Picture a bus stop on a busy road in peak summer in a metropolitan city in India. What do you see? Lots of people bustling around, waiting for their bus to show up. Women dressed up to go to work. College kids peering into their smartphone screens. School children in their uniforms, chitchatting and pranking each other. And men… fidgeting with their private parts like nobody’s business.
“Men are disgusting!”
“Guys are so unhygienic!”
“Eww, that man is scratching his balls in public!”
“Why can’t you boys take care of yourself just a little more?”
Unless you have been living under a rock on an isolated island, we are pretty sure you have heard such statements (or even worse, been at the receiving end of them).
If you trust Reddit for your stats, here’s an interesting one for you:
Men touch their crotch / penis / balls 23 to 30 times in a single day!
Why is it that men and intimate hygiene often refuse to go hand in hand? While that is not true in all cases, it happens to be a common perception for a reason.
Call it what you like – laziness, lack of awareness, or sheer ignorance towards this aspect of everyday life – but oftentimes, personal hygiene and men’s grooming unfortunately tend to take a backseat.
If you have been keeping an eye on lifestyle trends, digital media, and the content created by personal care brands in the recent past, you might have noticed that the discussion around this subject has gained momentum. And that spells good news for everyone because maintaining proper personal hygiene is an integral part of men’s overall health and wellbeing.
We even asked random people on the streets what their views on the subject are. Needless to say, the responses were nothing short of hilarious! Take a look.
You shower every day (hopefully), brush your teeth twice a day, change into fresh clothes, and spray your favourite deodorant before stepping out, right? Why?
Well, the reasons are the same. All those things keep you fresh and make you look, smell, and feel better. They keep you clean, boost your confidence, and elevate your self-esteem.
Maintaining good intimate hygiene, similarly, is critical in order to prevent unwanted odours, infections, irritation, and discomfort. Your intimate areas are particularly sensitive and they require specific care and attention. However, there is a lot of misinformation around how to maintain or improve your intimate hygiene, especially below the belt.
At Zlade, we strongly believe in the “no balls, no glory” mantra. And we are here with a singular mission – to help Indian men master the art and science of manscaping. Or ballscaping. Or intimate grooming and hygiene. Or whatever it is that you like to call the concept.
It is first important that you understand the various ways, tools, and techniques that can help in the upkeep of your intimate areas. And hence, we are going to touch upon some of these aspects in this all-encompassing guide to men’s intimate grooming and hygiene, including:
- Issues that could arise due to poor intimate hygiene
- Best practices to stay clean and hygienic down there
- The best intimate grooming tools and techniques for men
- How to use grooming tools in a way that they don’t injure you
- Why specialised intimate grooming trimmers work better than other tools
- How to keep your intimate areas healthy, clean, and fresh
6 Reasons Why You Must Prioritize Your Intimate Hygiene
Ignoring your private hygiene is likely to lead to a range of undesirable consequences, subsequently impacting your physical health and wellbeing. And of course, any such unpleasantness quickly translates into affecting your mental and emotional health as well.
Take a look at potential health hazards that could arise as a result of poor intimate grooming and neglected personal hygiene for men:
1. Odour Arising Due to Poor Male Hygiene
Perhaps the most noticeable proof of poor intimate hygiene is foul odour. The build-up of sweat and bacteria in and around your private parts can give birth to unpleasant odours. Imagine not showering and wearing the same underwear for a week. At the end of the week (if not sooner), your privates will start stinking like dead fish. Why do you think that happens? Well, for starters, your genitals need extra care, compared to other body parts. And unfortunately, most men tend to ignore this area the most.
2. Itching and Discomfort
Uncomfortable innerwear, tight clothing, hot and humid climate conditions, sweaty undies, old or rough fabrics, overgrown pubic hair, bad intimate hygiene, and skin infections below the belt can lead to crazy bouts of itching, causing you a whole lot of discomfort. And this is not limited to you – the world can see you scratching the hell out of your crotch when you are in utter discomfort (and it is not a great sight)!
3. Infections Due to Poor Male Intimate Health
Microorganisms in and around your genital areas can cause inflammation and skin infections, including serious problems like yeast infection, jock itch, eczema, psoriasis, lichen sclerosis, lichen planus, etc. These conditions are common among athletes, overweight individuals, dancers, and people who are involved in any kind of regular physical activity (especially outdoors). While some of them can be treated with powders, ointments, and creams, others could lead to long-term conditions that need special medical attention. If you scratch the groin area aggressively, these conditions can worsen and also leave indelible marks on your skin.
4. Sexual Health Problems Because of Poor Male Genital Hygiene
Should this have been the #1 point on our list? Nobody wants sexual health problems, especially not when you can easily avert them. One huge risk that comes with not maintaining your intimate hygiene is inviting sexually transmitted infections (STIs).
5. Intimacy Issues
Poor intimate hygiene can result in discomfort and unpleasant odours, which can reduce sexual desire and make intimacy less enjoyable for both you and your partner. It can lead to relationship issues and decreased intimacy with a partner.
6. Mental Health Problems
Can grooming really affect they way you look at yourself? While this might seem like an implausible idea, self-esteem and confidence are actually closely linked to your grooming habits. Poor personal grooming habits or personal hygiene can leave you feeling uncomfortable and embarrassed about your body image, in turn affecting your interpersonal relationships and quality of life. This can directly and negatively impact your mental health, leading to feelings of shame, anxiety, and even depression.
Now that is a long list of problems nobody would want to deal with!
Best Practices to Stay Clean and Hygienic Down There
The key to making sure all these issues stay at bay is – you guessed it – prioritising your intimate hygiene and taking steps to ensure that your below-the-belt area always stays clean and well-groomed.
So, what exactly do we mean when our brand ambassador (the OG supermodel Milind Soman) says, “Give your balls the respect they deserve!”?
How can you improve your hygiene down there? Well, intimate grooming and hygiene could include:
- Regular cleansing of your intimate region and genitals
- Seeking immediate medical attention if you experience any discomfort
- Using the right intimate grooming tools and techniques
- Ensuring that your below-the-belt region is never moist
- Making certain that your pubes do not grow beyond a certain length
- Ensuring that there are no foul odours arising from down under
The Best Intimate Grooming Tools and Techniques for Men
It’s time to dive straight into the various men’s grooming tools and techniques that you can use to take care of your intimate areas. To begin with, let us consider that you want to get rid of your pubic hair or tame it to a manageable length. Here are some of the most popular hair removal solutions people generally opt for, along with their respective pros and cons.
1. Shaving Razors for Intimate Grooming
The good old “faawda” (ask your dad or grandpa about it if you don’t know what a “faawda” means in shaving terms) has for long been a trusted form of the razor used by our ancestors and boomers for all their shaving needs. Several brands have tried evolving with the times and delivered safety razors, multi-blade razors, and even those that feature lubrication strips enriched with aloe vera and whatnot.
However, traditional razors pose one HUGE problem when it comes to using them on your sensitive regions (especially your balls and the bottom of your bad boy’s shaft) – inducing the fear of cuts. Using a quality shaving cream or foam can help reduce the chances of injuries, but the thick foamy texture makes it practically impossible for you to see through it. So, no matter how careful you are, the texture of the skin on and around your genitals makes it prone to nicks and cuts caused by a razor’s super-sharp blades. Another disadvantage of shaving is ingrowth (where the hair grows into the skin rather than coming out of its follicle). Ingrown hair can cause discomfort, pubic acne, and even leave semi-permanent marks behind.
2. Waxing Your Intimate Areas
Whether you prefer using wax strips at home or like getting a Manzilian wax at the salon (also referred to as Brozilian or Guyzilian wax), this hair removal technique involves a lot of pain, agony, and skin burns. While the result is as smooth as it gets, removing the hair surrounding your upper thighs, genitals, butt crack, and pubic mound can be an unbearably painful process when you use wax.
Irritation, redness, and inflammation are also generally linked to waxing, making it an issue particularly for those who have extra-sensitive skin that is prone to such problems.
3. Using Scissors Down There
A lot of men like taking the old-school way to remove excessive body hair – scissors. While scissors work wonders when it comes to longish hair that you hold together and chop off, the extent to which you can use scissors for body hair grooming is questionable.
From an aesthetic point of view, scissors may not deliver the kind of results you expect from a contemporary grooming tool. Add to that the fear of cutting yourself (especially around the groin region) and you have a big problem at hand.
4. Body Hair Removal Creams or Sprays
This solution for body hair removal has caught steam in the recent past, thanks to the emergence of new brands in the market. While it may seem like a really easy and hassle-free way to get rid of unwanted body hair, some creams and hair removal sprays may contain harsh or even harmful chemicals that could cause skin irritation or allergic reactions.
Another disadvantage of hair removal sprays or creams is that you cannot control or “trim” the hair down to a certain length. When you use a cream or spray, it always results in a clean-shave like effect and you are left with no hair at all. For people who wish to only tame, trim, style, or manage overgrown body hair, this is not a great option.
5. Trimmers
A lot of people use their beard trimmer on their bodies. This is never a good option because your underarms, pubic region, chest, and other body parts are way more sensitive compared to your chin and cheeks (where a beard trimmer is meant to be used). Plus, beard trimmers typically feature very sharp stainless steel blades, increasing the risk of a bloodbath. As a result, using a beard trimmer on the rest of your body may result in serious injuries.
A solid alternative to such trimmers is a full-body trimmer for men. Contemporary full-body trimmers, balls trimmers, intimate grooming trimmers, or “manscaping” trimmers are designed to be gentle on your skin. They feature soft ceramic blades which cut through your body hair without hurting your skin. It is important that you choose a full-body trimmer rather than a regular beard trimmer for your manscaping and body grooming needs in order to prevent the risk of injuries, cuts, nicks, tugs, and pulls.
Why Intimate Grooming Trimmers Work Better Than Other Tools
Apart from all the reasons we’ve already mentioned above, here are a few more key reasons why specialised intimate grooming trimmers or full-body manscaping trimmers are a better (and safer) bet compared to other grooming tools.
- An intimate trimmer’s blades are softer than your regular beard trimmer. A lot of new-age manscaping trimmers feature ceramic blades as opposed to metal blades. They go easy on your skin and this feature works wonders especially on sensitive body parts where the skin might be loose or textured.
- Most manscaping trimmers are completely waterproof, giving you two distinct advantages. One, you can use them under the shower for wet trimming (this way the mess is also easier to clean up). And two, you can easily clean the trimmer body and blades under running tap water to remove any hair that is stuck between the blades.
- A high-quality manscaping trimmer comes with different length settings (for those who want to control the growth of their body hair instead of cutting it down completely).
Trimmers like the Zlade Ballistic Turbo Manscaping Full-Body Trimmer or the Zlade Ballistic Pro Trimmer for Men are designed for maximum efficiency and minimum risk of injury. They feature the revolutionary SafeEdge technology and come with a “sensitive comb,” ensuring that the risk of nicks, cuts, tugs, and pulls is almost negligible.
Overall, while razors, scissors, and hair removal creams may be considered relatively inexpensive options for removing body hair, they also come with some drawbacks. It's important to use caution and carefully handle these products to minimize the risk of injury or irritation. It's important to keep in mind that everyone's body is different and what works for one person may not work for another. Experiment with different tools and techniques to find what works best for you, and always prioritize hygiene and safety when grooming your intimate areas.
For sensitive areas like the pubic region, scrotum, and anus, electric trimmers with adjustable length guards are the most popular option.
PRO TIP: Use terms like intimate trimmers for men, manscaping trimmers, full-body trimmers, groin trimmers, ball trimmers, or body hair trimmers when you search for the perfect intimate grooming tool online so that you find a product that is specifically designed for this purpose. You are likely to find a variety of full-body trimmers and shavers that feature the latest in blade technology, promise complete safety, and are fully waterproof, too!
On that note, have you tried the Zlade Ballistic full-body manscaping trimmers yet?
How to Use a Trimmer in a Way That It Doesn’t Hurt Your Precious Jewels?
Trimming the hair on and around the genitals or other sensitive body parts requires special care to avoid injury or irritation. Watch this quick tutorial to make sure you use the right technique.
Here are some tips for safe and effective trimming:
Before trimming, make sure to clean the area with soap and water to remove any dirt, sweat, or bacteria buildup.
Choose a full-body trimmer that is specifically designed for use on sensitive areas, and make sure to use the appropriate blade guard or attachment to avoid cutting or nicking the skin.
Use one hand to pull the skin taut while trimming with the other hand. This can help create a smoother surface and reduce the risk of cuts or nicks.
Take it slow, bro! Trim in small sections and use gentle and assured strokes to avoid pulling or tugging on the hair, which can be painful or cause irritation.
If you start to feel uncomfortable or experience any pain or irritation, take a break and give your skin time to recover before continuing.
After trimming, apply a moisturizing lotion, anti-chafing gel, or oil to soothe the skin and prevent dryness or irritation. Using a top-quality intimate cologne gel can really help in this regard.
Remember, grooming sensitive areas requires patience, precision, and care. If you experience any pain or discomfort, stop immediately and seek medical attention if necessary.
How to Maintain Good Intimate Hygiene?
We men have struggled with itchy balls, rashes, chafing, cloth burns, and a foul-smelling intimate area for a long, long time. Sweat and moisture can cause your below-the-belt area to smell funky and even develop the risk of a skin infection. Again, when it comes to maintaining intimate hygiene for men, we Indians have long relied on products like talc, baby powder, wet wipes, scrubs, and whatnot.
Here’s looking at the advantages and downsides of such solutions:
Powders can help absorb moisture and reduce chafing and irritation, yes. But it is best to look for powders that are talc-free to avoid potential health risks. A major downside to using a powder on your intimate areas is that sweating can ruin its natural effect. Another disadvantage of using powders is that they tend to leave white marks on your undies and boxers.
Gentle cleansers or body washes can be used to clean the genital area and reduce the risk of infection or odour. Avoid using harsh soaps or body washes that can dry out the skin or cause irritation. If you like using a body wash down there, make sure you choose one that maintains your skin’s pH balance.
Wet wipes can be used to freshen up the area between showers or after exercise. Look for wipes that are fragrance-free and alcohol-free to avoid irritation.
Exfoliating scrubs can be used to remove dead skin cells and prevent ingrown hairs. Always look for scrubs that are specifically designed for the genital area and avoid using them more than once or twice a week. Excessive scrubbing can cause irritation.
Okay, looks like all the above products have some major downsides to them. So, what can the modern man do to maintain his intimate hygiene? Well, if you ask us, we would say the best solution is using a combination of an intimate wash and an intimate cologne gel.
A high-quality intimate wash can help clean any residue from condoms and lubricants, and also get rid of sweat, bad odour, itching, and irritation. A lot of modern-day intimate wash products are designed by experts keeping in mind the extreme weather conditions in India and the needs of the urban Indian male. Make sure you always opt for an intimate wash that is formulated using natural ingredients and is free of harmful chemicals like SLS, parabens, and alcohol.
An intimate cologne gel or deodorising moisturiser can keep your private parts smelling great and feeling fresh, no matter what the season. It can also act as an anti-chafing gel in sensitive areas that are prone to chafing (like your inner thighs, crotch, and underarms). For the best results, use a cologne gel on a daily basis immediately after taking a shower (or before a heavy workout).
For your below-the-belt hygiene, cleanliness, freshness, odour control or prevention, and intimate grooming needs, trust Zlade Ballistic to be your partner in crime. We’re the torchbearers in the men’s intimate grooming and hygiene industry in India, so you can trust us to take care of your hairy kiwis and the surrounding vegetation. 😉
Browse through our complete range of intimate care products for men here and take your pick.
Happy manscaping!
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