Your physical appearance not only affects how attractive others find you, but also affects how professional others view you. By putting effort into caring for your appearance, you will show that you have this aspect of your life together and it will be assumed that you will put just as much effort into your work. Also, by looking good, you will feel better about yourself and you will project a better attitude as a result.
Decide What To Do About Lost Hair
When you begin to lose your hair, you will need to make a decision of what you intend to do about it. It may be necessary to try a different hairstyle or to decide whether you would like to be completely bald. The only thing you should try to avoid doing is growing out patchy hair. Here is a more detailed look at hair loss strategies: Advice From Barbers: Dealing With Male Pattern Baldness
Get Stray Body Hair Under Control
One of the greatest challenges for men is keeping their body hair under control. You must keep stray hairs, such as nose hair, ear hair and hair in-between the eyebrows under control. Stray nose hairs are one aspect of body hair that most people notice. Therefore, you will want to invest in a good nose hair trimmer. Here is another Sharpologist article dealing with body hair: Taking Care of All That Hair
Your hair should never be traveling into the collar of your shirt. It is difficult to trim the back of the neck properly, so you should have this done professionally. Also, trim any hairs on your ears, which can be done easily using an electric razor. The hair can also be trimmed with a pair of grooming scissors.
Trim Your Eyebrows
The best way to improve your eyebrows is to have them professionally cleaned. You can also shave or use tweezers on them yourself if you are willing to learn how to do it correctly. Also, brushing your eyebrows before you leave will make you look more alert. Men with bushy eyebrows or eyebrows that meet in the middle should especially trim them.
Decide What To Do About Your Facial Hair
Decide whether you would like to have facial hair or be clean shaven. If you are going for a clean shaven look, make sure that you effectively remove all of your hair. However, if you plan on maintaining a beard, make sure that it is well-groomed. While you can experiment with facial hairstyles while in-between jobs, when it is time to go in for an interview, you will want to pick a facial hairstyle that you know works and stick with it. There have been several articles on Sharpologist about maintaining facial hair, including:
So, You Want To Grow A Beard?
How To Trim And Shape A Goatee
Trim Or Cover Up Chest Hair
If you have chest hair, you will need to either shave it, trim it or cover it. It is unacceptable to have chest hair poking out from underneath a nice fitted shirt. It’s especially important to eliminate or hide chest hair if it is patchy. Fortunately, you can easily shave that chest hair with an electric razor or through waxing. Be sure to also check out How To Manscape: A Gentleman’s Guide
Make Sure Your Teeth Are Clean
Whitened teeth will definitely improve your appearance, but white teeth isn’t essential. What is more important is that your breath doesn’t smell and that you do not have plaque building on your teeth. Also, brushing your teeth will likely not be enough to avoid bad breath. Make sure to use a mouthwash that targets bad breath. Avoid foods that are known to make your breath smell, including:
- Onions
- Garlic
- Coffee
- Alcohol
If you can, quit smoking not only to improve your health, but to also have better-smelling breath.
Condition Your Skin
Both men and women can suffer from dry or oily skin. use the appropriate conditioner based on whether your skin is oily or dry. If you aren’t sure, consider heading to a salon or beauty store and ask the employees for their opinion on what type of skin care product you should use. You might also find this Sharpologist article useful: A Simple, Yet Effective, Skin Care Routine For Men
Rather than wash your face with the regular bar of soap used for the rest of the body, use a facial soap. The regular bar will be too strong for your face and dry it out. Avoid face wash brands from drug stores and instead use a face wash that uses coconut oil.
Men’s skin is around 20 – 30 percent thicker than women’s skin and generally more oily. Unisex brands just aren’t going to cut it, and even then, when looking for the perfect type of facial soap, you are going to need to know what type of skin you have. Here are some general classifications when shopping:
“Normal” skin refers to skin that isn’t too dry, nor to oily. Very rarely do you have breakouts or rashes.
When you look at yourself in the mirror during the day do you have a shiny nose, forehead or cheeks? Chance are you have oily skin. If you have oily skin, it is especially important that you find the right product for you. Without cleaning your skin properly, your pores will become clogged which can/will result in blackheads – nobody likes blackheads.
Do you often find that your skin feels tight and dry? Is it sometimes a bit flaky? You guessed it, you more than likely have dry skin. When searching for the perfect soap, look for something that will hydrate your skin. Often these products will include Ingredients like Aloe Vera.
Use The Right Amount Of Deodorant
Deodorant should be strong enough to mask smells without being overpowering. The only individuals who should be able to smell your deodorant are those very close to you. If you are struggling to mask your body odor, it is essential that you find out the root cause of the odor and treat it.
Fragrance is a personal preference, so you will not want to assume that the strong fragrance that you find delightful will be enjoyable to others. Also, your scent should never linger when you leave.
As John LeFevre from GSElevator puts it “If you wear cologne, no one should smell it from five feet away or five minutes after you’ve left the room.”
On a side note, every guy should have an emergency deodorant product in their desk. There is nothing worse than knowing people can spell any body odor you may have, strong or otherwise, and not being able to fix it
Avoid Getting Tattoos And Piercings
We understand that this will be a controversial one, and may we add that we have no problems with tattoo’s at all. But for the purpose of this article, we are talking about nailing office grooming, so it had to be included.
Whenever possible, avoid getting tattoos. Do not wear piercings while in the office. These additions to your appearance make you look untidy and unprofessional. If you already have a tattoo that can be covered up, wear clothing that keeps it covered. If you have tattoos that are visible, try applying a concealer to see if this helps hide the tattoo. Keep blotting the tattoo until you achieve the result you want.
While being well-groomed is essential at the workplace, it is also necessary during leisure time. When you are not well-groomed, this will affect how others will react to you and though others may try to be polite, you may notice sense of subtle disappointment and this will negatively impact your day.
About the author:
This post was written by Mike Rochow. Mike is a freelance writer, who enjoys educating young professionals about corporate life and the best ways to land their dream jobs
