The Grooming Guide for College Graduates

College is good for picking up certain kinds of knowledge: Asking for a cigarette in Portuguese maybe, or writing a little code. Maybe you got your shotgun time down below five seconds. But there's no Grooming Guide 101. And unless you're graduating from a Swiss finishing school, you probably haven't been rigorously educated in the practices of personal upkeep. After all, sweatpants are an acceptable everyday trouser on campus. College is a safe place for scraggly beards. If you maintain the bare minimum—showering daily and applying deodorant—you're basically set. Not true in the professional world. Or the dating game.

Take our word for it: This shit matters. A bad haircut and slightly over-long nails could be the deciding difference between two job applicants. Doesn’t matter the industry.

So we’ve got a few tenets for you. A grooming guide, if you will. Master them. It’ll help with everything. You’ll carry these with you well after the Portuguese wears off.

1. Keep Your Hair Trim

One way to keep it looking fresher between cuts is to get your roommate or significant other to trim the neckline, while you keep the sideburns from getting too bushy. For this, get an inexpensive hair trimmer like Wahl’s, which you might only use for this occasion (or perhaps an all-over buzz cut in the summer).

And regardless of how long your hair is—or how long you want it to be—you need to keep it textured and styled. Do this by visiting the barber frequently, since your hair grows roughly half an inch every month. (So if you want to maintain, say, a medium length and style, you’ll need to get it cut every two months, at most.)

Trimming it at these same intervals will help the hair grow into your next desired style. Don’t look at a haircut as lost time in the journey toward ideal flow. The barber can trim where necessary, even if it’s half a centimeter from the ends. This coaches the hair into place, allowing you to avoid any awkward stages as you grow it out.

2. Experiment with Your Styler, Until You Learn What’s Best

No two men will get the same effect from one product. Every guy has different hair density, texture, direction, and oil production. With this in mind, a product might work in your hair differently than it does your buddy’s. This can lead to a crisis: Which product—wax, putty, paste, pomade—is best for you? I suggest you try a paste like Maapilim’s, since it’s the most universal. This is largely because it can be styled in damp hair or in dry hair and give you two different results. You can muss it or comb it. Blow dry it or let it air dry. Somewhere in all these variations is a look that probably looks good for you, and it’s neither shiny nor sticky. Also, if you’re curious to learn about all hair-styling products and their effects, then study up and see which one will give your hair the best finish, hold, and desired amount of shine.

3. Maintain a Skin-Care Regimen to Fight Acne

Breakouts do not go away with age. Pimples actually increase with stress. (Adulthood is stressful.) What you need is a basic yet effective skincare regimen to prevent and combat breakouts. And there are various levels of care that you can embrace, the simplest (and ever-effective) one being the classic three-step regimen: cleanse, exfoliate, moisturize. Twice a day, morning and night, you need to wash away all the gunk and grime that starts clogging your pores. Twice a week, you should follow this with gentle exfoliator to scrub away dead skin cells that also can cloud the healthy ones and plug pores. Lastly, follow both with a twice-daily moisturizer, which hydrates and nourishes the skin. Et voila!

And since you’re still reading, I love Maverick’s cleansing-and-moisturizing skincare set, paired with the brand’s BUFF Deep-Cleansing Face Scrub.

4. Use Sunscreen Every Day

You’re still a young guy, but you can get ahead of aging now. Trust us, you’ll thank us when, at your 10-year high school reunion, you’re one of the non-bags-under-the-eyes crowd. Your best plan is to wear SPF-packed moisturizer every day, to block the sun’s dangerous UV rays. This will prevent dark spots, wrinkles, and skin cancer. For the task at hand, Baxter of California’s oil-free moisturizer with SPF 15 is stellar.

5. Smell Good (and Avoid Pit Stains)

In the professional world, a first impression might end up being the only impression if you stink. Don’t be the guy who comes to his interview with a funky musk about him. You need to keep body odor under control. It’s as simple as using an antiperspirant like Recipe for Men’s to combat funky smells and underarm sweat in one.

6. Find a Fragrance

It takes some time and patience to find the best scent for you. The best way to start is to ask a department store fragrance clerk, or a boutique perfumery like. They’ll let you smell a handful of colognes, and you can even apply one to your person, then go out and test it on your friends and lovers. A fragrance is an investment—anywhere from $60 to upwards of $200 for a truly unique one—but it’s worth it. (Or, if you trust me and want to counter everything I just said, pick up Scent Intense from Costume National, which has summoned more *what’s your fragrance, sir?s * than I can count.)

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7. Keep Your Beard in Order

Thankfully, evolving cultural standards have signed off on facial hair in the workplace. Beards are good. Mustaches are trickier. Neckbeards are bad. Same with poorly maintained necklines. If you’re going to sprout some facial hair, it’s your duty to keep it trim and shapely. It’s as easy as combing the beard backwards (and fluffing it out), then spot-trimming any strays. You can also comb the mustache down onto the lip and trim anything that hangs over. Secure yourself a beard trimmer, like my favorite—from Philips Norelco—to keep everything clean and shapely.

8. Or Honor a Shaving Regimen

If you’re going to keep with a freshly shaved face, then you also need to do it responsibly. To avoid razor burn and other shaving maladies, take the time to prepare your face before each shave, and to help it recover after. Also, always use a clean, sharp razor. There are many inexpensive razor-replenishment programs that ensure you always have a strong, healthy blade at the ready, and you can even set up regular deliveries with the big online retailers. (As I suggest you do with Gillette’s Fusion5 ProGlide blades. Be sure to get the corresponding razor, too.)