The Grooming Playbook Nobody Talks About

There's a specific category of professional who has everything dialled in except the details that people actually notice. The suit fits. The watch is right. The shoes are clean. But the eyebrows are unruly, the skin looks tired, and the haircut is two weeks past its prime.

We asked our image consultant partners to share the grooming details that high-performing men overlook most frequently. These are consultants who've prepared executives for board presentations, politicians for national broadcasts, and founders for their biggest investor meetings.

The advice is practical, specific, and surprisingly simple.

Skin First, Everything Else Second

The single most impactful grooming investment you can make isn't a better haircut or a nicer watch. It's a skincare routine. Not a twelve-step Korean beauty protocol. Three steps. Every day.

Cleanser in the morning and evening. A lightweight moisturiser with SPF in the morning. Retinol twice a week at night. That's it. If you live in Singapore's humidity, add a gentle exfoliant twice a week.

The difference this makes after thirty days is visible. After ninety days, people will ask if you've been on holiday. Good skin is the foundation of looking like you have your life in order, because it suggests that you do.

The Haircut Cadence

Most men get a haircut when they notice they need one. By that point, they've spent two weeks looking slightly undone. The professionals we work with recommend a fixed cadence: every three weeks for short styles, every four weeks for longer styles.

The key insight: a great haircut looks best on day seven, not day one. So you're really optimising for the middle of the cycle, not the immediate aftermath.

Find a barber who understands your hair type and face shape, and who doesn't change your look every visit. Consistency is more important than creativity. The goal is to always look like yourself, but slightly sharper.

Eyebrows Are the Detail

This is the one that surprises people. Our consultants say that eyebrow grooming is the single most overlooked detail in men's professional presentation. Unruly eyebrows make you look older and less deliberate. A slight cleanup makes you look more polished without anyone being able to identify why.

You don't need to shape them. You need to clean them. A few minutes with tweezers every week, removing strays above and below the natural brow line. If you're uncomfortable doing it yourself, ask your barber to include a brow cleanup at every haircut.

Hands Tell a Story

Before any handshake, meeting, or dinner, people see your hands. Our consultants flag this consistently: hands are one of the most noticed and least maintained aspects of male grooming.

Keep nails trimmed short and clean. Use a hand cream once a day, especially in air-conditioned environments. If your cuticles are rough, push them back gently after a shower once a week. None of this is vanity. It's maintenance. And it signals attention to detail.

Fragrance as Signature

Fragrance is the most personal grooming choice and the most frequently mishandled. The two most common mistakes: wearing too much, and wearing something too common.

The rule: if someone can smell you from more than an arm's length away, you've applied too much. Fragrance should be discovered, not announced. Two sprays. One on the wrist, one on the neck. Let your body heat do the work.

As for selection: invest in something that isn't available at every department store counter. Niche fragrances from houses like Le Labo, Byredo, or Diptyque are widely available in Singapore and offer distinctiveness without being obscure.

The Bigger Picture

All of these details serve a single purpose: removing distractions. When your grooming is handled, people focus on what you're saying, not what you look like. That's the goal. Not vanity. Clarity.

The best-groomed person in the room is never the one you notice for their grooming. They're the one you notice for their presence. Everything else just gets out of the way.