This post will touch on what are the key factors to keeping your skin young looking for many years and what keeps your skin in its best shape naturally. So many times when I am working or talking about being an esthetician a guy will ask me, “can men get facials too?” I always respond of course they do its skin and we all have it male or female its best to take care of it. This post applies to both male and female skin and tips to taking care.
Best Practices to Keep Skin Healthy
A lot of times when I am giving a facial I’ll be asked what is the best product for your skin? That question for me personally the BEST product like a one all cure all doesn’t exist without the key components. I always emphasize lifestyle choices first and skincare or the brand of skincare products is the last on the list. (Not to brag but my tallow cream is a best product for the skin for a lot of reasons) however, i will save that breakdown for another post. The 6 pillars for great looking skin are, hydration, diet, exercise, SLEEP and then products. Allow me to touch on each one of these pillars a little more.
Starting with HYDRATION cannot emphasize enough water water and more water. Our bodies are made up of water. We need it for our health and healthy movement of bowels. If you don’t keep things moving internally it will eventually show on your skin externally. You want to try and get 64 ounces of water consumption daily. Water is so important for the skin to look its best. The main two things that water can do for your skin is 1) it works with your lymphatic system and acts as a filter and cleans your body or system out. If you are getting tiny little break outs but maybe don’t have a huge acne problem, just drinking 8 glasses of water a day will help that. 2) Water helps give the skin a plumpness that is natural. When you are dehydrated it will show in your skin. To the naked eye no, but to a trained eye yes. I can see when I am working on someone if the skin has a bounce back elasticity it means that there is enough water or hydration internally in your skin. If for example you are dehydrated, internally your skin will be more tight and will be lacking an internal plumpness. Just drinking enough water in a day can help keep you looking younger for years. One company I would like to recommend for their water filtration systems and water bottles to get your hydration in yes affiliated:
https://clearlyfiltered.com/?cjdata=MXxOfDB8WXww&cjevent=e3d05118d0f711ef8320dca10a82b832
The second pillar to good skin is DIET or what you consume daily. I would highly recommend if your serious about your skincare to read your food labels. There are a lot of foods out there that have added chemicals in them. I have had a rule for years. If I cannot understand what the word on the label is I probably do not want it in my body. So snack foods and packaged foods just try and find the cleanest ingredient labels you can understand and it would probably be safe for your body and skin. Also you can get a lot of nutrients for your skin based from your food. I noticed when I do a collagen powder in my smoothies my skin looked more plump. That is because your skin is filling out internally from the inside out. Also protein is good for your skin. You can get protein from red meat, chicken, fish, eggs, dairy and nuts. All of those foods when their in clean wholesome form can enrich your skin and give you the vitamins your body needs to thrive. I would recommend all the meat is grass fed, the dairy for me I would do raw as there is way more nutrients in raw dairy and the eggs straight from a farm and try and make sure the nuts are clean or raw with no canola oil.
One thing to note on dairy just to elaborate I am/was lactose intolerant. I was researching something for my teeth and learned that raw dairy has all the vitamins your teeth need. Vitamin K and D3 are the two vitamins that if you drink pasteurized milk your missing those vitamins. If I was to drink pasteurized milk I would have a reaction within hours of pain in my stomach followed by horrible gas two days later. I tried un pasteurized milk as I learned that sometimes people think they are lactose intolerant but the body is actually reacting to the enzymes in the pasteurization process. It was a game changer, I had no reaction to unpasteurized milk. In fact it was more positive for my body as un pasteurized milk has pro-biotics to help your stomach so it was almost healing in a way when I first started drinking it. I don’t go crazy and drink a full glass but I will add to my morning coffee and it is like a natural heavy cream. Very good. The milk will go bad quickly so you can freeze it. I usually buy 1 gallon for a month it costs around $14 and break up into glass mason jars and freeze it and then just switch the jars into the refrigerator when its time for a new week. Also you can include the milk in your hydration glass count for the day because raw milk naturally hydrates you and pasteurized milk no hydration included. Your body knows when something is natural. Sometimes people will ask me if raw milk is dangerous to consume? Honestly our grandparents drank milk straight from the cow and they were very healthy so I think that we have been taught different as time has evolved and I’m down for the more natural way. Also if you don’t love milk raw yoghurt is the best. Its like a heavy natural cream. Look for it at a farm in your area or some grocery stores sell it depending on your location and if not yoghurt the next step is raw unpasteurized cheese. This is much easier to find. You do have to read your labels though. ( There is a swiss cheese that is unpasteurized and is sold in Walmart, Trader Joes and a lot of supermarkets.)
Next pillar for your ultimate best skin is EXERCISE!! I will give you 3 reasons the effects of exercise have on the skin. The first being cardio or sweating. When you sweat you remove toxins. As your sweating your skin is doing what it is made to do and releases those toxins. You will feel better and look better. Sweating is working again with your filtration system but this time removing the unnecessary things that your body does not need. If you are drinking water as you sweat, even better as that is enabling your purifying system to help clean things out. If you are into any kind of stretching exercise whether it is yoga, pilates or even just a stretch program you are helping the elasticity both with your skin and also with your connective tissue. The more flexible your connective tissue the younger you will look and feel. Imagine the difference if you are living on this planet 70 years and you cannot touch your toes as compared to someone who can do a full backbend at the age of 70? My advice on that one is to always remain active and give movement to your life so that you don’t have the aches and pains when you are older. Exercise is also a form of release. Sometimes we don’t realize it if we are going through something emotionally or we are angry that expression wears on your face. Another factor with aging. If you keep emotions bottled in it can age you. Exercise can be a form of release and bring calm to your physical body. Again when you feel good you look good so movement and stretching are a great natural anti aging secret that is actually free.
Next pillar SLEEP! I cannot emphasize enough how much younger you look when you sleep and are well rested. I highly recommend 8 hours a night if possible. If you have a busy lifestyle or work a lot or have children at least shoot for a minimum of 5 hours. Your body needs 5 hours a night minimum to help repair your vital organs such as your heart and brain. If you sleep less than 5 it is very hard on the body. If you cannot get 8 hours a night a lot of times what I do is have 1 morning a week I sleep in. I schedule it. Sometimes with all my jobs I can get very busy and work 10 days straight. I always prioritize sleep and will calculate a day to just sleep in. I give myself permission to stay in bed as long as I want or at least until 12 pm. I look forward to those days as I value my sleep and I love sleeping. On the days that you sleep and look well rested it can take years off your face.
Society has a negative stigma on sleeping and likes to associate it with lazy. I don’t agree with that at all. If I don’t get my sleep I do not function well. Have you ever noticed if your tired and then your emotions get out of whack and everything goes wrong? Honestly after nannying kids for years you can see what happens when kids are tired or need a nap? They start crying and get cranky. Well the same happens to adults and our bodies need sleep just as much as a childs body. A little sleep hack I learned for people who cannot fall asleep. For example I am not a napper. I sleep night to morning like to feel refreshed and then move about all day. But one thing I discovered if you put on headphones and use the Mega Hz music say for example 963 you can put yourself in a relaxed state and you sometimes can fall asleep like that but if not your body still gets into a restful space. I’ve found the videos on Youtube link here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXCKVQiqXyE
Finally we’ve come to the fifth and final pillar for amazing skin, the PRODUCTS you use. I always say the products are the least important if you don’t do the other 4 pillars to give yourself great looking skin and a more youthful natural appearance. Again when I am working in spas or for skincare lines people always would ask me what is the best product for your skin? A lot of times I would feel obligated to sell the product or brand where I was working. Honestly I stopped doing that over the years because what is more important to me is that ones skin is balanced and in the best condition that it can be in. If you drink enough water, exercise, eat a healthy clean diet and sleep you should already be 50% more ahead on your skin game than buying all the expensive products but say not drinking water or sleeping. You could spend the money but not sleeping isn’t going to make that eye cream work any better for you. I have brands and particular products that I love for the face besides my own products and I will save that for another post. The main products you want:
- A balancing non stripping cleanser
- Non alcohol non drying toner
- A good exfoliant 2 nights a week
- A balancing face cream and ad a serum if you prefer
- Also do not forget the neck cream or to add cream to your neck and decollete or chest. (First signs of aging besides hands)
In conclusion as I said at the beginning these recommendations can apply to both men and women because we all have skin. Everything here both men and women can do eat, exercise, sleep, drink water, use a cleanser and cream. Hopefully this has brought an awareness into your lifestyle and choices and if you incorporate these tips you can see a change in both your skin texture and your life. I you have any questions or tips to ad here please use the contact form to join the conversation.