Skipping Face Wash and Moisturiser May Reflect Habit, Convenience or Masculine Norms, Not Carelessness

Picture a man who washes his face with whichever bar of soap is nearest, has never bought a moisturiser, and cannot see why anyone would need a separate cream for their face. It is easy to read that as indifference. An explainer published by The Economic Times argues that psychology points to something more tangled than laziness.

The piece starts from the idea that grooming routines are shaped by several things at once: habit, identity, social expectations, how useful a product seems, and how much effort a behaviour is thought to deserve. Research on men's grooming, it says, has found that attitudes toward masculinity, self-image and skincare can influence whether men use skincare products at all.

The first explanation is practical. Some men judge a product by whether they can see an immediate benefit. A man who thinks his skin is fine and wonders why he would need a cream may not be rejecting self-care. He may just set a high bar for routines that look unnecessary. The article connects this to Self-Determination Theory, developed by psychologists Richard Ryan and Edward Deci, which holds that people keep up behaviours when they feel autonomy, competence and personal value rather than outside pressure. A man who decides on his own that sunscreen prevents sun damage may use it faithfully, while resisting a ten-step routine that feels imposed.

The second explanation is social. The article notes that some men negotiate skincare through ideas about what counts as appropriately masculine. A study of men's grooming in New Zealand found participants developing informal rules about which products felt acceptable, judged by function, quantity and presentation. This ties to gender-role socialisation, the process by which people learn the behaviours expected of socially defined roles. Because beauty and appearance products have historically been coded as feminine, several facial products can feel excessive or at odds with a learned sense of masculine identity. The article is explicit that this does not mean every man who avoids moisturiser is guilty of toxic masculinity; cultural ideas are one factor among several.

Third comes habit. Drawing on psychologist Wendy Wood's research, the piece explains that habits form when behaviours are repeated in stable contexts, until environmental cues trigger them automatically. Consider someone who has spent twenty years waking, brushing his teeth, showering and leaving without putting anything on his face. His routine, in effect, feels complete. Adding face wash or moisturiser means another decision and another action, which is why a man may sincerely intend to start and keep forgetting.

Personality and lifestyle also play a part. Some people prefer minimalism and efficiency, with few products and little decision-making, and skincare competes with that preference. The article stresses this does not necessarily signal low self-esteem or disregard for appearance. A man might spend real time choosing clothes, trimming a beard or exercising and still care nothing for skincare. Grooming, it says, is not one trait.

Then there is perceived need. If a man has never had dry or irritated skin, moisturiser can look like a fix for a problem he does not have. The article links this to the Theory of Planned Behavior from psychologist Icek Ajzen, in which behaviour follows from attitudes, perceived social expectations and perceived control. A man who sees skincare as unnecessary, doesn't think people close to him expect it and feels no urgency has little reason to start. But the piece adds a caveat: that belief is not necessarily medically correct, and psychological motivation and dermatological need are separate questions.

The article closes by cautioning against reading character from a bathroom shelf. Men's skin does have real needs, it says, and dermatological research stresses appropriate cleansing, moisturisation and sun protection. Yet product preferences cannot diagnose personality. One man enjoys skincare as a ritual, another finds it a chore, a third avoids it over masculine norms, and a fourth never formed the habit. The same outcome, nothing applied to the skin, can come from entirely different motives, and motivation alone says nothing about how healthy the skin is.