Self-grooming and self-learning go hand-in-hand in many situations. People learn from their mistakes and improvise. And while most of us pay a lot of attention to looking good, it’s also essential to maintain specific standards of hygiene.
A Little Background
I’m going to share a little anecdote with you to help you understand why hygiene is so important. I had a friend who never liked going to the barber or salon and preferred grooming himself at home. He had the best shavers, the best equipment, and tools, and didn’t mind investing that extra buck. Now my friend knew all the right places to buy the best stuff but lacked in one area of the whole self-grooming process – Hygiene. He’d leave his razors wet or wouldn’t regularly clean the area where he shaved. The result? He ended up with a nasty infection and got sick too.
Don’t get me wrong, and I’m not trying to scare anyone here, just trying to be vocal about keeping hygiene in mind while grooming yourself. Men have been shaving for over 5,000 years now, but some basic principles still slip past us.
So, in this article, I’m going to talk about two important things: tips on good hygiene and also how to avoid bad sleeping habits. Do sleeping habits matter that much? Absolutely! You’d be surprised to know that good sleeping habits can aid with healthy beard growth! Whereas improper sleeping patterns can cause thinning, hair loss on the face and the head, and also cause greying to happen faster.
So here are 9 tips, and I hope they help!
1. Good sleep is a solution
Yes, sleep can solve a lot of issues related to your beard and your normal hair growth. You can check out this article which talks about this, and 4 other ways to help boost your beard growth. You need to sleep on time, sleep enough, and also sleep stress-free and without any disturbances. Do you know what’s the first thing I did when I realized I wasn’t sleeping well? Changed my mattress! My wife suggested it, and truly, it helped me understand how I wasn’t sleeping well because my bed just wasn’t right for me. So I went out, swapped my mattress for a more comfortable and properly sized one, and it made all the difference. If you don’t know much about dimensions, you can check out this guide on different bed mattress sizes by Mattress Insider. It’ll help!
2. Stop slacking
Seriously, stop slacking when it comes to keeping certain affairs in order. Whether it’s maintaining a sleep cycle, eating the right food, or even having a proper grooming routine, if you slack, you lose! I wasn’t one to follow time-tables and flowcharts either (I’m still not), but a little organization can go a long way. Now, that routine is imbibed into my lifestyle, and it comes just as easily to me.
3. Have a “before I sleep” routine
My routine every day before I hit the sack is to listen to my favorite Blues tunes, sip on some brilliant herbal tea my wife makes and read a book by Warren Buffet. Now your routine can be entirely different from mine, but the point is to relax your mind and sleep with a happy face. Some people even shave before bed as a way of relaxing. Trust me, and it helps more than you can imagine. Even if you have a mountain of chores to complete the next day, it’s important for you to think about today and let your mind avoid stress before sleeping.
4. Avoid junk snacking
I have done this too in the past, guilty as charged. A little beef jerky would be enough to keep me up at night, and reaching for the snack cabinet at odd hours. Of course, since mending my ways, I’ve learned to give up eating anything after dinner and just drinking water and tea afterward. I’ve lost some weight, my colleagues have noticed too (laughs), but I’ve also found that I’m sleeping peacefully now.
And now that I’ve given you some tips on sleeping well let’s shift the focus to some basic hygiene habits while self-grooming.
5. Always clean up
Even if you’re lazy at the moment, do make it a point to clean out your shaver and also the bathroom or wherever it is you like to shave. Don’t leave any loose hairs lying around, and don’t keep the area wet either. You’re going to let germs and bacteria breed if you do, so avoid it.
6. Care for your equipment
Each piece needs to go back into its designated place once you’re done the shaving and this way you won’t find yourself investing in a new one anytime soon. But the most important reason is that keeping your shaver in an enclosed space is the best way to keep it clean. Leaving it out in the open invites more germs to settle on the body and the blades, and later on your skin.
On the other hand, you don’t want to leave a shave brush in an enclosed space as it could promote the growth of bacteria.
7. Switch out blades often
Don’t use the same blade longer than it says in the manual. I’d suggest using a blade once to stay hygienic. Sure, it might cost a little more, but cheaper than medical bills if you end up with an infection.
8. Keep first aid handy
Some antiseptic liquid and cotton should always be within reach because we all know how horrible those cuts from shaving can be. As precise and careful as I am, I fail always to avoid getting cuts. The newer shavers with advanced technology have really solved this issue, but still, if you end up with a cut, you should immediately tend to it and avoid any infections later.
9. Wash your hands
I know it’s a very basic tip, don’t need to read an article for it, but how often do we avoid such a basic step because we’re lazy or forget to? I know I’ve done it in the past. Done some gardening or used tools and then not washed my hands thoroughly. And then those same hands go on my face or my shaving kit, and you know how that cycle works. So yes, wash your hands often, regularly!
It took me a while to realize how much of a difference my grooming routine is making once I incorporated these tips myself. Thought I’d share it with others because, what’s valuable more valuable than personal experiences, right? Hope these help, and happy grooming!
