Face Washing Basics

Your face requires washing twice a day, with a product designed for the purpose.

This is not vanity. This is maintenance, and the distinction between the two, which ought to be self-evident, appears to elude a remarkable number of men. The Edwardian morning began with a cold or tepid wash at the basin, a deliberate act performed before anything else in the day. The face was the first thing attended to. Before breakfast, before correspondence, before the business of the household commenced, a man stood at his washstand and washed his face with purpose. What you do now with your cleanser and your lukewarm tap water is the residue of that more comprehensive morning discipline, stripped down and made casual but still, at its foundation, the same act: the preparation of the face you will present to the world. The skin on your face is thinner and more exposed than the skin on any other part of your body; it encounters pollution, sweat, oil, and the accumulated residue of touching it far more often than you realise. It deserves, at minimum, a morning wash and an evening wash with a cleanser that was not formulated for dishes.

Bar soap is not a face wash. I understand that it is convenient and that it is already in the shower, and I understand that it produces a lather which feels as though something is being accomplished. What it accomplishes, however, is the thorough stripping of your skin of its natural moisture, prompting it to produce more oil in compensation; this is how you arrive at the baffling condition of having skin that is simultaneously dry and greasy, a paradox that resolves itself immediately once you stop using the wrong product.

Use a gentle cleanser: a gel-based formula if you have oily skin, something cream-based if dry. If you have no idea what your skin type is, begin with something labelled “for all skin types” and observe. Your face will tell you what it needs, provided you stop assaulting it long enough to listen.

Wash with your fingertips, not a flannel. Gentle circular motions for thirty seconds will suffice. Rinse thoroughly with lukewarm water and pat dry (do not rub) with a clean towel, and I should note that the word “clean” is doing considerable work in that sentence. A towel that has been damp on a rail for four days is not clean. It is a biome.

After washing, apply a moisturiser. Yes, even if your skin is oily; especially if your skin is oily. Moisturiser does not add oil but rather regulates moisture, and your skin will calm down when it stops believing it is under siege.

Morning and evening. Every day. It takes ninety seconds, which is less time than you spend looking at your telephone, and the results are visible to everyone who looks at you, which is more than can be said for whatever you were reading on the screen.