KEY POINTS:
It's hard to care about shaving first thing in the morning. Bleary eyes, dog breath and rumblin' tum, there we are, leaning over a sink of tepid water, squinting at our reflected faces in the too-bright light while checking we're holding the razor the right way around. Because this is what real men do. Every day. Well, most days.
Oh yeah, sure, there's a whole other bunch of lily-livered types who pretend those electric jobbies do more than simply style their stubble, but we'll set them to one side, and leave them there.
Razors make real men more popular. With advertisers. I had thought things were getting out of hand with toothbrushes, but stuff for shaving seems to be the new horizon in marketing. Nasa uses bits of machinery to land space shuttles that are less complicated than my multi-bladed, vibrating, self-lubricating razor, yet it's odds on that an even more advanced piece of man-science will be advertised on my telly tonight. But it's not just about the blades these days. It's also about what you smear on your face before shaving. Once we had the option of soap lathered up with a wee brush or cold water and a will of steel. Now there's creams, gels and ungents for every skin type.
Which brings us to Dermalogica, a specialist skincare company. I trialled their new range for seven days and while I still can't pronounce it properly, it has changed my shaving routine drastically. It's now much longer. Longer because they're trying to talk real men round to a three-step shaving routine, four, if you cut yourself.
Dermalogica isn't alone in this, there's a growing range of man-care options. L'Oreal, Lancome, LeWinns and more all have a range of balms, shave products and after-shave moisturisers with and without sunblock, some are even perfumed. Then there's the sort of graduated anti-ageing regimes once the preserve only of appearance-conscious women. Most men's products, thankfully, come in manly packaging and carry simpler instructions than the gushy pseudo-science women are used to in their marketing.
But my mission was just to test one range. To start, we have Dermalogica's soap-free soap ($45), the daily scrub ($54), and the pre-shave guard ($54). I was alternating between the scrub and the guard because scouring my face every day left me a little blotchy. The guard seems to do what it was supposed to, softening the stubble and minimising razor burn and cuts. I don't know if it's because I'm testing the products, but I got through the week with only one tiny nick.
Then there's the shaving stuff. Dermalogica offer three: a cream ($39), a gel ($39) and an oil ($57). I used the invigorating shave gel because there was less risk of hacking into my Elvis-esque sideburns. The gel has peppermint and menthol which clears your head before leaving your face all tingly and, umm, invigorated.
Finally, the post-shave - note they don't say after-shave, maybe that's too Old Spice for their high-tech world. They have two: a balm ($59) and a sunblock/ moisturiser ($81). I decided winter is providing all the sunblock I need right now and settled for the balm. It left a dry, oil-free finish which left me well pleased. For some real men this will seem too metrosexual for comfort, not to mention a tad pricey, but for mine the extra effort delivered extra comfort and no bleeding. Now, if they could just do something about the early mornings.
