Skin Care for Black Men
Care for the Skin of Black men. There’s still a common perception about men and their skin. That being: skin creams are for women; ‘real men’ don’t touch the stuff. The truth is, men have cared for their skin with lotions and potions for millennia.
Today, men – particularly those between the ages of 25 and 50 – are definitely getting the message. Some people want to lump African American skin into a general “skin is skin” category.
Your skin is different and it needs to be cared for differently.
- – The presence of androgen (testosterone) in men means that your skin is approximately 25% thicker than a woman’s. In addition, a man’s skin texture is tougher.
- – Sebum (oil) and its production also differ because of these androgen secretions. Following puberty, men produce more oil than women. As a result, men tend to have longer lasting acne problems.
- – Regardless of age, men have a higher collagen density than women. This is why, “generally”, men appear to age more slowly than women. It has been said a woman’s skin is about 15 years older than that of a man’s of the same age. However, with African American skin, your melanin allows both of you – men and women – to retain your youthful appearance as you mature equally.
As an African American man, you face unique challenges when it comes to your complexion because of the amount of melanin in your skin. While melanin does provide the benefits of natural protection against sunlight (to a degree), it gives you your unique features, and helps to aid in internal functioning. It also makes you as a man of color more prone to scarring and hyperpigmentation.
A lot of your hyperpigmentation comes from shaving and the challenge of ingrown hairs.
What causes ingrown hairs?
The most significant reason for the occurrence of ingrown hairs is hair texture. As an African American man, you tend to have curly, thick hair. After shaving, the hair grows back differently. Instead of growing outwards and away from the hair follicle, the curly hair will grow back into the skin. This leads to irritation and swelling as the hair clogs the pores and gets stuck beneath the top layer of skin.
This is when you reach for tweezers, trying to get relief. You go in to pull the hair and set your skin on a course for hyperpigmentation.
For many men, this process of shaving and facial hair growth results in a never-ending cycle. Shaving is done to eliminate excess hairs but causes ingrown hairs in the process. During the time spent doctoring the ingrown, more hair grows in and it’s time to shave again, causing even more ingrown hairs!
A second cause of ingrown hairs is the accumulation of dead skin. As dead skin blocks the pores, it also affects the hair follicles by leaving them clogged and misdirecting the way the hair grows. Blocked hair follicles prevent the hair from growing out of the skin and causes it to grow sideways.
While trying to prevent ingrown hairs and hyperpigmentation you still need a way of caring for your skin.
It’s Important for You to Have a Skin Care Regimen
A regimen puts the “Care” in “skin care” for men. You’ll need to cleanse, tone and moisturize your face. Another important step is to exfoliate your skin. The dead skin cells spoken of earlier will need to be sloughed away. An exfoliant will do the trick.
If you’re one who wears a beard, you’ll want to be careful of exfoliants with jojoba wax beads. It’s not that you can’t use them, you’ll just need to exfoliate the skin not covered by your beard.
Your regimen should be done the same as that of any woman, morning and night. After all, you’re subject to the same pollution, dry air and heat as Black women.
You can keep things really simple and still reach your goal of caring for the skin you’re in.
We’ve tweaked our line to accommodate your request for a line with you in mind, a line of natural and organic skin care products for African American men.
Try them! You’ll be glad that you did.
Here’s to the Health of Your Skin,
Juliette Samuel
Esthetician/Author/Publisher
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