Face Washing Basics
Your face requires washing twice a day, with a product designed for the purpose.
What follows covers what product to use, how to use it, and why bar soap is not a face wash.
The practice is not vanity. The Edwardian morning began with a cold or tepid wash at the basin, a deliberate act performed before anything else in the day. 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 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 of the face is thinner and more exposed than the skin anywhere else on the body. At minimum, a morning wash and an evening wash with a cleanser not formulated for dishes is what it deserves.
Bar soap is not a face wash. It is convenient and already in the shower, and it produces a lather which feels as though something is being accomplished. What it accomplishes is the stripping of the skin’s natural moisture, prompting it to produce more oil in compensation. This is how one arrives at the baffling condition of skin that is simultaneously dry and greasy. Stop using the wrong product and the paradox resolves itself.
A gentle cleanser is the appropriate choice: a gel-based formula for oily skin, something cream-based for 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. Rinse thoroughly with lukewarm water and pat dry with a clean towel, and 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. A flannel in similar condition is a colony.
After washing, apply a moisturiser. Yes, even if your skin is oily; especially if your skin is oily. Moisturiser regulates moisture, and your skin will calm down when it stops believing it is under siege.
Morning and evening, every day. The task occupies ninety seconds, which is less time than you spend looking at your telephone, and the results are visible to everyone who looks at you.