourself and cover the basics and grooming and you should be set, but never be afraid to go that little extra to make yourself standout like adding in a good smelling cologne for example.
Is it required? No, but it can be a great added extra to your overall style. Save
