The Only Grooming Routine You Need
A short, durable grooming setup — safety razor, a brush that lasts, and a moisturizer that does the job without a 12-step ritual.
Selected by Men··3 min read
Most grooming content is a funnel with extra steps. Twelve serums. A jade roller. A $90 “face oil for men” that is jojoba with a new label. You do not need a routine that looks like a pharmacy. You need three things that work on a Tuesday morning when you have eleven minutes.
This is that routine.
The point of a routine
Skin and a beard (or the absence of one) are not hobbies unless you want them to be. The job is simple:
- Remove hair cleanly.
- Do not wreck the barrier that keeps your face from looking tired.
- Moisturize so you are not shiny and flaking in the same afternoon.
If a product does not serve one of those jobs, skip it.
Shave: switch off cartridges
Cartridge razors are a subscription disguised as convenience. The handles are cheap. The heads are not. After two years you have spent enough to buy a decent watch strap.
A closed-comb Merkur 34C is the razor we keep recommending because it is boring in the best way. Short handle, enough weight to sit on the skin, mild enough that you will not reenact a duel if your technique is average. Pair it with a 10-pack of Astra or Feather blades (start with Astra). One blade lasts a week for most faces.
Technique, not hardware, is what makes it comfortable:
- Soak the face. Shower first, or hold a hot towel for a minute.
- Map the grain. First pass with it, not against it.
- No pressure. The head is doing the work. You are steering.
If you nicked yourself for a decade with a five-blade cartridge, you were pressing. Stop pressing.
Lather is not optional
Canned foam is mostly air and drying alcohol. A brush and a puck of soap cost less per year and leave your face less angry.
The Parker wood-handle brush is the one we send people toward when they do not want to think about badger grades. It holds water, it stands up on the counter, and it will still look like a tool in five years instead of a novelty.
Proraso, TOBS, or a plain glycerin puck all work. Pick a scent you can live with at 6:40 a.m. or pick unscented and be done.
Moisturizer: one tub, not a shelf
After you shave, you have a slightly compromised barrier. That is the moment for a bland, well-formulated cream — not a “cooling gel” that evaporates and leaves you tight.
CeraVe Moisturizing Cream is in a thousand bathrooms for a reason. Ceramides, hyaluronic acid, no perfume fighting your cologne. Use it on the face and the backs of the hands. The tub looks medical. That is a feature.
If you have oilier skin, the PM lotion in the pump bottle is the lighter sibling. Same idea, less occlusive.
Sunscreen is the fourth step people skip. A fragrance-free SPF 30 on the face and neck is not “skincare culture.” It is how you still look like yourself at 45. EltaMD or a plain CeraVe AM are both fine. We will not pretend there is a masculine and a feminine SPF.
What we left out
- Face wash with charcoal, ice, or “detox.” A gentle cleanser or just water in the morning is enough if you shower at night.
- Beard oil if you do not have a beard. If you do, jojoba or a short-ingredient oil beats a cocktail of 14 essential oils.
- Eye cream. Your moisturizer already goes there.
The two-minute version
Shower. Lather. Shave with the grain. Rinse with cool water. Cream. SPF if you are going outside, which you are.
Buy the razor once. Buy blades by the hundred. Buy cream when the tub is empty. That is the whole system — and it is better than whatever is currently living in the back of your medicine cabinet.
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