As a general rule, the stronger the man you are to be, the more numerous the pimples will be on your face and body. This is because a full and heavy beard generally belongs to the strong man. So if you have more hairs pushing through your skin than a less-powerful youth, you will have more pimples. Temperament, that is, your racial traits, color of hair and family complexion, all these kinds of things, of course, make a difference in the way your beard grows and the quality of it; but the principles are all the same for every growing youth.
Frequently boys are frightened almost to helplessness because some of these pimples appear upon the parts surrounding the sex organs. These pimples are generally from the same cause; most often due to the curling of the young hairs which re-enter the skin near the point where they come out.
In all these matters you only need to keep your face and other hairy parts clean by simple washing with soap and water. Use only a plain, pure soap――castile soap is excellent for this purpose. Don’t use highly-scented soaps. Many of these are poisonous to such conditions, as I have explained.
When you feel that it is about time to commence shaving, do it yourself――DON’T “let a barber do it.” It is an easy matter to learn to handle a razor, and now the safety razors make it inexcusable to go to a barber. Then think of the nastiness involved in having a stranger’s hands running all over your sensitive skin! Would you let any other kind of brush which had been used upon a thousand of all sorts of human skins, be smeared over yours? Then the soaps, towels, all the things the barber uses! Ugh, if you had seen all the diseases I have seen on men’s faces, you would allow no hands but your own to touch your face. You know where your hands have been; do you know where the barber’s were a half-hour before he shaved you?
True, all first-class barbers try to have everything they come in contact with kept clean and sterilized, but we cannot get away from the fact that the razor, brush, soap and hand of your own are far, far preferable to use on your tender face. Then traveling, if you do not shave yourself, you are liable to be obliged to enter some barber shop from which you come out diseased; perhaps diseased for life. And if you do not know all about these diseases they will get such a hold upon your system that your career is ended. There are many other good reasons why you should shave yourself; one will come to your mind――the fact that you save valuable time and can start out in the morning looking clean and neat, as every gentleman should and does.