While the temptation may be there to hide behind a beard and a bundle of clothes as we hit the winter months, there is absolutely no reason why you cannot stay comfortable and stylish all the way into spring.

But don’t worry about looking vain. Making sure you look slick and clean shaven is an essential to looking the part and your missus will thank you for it as well.

Even if you have a hectic lifestyle there are plenty of tricks and tips to ensure you look on top form when you step out of the front door.   Preparation is key here & rolling out of bed expecting to achieve the look won’t always cut it – a sharp haircut and a close shave will take years off you and, according to research from Wilkinson Sword, give you confidence too.

So if you are facing the prospect of looking more scruff than buff this weekend, then log onto our live webTV show where Dr Sam Bunting and independent men’s style expert Ahmed Zambarakji will be giving you some top tips in order to make sure you look well groomed & suitably stylish.  

So what are you waiting for? Submit your questions below and don’t step out of your front door until you have watched the show.

Dr Sam Bunting & Ahmed Zambarakji join us live online on Thursday 28th October at 3pm to discuss male grooming

For more information visit http://www.shavehydro.co.uk

H: Vicky Letch, host
A: Ahmed Zambarakji, independent style expert
B: Dr Sam Bunting, cosmetic dermatologist

H: According to research undertaken by Wilkinson Sword Hydro, there’s a new breed of man – well-mannered, impeccably groomed and someone that chooses to spend time with their family over clubbing and drinking. Interested? I certainly am!

Titles

H: Hello and welcome to Life & Style, I’m Vicky Letch. Now forget beer o’clock and late night partying, it seems modern men would rather invest their time and money refining themselves and their lifestyle and putting family first. According to research commissioned by Wilkinson Sword Hydro, men aged between 25 and 34 are returning to the golden age of their grandfathers. All the way down to shaving etiquette. Joining me to discuss this and more is cosmetic dermatologist Dr Sam Bunting, and independent style expert Ahmed Zambarakji. Thank you so much both of you for coming in today.

A: Thank you

H: So here’s what’s coming up on the show today. We find out about the true modern man from Wilkinson Sword Hydro’s research. We look at the latest in gentlemen’s etiquette, style and grooming techniques. And all of your questions will be answered here live. Ah yes, don’t forget of course we are live, so if you have any questions or comments, please use the box on your screen, click send and we’ll do our best to tackle them over the course of the next 15 minutes or so. And if you are on Twitter you can use your # tag studiotalk. So, before we get stuck in to all of this research, because I have to say the findings have been very interesting to read, quite surprising some of it. They’re going like this - clearly we’re going to have quite a feisty debate in here today! We’re going to have a look and see what the general public think about facial hair. Take a look

Video Footage

Man 1: I much prefer it when I have got a nice, clean-shaven face. For starters people tell me I look younger, and that’s always useful, and I feel a lot more confident. My girlfriend prefers it, she doesn’t get stubble rash so that’s always useful

Man 2: I get in trouble with my girlfriend if I shave and I get in trouble with my grandparents if I don’t shave, so it’s a bit of a double-edged sword there

Man 3: I definitely feel more confident when I’m clean-shaven, yes. I feel a lot smarter, a lot more presentable. I feel easier to talk to people

Girl 1: I much prefer a man who is clean-shaven because anyone who takes a bit of time and care over their appearance probably takes a bit more time and care in everything else they do in life, and that’s definitely a more attractive feature

H: Do you know what an interesting and utterly female way to look at shaving – if someone looks after themselves then you think we will get taken care of better. That’s quite a nice way to look at it I think

A: Yes I think she’s quite right, I mean it’s something women have known for ages, you know they’ve always equated their appearance with their confidence, and you know it’s something men are really only cottoning onto now, so she makes a very good point

H: Yes. And do you think then, from what we’re hearing, couple of those guys were saying I do it because my girlfriend likes it, I do it because my girlfriend doesn’t get stubble rash – and I’m a sufferer. Terrible blotches, lovely, unsightly purple blotches on the face – do you think men are doing it primarily for their girlfriends, is that part and parcel about why they’re looking after themselves more?

B: I think they might say that but I think actually now a lot of men are now doing it for themselves. I mean –

H: There’s a song there isn’t there?

B: I think quite possibly. But I mean a recent survey by Wilkinson Sword has shown that nearly a third of men feel better when they take care of their appearance, and they’re much more confident in doing so. It’s not something they have to, you know, be so discreet about. Like in the past they used to borrow their girlfriend’s products. So they always like them, they’re just becoming forward about it, like you say

A: Yes if you think about it they’re always concerned about their appearance, but I think it’s peer pressure and you know just not being able to sort of be seen to be caring about – but you know there’s this shift in masculinity now

H: Absolutely

A: You know our roles in society, the way we’re perceived and the image we want to project, and all of that stuff, so guys are just getting – they’re just a bit more calm about it now

H: Yes

A: They’re not so uppity about things

H: We have unnerved a world of closet groomers – we never knew such a thing existed! So let’s get stuck in to this research. I mean if you were here at the beginning of the show, I was quite surprised with some of these figures

A: Yes

H: But clearly you guys not so. Have I got this right, 65% of the guys that we spoke to would rather spend time with their family over going out drinking, having fun and casual sex – there I said it. Is that right?

A: Yes why not? I think that like I was saying before there’s been this shift in the roles that we play in society now and you know, there’s a lot more pressure on us to perform in other aspects of our lives, so yes family and family and success in the workplace are definitely up there over living it up, yes

H: Yes. So are we talking about there’s a new breed of man taking over the planet, or do these men always exist and might you say “we’re just a bit more open about this now”?

A: I think we’ve always existed, we’re just returning to the sort of heroic brand of masculinity that our dads and our granddads always seemed to champion. You know we sort of lost sight of that over the last 20 years or so, and we’re just basically going back to old-fashioned values and I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that

H: Yes. Also I don’t know if you agree with this, I think it’s slightly more in our face these days – excuse the pun using the word face – but we are so aware of skincare and all the rest of it now. Surely eventually it was going to filter through to the men as well as us women who think about it all the time with our skincare regimes?

B: Yes I think that’s right, I think there are a lot more prominent role models in the press as well, people like Tom Ford, David Beckham who’ve really made it ok to really care about what you look – as long as you also exude masculinity at the same time. I certainly see in my practice a lot more men, not just concerned with skin problems like acne, as you know they’ve always been concerned about, much more concerned about looking their best, sort of anti-ageing advice you know that are more typically associated with women, so yes I think it’s out there

H: And actually that’s quite interesting you mentioned the likes of David Beckham, we do live in this bling culture and part of that, hand-in-hand does go with men looking well-groomed, even if you are going for the tattooed look, unkempt look, actually takes hours to create these looks doesn’t it?

B: Absolutely, doesn’t happen by accident

A: No

H: Although we’re probably led to believe it does

A: Of course, of course

B: But it doesn’t

H: I mean this was not thrown together Mr -

A: Oh this just took a couple of minutes this morning, it was fine

H: Couple of hours I was told but anyway. Stay where you are because up next we look at the etiquette, style and grooming techniques for that modern man. See you in a mo

Break

H: Ok so we’re just about to get stuck in to all things shaving-like, and we’re actually going to talk about grooming techniques. One thing I would say, it’s probably a universal problem, would be the red rash. What do men do when they shave, and they do get a bit of an angry rash and it can look really quite sore?

A: Yes

H: Particularly around the neck. What can they do to combat that?

B: Well I mean the problem with shaving is that it’s done every day and it causes friction, and friction creates irritation, and redness. Also if it’s not done correctly, you haven’t used the right equipment or the right technique you can get ingrown hairs which can cause an almost acne-like rash which is not the same thing as acne, it’s just due to the hairs being trapped and it creates this unsightly sort of red bumps and whiteheads. It’s what we call pseudo-folliculitis; it’s not a true folliculitis

H: Oh I’m going to have a go at that, say that again

B: Pseudo-folliculitis, so not a real folliculitis

H: Pseudo-folliculitis, so not a real folliculitis

B: Barbie. So be it. There you go. Anyway shaving bumps

H: Yes

B: As it’s more commonly known sort of in everyday language – but no I see a lot of guys who have this problem and you know if you cut back on friction, so you minimise the amount of force that needs to be used to shave, and the ways to do that are to prepare the skin well, so hot water for at least 5 minutes turns hairs to butter, rather than reinforced concrete which is what dry hair’s a bit like. And if you use a shaving prep for example Wilkinson Sword have just produced four new preps of different types depending on your skin type, which just is laid on the skin for one or two minutes before shaving just to make the process so much easier

H: And it is just taking that little bit more time

B: Preparation is everything

H: Yes because lots of guys I imagine, if you haven’t quite turned that corner yet would get up and it’s just part of their daily routine, bit like brushing your teeth, don’t really think about it

A: Sure

H: Being prepared and looking after that skin, and actually if we’re looking at autumn / winter trends

A: Yes

H: The clean-shaven look is the big thing, is it not?

A: Well I think we’re just seeing, yes this sort of modern, dandy – very kind of clean-cut, slightly preppy kind of guy thing, Don Draper from Mad Men and that kind of side parting, bit of a restrained quiff, lots of classic suiting, double breasted blazers are back. So we’re looking for – you know we’re looking at a very classic suit aware – very sort of proper, well-groomed man. There are loads of military influences out there and some very sort of not antiquated parts of styling but you know you’ll see a lot of velvet and a lot of tweed, but all done with a slightly modern twist. So yes all very classic, all very gentlemanly, yes

H: And with that sharp look, obviously you do need to – you do need to look after your skin because it needs to match, it needs to all flow and work together

A: This is it, what’s the point in spending a small fortune on a suit if you are going to walk around with grubby nails and bad skin

H: Yes

A: And in need of a haircut, so yes you’ve got to get the whole package right, you can’t just buy into one aspect of style or grooming, you’ve got to do the whole thing

H: And not too long ago we were all banding around the word metro-sexual, metro-sexual – is that – I knew you’d have an opinion –

B: Coil-like –

A: Yes

H: So does it exist or is it just you are who you are and that’s that?

A: That word has been the bain of my existence since –

H: Ok

A: Since I got into this. Look that was a word that Mark Simpson came up with in ’94 / ’95 in the independent, and he was talking about a small group of high network guys living in the city. It wasn’t really representative of what was going on in the country at large, so I think the consumer industry sort of misappropriated that one and said ooh there’s this new breed of metro-sexuals and they all you know, they use moisturiser and they spend hours taking care of themselves. I don’t think that guy ever really existed

H: Yes

A: Now we’re seeing a man who’s – actively cares about his grooming but isn’t this kind of peacock that people suspected existed in the mid-90s so yes my personal belief on metro-sexual is it never really existed, it was just a marketing thing

H: Ground-breaking news and you hear it here first people

A: Stop press!

H: Stop press, this is big. Front pages tomorrow. Sam I just want to go back to skin issues again. We’ve discussed bumps and what not, but what if someone actually does suffer with their skin, what if they have bad acne, that’s going to cause problems straight away if you have to shave isn’t it?

B: Yes I mean obviously a delicate touch is required; you have to be a little bit careful not to take the top of anything that’s sort of active and angry

H: Yes

B: So I think careful shaving is key there and again using the right things which minimise the need for force, so things that reduce friction. I think the bottom line is that if you’ve got a skin problem like that, there are simple, over-the-counter preparations that you can use after you’ve shaved to leave on the skin, because leave-on preparations will have more impact. The key ingredients to look out for are salicylic acid – more science bits, I’m sorry!

H: I love your big words!

B: And benzyl peroxide. So if you look out for those two things

H: Ok

B: You’ll find those in many different over-the-counter preparations. I think failing that better come and see a dermatologist

H: Yes, absolutely. And can I just chip in with something –

A: Sure

H: The tissue on the face – not a great look. Do it for the home, that’s fine, but when you walk out the front door, we’ll remove it for the public, because you see that time and time again

A: Yes, yes

B: I have a good tip actually for stopping –

H: Let’s hear it

B: One of them is to take a Q-tip and to just spray a little bit of deodorant on it. Aluminium chloride in deodorants is one of the things that we actually frequently use in surgery to stop bleeding, and it’s something that everybody has at home. A Q-tip and some deodorant and you’ll stop that bleeding in a jiffy

H: Wow what a great tip, thank you so much. Well stay right where you are because coming up in the final part of today’s show we’re going to be having a look at your questions or perhaps some tips of your own, I’ll see you in a mo

Break

H: So now it’s time to have a look at your questions live and if you do of course have any more questions, do keep them coming in because we’re here for a few more minutes yet. We have a question come through from menshealth.co.uk – and they’re asking “what’s best, a wet shave or a dry shave and how can we prevent dry skin through the winter months?”

A: Right for the wet shave versus dry shave thing, it really depends on what works for you and your skin type. I think something like 25% of guys go for an electric shave – or a dry shave even – just because it’s more convenient, they can get out the door quicker, but look if you have the time and you really want that sort of perfect finish, then just go for a wet shave, you know invest the time, pay attention to technique and yes, that’s pretty much it

H: To get that nice, sharp look. But what if they are that person that does suffer from dry skin, Sam what can they do to prevent it?

B: It’s a very common problem, people whose skin is normally fine during the summer often find that you know central heating goes on, the air at home is drier, offices are usually over-heated, and then going from sort of cooler temperatures outside indoors can be quite drying for the skin, so important to put the moisture back whenever you cleanse and moisturise, and to avoid products that contain alcohol for example which will strip the natural oils of the skin, you want to use a gentle cleanser, you want to use a gentle and moisturising shaving -cream usually works better than foams or gels in fat in terms of putting moisture back into the skin, and then to moisturise usually twice a day is what’s recommended

H: Ok and once these people are well groomed and looking the part facially, what must they not leave their house without in terms of trends this autumn / winter/

A: In terms of trends well I would say the big thing that’s come out on the catwalks is shearling, it’s pretty much everywhere – it’s in boots, it’s lining jackets, in gloves – you know what I think a staple piece every guy needs this Autumn / Winter would be a good shearling jacket. You can get a good aviator jacket, denim jacket, duffle coat, you name it. But as long as the shearling’s there, it’s a worthwhile investment

H: I have to say I am loving that look, and it’s really refreshed the aviator jacket, and the denim jacket – it’s put a really nice twist on them hasn’t it, I like it.

A: Yes

H: What do you think of our threads here today? What about tweed, is tweed back in?

A: Tweed’s back yes but it’s not that old school, fuddy-duddy kind of tweed, it’s kind of always been given a modern twist. Tweed’s great, it’s always been revived throughout the years. But yes as is, you know velvet’s back as well but –

H: Oh really?

A: But these are looks that come – I think maybe a lot of guys don’t want to do to the max, so it’s fine, just take elements from them, don’t do the whole, you know, velvet suit, but you know – an amazing sort of velvet lapel or even sort of you know the Tom Ford kind of velvet bow tie, just stick with one element and incorporate it into the rest of your outfit and you’re rocking

H: We’ve got another question coming in from Michael Curfey, thank you Michael Curfey and he says he’s got a round face so he wants to know if a little chiselled chin hair – I’m getting such a visual – will actually slim down his face.

A: no

H: What an interesting concept. No?

A: no would be the quick answer to that, no it won’t

H: It wouldn’t work?

A: No there are a lot of sort of optical illusions that you can play but actually just getting a little sole patch here to slim down your face will probably just attract attention to the sole patch rather than –

H: The actual –

A: Slim down the face

H: Could you do perhaps some clever stubble shadowing here?

A: Yes, yes

H: That sort of thing

A: That will probably slim down his face

H: Ahmed’s loving my vibe

A: You’re great. Do you want a job?

H: Maybe male grooming – no no no

A: It’s a whole new career for you

H: Keep your questions coming in by the way because we’re live for a fair few minutes yet so we can still take your questions. The next one is from Dan H, hi Dan H, and Dan H wants to know “what’s the acceptable duration for a man to spend on grooming?” Depends what type of man you are

A: Yes

B: How patient his girlfriend is I suppose

H: I totally agree, how many people need to get to the bathroom mirror, are there children to look after – Dan we need more information about your personal life!

B: I did actually read a stat that said that most women spend about 41 minutes getting ready and men on average spent 20 or 21 – I think 21 in fact

H: Rubbish

B: So half the time is what they’re admitting to

H: No I’m up in arms, if I wasn’t attached with wires to this chair, I would stand up and storm out – I just don’t believe that for one second.

B: No

H: I can easily say that my boyfriend takes longer

B: Men take longer.

H: I take longer but my boyfriend takes longer I’m sure of it

B: Than 20?

H: Yes

A: I’m sure there’s a lot of tweaking with guys, it’s all about the details in terms of the actual steps they have to go through in terms of grooming

H: Yes ok, we’ll go with tweaking

A: There’s a lot of faffing with blokes until they get it quite right

H: Faffing, mincing, whatever terminology you want to go for is fine with me. We have another question, this one’s from Russell, thank you Russell, and Russell says “how often should I change my razor blades?” Probably going back to the skincare issue again, Russell at the moment’s doing it every two weeks

B: Mmm no, I don’t know

H: Is he in trouble?

A: As soon as you feel any kind of drag it’s probably time to bin it, also look at the lubricating strip on it which is normally coloured. As soon as that starts to fade it’s probably time to bin it as well, I’d say

B: Yes I think exactly right, as soon as you get resistance that means you’re going to get problems

H: Yes

B: And then change the blade

H: It’s not rust, don’t wait for the rust

A: Don’t wait for the rust

H: You’ll be in trouble

A: And keep it clean, too many guys don’t keep their blades clean they don’t rinse them out properly

B: Rinse it out between every stroke in fact, that’s very important

H: Yes my goodness me we are talking about something that you are effectively scraping down your face and you do have open pores, it must be so important

A: And spreading bacteria every time you take that stroke, so it is important to keep it clean

H: Yes. Good tip. Do we have another one? This one’s from Millie, hello Millie and Millie says her boyfriend doesn’t like shaving but she doesn’t like kissing him with stubble, how does she get him to start shaving? Do it in his sleep. No don’t do that? What can she do?

A: Stop kissing him?

B: Withdraw the favours and he might –

A: Abstain

H: I mean that is a difficult one because I’m a sufferer as I said of stubble rash and actually it hurts

B: There are bigger issues maybe here – I’m only kidding!

A: Yes I think this is –

B: Yes actually I think a beard is softer than a stubble, stubble really does hurt, it’s like you know kissing a cheese grater, it’s not a good feel, so I sympathise with this girl. Maybe the sleep thing’s a good idea

H: Yes and – and on a more important note it’s not the in-look for the next season is it?

A: Good God no, no you really do need to get help. If you need to get affection from your girlfriend just have a shave. She’s not asking much

H: No well we don’t know, that’s just one little thing that Millie’s asking, she could be asking for the world on a stick and he might not be able to give it to her!

A: This might just be the beginning in fact, yes

H: We need the guy’s version. Well if ever there’s proof that the clean-shaven look works, is this fine man in the studio today, so helpfully we’ve helped with all the tips. Sam, thank you so much, it’s been super helpful, but I feel like I’ve had tips myself. Surely those shaving tips could be worked for other areas of the body?

B: They’re very applicable

H: I don’t shave my face; I just want to clear that up! Ahmed thank you so much to you as well, it’s been –

A: You’re very welcome

H: Enlightening. For more information, do have a look online at shavehydro.co.uk and I’ll see you next time. Bye bye

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