Just a few a few years ago, most men thought that the term ’skin care’ had nothing to do with them. Skin care was seen as involving all manner of practices, some quite painful, done by the women folk in a bid to look attractive. Any man who showed even the slightest active interest in skin care was promptly branded ’sissy’ and shunned by other men.

Fast forward to the end of the first decade of the twenty first century, and we find ourselves living in an age when skin care for men has found a considerable degree of acceptance, with even a number of skin care products targeted at men actually being purchased in reasonable numbers.

Yet the idea of skin care for men still attracts discomfort in some quarters – with one quite influential school of thought in men forums still holding the view that men should have nothing to do with ’skin care,’ which is perhaps a deluded view, as many things like ‘washing one’s face in the morning’ or ‘wearing shoes on the feet’ still fall within the confines of the term ’skin care.’ What this school of thought refers to when arguing that skin care practices are not masculine though are probably the so-called ‘advanced skin care practices’ like exfoliation and other types of cleansing. Still, the ideas of this school of thought can be confusing to the ‘ordinary’ man whose thinking it is seeking to influence, and whom the media and the makers of skin care products are also seeking to influence by arguing that the modern man has to ‘take care of how he looks’ if he is to be successful in this day and age.

Confused as to which point of view to follow – between making skin care a preoccupation and taking absolutely no care of their physical appearance – many men are opting to follow the path of moderation, namely taking some reasonably good care of their skin, but not making skin care a preoccupation – and for most men this seems to be the wisest route to follow.

The modern man who wants to make themselves presentable will therefore opt for something like the usual ’shower a day,’ perhaps with the use of some lotion and sunscreen when getting into direct contact with the sunlight – while desisting from the use of the more ‘extreme’ skin care practices like exfoliation, which – according to this ‘moderationist’ school of thought, are best left to women and their ilk.

What gets lost in all this discussion, however, is that skin care is not all about physical appearance, and that proper skin care should be part of every effort at being a good steward of the body since the skin is in fact the biggest organ in the body, and one of the most important.