Contemplating Skincare for Men - Maintaining the Youthfulness of My Skin

Just the other day, I had dinner with the executives from a Japanese manufacturing company. Unexpectedly, the president of this company said, “I’m so into beauty care now” and started speaking so excitedly on the topic. He said he was so busy with his business that he had no time or place to spend his money, so beauty care was the only thing he enjoyed. I found myself listening to him with great interest, wondering if maybe there was something to what he was saying.

His face indeed looked radiant. He was already in his mid-60’s, but I couldn’t see any age spots or freckles, and his whole face looked smooth and was just glowing. I started to ask him a lot of questions about the secret to his bright skin because I had no idea if it was makeup or something else. He first answered that facial age spots could be removed with laser treatments and he emphasized the importance of having a skincare regimen. This means that applying serum and UV protection to prevent sunburn is essential to maintaining good skin. This company president also plays golf, so he must be exposed to a lot of direct sunlight. I asked him if it was okay to be under the sun so much and he answered that it wasn’t a problem thanks to sunscreen.

The president said that he regularly went to get facials. He also said that he thoroughly took care of his skin and regularly had his age spots removed during the fall and winter, when the sunlight was not as strong. Then he doesn’t go as regularly during the summer. Age spots are more likely to appear when the area is exposed to ultraviolet rays after receiving laser treatments, so he avoids this risk by stopping treatments. That makes sense.

I had never bought or used sunscreen on myself. Rather, I used to be a tennis player and tanned darker as a teenager. In addition, my high school in the States was near the ocean, so I would go to the beach with my friends on weekends. I had never even thought about applying sunscreen. I guess my motto was that I should do more of what I wanted to do rather than worry every time. I used to think that tanned skin was cool.

I then got a chance to drastically change my mind. Just as I was beginning to learn and understand more or less what beauty care can do after the conversation with the president, I had the opportunity to look at my own face in a picture taken with a smartphone. To my surprise, I had never noticed before, but I could see dark spots all over my face. It was a bolt of lightning out of the blue. I had believed that the skin on my face was still glowing, young, and decent, but when I saw it in a smartphone picture, my face was full of dark spots. I was so shocked.

I thought to myself, “This is not good!” and decided to seriously consider my own beauty care. It is true that I, like that president, have no time or nothing I want to buy, and my life is all about working hard. Moreover, I’ve never been interested in any skin care, and I’ve never even dyed my hair. I’m the kind of guy who always believed that it was best to be just the way I was but this belief was shattered all at once. I made up my mind to catch up with and surpass that president, so I finally went to have those dark spots that I saw in the smartphone picture removed from my face.

The results were clear at first glance: I had the laser treatment only once with about 20 shots of light. A week later, the skin surface peeled off and there was a clearer layer of skin beneath. I also got several beauty creams and I was advised to take daily medication to prevent more spots from forming. It was no longer valid to ask myself, “Do I really want to follow this routine to be beautiful!?” because I want to be beautiful! I was determined to catch up with and even surpass that president. For the first time in my life, I was now taking care of my face.

However, one major problem was some bad habits and my laziness. In the beginning, I often forgot to apply sunscreen and exposed my face to direct sunlight. Furthermore, sometimes I would have to go down to the island to work in the woods, so there was no way that I could avoid direct sunlight. While I was out there working, I thought I had applied plenty of sunscreen, but my face ended up sunburned after the sunscreen melted away from sweating a lot. As a result, the area where I had had the laser treatment became red and swollen, and then I felt humiliated that I had spots again.

As I continued to implement this new routine, I gradually became accustomed to it, and now I don’t forget to do it. Daily skincare has now become my new normal after six months. Skincare is so time-consuming in the first place. I used to just wash my face before going out in the morning, but that isn’t the case anymore. I now look at my face in the mirror and mumble to myself, “First cream, next gel, then another cream.” I have solemnly taken an oath to take better care of my skin everyday as if I am performing a sacred ritual on my skin. Now I understand why women take a long time when putting on makeup since they take the time to properly do this every single day.

In the end, looking younger feels amazing. It even gives you a boost of energy, and what’s more is that you can actually feel your skin becoming younger. It is truly a pleasant feeling. Oh, these feelings are exactly what the president expressed; “Skincare is nothing but fun.” I somehow now understand what he meant by that.