Beauties… to celebrate Men’s Health Week, we teamed up with Cutitronics to talk about men’s skincare routines, self-care and wellbeing and about the boundaries and hesitations men feel in the space… and also how this is changing.

Here are some members of the Cutitronics team and Wow Beauty friends to share their thoughts.

Thank you to all the men involved with this as they answered some questions about selfcare, wellbeing and skincare routines.

Some of the lovely members of the Cutitronics team shared their answers below too, have a read…

Andrew Farrell, Data Science InternAndrew Farrell, Data Science Intern

What does self-care mean to you?

 If I’m honest, not as much as it should. In today’s society, I think we realise how important it is to look after ourselves and it’s probably something I should endeavour to embrace more.

Do you have a self-care routine? If so, what does it entail?

 Not really, the only thing I do day-to-day that I would consider a form of self-care is the gym. For me it’s the easiest way to clear the mind and get a real feel-good feeling. Having a job that involves sitting down for the majority of the day I feel it’s necessary to get up and moving when I can. Personally, I think there isn’t a much better feeling of accomplishment than pushing your body to the max and feeling the burn.

What do you think are the biggest barriers preventing men from adopting wellness and self-care practices?

 That’s a tricky question. Again, being honest… probably ego 😂.

Daniel Lennon, Senior Mechanical Project Engineer

What does self-care mean to you? Daniel-Lennon,-Senior-Mechanical-Product-Engineer

Self-care to me is looking after my mental health. I find with good mental health everything else comes easier, like my physical health, motivation to eat well, better relationships with family and friends and general motivation to do the things I know I enjoy.

Do you have a self-care routine? If so, what does it entail? 

My self-care routine is making regular time for myself, to do the things that I want to do on my own terms. This may be simply arranging to meet up with a friend for a chat, or more commonly on the extreme end of things like going for a walk up a mountain or going off on a camping trip for a few days myself. A healthy amount of selfishness!

What do you think are the biggest barriers preventing men from adopting wellness and self-care practices?
In terms of skin care, for me, the reason I have never started any skin care routine, other than moisturising my face occasionally, is because I have never felt the need for one. I don’t feel the pressure from people or society to try and reduce redness, reduce wrinkles, avoid baldness, etc. And I’m thankful to feel like that.

In terms of mental health, people and men in particular don’t talk about it enough but I think that’s getting better. I also think a big barrier to sustaining good mental health is that people don’t fully understand what’s important to them or focus on the wrong things. Self discovery is an important part of wellness to allow you to focus on what’s truly important to you, and not just what is expected of you. People pleasing might feel like the right thing to do at the time but it’s not always the right thing for you in the long term.

What steps do you think brands can take to normalise self-care for men? 

I guess just keep talking about mental health, and appreciating that there isn’t a one size fits all solution for each person. It’s a very individual thing and the specifics of what self-care means to the person can change as time goes passed too.

Also as part of our collab with Cutitronics we asked Dr David Heath, founder and chief executive of Cutitronics to talk about how technology can help the health and wellness industry become more inclusive for men… have a read of his feature here.