He who dares... moisturises

Not all bad a**es wear capes, but they sure do take care of their skin – men’s contributor, Steve Chalmers chimes in

August 05, 2021

Skin, Unfiltered

Photography - Alex Callueng

Contributor - Steve Chalmers

Growing up in the wilds of North Wales, skincare was never on my radar. Not at all. Not even a thing. Only cold mountain air ever touched my face. I was a typical bloke; I liked fast cars, rugby and action movies. Stallone, as Rambo and Schwarzenegger in Commando were my heroes and strangely enough, it was my fascination with army Special Forces that opened my eyes to men’s skincare routines (I know, right?).

Special Hair Service

In the Special Forces world, the British SAS are the archetypal men’s men. Tough, skilled, secretive, they make for good reading and I was half way through Chris Ryan’s book, ‘The One That Got Away’ when I came across a passage, which to me, in my late teens, was completely shocking.

In between the tales of escape, evasion and marching 305 kilometres through the enemy’s desert was a paragraph on skincare. I was literally knocked for six. Ryan was describing the reason behind the locals’ leathery skin and overall bad complexion was the fact that they didn’t moisturise properly... He was deadly serious and I had to re-read the paragraph five times before I could carry on with the book.

Soothe And Stimulate

From that moment on though, I became completely open to the idea of skincare. If the hardest men on the planet were looking after their skin, then I should be, too. I eventually experienced the army’s skincare regime first hand during military training. My sergeant called it ‘Personal Admin’ and we had set times during the day where we had to look after ourselves. We were expected to drink tea from a muddy cup filled with twigs and the odd fly, but it was essential that we were clean shaved, moisturised and baby-powdered up.

Special Skin Service

Men’s skincare has always been a bit of a taboo. The importance of looking after our skin has never really been explained to us. We don’t get taught it at school (as far as I know) and yet, it should 100% be part of our daily life routine. If an SAS trooper can be concerned about other people’s skincare miles behind enemy lines, then I should really have no problems spending 5 minutes in the morning and evening applying a layer of quality moisturiser.