Men: What Skin Care Should We Use?

I’m a man and new to skin care … what should I use?

This may surprise you, but skin is fundamentally skin. All skin … across genders, races, and ages … may look different, but skin is fundamentally the same at the cellular level (when looked at under a microscope, skin cells are skin cells).

This is supported more and more by new research that proves, for example, that dark skin and light skin share much the same cellular make up; the difference is in how the cells behave (the cells of darker skin produce more pigment, for example). Even baby skin cells are surprisingly developed, with hair follicles already cycling at an very young age. This is why the majority of prescription drugs, lasers, and peels for skin diseases don’t come in male and female or Asian and African versions—for most serious dermatological preparations and procedures, the target market is a skin condition, not a demographic.

If you’re of the burlier sex and shopping at VMV HYPOALLERGENICS^®, the answer is really rather simply: use whatever you want to. We focus on skin: not target markets. While some skin conditions can be more common to a particular group, the skin diseases that are exclusive to one gender or the other are those that affect only the genitals or only pregnant women. Men and women of different races and ages can have drier or oilier skin; they can have acne; they can have rashes; both can get skin cancer (some studies show men getting skin cancer more than women), and their skin ages in roughly the same way. This is why an effective therapy for a type of acne can be as effective on male skin as on female skin, on Asian skin as on African or Caucasian skin with the same type of acne.

When we create a product to treat a skin problem, it effectively treats that problem on male or female skin of different races. We promise that if a product works well for a skin condition, we’ll tell you so instead of pouring it into different bottles and selling them to different people. We’re about efficacy, not packaging or market positioning.

So if you’re new to skin care and are exploring VMV, don’t look at what products are “for men”. We suggest that you shop by concern (acne, aging, etc.) or by category (skin care, hair/body/bath, shaving, etc.).

Click here for more information on men’s skin care.