Personal grooming has become a lucrative industry. Right now, the grooming industry is targeting the physical side of personal grooming.
Every now and then we see products or services targeting the physical side of men. Overall growth of men depends on both internal and external sides of grooming.
The Indian male grooming market stood at $643 million in 2018 and is projected to grow at a CAGR of over 11% to cross $1.2 billion by 2024.
Grooming tips for Indian Men
Most grooming products are targeted at the inferiority complex of men. Indian mens’s vulnerability and inferiority complex can be summed up with this question in Quora.
”Do western women love Indian men?”
“Do white girls find Indian men attractive?”
All these questions give an insight to thoughts of Indian men.
Desirability, love and attraction are abstract concepts which are feed to the subconscious mind by the media and other corporation for their own benefits.
Why Indian men need grooming
The common persona of Indian men among foreigners is weird. Most information about India shows the dark side of Indian society. Infect, Indian men are stereotyped in the following images
– IT engineer
-snake charmer
– Moustache
– Family men
Etc.
Moreover, the rapes happening in India helps to propagate negative image of Indian men. Inversely, Indian men are like any other men in the world. They love their family, they want to get rich, and they want to do things like other male species.
India had many learning centers, which imparted knowledge in the field of science, philosophy, spirituality etc. Somehow in the middle ages, Indian men lost contact with those learning centers.
Indian men need to change the negative assumption created in the minds of outside world. They need to visit the old learning centers to revive their old respectable selves.
What is personal grooming?
Personal grooming is the process of cleaning and maintaining body parts to be in perfect shape. Not only humans, animal regularly clean and maintain themselves to protect against disease etc.
Personal grooming is routine that you follow to look smart and approachable. Infact, personal grooming is not only about external grooming, it also deals with the internal space- mind which is equally important.
Self-grooming has two parts:
-External grooming- clothes, hair, hygiene etc.
-Internal grooming – self-esteem, confidence, body language etc.
Personal grooming involves having a routine. Discipline, consistency and hard work are part of the routine.
Brushing your teeth and bathing daily are part of a routine.
They are wired in our brain and it has become a habit. Research shows that habit is formed within 22 days, if you continue it daily.
The mental aspect of grooming is equally important as physical grooming. Disciplining your mind will help you discipline your body.
In this post we have divided the internal and external grooming, as both are important part of the overall growth.
External Grooming
First impression is the last impression. Most of the time, first impression are 55 percent body language, 38% tone pitch and pace of your voice and what you say.
External grooming deals with the overall physical aspects like hygiene, posture, clothing etc.
Hair care
Indian men have different skin tones and facial structure. So, if you try different hairstyles check your face structure, your skin tone, the color of your hair etc.
Long reddish hair on dark skin looks rough and dirty. Height of the person is also a factor. A short guy with long hair looks odd. You should shampoo your hair regularly to remove all the dirt that accumulates.
Best advice is to get a short haircut. It looks good on every skin tone and it looks even better on average men irrespective of height.
Clothing
You wear clothes to feel comfortable. Your basic criteria should be feeling not looking cool. It all depends on your skin tone, height and age. In Indian humid climate, cotton and other natural fabric is the best.
Looking good also depends on your health, if you are healthy than every cloth will fit. You should also consider your height, while you choose your clothing.
Over size cloth on short height looks bad. Consider wearing, gentle and cools colors for office and other casual settings. You can keep all flashy colors for party wears.
Smell Good
Most Indians eat spicy foods. But, that is not the only reason for bad smell. Most Indian men don’t take care of hygiene.
Some basic steps to take care of smell involves putting some perfume or deodorants in specific areas like the under arm. Humid climate is prime reason for perspiration. And to take care of that you should at least take bath twice in a day.
Facial Hair
Stubble look, beard, mustache are always in trend. But, you should always consider your skin tone before following any trend. If you have patchy or thin facial hair then a clean save look will look better.
A long beard needs commitment just like long hair. You have to clean it regularly with shampoo and oil it like normal hair. Stubble facial hair is like black color t-shirt it matches everyone irrespective of color height, body size etc.
Posture.
As the saying goes “first impression is the last impression”. Body language is an important part of nonverbal communication. Standing up straight with your shoulders back is communicating confidence.
Similarly, sitting with open hands is a sign of openness and confidence. Having a good posture also helps in removing health related ailments. Practicing nonverbal communication will not only help you in your career, but it will lead to a healthy life.
Speech and voice tone
People can learn many things about you from your voice, like you are extrovert of introvert. In an Instant, people can make out the level of confidence.
Even in interviews, your voice and tone can give negative signals if you’re not careful about your voice. You should always try to speak in a loud and clear voice, as it gives confidence to your overall personality.
Shoes
Always try to wear fitting shoes. Most of you try to buy some cheap shoes after looking at your wallets. But investing in a good pair of shoes is very important.
Uncomfortable shoes can cause many foot ailments. Try to buy shoes for different settings. Like workplace, casual outdoors, running etc.
Always try to keep your shoes clean and polished for work place settings as you are the face of your firm or company.
Internal grooming
Internal grooming involves creating certain routine, habits to discipline the mind. A disciplined mind is the source of all success. And our body follows the instruction of our mind. So a well-disciplined mind defines our overall personality.
Set goals for yourself
Setting goals are the best steps for self-improvement. It helps you to groom your mind by forcing your mind to act. Simply by writing your goals in a piece of paper, your mind and body are forced to take action. Setting goals is the fundamental step for internal grooming.
Taking care of personal finance
Managing your personal finances helps you to mold your money mind. It helps in planning and executing your goals. Personal finance is not only about budget or saving.
It helps you to plan ahead about your future financial goals. It helps you to get debt free and create financial assets for future.
Practice meditation
Try to spend some free time alone meditating. Meditation helps you calm your mind. It helps you to evaluate all the monkey thoughts troubling your mind. Most of all, it brings clarity to your thoughts and actions.
Start a journal
Writing down your thoughts is a good habit of calming your mind. You can manage your to do list and also maintain a log of daily activities.
Writing down your goals is the first step for achieving the goals. It also helps to discipline your mind by taking daily actions. The best part of starting a journal is that you can tract your improvements.
Read books
Reading book is like changing the water of a water tank. Water in a tank has to be changed periodically as it becomes unclean and dirty if it is not used.
Like that reading books puts new thoughts and ideas in your brain, as our mind becomes stale without new thoughts. Reading books is like having a one to one discussion with the author of the book. And the best part of reading books is that it makes you a fast learner.
Work on self-improvement
Life is all about taking small steps for improvement. Reading books, setting goals, running etc. are all part of self-improvement. Reading and learning about self-improvement helps you to adapt to new changes in life.
If your perspective about life has not change in the last one year, then you have wasted your time doing unproductive work. The only thing constant in life are changes and working on self-improvement helps you adapt to all those changes in life.
Personal grooming is not only about wearing nice clothes, shoes or following some hairstyle trends. It should involve self-improvement to adapt new challenges. Indian men need to break the current stereotype by visiting the old traditional values of Indian philosophy.
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