Along comes the epoch of men’s skin care. It’s the time when men are bothered – consciously or subconsciously – if one of colleagues at work said something nasty about their rough dry skin, mocking their less-than-fresh appearance in a business meeting, or touching on pimples all over the face during a lunch conversation, or wild, unshaven stubbles on the chin. Or even worse, a sign of premature aging after a week-long vacation on a beach without applying sunscreen or wearing a hat.
Back then, it was all forbidden. And if a man or boy did care about how their skin looked like, everyone thought,”You’re effeminate and thus mentally sick. Go see a psychiatrist or psychologist. Normal men don’t care about their skin. The skin will take care of itself. Trust me.” That was the prevalent belief males in the past had been living with.
Until recently. Men start to groom because they know they need to. Because that way, people would appreciate them even better. Not because people appreciate their shallow handsomeness or neatness but it is because it takes time and effort to appear effortlessly proper and fresh in an impressive way in front of others. Not to mention doing the business like other skin-care-illiterate men. It is quite hard to juggle between the two; working and taking care of skin. That requires a lot of work.
The use of skin care also shows a man’s level of wealth, so to speak. It shows a man can afford all the pricey skin care products of certain brands that men with much lower wages cannot. It is a blatant statement of financial stability and maturity. As bold as wearing an expensive suit or an imported Italian pair of leather custom-made shoes.
It does not necessarily mean men nowadays want to be like Korean male celebrities or even more like their female counterparts at any occasions. They just want to appear decently fresher and more well taken care of, which later contribute to higher income.
It all comes down to money after all.
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