Men's Personal Care Information
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Health Tip
Make A Great First Impression With Your Appearance
Beyond taking a shower every morning, here is some basic tips:
Check your face
You don't necessarily have to shave, but at least ensure that your face is clean and free of "debris." A quick look in the mirror to check for nose hair, stuff in your beard or crust in your eyes doesn't take more than a few seconds, and is well worth the effort.
Groom your hair (ear, nose, chest, head, etc.)
Hair growth happens with regularity, so make trimming and upkeep part of your routine. Wash and condition your hair every day (or every other day, depending on your hair type and length). Set aside one day a week (preferably a Saturday or Sunday, when you have more time) to tend to ear, nose and chest hair.
Clean your hands
In the business world, handshakes can make or break you; in the dating world, a woman expects to see nice hands. So all you have to do is cut your nails regularly, scrape away the dirt with a "nail cleaner" or a nailbrush (which you can keep in the shower to save time), wash your hands frequently (to avoid sweaty, sticky hands), and use lotion on occasion (to keep them smooth).
Apply lip balm
There is nothing worse than looking at chapped lips, and trust me, no girl will want to kiss them. Find a good lip balm and use it regularly. Just don't put too much on, or it will end up looking like lip gloss. And if you don't like applying it in public because of the unmanly look it portrays, then do it in private when you go to the bathroom.
Dress well
You don't need a suit (unless the occasion calls for it), but you should always wear clean clothes that are wrinkle-free and smell good. In other words, wear clothes that were just in your drawer or closet, not your hamper.
On a related note, select clothes that fit. After you put on your clothes, take a look in the mirror for a few seconds to make sure they fit properly. Yes, their preferred fit will vary over time as styles change (along with your body and taste), but the key here is to pay attention to what you're putting on.
Use some sort of scent
Many guys go to town wearing some sort of fragrance, using everything from scented soap and deodorant to aftershave and cologne. Other guys prefer not to use anything. Like most things in life, the answer is moderation. Pick one scent (otherwise you'll combine fragrances, which will result in a weird smell) and go with it. Just make sure it isn't too strong and make sure not to bathe in it. One final note: Don't skimp on cost here; cheap cologne will act like repellant.
Shine your shoes
People tend to look at your shoes right away. If dress shoes are appropriate, make sure they're shined. If you're wearing casual shoes, make sure they look clean and new. Tattered shoes tell the world that you either don't have money or don't care -- neither option is attractive.
In High-Stakes Stock Trading, Finger Length Matters
MONDAY, Jan. 12 (HealthDay News) -- For all those whose ring finger far outstretches their index finger, British researchers have pinpointed the perfect job: high-volume stock trader.
According to a new study, having a relatively long ring finger augurs well for success in those high-stress financial arenas where fast thinking, good reflexes and good old-fashioned guts matter most. A lengthy fourth digit, the authors note, indicates greater exposure to testosterone in the womb, which in turn gives what they call "high-frequency" traders a biological leg up by encouraging the development of the right mix of mental attitude and physical skills for making money in a cutthroat business.
The finding is reported in this week's issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
"I used to run a trading desk on Wall Street," explained study author John M. Coates. "During that time I had noticed -- during the dot-com bubble -- that the traders were displaying almost clinical symptoms of mania. They were delusional, euphoric, had a diminished need for sleep, and displayed feelings of overconfidence. You couldn't get them to shut up or put a normal sentence together. And I began to think that something physiological was going on."
Coates hypothesized that the chemical driving trading behavior was one of the human steroids, which he described as "massively powerful" in their ability to affect mood, memory and cognition. He zeroed in specifically on testosterone because the relatively few female traders on the floor did not display the same manic behavior as the men.
"So I left Wall Street, in large part to look into the hypothesis that testosterone was driving trader behavior during the bull market," said Coates, who went on to conduct his work as a research fellow with both the Judge Business School and the department of physiology, development and neuroscience at the University of Cambridge in England.
To explore the notion, Coates and his colleagues analyzed 20 months of profit-and-loss records involving 44 male traders who worked on the London trading floor. When the study began, the floor was home to about 200 traders, of whom just three were women.
All the participants were specialized in what's known as "high-frequency trading." In contrast to slower-moving, research-based trading -- the type that occurs with mutual, pension and hedge fund management, for instance -- the authors noted that high-frequency trading involves the lightning-fast buying and selling of securities at values as high as 1 billion British pounds (about $1.49 billion).
Coates and his team observed that this particular form of financial wheeling and dealing is very physically demanding. Rapid-fire trading executions, they said, require extreme concentration, visual vigilance, strong motor-eye coordination and quick reaction time, alongside extreme confidence and a willingness to engage in substantial risk-taking.
Prior research, they added, suggests that these specific qualities are exactly the ones that seem to be particularly enhanced among those exposed to relatively high amounts of testosterone while in the womb because the brains of such individuals go on to develop a greater-than-average sensitivity to the effects of routine circulating testosterone.
The team noted that a reliable marker for high prenatal testosterone exposure is having a fourth finger (ring finger) that is longer than the second finger (index finger), a ratio previously used to predict improved performance in a range of competitive sports. The authors then used this finger size indicator -- known as 2D:4D -- to stack up each trader's financial success with his testosterone exposure while in the womb.
After accounting for both trader age and years of job experience, Coates and his associates concluded that having a relatively long ring finger (meaning more testosterone exposure in the womb) appeared to be equal to experience as a harbinger of greater financial success in high-frequency trading.
They stressed that in other financial arenas, the testosterone effect might not be as central. But in the specific world of high-frequency trading, having a lengthy ring finger relative to the index finger definitely appeared to translate into both higher long-term profitability and a longer period of time in which the person remained in the high-frequency trading field.
"We're the first study to look at this, but the results are just unbelievably strong," Coates said. "Economics generally has overlooked the body. But this shows that hormones actually play a huge role in the market, that the body and mind work together and that the body influences economic life."
More information
For more on testosterone, visit the National Institute on Aging.
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