Grooming Tips for Date Night
Dating traditionally suffers a hiccup around the festive period, with many online dating sites such as Match.com reporting that traffic tails off from around the 11th December and continues to be low until just after the Christmas period. Many then see a huge pick-up in activity fuelled, according to the British Association of Counselling and Psychotherapy, by singletons feeling a bit gloomy and taking stock of their lives post-Christmas. With the added issue of Valentine’s Day in February – for which no one wants to be single – dating becomes a serious activity at the start of the new year.
Regardless of whether you are dating for fun, or are seeking a serious long-term relationship, being prepared is essential, and as well as having the right state of mind, you also need to ensure that you brush up well. Getting ready for a date means starting at fundamentals and treating your whole body to a good bit of grooming. Let’s have a look at some tips for a good pre-date grooming regime.
Even before you start stripping off you need to do some background work. You need to plan your wardrobe and pick an outfit that you feel comfortable in but also identifies you as a fun person who your date would want to meet again. Generally, steer clear of man-made fibres and ultra-bright, clashing colours. You could also trim your fingernails. Oft-ignored, fingernails say a lot about a person and getting them down, even, and buffed up can add a bit more kudos to your image. Short and even nails also make it easier to scrub underneath them. With your nails done, you can head for the shower.
Before you can spruce up, you need to get clean. Hair first – be it on your scalp or on your chin – and remembering to use different shampoos for your head hair and beard/moustache. As we have mentioned before, the human body is a mass of different hair types, and all Hawkins and Brimble products are designed to cleans specific forms. Once you have done your hair, wherever it may be, you can start on cleaning your body, and that means using a good bodywash, applied with a soft cotton flannel to really work it into all of those nooks and crannies. If you have been exposed to some of life’s more trying environments – the grime of city air, the extreme sunny-heat of Marrakesh, sea-salt burn from yachting etc – than you may want to use a good facial scrub first, followed by a gentle face wash. Once fully washed, you need to rinse it all off under a strong stream of warm water. Were you James Bond, you would then switch the shower to ice cold and stand under the invigorating stream for a full minute...but you’re not, so you don’t have to. Once you have dried off with soft cotton towels, you can moisturise.
Moisturising isn’t a lowly task and once again, it’s a game of areas. Since your face is the main area on show – in the initial stages of your date, anyway – you need to make sure that you moisturise properly. For the face, you should:
- Get a penny-sized portion of moisturiser on your fingertips.
- Rub your hands together.
- Apply all over the face but focus on areas that get particularly dry or impacted by the environment, for example your forehead and under the eyes.
- Use a specialist moisturiser for the eye area, and apply gently.
Finally, have lips that are worth kissing. Get a good lip balm and overdo it a little, but with time for it to soak in if in a hurry, or alternatively use a little each day to keep your lips in the best, plumpest order. Then, about half an hour before you leave for your date, liberally apply a touch of elemi & ginseng eau de toilette, to draw your date in close with its embracing aroma.
There, now you are ready for your date. Your face looks good, your hands look good and, hopefully, you are packaged up in clothing that make the most of your shape and skin tones. And you smell great too. With looking and smelling this good, your next problem will be what to buy your new partner for Valentine’s Day….but that‘s a completely different blog.