From Sidelines to Spa Days: Exploring Men's Wellness

Ever been caught between the adrenaline rush of a sports game and the zen-like tranquility of a spa day? Charles and Dan, strike that balance in our latest Mindfully Masculine episode, as we swap tales from our spa experiences and weigh in on the recent Super Bowl buzz. Our chat delves into Travis Kelce and Coach Andy Reid's sideline exchange, where we touch on the intricacies of respect, authority, and race in sports. But it's not all about the gridiron; self-care aficionados and rookies alike will find solace as we peel back the layers on facials, even for the bearded among us.

Picture the perfect facial treatment—now imagine navigating that with a five o'clock shadow. That's the conundrum we unpack, sharing the highs and lows of spa care while sporting facial hair. We also reminisce over the indulgence of a certain pumpkin facial mask, enjoyed year-round, and chuckle over our attempts to ration the podcast's coveted crumble cookies. But it's not just fluff; we critically examine the claims behind various spa treatments, pondering whether they stand up to scientific scrutiny or if they're just another dose of feel-good hedonism.

To wrap up, consider this a crash course in savvy spa consumerism. From upselling maneuvers to navigating the sea of advanced skin treatments like LED therapy, we equip you with the know-how to make informed decisions. We share our own journeys, advising on the importance of easing into skincare routines and the underrated value of a trusted aesthetician relationship. Whether you're a grooming guru or a newcomer to the world of men's self-care, our episode offers a fresh perspective on looking good, feeling great, and staying sharp—inside the spa and out on the field.

Transcript

Charles: 0:00

Hey there everybody. This is Charles. Welcome back to the Mindfully Masculine podcast. In this week's episode, dan and I will continue to discuss and review self-care for men by Garrett Munz. This week we're going to talk about facials, one of our favorite services that we get at the spa, and We'll give you a little clue on what to expect if you've never been to a spa for a facial before. Please like, subscribe, follow our podcast wherever you get your podcasts and enjoy our full video episodes on YouTube. Thanks, and we hope you enjoy the episode.

Dan: 0:33

Good afternoon, charles, our terrific, dan.

Charles: 0:35

How are you? I am well. Yeah, this I'm looking forward to, where we're wearing the same clothes as last week, as you may have noticed. So it's because we're recording to on on this five Valentine's Day slash Ash Wednesday. Hmm, you're looking very non-catholic today.

Charles: 0:52

I am very non-catholic every day, actually. So am I? Yeah, am I, which surprises a lot of people because my last name is so Italian sounding mm-hmm. Yeah, the Calabrito line, at least the one in the United States, has avoided the holy Roman Catholic Church so far. Right, okay, we'll see. We'll see that keeps up. I, you know, I don't like to. I like to keep my options open, but I don't see it happening so.

Charles: 1:17

Yeah, so it's Ash Wednesday. It's Valentine's Day. It's the Wednesday. Yeah, it's the first Wednesday after the Super Bowl, which I really enjoyed, enjoyed the trade, enjoyed the heck out of the game. Oh, the great game. I enjoyed seeing Taylor Swift come out on top, as she always does, and I, I, oh, here's something I want to talk to you about and we may, we may, even pause this briefly so that I, I can get you up to speed on this, so we can talk about it. Have you seen any of the clips of Travis Kelsey and Andy Reed and their little, their little confrontation during the game?

Dan: 1:53

Well, I saw it live during the game. Oh, you did, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I did, I did. What do you wait? It was so short lived.

Charles: 2:00

Yes.

Dan: 2:02

I don't, I don't remember it. It could have been longer, but it seemed like it was brief, it was pretty, it was very quick, and I have seen much longer arguments between a player and a coach and more bumping than what happened at that moment, so I Don't really think it was out of the ordinary, or? Yeah, I, I was that unusual.

Charles: 2:27

I had that thought at first as well and and I've been thinking about it a little bit more and I was I did some research, I watched Rich Eisen talk about on his show and Hear the things that occurred to me. You know what? One thing is there there were commentators that were former NFL players and Some of them were African-American and they're like if I Went out a white head coach this way, it would be a little bit different of a story. And when I think about some of the Think how I ever said Latrell spree, well, stuff that has happened in the past, mm-hmm, I I wonder if it's true. I can't say you know it's, it's.

Charles: 3:13

You can argue counterfactuals, and what if this happened? What if? What if this was different in this way or whatever. But I Do, I do wonder if If there was a negative example set there by Kelsey having that reaction. Now, the counter argument to that is well, you know, after the fact, andy Reid and Travis Kelsey both said you know it wasn't a big deal, blah, blah, blah. It's like yeah, but Andy Reid isn't a pretty highly incentivized position to say it's not a big deal, yeah, when you look at, I mean, it's his job to be the head coach. It's his job to be the leader. So for him to say yes, I felt like I was in danger. I felt like he was intimidating me. I felt like, you know, he could have hurt me. That that's not something I don't think Andy Reid did a great position to be completely honest about that, if that is what he was in fact feeling.

Dan: 4:04

Yeah, so I mean again, it was so brief, I didn't get the impression that he felt that way for me. His body, he got I would need a room, I wouldn't watch it. He got bumped and almost fell over.

Charles: 4:14

I mean, okay, yeah, so there was physical contact as well as the screaming in his face yeah, so I mean I'm gonna, I'm gonna say, yeah, that's not something a player should do.

Dan: 4:25

I think he was setting a negative impression by Not respecting the coach and not respecting the human being by bumping into it. Yeah, there shouldn't have been any physical contact. You know what Tensions get hot and people get heated, so I understand maybe the yelling could have happened. There's no, there's no place to the physical contact, the yelling back and forth. Again, he's your coach. You do need to respect him. So that's that's kind of you know, that's that's a fine line, because I'm a plate soccer in In high school and so I mean, you know we were high school kids and so we were scared Right, wrap less out of our yeah, out of out of our coach. There's no way we would have. Now we would have huffed and puffed and a couple of our pre Madonna players you know our forwards that you know, when they didn't get what they wanted, sometimes they would do that on their own, but there was never like yelling at the coach. But these are also full grown adults now. They're all professionals, they're all on a very high level.

Charles: 5:24

So you know, I mean that was Kelsey. I mean, whether you want to, you know, acknowledge the Taylor Swift connection or not, he's got a bit, he's right on a bit of star power right now. Sure, and I mean I've I've been impressed with so many things that he said in the way he's conducting himself with the media lately. But then when I saw this I was like that looks like I mean I get, the stakes are so high for somebody's career when they're in the Super Bowl. But you know, emotional dysregulation is emotional dysregulation.

Dan: 5:52

So refresh my memory now. What I remember was that he was upset because the coach had taken him out for a play, or was it more significant than that?

Charles: 6:01

It was. I don't know if it was a play or two plays, but he it was basically put me in, coach, I want to play the. I think a turnover had just happened and I think his position was that turnover would not have happened if I was in the game. So he was. He was pretty frustrated. Oh, I don't think it. We went directly to the person that subbed in for him. I could be wrong about that, but his position was put me in and better things will happen than this.

Dan: 6:25

Okay, so here's a question for you. Yeah, I know coaches have played with Star power in the past, where I don't remember who this was, but I remember there was a specific situation where a coach intentionally benched Some guy who's getting a little too much attention.

Charles: 6:42

That was an episode of Ted Lasso, yeah.

Dan: 6:45

Was that? It might have been, that might have been. I might have been Ted Lasso.

Charles: 6:48

It could have been. He definitely did that to Jamie at some point. Uh, you know what?

Dan: 6:57

We didn't know. No, no, no, no, no, no, wait a minute. No, it didn't happen with Tebow when he went to the Jets, I Think. I think because they were making a big deal of Tim Tebow going to the Jets, hmm, and he was getting way too much attention and I think they sat him At times where he should have been playing and or he might have been another team. It was because, you know, tebow brought so much attention and for whatever reason, and it might have been at the Jets.

Dan: 7:24

I might have been at one of the other teams he was at. It might have even been at Denver when he started, but remember, they, they when it was a perfect opportunity to use him and they chose not to. They chose not to multiple times and it was Very obvious, like the coach was trying to make a statement like I'm still, I'm still running this team and in charge, kind of thing. And yeah, and Ted Lasso might have been absolutely a part of that as well, but I Feel like, maybe Andy Reed, like, unless there was a like a legitimate reason why he sat Kelsey because he's one of the best players, yeah, I don't know like what, like what? You know what? What did the situation call for why? Or did Andy Reed just go out on a whim? No, was it a power? Was it a power plan?

Charles: 8:10

Reads part to go hey, I'm a sludge? I would assume not. I mean, they're pretty tight and they've been tight for a long. Yeah, so I would think he had a legit reason, kind of you know, I mean, the A star player is never going to think there's a legit reason. If he's physically able to play, he's gonna want to play every down. Yeah, sure, you know that's that. But yeah, I do. I mean I think some people taking it so a little too far with, oh, travis Kelsey treats his, his head coach this way. I imagine what he's like to tailor behind closed doors. I like, okay, well, that you know, there are certain, there are certain contexts in certain relationships where you can say and and treat each other in certain ways. I mean, you know, especially like, think about back when you were college. You I mean me and Rob would get into Play fights and wrestle each other and try to yeah, we try to get each other to submit and stuff like that. And just because we're doing that with each other doesn't mean that we're doing it.

Dan: 9:02

The girls were dating right, right, I mean, it's basically reverting, treating him like an animal, like he doesn't know the difference. Right, we know, you know the coach and his girlfriend. Come on.

Charles: 9:12

Yeah, where I think making the leap of oh well, you know, this kind of violent behavior translates to everything. I don't, I don't think, I don't buy that, I don't think that's true, but I do think it is worth having a discussion of. Okay, we, we saw something that was very public and very animated at best and Violent quote-unquote at worst, and I feel like it is worth discussing that behavior. You know, when you have Sons, daughters, friends, like hey, what do you think of this? Is this okay? Is this about okay, yeah, and yeah, I just Initially I was like, yeah, he's a professional player, it's his coach, and they both say they're fine with it. So they're both fine with it. But then I did start thinking about Andy Reed being in a position where what else can he say other than I'm fine with it? You know, when it comes to his reputation, his job, his whatever.

Dan: 10:01

Yeah, where I draw the line is the physical contact, that's it. I mean it's a bad again. You know, I do have a problem with like just blatantly yelling and yelling and yelling at your coach it wasn't that long, I think, I think, with a physical contact. That's where I shouldn't be doing.

Charles: 10:18

Yeah, I, generally, whatever the reason, yeah, you don't, you don't touch people in anger for any reason, ever no, and you know. But again, well, the opposite viewpoint will be well, you guys don't know, you know, this is a. These guys have been playing sports all their lives and blah, blah, blah. It's like, yeah, I feel like that kind of doesn't matter. I think, yeah, just yeah, emotionally regulated men and people in general, well, put their hands. So other people, so, if you're upset, that goes to our point.

Dan: 10:45

Actually, if you've been playing sports, this isn't a new experience. Yeah, he's had coaches his whole life.

Charles: 10:50

Yeah, it's not like every coach's whole life has always been. Now listen, if you get too upset with me, just go ahead and shove me. Yeah, that's not something he's ever heard.

Dan: 10:56

Right, Come on, yeah, and and meanwhile the, the and also he's around peers who also do not shove the coach or put rush to coach or necessarily yell at the coach all the time either. So he's got, you know, peer support to actually not do those things as well. I agree.

Charles: 11:16

So yeah, but I'm glad you saw it and that we could. We could discuss a little bit, because I did. I did think at first, oh, what's the big deal, you know? But then it's like man, it's still, it's still a line that I don't. I think the world's better off if people don't cross that line than if they do cross that line. And so what one point I did here was we'd be having a different discussion about it if the Chiefs didn't win, if the Chiefs lost. I think that that bump, that shove, would probably be a little bit more of a thing to talk about.

Dan: 11:48

Spin that into oh, it disrupted the whole harmony of the team and everything else like that which you know.

Charles: 11:54

I just say they've. They've been doing with Taylor all season where it's like if the Chiefs lose then it's a distraction, but if the Chiefs win big it's not like let's give Taylor some credit for this. Yeah, it's all about what makes the story, you know? Yeah for sure. So all right, let's talk about facials.

Charles: 12:13

I used to get more facials as I said in I guess last week or the week before this episode, or maybe it's been a few weeks now when I had a membership at Hand in Stone Massage. You know you they'd hit your credit card every month and you'd build up credits and you could go use either go get a facial or get a massage, and I would pretty much go about two massages for everyone facial and man. They feel they are really relaxing maybe not quite as relaxing as a massage is, but they feel great. Once I grew my beard or stubble or whatever you want to call it that I have now. I've been getting less facials. I mean, I don't have the membership anymore and also I feel like it's kind of a waste because they're not able to do as much to this area the bottom half of my face as they came to the top half of my face because I've got all this hair here, but man, it does feel really good. I really enjoy it.

Charles: 13:06

It's recommended by the author that you try to get one done about every quarter, because you know you're the environment. If you're in a place that has four seasons, which were not your, the weather could be affecting you more or less in different ways during the seasons and it's not a bad idea to go ahead and schedule that. So at the very least, do it twice a year when you when we spring forward and we fall back, and you change your smoke alarm batteries, go ahead and get a facial too.

Dan: 13:33

Yeah, that's that's pattern that I could follow. I haven't gotten a facial in over a year. I go to massage locks. They did the same thing. They offer that where you can use your credits towards a facial, and in the book he was talking about facial bars, which might be more popular in other cities. I have not heard of them here. I've either close to one. The closest ones that I found are like hand and stone and massage locks that offer a lot of times a massage, please massage and he might offer them now too, for all I know. But I think that's probably one of the better places to go if you're a guy. I think some of the other places that the day spa and things like that are primarily tailored toward women. Not that you couldn't go, but I just think if you've never gone before, you probably feel a little bit more comfortable in more of a neutral type of environment.

Charles: 14:30

Yeah, I would agree, and I would also say that to find a place that you've got a good shot of feeling comfortable getting a facial if you've never gotten one before, a fair amount of day spas have a men's facial specifically on their menu of churnals. So if you go to one that specializes in men's facials, then if you have a beard, they may be prepared to do a little bit of work on the hair and stuff like that. So I would say and if you don't know exactly what we're gonna go through some of the components of a facial and the steps, and again, if you don't know exactly what to ask for, just look for a place that has a man's facial on the menu and just get that and you can be pretty confident they're gonna give you what you need. Alright, so let's go down the list. So step one and this is not gonna be the same for every place you go, but it's it lines up to the facials that I've gotten in the past Step one is cleansing.

Charles: 15:24

They're basically gonna wash your face a couple times and they're gonna put a real bright light, like they're interrogating you, right over your face and take a look and see what the situation is with your skin and sort of. They should be talking to you this whole time and giving you a heads up of what they're gonna do. Then they will exfoliate with either a peel, a scrub or some kind of an acidic solution to kind of get all the dead skin off your face so that they can get to the live skin that they need to work on. Step four is my favorite part. That's the extractions. So that is when they go after getting stuff out of your pores, and that could be when they take out blackheads or sebaceous filaments or whiteheads or let's see what else is there. I guess that just about covers all the things. I know what they're called, but, man, I love watching the videos, you know.

Dan: 16:21

I do it. I did hear that not all states allow extractions to If you're a state, because you need to be some of them for some reason.

Charles: 16:30

I thought New Jersey was one of them, where you need to be like a medical professional in order to actually conduct you know that makes that extraction, because all the extraction videos I watch on the internet and boy do I watch a lot of them they seem to always be taking place somewhere in Asia. Oh, interesting, yeah. And typically what happens is they use what I would describe as an exacto knife, which is like the very sharp triangular, like they used to use it when I would build like model cars and model planes. Yeah, yeah, they use that, basically poke your pore to sort of break the surface tension and then squeeze it and and usually most of them do it doesn't result in any blood, so you're not actually getting the living tissue.

Dan: 17:15

Yeah.

Charles: 17:16

I don't know if this applies, but in the case of watching videos of people who take care of cows, hooves, the hoof trimmers, like sort of the line that they can't cross is they're not allowed to cut into living tissue, but they can trim the hooves, which is essentially like trimming nails. Yeah, so to cut into living tissue you have to be a veterinarian, but to cut and just groom the hooves of the horse or the cow or okay, yeah then yeah, you just need to be trained.

Dan: 17:43

I mean, that makes sense. That way you're not potentially bleeding out, and right.

Charles: 17:49

So that's what it must be like. That Extract that's probably the line that they have with the extractions is Got it. You know, if you can pull a black head out of somebody's skin without actually breaking their skin and having blood appear, that's probably fine. But if you're, you know, cutting into like a pimple and relieving the pressure by getting the blood in the pus out, that might be something you have to go to a dermatologist for.

Dan: 18:09

And I mean one of the reasons the way you'd want to go get a facial is because they've got the technique and the skills and the tools to do those extractions and not leave scars or marks Right Meanwhile, like when I was a kid, working on it yourself, working on ourselves.

Charles: 18:23

Oh god, so I've made some real messes working on pimple. I mean yeah, yeah, yeah. Now I didn't get any permanent scarring, but I Thank god, but I either, I certainly. At the time there was stuff where I'd have a big old scab on my face because I just couldn't stop touching my face and messing with a pimple. I mean I was I should I remember?

Dan: 18:42

I went on a date this was years ago with a girl who basically had this huge white head on her for it. Beautiful skin otherwise.

Dan: 18:50

And you were like and I couldn't, I couldn't stop staring at whatever. And you know, she mentioned it and she's like, yeah, I don't, I don't pop these because it leaves marks and scars, yeah, and I'm like, but that white thing is just Arkinet, you know. And if it was on my face I'd be, you know, I'd be like there's no way I would deliver, I wouldn't even leave the house. She had no problem. That that's no fun I give her.

Charles: 19:11

yes, that is. That is the same thing. When I'm watching pimple popping videos where these people are going to a dermatologist is like how the second I noticed that that thing was on my face and I would be taking care of it immediately. You too, the people who you know, have blackheads that have been on their face for like literally years. It's like you know they have bad vision and they're not seeing it, or they have way more self-control than I do, because I would not be able to let it go.

Dan: 19:38

For me, the blackhead, it blends in a little with a darker skin. But the white heads, yeah, I, it's and it's got. It looks like a little volcano, a little red, you know, yeah, bump up, and that's just like I could not leave it alone.

Charles: 19:50

Yeah, neither, why I couldn't either. It's like I mean, yeah, even if I said hurts to.

Dan: 19:56

I want to relieve that, that itch and that pressure yeah but you know, every time, you know, I've noticed something like like if I had one like on my leg or my back or my shoulder, I didn't notice it back for shoulders, when I usually, yeah, that's where I find them and I, okay, I cannot touch them, but I've noticed that when I don't touch them, they actually go away way. I heal up and and there's no scar or anything. So you know, I'm sure there's something to it.

Charles: 20:21

Oh no, I yeah, I think not. There are way more things. Yeah, I think it happens with it. Then if you don't mess with it and if you are gonna mess with it, you can definitely look up online like steps to take to minimize, you know, using alcohol and you know You're washing your hands and stuff like that. There's, there's ways to do it and there's ways that I did it when I was at high school, which you know. Again, I'm lucky I didn't kill myself, but the kind of surgery I was doing on my, on my pimples, it's disgusting to think about now. But I love watching the videos of people go into Dr Pimple Popper and stuff like that and Having having it addressed and taking care of it's real. I don't know. It's just compelling for me to watch some weird that way, I guess.

Charles: 21:01

Okay, so after the extractions again my favorite part they will Usually paint on some sort of a mask. Which man that feels so good when they they like have the brush and they like Actually paint it on your face. Yeah, love that. Yeah, hey, didn't stone. They used to do it with some sort of a pumpkin Mixture and so it smelled. It smelled like a. It's not like pumpkin bread. Was this only at in the fall. No, no, it's all. I think it was all around the year. I guess there's something about pumpkins that makes for good, good face masks, but it smelled like pumpkin bread, so it was, so maybe it may be so hungry I don't need things making me hungrier, I'm honest, so good, speaking of which you got a you.

Charles: 21:46

You reupped our, our podcast supply of I believe you're telling the world about of scruble cookies, and We've developed a system where we were, we're keeping Gluttony at bay by buying the crumble cookie and cutting it into sixteenths Then. So, then, trying to limit ourselves to one piece of it, right.

Dan: 22:07

Well, here's the problem. The flaw I found in the sixteenth methodology the other day was the caramel, salted caramel, cheesy. There's gonna be some pieces. Don't have any of the good stuff right, so that caramel is only right doesn't go to the edge, and so you can't just eat the edge without the caramel. You have to have two pieces out.

Charles: 22:27

I get into. I think. I think I took a piece from the. I like the edge pieces.

Dan: 22:30

They're good, but I feel I want the full experience. Give me that caramel. Yeah, they should this. So I'm eating an eighth of it, not not just a 16. That's a big difference.

Charles: 22:41

Yeah, oh, twice as much as one might say yeah, but they're good, the the chocolate strawberry that you have.

Dan: 22:49

Glad you like it, cuz I'm not. It was okay, I didn't think I would like.

Charles: 22:52

When you described, I was like and when I saw the video on there on their Instagram, I was like, yeah, because it doesn't look that pretty, but I got into it. It's like it's gonna good strawberry flavor. I give it that much dark chocolate too, and it's very.

Dan: 23:03

It was very, very Valentine's -y, yeah, the vanilla bean vanilla bean is a fellow vanilla bean cupcake. I that is.

Charles: 23:11

So the salted caramel cheesecakes probably my number three among the three that you got. Okay, I think I put the darklet first into the vanilla bean.

Dan: 23:18

Have you ever done that in their regular chocolate chip cookies? Are they are. They were pretty good. Are they worth the uh?

Charles: 23:23

No, usually the specialty stuff, because you can get the chocolate chip every week. Yeah, it's like you don't feel like you're missing out on anything, but they have had God. They my favorite ones are the ones that are like they're basically like little pies, like they do. They do a Dutch apple where it looks like a Dutch apple pie and like the cookie is kind of like Like dug out like a pie crust and they put the topping on the inside. So good, Okay.

Charles: 23:46

Anyway, speaking of stuff that'll make your face erupted Into acne and pimples, okay, so then, after the mask, they will do whatever kinds of treatments and we're gonna get into the list of treatments and Look caveat emptor when it comes to this stuff. A lot of this. It feels good and it feels interesting. Nobody's doing Double-blind, placebo, controlled studies to see if any of these facial technologies that people are selling actually work. I feel like most of what they're doing is Provers, providing you with some novel sensations and novel feelings, but you know, are they actually making your skin look better? It's like without some sort of a clinical trial protocol, I kind of doubt how, what kind of work they're actually doing.

Dan: 24:38

The other thing in terms of buyer beware here is that they're going to try to sell you A lot of upgrades, a lot of the product that you used on your skin which is very expensive, for very little amount. And I feel like most of that stuff is probably overpriced, especially if you're buying it from, especially if you consider you're buying it At the spa, at the spa and it's never like the spa's product, it's they're reselling Right Somebody else's product, usually a high-end line, and so they need to make their money in addition to the high-end line, exactly Probably already overpricing it to begin with. So I would say start and he recommends in here to start with something basic as a facial and you know, and then for your first one, and maybe not buy.

Charles: 25:26

Yes, being a not buy anything. If you go to a massage luxer, hand and stone for a one-off massage or facial, they're going to push pretty hard to get you to buy a membership. Usually and I would especially with facials, maybe with massages I would recommend don't do that Like right after your massage or facials over, because with your face especially, give it a couple days. Make sure that you don't have a negative reaction to something. Make sure it doesn't your face doesn't end up looking a way that you don't like your face looking, cause if you sign up for the thing right then and then you know a day you wake up the next morning your face is all red and blotchy, you may kick yourself that you signed a contract for something. So I would say don't. Don't let them push you and do it. They pretty much every time you go and buy a one-off facial, they will give you whatever offer or sale or whatever as part of the subscription that they're going to give you. So, yeah, if they give you the impression this is a once in a lifetime offer that you'll never hear again, it's probably not true. It might be. Yeah, they a lot of times it'll be. Every other month they have the same sale and so it's just a matter of waiting long enough to get that offer again.

Charles: 26:33

So some of the treatments that you they may try to sell you on oxygen, microcurrent, radio frequency, lymphatic massage, led light therapy and microdermabrasion Now, the only one of these I've heard. I've heard of LED light therapy and I've heard of microdermabrasion. I've not gotten any of these optional ones done Myself, and I'm not saying they're not good, I'm not saying they don't do something for you. I'm just saying I don't know that they do anything for you and I don't know that the people at the spa who are selling them have any kind of evidence that they other than anecdotal, that they do anything. So again, I would just especially if you've never got a facial before just get the basic facial or the men's facial and say I'm not doing anything extra today, I just want to see how this feels and maybe next time and usually I mean, I don't get really high pressure sales at these places they probably aren't going to push you, but just yeah.

Dan: 27:29

Yeah, they're still operating for tips, so they're. If they're going to be a little bit aggressive and pushy, that that could cost them some money. Exactly, I don't think they're going to really push you for it. One thing that he's talking about here the LED light therapy I didn't realize that red light helps with decreasing irritation, but blue is supposedly for an antibacterial effect. Yeah, I didn't realize there was actually a blue light therapy either, so it's awesome.

Charles: 27:57

Yeah, and I don't know. I know certain colors of light are used to disinfect equipment and stuff like that, but I don't know how does that really translate to the effect on your skin? I'm not sure that it does. And again, I'm always just skeptical of you know, any people are very willing to create new technologies and talk about how wonderful they are, and it's like show me the data, you know.

Dan: 28:20

and the other thing too is if somebody's willing to do one of these you know, like a lymphatic massage and the microdermabrasion or your frequency, you know, usually they're doing other things too. So it's very difficult to say, hey, the effects that they got, even if they got good effects, to say it's just from the LED therapy or just from the lymph massage, because they're doing other things too that you probably aren't doing. So the variables are not being managed or controlled.

Charles: 28:44

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I agree. So again, I'm always skeptical. If it feels nice enough, then I might be willing to spend the extra money on it, but I'm not going to, you know, believe? Oh well, if you get a facial but you don't include radio frequency, then you're just wasting your time and your money, so stuff like that.

Charles: 29:04

The other thing I will say is, like we said about massages, if you do find somebody you like and you keep going back to them over and over again, they're going to get better at giving you a facial, just like the massage therapist is going to get better at giving you a massage, and so the quality of the service you're getting could keep going up and up and up the longer you stick with somebody. Now, don't keep going to the same place just for this reason. I mean, you can try out a bunch of places and find somebody that you like and somebody that feels really good, feels really relaxing. The environment is what you like. But, yeah, if you can find somebody that you do like and you keep going back to them, your skin will probably keep getting better and better looking the longer you use that same person.

Dan: 29:42

Yeah, and the other thing to think about is, if you take the time and effort to go and get these facials done every few months, yeah, you're going to tend to start better routines around your skin care and your facial care.

Charles: 29:57

Oh, for sure, and your own.

Dan: 29:59

Because you are knowing that you are spending the money and the time and the energy to get these facials and you might be like, oh hey, well, I don't want this to just completely go to waste. In between, I will wash my face this morning or I will, you know, just wipe off the grease and the grime with a toner before you go to bed at night, and so it might be a little bit more of an incentive to develop some better daily habits of your own. I agree, just kind of like getting a manicure or pedicure. Hey, you're taking care of your nails every so often by a professional. So maybe, hey, maybe I'm gonna put a little bit of moisturizer on my hand, not let it dry out or let things crack up in between.

Charles: 30:38

It's similar to the mindset of you know when you start walking or running or doing cardio, even though that activity makes you hungry, it's easier to say no to that 500 calorie donut when your Apple Watch just told you that your two hour run only was good for burning 250 calories. Like once you start investing and being aware of a particular part of your life, then you'll be a little bit more aware of all the things that affect it.

Dan: 31:03

Yeah, it's part of an identity shift. Right Now, you're somebody who cares about the way they look and the way they eat, the way they exercise, versus and it just took one element Just flying by the pants Right, and I always took one element of that. So I mean maybe it's getting the facials and all of a sudden like, oh, maybe, maybe I'll start walking a little bit more, maybe I need to take better care of myself in other ways, oh, even more whole, and so I mean that's Process, and so I mean that's good. If you find one tool in here to take better care of yourself, you're gonna be loving yourself a little bit more and you might start loving yourself in other ways that you didn't expect.

Charles: 31:36

Here. Here, we can hope that that's the result of this book. All right, so another short one, and I like it, I hope. If you wanna shoot us an email at either, yeah, just use mindfullymasculinegmailcom. Let us know if you like these shorter episodes or if you hate them and wish we were doing an hour and 35 minutes every week. We'll start no promises, but we still wanna hear your opinion, even if we'll never go back to those. Thanks, dan, I will talk to you next week. Bye-bye, bye. Wow, you made it through the whole thing, so you must like us at least a little bit, in which case you should definitely follow or subscribe to our show in your chosen podcast app. Thanks, we'll talk to you next time.