This past quarter, you bought yourself a Tom Ford suit that cost you three hundred dollars. You have Cole Haan shoes and wear a Tissot watch. Every three weeks you pay sixty dollars for a haircut. You walk out at noon without a speck of sunscreen on your face. This is just like driving a BMW with the engine check light on.
This is the bitter truth that no man wants to accept in his twenties and thirties. The sun is aging your face faster than stress, lack of sleep, and cheap bourbon. Dermatologists have been shouting this for decades now. Most of us nodded our heads politely while our collagen was packing up. By the time those fine lines appear around your eyes, the game is over.
The sad part is that no one ever told us that this matters. Your father never wore sunscreen except on holidays when he visited the beach. Grooming tips for men have for long focused on beard oils and hair care products. SPF has never been discussed in the locker room, which is rather ridiculous.
Think about your career path for a second. You go to meetings, pitch deals and shake hands with people who decide your future career. Looking your best and well-rested is not being vain; it is just good strategy.
In a study published in 2019 in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology, it was noted that sun-damaged skin is associated with untrustworthiness and incompetence. It is unfair but it is very true. Optics matter more than most people realize.
The question is what exactly should you apply on your face every morning? Despite the elaborate skincare regimes preached by skincare influencers, the truth is quite simple. You need broad-spectrum SPF of 30 or higher to be applied after moisturizing and before anything else. One product and you are done in thirty seconds.
If you cannot bear the greasy, white appearance of the conventional sunscreens, you don’t have to go through this ordeal anymore. There are other great options available now. Supergoop Unseen Sunscreen is invisible and works wonderfully under a blazer and a tie. La Roche-Posay Anthelios is another option that is as good as nothing. The budget-conscious can use the CeraVe Hydrating Mineral Sunscreen for fifteen dollars or less.
None of these will make you appear as if you’ve applied baby’s butt cream on your face. That is reason enough for you to try.
The routine is simple. Cleanse your face, apply the moisturizer, then the sunscreen. Give it two minutes to get absorbed before dressing up. Re-apply if you spend more than two hours outside. The small tube of Supergoop can easily fit in your briefcase pocket without you having to tell anyone.
Now, I know what you are thinking. At twenty-seven, you are invincible, and wrinkles will come some decades later in the future. Good enough, but melanoma doesn’t really care how old you are. Neither does your leather skin that starts creeping in your forties.
Those guys who started using sunscreen in their twenties were visibly different from those who didn’t by the time of their first high school reunion. And the difference gets even greater with the passing years.
There is vanity factor working for the professional in each of us. You have invested in your appearance because you know the importance of optics. Healthy skin is the base on which everything else depends. Your fancy haircut will look better, your suit will become sharper and your smile will be interpreted differently if you have healthy skin.
The financial angle also doesn’t hold. A decent SPF bottle will last you two months and cost you less than the lunch you buy from Sweetgreen. Compared to retinol treatments, chemical peels or even cosmetic treatments in the future, it is cheaper to prevent than cure in all walks of life.
There is yet another thing worth mentioning here. Sunscreen is not meant to be used just during summer. UVA rays penetrate the cloud cover, glass and even your office window on the fourteenth floor. The cool corner office with the wonderful view of the city gradually burns your skin if you spend eight hours a day in it without protection.
It matters whether it is winter, whether the sky is cloudy or even if you are indoor close to windows. It matters every single day.
Those guys who learn this earlier get an edge. An edge that is subtle and unnoticed by others. But in today’s world, where everyone is equally qualified, polished and ambitious, details make the difference. Looking ten years younger than your actual age is a subtle edge that will work throughout your entire career.
Your future self will thank you or resent you for this decision. And this decision comes every single morning at 7:15 AM, in front of your bathroom mirror. The sunscreen is there on the shelf, just waiting to be taken.
Thanks for reading this post! – MyPlugin