How To Reinvent Yourself – A New You

how to reinvent yourself

Reinvent Yourself

There comes a time in every man’s life where he decides a change of appearance is much in order. Now may be the perfect time to reinvent yourself. Whether it’s for a new job, new love interest, or even a new year, there is usually some sort of driving force behind it. If you’re thinking about shaking up your signature look, check out our tips to rejuvenate yourself.

Look After Your Skin

Women just love skin products. If you have a woman in your life, you’ll know that their serums, lotions and potions take up most of the space in the bathroom and bedroom. Women are usually one step ahead of us men, they already know that looking and smelling good is feeling good too. We should follow suit and look after our skin too. Our skin can be even more prone to dryness and irritation than women’s. If you don’t want to dip into your other half’s strawberry puree, you could get some Nivea cream for men.

mens nivea cream formula how to reinvent yourself

If you have thicker, dryer skin, you might find that thicker balms and creams are more effective for you and leave your skin feeling softer and more moisturized. My all time favorite cream (after Nivea) would have to be Palmer’s cocoa butter, great smell, great feeling and great value for money.

cocoa butter formula how to reinvent yourself
[Photo Credit: emtalks.co.uk]

Whether you’re on a tight budget at the moment, or not, drink plenty of water and get a good nights sleep. These two things are free, and will work wonders for your skin. You won’t get dark circles and your complexion will look clear and healthy.

Choose Your Products Wisely

In order to change your look, you’ll probably need to change your approach to styling and that means trying new products.

There’s a myriad of skin and hair products for men, but choose wisely; sometimes cheaper products are more damaging to skin and do not last as long as the slightly more expensive products. No one’s saying a £50 jar of cream here, but the dubious cream from discount stores is not always worth it.

Quality products generally last longer and actually do what they say on the tin. You can find great ones online, places like Boots, Mankind, and the Body Shop.

Cut Or Restyle Your Hair

What quicker way to reinvent yourself is there other than changing your hairstyle? One of the quickest and most effective ways is to change it to something you’ve never tried before. Even if it was as simple as changing what side you part your hair on, or more drastically shaving off long locks of hair. Believe me, a good trim can make you feel like a new man.

If your hair is short, you could try growing it into a longer style, and if it’s already long, experiment with a few new styles in front of a mirror until you find something you like. You can find inspiration easily on Instagram or even Google images (old school, I know), or ask your barber for suggestions. Look up hairstyles on models who have similar face shapes, hairlines, and hair textures to you. There’s nothing worse than getting a haircut that doesn’t suit you at all.

how to reinvent yourself barber
[Photo Credit: thespa.steigenberger.com]

Wardrobe

Clear out your wardrobe, get rid of those baggy jeans you’ve had since you were fifteen and invest in new ones that will last. You can find designer labels for cheap in places like Tk Maxx and in the sale section of websites and high street stores. A quick way to reinvent your look is by swapping jeans for chinos, and trainers for boots. These two items can be tweaked to look casual or smart depending on your accessories.

Developing a new signature look means not looking like every other guy out there, and bold accessories make it easy to really personalize your style.

Hats, scarves, watches, crazy socks (check out my posts on them) or bold-framed glasses: knock yourself out and make them your own.

crazy socks

Exercise

Getting a new body shape needs a little more work than changing your hair and clothes , but if you feel you need to size down, remind yourself of the old adage – no pain, no gain.

Exercise is free so forget extortionate gym memberships. Go walking, running, swimming or cycling. Whatever you do – stay active. Exercise releases endorphins so you’ll start feeling good and in time you’ll have a body to match.

Learn To Accept Your Body Shape

While you can exercise and slim down, your natural body shape may always remain the same. The solution to this is not to attempt to squeeze yourself into ill-fitting clothes, but identify your body type to pick clothes that compliment your shape and size well.

Find Out What Brands Work Best For You

In order to succeed when reinventing your wardrobe, you need to know what brands suit you. Topman and ASOS favour more slim fitting clothing, whereas stores like House of Fraser and John Lewis are your go-to for more classic men’s clothing.

Build Your Self Esteem

Having high self esteem affects how you see yourself and how others see you. People are drawn to charismatic, confident people. Work on your posture, slouching suggests a lack of self confidence whereas walking with straight open shoulders rather than hunched ones says a lot about you. Also, change the way you think about yourself if need be, from negative to positive. Being positive and confident is the best way to pull off great new looks.

Ask The Ladies

You can find plenty of inspiration online for a new look, but the women who matter the most in your life – your mum, wife, or sister know you and will always have some helpful, unsolicited advice on how you look, eat, dress, sleep, breathe… you get my drift!

Do your homework and see what’s trending, there’s some great free advice and product reviews all over the internet. Experiment with different looks, get creative, be active and in no time you will have reinvented your look without breaking the bank.

Reinvent yourself now and you’ll be glad you did.

how to reinvent yourself - a new you
[Photo Credit: grafhamwalbancke.com]
[Photo Credit For Featured Image: 123rf.com]

Argan Oil – My Best Buy From Morocco

argan oil set

After seven days in the beautiful Moroccan weather I find myself back in London soaking in all this cold wet weather. I’ve opened up my suitcase, pulled out all the stuff I bought and its clear to me what the best thing I bought was. I started using it a few days into my trip and the benefits are clear. I paid twenty dirhams which equates to around £1.30 for 100ml of pure argan oil. I don’t have much hair on my head at all but I got a lot on my face.

Still life of argan fruit and oil
Argan fruit, seeds and oil, used for cosmetic and alimentary products

I’ve been applying it twice a day and my beard has become darker, thicker, shinier and softer. I must admit, I have no clue how long this will last for but what I do know is I look a lot better with it in my beard than without.

I’ve used beard balms before and I know for a fact they all have argan oil in them but I’ve never thought about actually using pure argan oil by itself. The only negative I have come across so far is that when you initially apply it, it smells kinda funky but that smell goes after 15 minutes or so.

Should I Use Argan Oil?

If your hair is tough, or brittle or even itchy then yeah I suggest using it. I’m usually caught, pulling out my beard because its itchy but in the last week I haven’t pulled out any.

If you have nice soft hair then there isn’t a need for you to use argan oil, just go enjoy life. (I’m jealous of you.)

Price

As you can imagine the price from a Moroccan night market is going to be a lot different to a UK retailers price. It may be worth having a look around but make sure you go for the 100% pure argan oil. I trust Boots and Holland and Barrett with this kind of products but your welcome to have a look around, you’ll probably get a good deal on sites like eBay as well.

[products ids=”3652,3654″]

Good luck on your journey to nice shiny hair, wherever you choose to apply the oil. Apparently its good for massages too (wink wink.)

How Often Should Men Shave? – Grooming Routine

grooming kit

Everyone talks about having a good suit, a crisp shirt, a pair of well polished shoes etc etc. These things are great and we understand their importance but we also know looking after our hair (all of it) is equally as important. I have already written about “How often should men get a haircut?”. If we exclude the hair on our head, there is still a lot of hair elsewhere, leaving a few unanswered questions.

– How to shave?
– When to shave?
– What to shave?
– Should men shave at all?

should men shave

Grooming Routine

The answers are different depending on you, some of us men grow hair at crazy speeds and some of us grow an inch every 18 months. Having a routine, no matter the duration, is imperative as there are somethings that as men, we just can not afford to let happen. I can’t afford to let my mustache grow for more than four days without shaving it. I literally look like a homeless bum with my unshaven mustache. Selecting a day and having a set routine that you go through each time will guarantee you constantly look your best. People will notice if you stop grooming yourself and they will be quick to tell you about it.

Unanswered Questions

How to shave?

Shaving is not the easiest thing to do, trust me I cut myself often. However, saying that, I have improved massively over time. The best advice I can give; practice makes perfect and while you are on your way to perfection, I have some tips that will help you out.

1. Wash whatever you are shaving with hot water. Hot water opens up your pours, meaning you will get a closer shave and you are less likely to cut yourself. If you do manage to nick yourself, splash your face with cold water once you are done as this causes your skin’s pores to close and the blood will also move away from the surface of your skin.

2. Get a cutthroat blade. They look scary but they are perfect. Once you get past the first couple times, you will realize that you can now shave everything with ease. The normal razors are really easy to use and not to mention, they are a lot safer. None the less the cutthroat blade trumps them all. You can get one for really cheap on eBay, I added it into my store – click here.

3. Use shaving foam or some sort of soap/oil. There is nothing worse than shaving somewhere on your body or your face and it feeling like its on fire and about to explode. I use shaving foam, I buy mine for around 30 pence from Tesco and it stops me from removing the top layer of my skin when shaving. This means I get a better shave and I don’t get a super red mustache (eww).

What to shave?/Should men shave at all?

Should men shave? Of course, how often? Depends how hairy you are. Me – I’m quite hairy so I shave a lot. Never shave his legs or arms, everything else is open for you. I personally shave all my pubic hair, my underarm hair, my back, the back of my neck and I trim my mustache. I hear you asking, what about my chest? Yes I do grow hair on my chest and stomach and I do get rid of the hair there. How? Hair removal cream my friend. It works wonders and when the hair grows back, it doesn’t itch at all.

beard science

Grooming is important and how ever you choose to groom yourself, just make sure that you get into a routine and do it often. My routine is every Friday without fail. Don’t forget to cut your nails as well. Cleanliness is part of being a gent, so get used to it.

How Often Should You Get A Haircut?

The answer that isn’t really an answer is; it depends on how long your hair is. To keep it simple follow this rule.

If your hair is short, you need a haircut once a month. If it’s medium length where you can actually gel your hair, then once every three months. Any long hair also needs to be cut every six months to a year.

If you follow this rule you will be alright. Now I got a question for you, are you ok with just being alright? I don’t want to be known as the guy who dresses alright. So what else do you need to do?

Between haircuts things will start to grow in different places depending on how hairy you are. For me, I have an M shape hairline and the back of my neck also gets really hairy. So every three to five days I pick up my cut throat blade (I recommend you get one) and I shave off the hair myself. Just because you got a haircut four days ago doesn’t mean you still look nice and neat now.

If you aren’t sure if you need to touch places up with a razor just ask a friend if your beard or your hairline looks messy. Staying on top of this five minute job will make people look at you like someone who just always looks great.

Shaving – The Old School Way

shaving the old school way cover photo large

Ever heard of Sweeney Todd? If you have then you know what this post is all about. If you haven’t then not to worry, it doesn’t really matter. So let’s get to it.

shaving the old school way cover photo

Last night I was getting ready for today and figured I’d shave, which by shave I mean shave my moustache and shape up my hair line to get rid of the weird bit of hair that grows on my forehead (I know right eww.) So I normally do all of this with my normal disposable razor but recently I’ve been reading up on how amazing these cut throat razor are and everyone says it’s what a true gentleman would use. So being the aspiring gentleman that I am I felt like I had to actually go and grab myself one and actually see what all the hype is really about.

Usually when it comes to old fashioned things, I just naturally hate all things old. Why? I don’t know really, I love technology and new things, to prove my love for technology I actually even own a smartwatch which I pretty much wear and use everyday. I was a little reluctant to use the blade and not to mention a little scared of slicing up my face. I bought one online for peanuts and decided to give it a try.

It came in the post a few days ago and I figured I’d attempt to shape up my hair line and trim my moustache. So as per usual, I washed my face and then I added all the shaving foam and prepared myself for the worst. Needless to say five minutes later, I had a beautifully shaped up hairline, and a perfectly thin moustache. Then a minute later I was pretty much covered in blood, my skin had like seven different cuts so I ended the night covered in vaseline over every cut. Yes it hurt like hell!

Do I regret doing it? No way, the shave is amazing, it actually removes all the hair and I have so much more control over the blade. It may have hurt last night but now I can’t feel a thing, none of the cuts are visible so it’s definitely a winning situation.

I absolutely advise grabbing yourself one, hopefully you won’t cut yourself as much as I did.

Keep Clean

above the ankles keep clean

If there’s something women love more than a man in a suit, then it is a clean and well groomed man in a suit. As men we tend to be a little lazy and we often can’t be bothered to do some of the absolute basic things. Breaking that tendency is the hard part but once you do you will find your sex appeal will shoot through the roof.

Being clean and well groomed actually means different things to different men so I won’t dive too deep into the details of what you should and shouldn’t do, what ever suits you go with it. It is however important that you are constantly thinking bot just about your outfit but your hygiene. Are you wearing deodorant? Have you cut your nails recently? Whens the last time you had a haircut?

Those are the basics I’m sure you all know and hopefully if you are reading this you already have these things in the bag. How about do you wash your mouth out after eating or do you check your teeth for food in the mirror when you go in the toilet/bathroom at work or in a restaurant. Do you clean your shoes only at home or do you ever notice dirt on your shoe and get it off.

It may sound like a lot of work but eventually being hygienically clean and groomed will become second nature. In your careers and jobs people will trust you more. Their faith in you will increase because they see a guy who looks after the finer details and goes the extra mile.

If you have any other not-so obvious tips then please feel free to comment below.