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Breatharians DNI.


shel
@shel

I keep encountering men who have this mentality of “I am fundamentally not an attractive person and women generally aren’t interested in me unless I’m lucky” and like yes that sometimes is incel shit but more often it’s just this like lack of personal confidence and somehow this mentality is accompanied with “so I just don’t bother putting any effort into my appearance” and somehow there’s this lack of realization that this is connected?

But here’s this thing:

Personal grooming makes people want to interact with your body

Like I say this to men sometimes and they’re like what???? And then suddenly something clicks in them and they start keeping better hygiene practices.

  • If your breath smells bad people won’t want to kiss you
  • If your beard is scratchy and scraggly and unkempt people won’t want to kiss you
  • If your skin is dry and ashy and red with irritation people won’t want to touch it
  • If your scalp is dry and flaky or your hair greasy people won’t want to touch it
  • If you smell bad people won’t want to be near you
  • If your clothes don’t fit right and look dirty people won’t be interested in removing them
  • If you don’t look like you’re putting effort in people think you don’t care and will think you won’t care about them

All of this is entirely subjective and subject to taste of course but I do think it’s very good general advice that most of being attractive is the appearance of having put in effort, confidence, and your body being inviting to interact with in very basic ways.

So phrased more positively:

  • Brushing your teeth and flossing makes your mouth inviting to stick a tongue in
  • Trimming and moisturizing facial hair makes your face more kissable. Or just shave your face consistently.
  • Applying basic lotion (like aveeno) to your face and arms/hands after you shower will make your skin less dry and more desirable to touch and caress.
  • Learning your hair type and how to take care of your hair properly will result in hair that people wanna run their fingers through.
  • Now, some people think manly musk is hot but let’s be real if your smell is more spent all day sitting and typing than spent all day chopping down trees then probably you’ll do better showering every 24-48 hours (depending on physical activity and sweat levels) and wearing a nice smelling or unscented deodorant. If you smell nice people will want to be very proximally close to you to smell you.
  • Old baggy clothes hide your body and make you look like you don’t care which isn’t attractive. Clothes that fit you correctly will always look more attractive. Not too loose and not too tight. Being stylish to a very basic extent makes you stand out and highly desirable.
  • Literally just looking like you’re putting in effort to be attractive to your partner/prospective partners is hugely attractive because it means you care about their experience of interacting with your body.

If you’re straight an easy way to help you think about what will make you attractive to women is just to ask yourself “what will make straight guys think I’m gay” and then do that. I’m only half joking. Like when you imagine what tips off the gaydar it’s usually just that a guy is kempt, groomed, clean. Smells and dresses nice. Maybe wears a V-neck that shows off chest hair or something. Yeah there’s a reason straight women are always saying all the hot guys are gay it’s cuz the straight guys won’t do even the most basic personal grooming.

I swear if a straight man is seen applying chapstick in winter people think he’s bisexual but guess what which lips do you wanna kiss chapped lips or moisturized lips.

I mean I know I’m preaching to the choir on this website like are there even any straight men on this website who haven’t already figured this out possibly from all their friends being queer? Who knows. Maybe this more belongs on Reddit. I’m just saying someone needed to write it down in plain language out there. They’ve all already read the thing about how women like men who cook and give massages but someone needs to do the dirty work of introducing straight men to lotion and the CurlyGurl Method.


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in reply to @shel's post:

Cis Het dude checking in to second this. Partner does get mad when I do the base level of lotioning and my skin is softer than theirs though, just because I hit at least one set of good genes.

The Danes made themselves too acceptable to English women by their elegant manners and their care of their person. They combed their hair every day, bathed every Saturday, and even changed their garments often. They set off their persons by many such frivolous devices. In this manner, they laid siege to the virtue of the married women and persuaded the daughters, even of the nobles, to be their concubines.

-- 13th-century English chronicler John of Wallingford laying out the reason behind the massacre of the Danes in 1002

Reminds me of this diary entry I read in colonial America, for lack of a better term, fetishizing my literal ancestor(I assume, they were describing a Turtle Clan Lenape) because of how healthy they looked. Cause they took baths. Weird anti bathing Europeans...

If your scalp is dry and flaky or your hair greasy people won’t want to touch it

Welcome to my personal hell of trying three different kinds of dandruff shampoo and various masks and conditioners and still having the scalp from hell(and scaling on other parts of my head). It took my cousin in residency to finally figure out part of my problem is something to do with my thyroid. Also explains why I can excercise the way I do and gain belly fat.

Usually dry flaky scalp is not dandruffs that needs dandruff shampoo! It’s a dry scalp from over-shampooing! Scaling is another issue ofc and can come from scratching and picking at your scalp or other reasons

I had a fucked thyroid, ask a doctor or just go to a lab and get T4/TSH levels checked. It's a single vial and results take less than a day.
I started using sulfate-free shampoo and Jamaican black castor oil for my hair care and it makes a HUGE difference.

So happy for you. Guy I’m currently in the testing things phase with has a great personality but didn’t use hair conditioner until he met me and still won’t use lotion on his skin….. and I’m like ked…. You are so ashy….

A couple years ago i deflected a compliment in a zoom call by making a quip about my skincare routine, inadvertently instigating a beard & skincare thread in my team's slack. here's info from one of the beardiest coworkers

Weekly I will wash it thoroughly with a good beard shampoo. This allows it to be clear of older oil and balm residue. I don't use the same shampoo as on my hair as that tends to make it all frizzy and blown-out. It may be that I will start using my beard shampoo on my hair soon
Daily I follow this regimen

  • apply beard oil to the cheek line of the top of my beard and use my hands to rub it in and down
  • after rubbing it into the skin and beard, I think use my beard comb to detangle and start the straightning process. Looking at the comb also gives me good feedback on how well I rubbed the oil in :)
  • I then take my beard balm and apply to the cheek line a good bead of balm, get it started with my fingers and then use the beard brush to pull it down into the beard

as a guy who looks best with two days of stubble, its been a nightmare trying to navigate the "beard product" market for something that makes it less rough - everything is marketed towards the dudes who want a full "hide the fact that i have no chin" IPA drinker beard.

most of them i've tried either end up irritating my cheeks/chin and causing ingrown hairs/breakouts, or do nothing. I'm 100% open to suggestions that aren't cleanshaven.

I think as long as you've got a good skincare routine it should be ok, it'd be nice if there were more face-friendly conditioner products though. I think this is one of those things that's less about personal care and more about preference - as someone who likes stubble I also know prickly kisses are just something that comes with the territory. Sorry for the non-advice, but it sounds like whatever you're doing is probably just fine ^^

I do not have facial hair so I don’t know anything about beard care but if you don’t really have a full beard then probably your best bet is just using face lotion to make the skin nice and soft? But also stubble is just gonna be scratchy cuz of the length. You can compensate but being appealing in other ways

Basic grooming and hygiene, and being able to cook and/or give massages, and you’ll be drowning in tits I’m telling you. Also having a good personality and seeing women as human beings and equals who you care about and aren’t using for your own pleasure. But that goes without saying.

Crossed most of those off the list already, but being overweight does not help lol. Gotta get off my ass and exercise + take care of myself more. Also working on having my own style (which is weirdly difficult) and just being more social. Good shit

TBQH weight matters far less than most people think so long as you have good hygiene. If you act ashamed of your body that tells them how to see it. If you’re confident then other people follow that lead. And real person tastes are more varied than magazine beauty standards

Don't get me wrong, I fuckin love being chubby, and I never want to be really thin! But I'm a bit over my own ideals right now, and I have some adverse health effects because of that which kinda suck. (lotsa sweat after moderate movement mostly tbh)