Week 1: HydraFacial
Day 0 — before
I walk into the salon. It smells good. Calm music plays. The receptionist smiles as if men walked in here every day. (I suspect they don't.)
I'm handed a skin questionnaire. "Do you use sunscreen?" No. "Do you use a moisturiser?" Sometimes, after shaving. "Do you use..." No. I don't use anything. I wash my face with shower gel and consider that a sufficient skincare routine.
The specialist looks at my skin under a lamp and says, diplomatically: "We have some work to do." Right.
Treatment day
HydraFacial. I'd heard of it because my girlfriend goes regularly and comes back glowing like an LED bulb every time. I thought it was nonsense. A placebo effect. A "it was nice at the spa" kind of thing.
The treatment takes about 45 minutes. The device looks like a small vacuum cleaner — and it works a bit like one, too: it cleanses, exfoliates, extracts dirt from your pores you didn't know existed, and massages in serum at the same time.
The specialist shows me a small container with what came out of my face. I want to un-see it. I can't. Let's just say: if you think your skin is clean because you "wash your face" — I have bad news.
The day after
I look in the mirror. This is the moment I have to be honest, even if it undermines my reputation as a bloke.
My skin looks DIFFERENT. Not "a bit better". Different. It's smooth, hydrated, has some kind of... glow? Colour? I don't know how to describe it — I've never had a vocabulary for these things. I look like myself, but after 10 hours of sleep and a week in the Maldives. A colleague at the office says: "You look great, been on holiday?"
I hadn't been on holiday. I'd had a HydraFacial. I don't tell him that.
Verdict: I thought it was nonsense — it isn't. 8/10. One point off because now I know how much dirt was in my pores.
Week 2: Relaxation massage
Treatment day
A classic relaxation massage, 60 minutes, full body. I walk in thinking: "I'll just lie here and think about quarterly results." First 10 minutes: I think about quarterly results. Fifteen minutes: I stop thinking about quarterly results. Twenty minutes: I don't know what I'm thinking about. Thirty minutes: I'm not thinking. At all.
The word "relaxation" is misleading. It sounds like something for people with too much free time. As it turns out, my shoulders were so tense that the therapist had to change technique — the standard pressure couldn't reach the muscles underneath all that tension. I sit at a desk 10 hours a day. My body remembers that, even when I don't.
I fell asleep. Didn't mean to, didn't plan to — I just fell asleep. Somewhere between my neck and shoulders. I woke up when the therapist moved on to my legs. Don't tell anyone.
The day after
I slept like a log that night. Deep, calm, no waking up at 3am wondering "did I send that email". The next day my shoulders felt loose in a way I hadn't felt in years. Literally — I can't remember the last time my shoulders didn't hurt.
Verdict: I fell asleep and don't tell anyone. 9/10. One point off because now I know just how tense I was, and that's a little alarming.
Week 3: Facial mesotherapy
Treatment day
OK, this is the moment I'd been dreading with growing unease. Needles. In my face. Voluntarily.
The specialist explains: micro-injections of a vitamin, hyaluronic acid and peptide cocktail — straight into the skin. Improved hydration, skin tone, firmness. Sounds reasonable. But: needles. In my face.
Numbing cream is applied to the skin. I wait 20 minutes. Then we start.
Does it hurt? Let's put it this way: it's not pleasant. But it's not as bad as I'd imagined either. It's more like... a series of pricks. A thousand tiny pricks. I feel some areas more (around the mouth, forehead), others barely at all (cheeks). The whole treatment takes about 30 minutes.
After the treatment my face is red like after a 10km run in December. And pricked all over. I look... interesting. The specialist says: "Don't worry, it'll be gone by tomorrow." I trust her — by this point, I trust her on everything.
2 days after
The redness is gone. And I'll say this: my skin looks better than after the HydraFacial. It's firm, hydrated, has that "from within" effect — as if someone plugged it into a charger. The line on my forehead I've had for five years is noticeably shallower. Not gone — but shallower.
A colleague at the office (a different one this time): "Mate, you look... different somehow. Working out?"
"Yeah, working out" — I reply. And technically I'm not lying. My face is working out its own regeneration.
Verdict: Needles? OK, I survived. The effect is real. 8.5/10. Half a point off for those 20 minutes waiting with the numbing cream, scrolling through my phone.
Week 4: Classic manicure
Treatment day
This is the test I wasn't mentally ready for. Massage — fine, men go for massages. HydraFacial — nobody can see it. Mesotherapy — sounds medical, I can explain that away. But a manicure?
I walk in. I sit down. I hold out my hands. The manicurist looks at them and — I swear — I see something between pity and professional challenge in her eyes. My cuticles look like the dried-out Gobi Desert. My nails are short (because I bite them, though I don't say that — she probably knows anyway).
It begins. Soaking, trimming cuticles, filing, buffing. She's gentle but firm. Like a good dentist — she knows what she's doing and doesn't ask if you want a break.
I watch my hands during the treatment and realise I have never — NEVER — paid attention to what they look like. I hand out business cards with them, greet clients with them, gesture with them in presentations — and they look like they belong to someone who works down a mine without gloves.
Final result
My hands look like they belong to a different person. Clean, groomed, smooth cuticles, even nails. No polish — this is a classic manicure, not a colour one. But the difference is... wow.
My girlfriend noticed IMMEDIATELY. "Did you get a manicure?!" She said it with such delight, as if I'd just returned from a mission to Mars. Turns out women notice well-groomed hands on a man. Who knew.
Verdict: She looked at my cuticles with pity, but the result means I never want my "old" hands back. 9/10. One point off because it took me until 38 to find out I could have nice hands.
Week 5: Laser hair removal — underarms
Treatment day
I go in for laser hair removal. Underarms. Yes, underarms.
Why underarms? Because my girlfriend said it was "a good starting point", and by this stage of the experiment I'd lost the ability to say no to any beauty treatment.
I raise my arms. The technician (a man, I felt an unashamed sense of relief) explains: "You'll feel warmth and a slight sting. Like an elastic band snapping against your skin." I thought: "An elastic band, I can handle that."
Ah.
That is not an elastic band. That's an elastic band from the school of "whoever came up with that comparison". The first pulse — surprise. Not pain, more like... shock. Warmth, a sting, a flash. Then another. And another. The underarm is a sensitive spot — more sensitive than I expected. Some pulses are fine, others make my eyebrow shoot up five centimetres involuntarily.
The whole treatment takes about 10 minutes for both underarms. Quick. But intense.
3 days after
The skin is slightly irritated but otherwise fine. The technician said: "Results will be lasting after 4–6 sessions." So, 3–5 more to go. Hmm.
But — honestly — after a week, once the irritation had gone, my skin was smooth in a way a razor never achieved. And it doesn't itch when it grows back. That's a real point in its favour.
Verdict: OW. 6/10 for comfort, 9/10 for results. I'll continue the series, because the result is worth the temporary discomfort. But "elastic band" is the understatement of the year.
Week 6: LED therapy
Treatment day
The last treatment. I lie under an LED panel shining red and blue light on my face. I look like a character from a sci-fi film. I feel like one too. All that's missing is an onboard computer voice saying: "Tissue regeneration in progress."
LED therapy: red light (630–660 nm) stimulates collagen production and speeds up healing. Blue light (415 nm) kills the bacteria responsible for acne. It doesn't hurt. You don't feel a thing. You lie there. The light shines. 20 minutes.
This is the most relaxing treatment of the whole series. You don't have to do anything. Literally nothing. You lie there and your skin "eats" the light. I could do this every day. Seriously — if someone put an LED panel in my office, I'd lie under it on my lunch break.
Result
Subtle. LED isn't a "one-off wow" treatment — it builds results over time. But after one session, my skin is calmer, less red, more "rested". Combined with the mesotherapy from three weeks earlier, my face looks the best I can remember.
Verdict: Lying under light like in a sci-fi film — and I'm fine with that. 7/10 for the one-off result, 9/10 for the potential with regular sessions. The most "bloke-friendly" treatment of the whole series.
Summary — what changed over 6 weeks
What I'll repeat:
- HydraFacial — once a month, non-negotiable. Skin that can breathe is different skin.
- Massage — every 2–3 weeks. My shoulders and I have a new relationship now.
- Manicure — every 3–4 weeks. I'm not going back to my "old" hands.
- LED — happily, as an add-on to other treatments.
What I'll repeat, but with mental preparation:
- Mesotherapy — the effect is impressive, but needles are needles. A series once every six months.
- Laser hair removal — I'll finish the series, because the result is worth the "ow".
What this experiment changed:
- We bought a moisturiser. And a cream with SPF. They sit in the bathroom next to the toothpaste. I use them daily.
- I now pay attention to my hands. And to other people's.
- I stopped believing that a "beauty salon" isn't a place for men. It's a place for anyone who wants to take care of themselves. Full stop.
- My girlfriend is in shock. A good kind of shock.
Effect on my skin:
My skin is better than it's ever been in my adult life. Hydrated, smooth, even. The line on my forehead — shallower. Dark circles — smaller. Skin tone — healthier. I look "rested" — and the only thing I did was let professionals do what they do best.
Effect on my wellbeing:
This is what surprised me the most. I didn't go for treatments chasing a "wow effect". I went for the article. But somewhere around week three, I caught myself... feeling better. Not just physically. Overall. Taking care of yourself — in any form — has a psychological effect I hadn't given enough credit to. Listen up, blokes: this isn't vanity. It's wellbeing.
If I had to give one piece of advice? Start with a HydraFacial. One visit. No commitment. And see for yourself if your face doesn't ask you "why didn't you come sooner?"
At J'ADORE INSTYTUT, nobody will look at you strangely for being a man. Nobody will ask why. You book, you show up, a specialist takes care of your skin — professionally, straightforwardly, without any fuss. Exactly how you like it. And the result? The result speaks for itself. Even if you don't want to tell your mates about it.