As someone who once found skincare overwhelming, Amulya, realized that simplicity is key. With the help of a friend he committed to a basic routine—cleanse, moisturize, and protect and ever since he has seen his skin transform with no marks and oil-free texture. With little help he understood that consistency can enable a a holistic skin health which can make all the difference.

It's never too late to establish the best skincare routine for men or refine the one you already have. Developing a skincare routine is an investment in both your health and self-confidence. However, many men find the idea of skincare overwhelming, akin to a treasure hunt without a clear map.

But the secret to great skin isn’t elusive—it’s a daily practice, much like regular exercise or eating well. Think of skincare as another essential aspect of your overall health.

This guide aims to help you discover the best skincare routine by explaining the essential steps and the key ingredients you need to look for. Whether you're just getting started or refining your routine, these insights will set you on the right track.

Start with the Basics: Cleanse, Moisturize, Protect

Every men's skincare routine should consist of three essential steps: cleansing, moisturizing, and protecting. While the products may differ based on your skin type, these steps are universally important. You don’t need a cabinet full of expensive products—what matters most is choosing the right ones for your skin and using them consistently.

Identify Your Skin Type

Before diving into a skincare routine, it’s essential to understand your skin type. This helps you avoid using the wrong products, which could irritate or worsen your skin condition.

How to Determine Your Skin Type at Home?

1. Wash your face to remove any products or oils.

2. Wait for 30 minutes, allowing your skin to return to its natural state.

3. Observe your skin:

- If it feels tight or flaky, you have dry skin.

- If it appears shiny, you likely have oily skin.

- If it's red or irritated, your skin might be sensitive.

- If you notice both oily and dry areas, you have combination skin.

Once you’ve identified your skin type, you can structure your routine to meet its specific needs.

Step 1: Cleanse

Cleansing is the first and most critical step of any skincare routine. Whether it's morning or night, a good cleanser removes sweat, bacteria, and other products from the skin. This process ensures that subsequent skincare products penetrate effectively, maximizing their benefits.

Recommended Cleansers by Skin Type:

- Oily skin: Opt for a deep pore-cleansing face wash with active charcoal. This helps remove excess oil and impurities.

- Dry skin: Choose a gentle cleanser with hydrating ingredients like vitamin E, squalane, and other repairing agents. These will cleanse without stripping your skin of necessary moisture.

Consistent cleansing, morning and night, is key to maintaining a clean and healthy complexion.

Step 2: Moisturize

Moisturizing is the next critical step, no matter your skin type. Both our skincare experts recommend applying a moisturizer twice a day to keep your skin hydrated and nourished. This step ensures that your skin remains supple and protected against environmental stressors.

Why Moisturizing Matters?

- For dry skin, a rich, hydrating formula can provide much-needed moisture.

- For oily skin, a lightweight, oil-free moisturizer prevents overproduction of oil by keeping the skin hydrated.

Consistency is key here. Using a moisturizer every morning and evening will ensure your skin stays hydrated and healthy over time.

Step 3: Protect

The final step in any skincare routine is protection. An SPF product is essential to shield your skin from the damaging effects of UV rays, which can lead to premature aging and even skin cancer. This is a crucial step year-round, regardless of the weather.

Tips for Choosing the Right SPF:

- Look for a dedicated face sunscreen, rather than relying on moisturizers with SPF. Dermatologists recommend a light, non-greasy, fragrance-free SPF designed specifically for the face. The best SPF for daily use is one that leaves no residue and doesn’t feel heavy on the skin.

Using SPF daily is one of the most powerful ways to prevent skin damage and aging, making it an essential part of your routine.

Just focus on these three fundamental steps, you’ll be ahead of most men when it comes to skincare. As you become more comfortable with your routine, you can introduce additional products like serums or exfoliants.

Additional Tips for a Healthy Complexion

Exfoliation, while not an everyday step, exfoliation helps remove dead skin cells and keeps your skin smooth. Use an exfoliant once or twice a week, depending on your skin type. For oily skin, a product containing salicylic acid can help prevent clogged pores. For dry skin, look for gentle exfoliants that won’t cause irritation.

Hydration, in addition to applying a moisturizer, staying hydrated by drinking plenty of water is crucial for maintaining healthy skin. Dehydrated skin often looks dull and is more prone to irritation.

Consistency is key, whatever routine you decide to follow, the most important aspect of skincare is consistency. Regularly cleansing, moisturizing, and protecting your skin will lead to visible results over time. There’s no magic product that works overnight—it’s about committing to daily care.

Skincare doesn’t need to be complicated or expensive to be effective. Focus on the basics—cleanse, moisturize, and protect and you can create a routine that fits seamlessly into your daily life. Investing in your skin is an investment in your health and confidence, and it’s never too late to start.

As per the World Health Organization (WHO), globally, over 1.2 billion people ages 30 to 79 have hypertension. The number has increased from 650 million in 1990 to 1.2 billion in 2021. This increase is attributed to many factors, including lifestyle factors, which include salty indulgence, stress, and screen time which has been increased. These three impact your blood pressure levels, know how.

What Are The Three S Worsening Your Blood Pressure?

Salt

As per the Harvard Heart Publishing, an average American consumes the equivalent of about 1 1/2 teaspoon of salt per day, which is 50% more than the recommended amount.

About a third of healthy people and about 60% of people with high blood pressure are salt sensitive.

How does salt affects blood pressure?

When you consume too much sodium, your body holds on to extra water to balance the sodium levels. This added fluid increases the volume of blood in your vessels, which in turn raises your blood pressure and forces your heart to work harder. High sodium intake can also reduce the effectiveness of certain blood pressure medications. For example, diuretics help eliminate excess sodium and water, while vasodilators work by relaxing the blood vessels. However, a high-sodium diet makes your body retain fluid again, refilling those relaxed vessels and undoing the medication's effects.

Stress

As per the official publication of State Medical Society of Wisconsin, stress can cause hypertension through repeated blood pressure elevations as well as by stimulation of the nervous system to produce large amounts of vasoconstricting hormones that increase blood pressure. Factors affecting blood pressure through stress include white coat hypertension, job strain, race, social environment, and emotional distress.

As per National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, around 50 million American adults live with hypertension, defined as a systolic blood pressure over 139 mm Hg or diastolic pressure over 89 mm Hg. In about 95% of these cases, the condition is classified as "essential" hypertension, meaning there’s no single identifiable cause. However, experts agree that multiple factors—including stress—can contribute to rising blood pressure in these individuals.

Screentime

As per a 2024 study published in Cureus, hypertension is a major risk factor for coronary artery disease. The study links the increased accessibility of smartphones with the increasing hypertension.

This study explored the relationship between screen time and blood pressure (BP) among young adults.

The study also noted that higher screen time was more common among individuals using multiple devices. The prevalence of elevated BP in the sample was 35.8%, aligning with national data and raising concerns about the cardiovascular health of young adults.

Previous studies support these concerns. For instance, Nang et al. and Martinez-Gomez et al. linked prolonged TV viewing to higher BP and an adverse cardiovascular risk profile in adolescents. However, these relied on self-reported data. Other risk factors, such as age, gender, obesity, inactivity, and substance use, have also been linked to hypertension.

Women’s reproductive health is a sensitive subject. Even though there have been many advancements in women’s healthcare, large gaps in research and medical well-being of women have been observed. The general lack of information regarding women’s healthcare and education have also been highlighted in the recent years.

While you may think it is not a matter of urgency, a new report found a very concerning toxin in tampons, levels of which were higher than what is even allowed in drinking water.

A new report from two groups, the Women's Environmental Network (WEN) and Pesticide Action Network UK, has raised serious concerns. They found harmful chemicals in many of the menstrual products sold in regular stores across Britain. The study was particularly worried about finding pesticides, especially glyphosate, which is the most common weed killer used worldwide, in these products that women use in a very sensitive part of their bodies.

Disturbing Levels of Pesticides Detected

The findings are quite shocking. Tampons are a largely used menstruation product, which soaks the menstrual blood by insertion in the vaginal canal. The World Health Organization, a global health authority, has said that glyphosate probably causes cancer. Even more alarmingly, one box of tampons had levels of glyphosate that were 40 times higher than what's legally allowed in drinking water!

It's thought this happens because the pesticide might be sprayed on the cotton crops that are used to make tampons. The report also found another dangerous chemical called chlorpyrifos in some tampons. This is an insecticide that's actually banned in the UK because it can harm the brain and nervous system.

The report was very clear about how serious this is: they said that for some chemicals, there's no safe amount, so any trace found in period products should be less than what can even be detected.

Direct Threat to Health

There's worry about how these chemicals might affect health. This is because a part of the body that absorbs things very easily, the vagina, lets chemicals skip the body's natural cleaning systems and go straight into the blood. People are saying this isn't just careless, it's actually dangerous. They also feel it's wrong that these kinds of chemicals are still in period products today.

Lack of Regulation and Impact on Farmers

The report pointed out a major problem: there are no specific rules in the UK for these products. Manufacturers don't have to tell you what's in their products, and there are no laws to stop pesticide residue from ending up in the final product you buy.

The issue also affects cotton farmers. The report highlighted that "cotton farmers are being exposed to toxic pesticides at concerning levels." Many of these farmers are women, and they face health risks every day from working with these dangerous pesticides both on their farms and even in their homes.

Demands for Clearer Information and Change

People are strongly demanding that the industry be more open. It's simply not okay that users don't know what's in products they use on such private parts of their bodies. There's an urgent need for companies to be transparent (show all ingredients), take accountability (be responsible for their products), and make real changes in how things are done. This is because everyone who has a period deserves better and safer products.

The report asks the government to act quickly:

• Test period products very strictly.
• Make it a legal rule for companies to list every ingredient and extra chemical.
• Include organic, disposable period products in free school programs.

Concern regarding pollution and how it affects our health is a worry that affects many of us worldwide. As years pass on by, the pollution levels are also increasing, and so is our mortality risk. The World Health Organization (WHO) explains that exposure to air pollution is strongly linked with stroke, ischaemic heart disease, lung diseases etc. However, these are not the only things you must worry about when it comes to air pollution exposure. A new study shows that it could also affect the way our brain functions.

A study from Italy, published in a science journal called iScience, found a really important clue in our genes. It seems that when we breathe in polluted air, it can actually change how our genes work in the brain. Think of it like flipping a switch that creates the perfect conditions for diseases like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's to start growing.

Early Warning Signs and High-Risk Groups

The researchers saw some worrying changes even in young adults. Their brain tissue showed signs of DNA damage that looked a lot like what you'd see in someone with Alzheimer's – but decades before they would normally be diagnosed. This is a huge red flag.

Certain jobs also put people at a higher risk. If you're a miner, factory worker, or driver, you're exposed to more polluted air. Even people who work with plastics face a hidden danger from tiny particles called nanoparticles that can get into their brains.

But here's some good news: this discovery could mean doctors can check for these changes without needing to do anything invasive, like surgery. They might be able to test for something called extracellular vesicles. These are like tiny packages that carry material from damaged brain cells. So, if we can test for these packages, it could give us an early warning sign from the brain itself.

Understanding the Complexities and Taking Precautions

It's clear that being generally unhealthy and breathing polluted air from a young age can increase your risk of these brain conditions. However, we still need a lot more research to fully understand how everything is connected. Experts from News Medical have pointed out that studying air pollution is tricky because the air we breathe in the real world is a mix of many different pollutants.

To help protect yourself on days when pollution levels are high, organizations like Asthma + Lung UK suggest some simple steps:

• Stay indoors as much as possible.
• Avoid exercising outside, especially vigorous activity.
• If you're walking, try to stay away from busy roads with heavy traffic.
• Keep your car windows closed when driving in traffic.
• If you do want to be active outdoors, try to do it earlier in the day, as the air tends to be cleaner then.

Looking Ahead: Prevention and Policy

There's a big call for more research to understand how air pollution affects younger people and other parts of our brain's thinking abilities. The results of this research could lead to exciting new ways to prevent these diseases. It could also push for better safety rules in workplaces, stricter environmental standards to clean up our air, and even new laws to protect public health from air pollution.