Manscaping 101 Men\’s Grooming Tips from head to toe for looking and smelling great

Manscaping Hair care tips: Michael Peter Hayes keep it simple to look great

by Tris Hussey on May 16th, 2008

This week I was given the chance to chat with Michael Peter Hayes about men’s hair care and hair styles.  First off I have to say it was great chatting with Michael.  Really engaging guy.  A guy I could certainly have a beer with.  More than that, I learned a ton about what we’re doing right and wrong with hair care.

Michael’s mantra is to keep it simple.  This comes from a guy who has been doing this for twenty-five years and now has a simple two chair salon on Long Island where he caters to an exclusive clientele and sells his art (now that’s cool).

One thing about Michael’s place is that if you’re lucky enough to go there, and when I visit my sister and brother-in-law on Long Island I’m going to swing by if nothing else to say hi, you’ll notice that he doesn’t sell retail products.  He’s pretty much, been there, done that.  Not only that he felt that by having a ton of products for sale in his salon that he was obligated to promote them and the maker’s own agenda.  So now, no products.  He helps his clients use the products they already buy better.

Gee what a concept.  Let people learn how to use the stuff they like better.

So let’s get to some of the tips he gave me, btw these aren’t just tips to help you look better but save you money too.

Michael told me that since the 80s shampoo makers have been concentrating their products more and more.  Concentrating to the point where there is little or no water in them.

The end result of this concentration is that shampoo’s today are pretty much too strong and strip our hair and scalp.  This stripping causes us to have to buy more products and wash our hair more often because our natural balance has been thrown off.

How to counter this?  Easy, dilute your shampoo 2:1 as the first step then wash your hair less.  By diluting your shampoo you start to let your hair and scalp recover.  I did this myself yesterday and, yep my hair was still clean and today I skipped a shampoo just to see what would happen.

Okay it doesn’t look awesome, Michael said that it would take 3-4 weeks before things balance out, but I think this is a good start.  Washing your hair only 3-4 times a week, over time will let your hair get back to it’s natural style.

I said, but yeah, I have pretty oily hair, I don’t know if I could do that.  Michael told me that the years of over-washing and stripping force my body to product more oil to keep my skin (relatively) healthy.  Once it stops getting the snot stripped out of it, it won’t be as oily.

Okay, sounds good to me.

Then Michael moved onto shaving.

Yeah, we like our shave creams, but often he just uses just his normal soap to shave with.  If your soap doesn’t irritate your skin to wash, then it might not irritate your face to shave.

Seems like good advice, I have shaved with soap in a pinch before.  Still like my shave creams though.

Still on the subject of skin care, Michael uses tea tree oil to prevent and stop breakouts and lavender oil in water to calm and ease people.

Tea tree oil, while it might not smell great, is super for this.  Buy a little vial of tea tree oil and I’d suggest putting it in a carrier oil like almond or olive oil.  Yes, you can put it straight on your face, but it can be irritating.  Tea tree oil is well known for its anti-fungal, bacterial, and viral properties.

Michael uses it as a pre-shave oil and has had better skin as a result.  If you have breakout and razor bumps, this might be something for you to try as well.

Now for a final tip.

Heading out on the town and want to just look a little fresher and lively?  Use a little extra virgin olive oil on your skin.

No, not so much that you’ll smell like a salad, just a little.  Really olive oil is great stuff for your skin.  It was the main ingredient in the homemade baby butt cream that we used on our kids as wee ones.

Michael and I talked about his tips for hair cutting (for women with curly hair he cuts it dry not wet) and yeah, if I could get a cut from him it would be worth every penny.

Image courtesy of Michael Peter Hayes

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