In back-to-back days, I saw a TikTok from horror author/my former boss, Jason Pargin, about the ages of the cast members of Cheers during the show’s first season, then came across a CNBC article about Gen Z men discovering the wonders of self-care beauty routines that women, gay men, and straight Korean men have known for years. The video and the article have one through line: it’s nice to take care of your skin.
@jasonkpargin ♬ Carmen Habanera, classical opera(1283412) – perfectpanda
Pargin’s video was specifically about the cast of Cheers, a show I urge any younger readers to seek out. Its comedic sensibilities have aged remarkably well, a lot like the cast itself, who look a lot better today in 2026 than they did in 1982. As Pargin pointed out, Ted Danson was around 34 in the first season of Cheers. Shelley Long and Rhea Perlman were around 32 to 34. George Wendt and John Ratzenberger were both in their early 30s.
All of them looked like they were in a race to see who could age the fastest.
There was little to no concept of self-care back then. The idea of drinking water didn’t get invented until like 1995. Moisturizer was the realm of women, and any man caught rubbing cream on their hands in public had better be getting ready to masturbate, or they were going have to carry around a nasty stigma. Everyone smoked constantly, rapidly aging faces, giving even our most beautiful 30-year-olds the distinct look of gas station beef jerky.
While I fear we may have overreacted to the point where now some 30-somethings look like they haven’t gone through puberty yet, it’s become abundantly clear that everyone, even men, needs a daily beauty routine of some kind, even if it’s just a little moisturizer to keep their face from collapsing in on itself.
Thankfully, that’s happening.
According to the CNBC article I mentioned earlier, more men, especially Gen Z, are finally embracing skin care and light cosmetics, not to look pretty, but to look awake, healthier, and a bit less like they’ve lived through enough worldwide calamities to last several lifetimes.
That, I believe, is the proper framing for self-care. As I wrote about recently, taking care of yourself can feel just as stressful as the things stressing you out. It isn’t about vanity or being the handsomest boy in the room. It’s just about maintenance. You brush your teeth so they don’t fall out. You should wash your face and dab a little moisturizer on there, preferably with a little SPF, so you don’t look like a dried date by the time you’re fifty. A healthy fear of skin cancer should also be a motivating factor in all this.
Use me as Exhibit A. I’m an elder millennial who recently turned 40. I didn’t wake up one day and decide to paint my face up like a geisha. Sometime in my 30s, I got tired of looking tired all the time. I got tired of my face being so dry that standing near me could turn a stiff breeze into a dust storm. So, I started a simple, basic routine: wash my face, apply a moisturizer with an SPF, and occasionally something a little fancier that I got on sale at a Korean cosmetic shop.
I don’t have a multi-step routine that takes half an hour and leaves my face as seasoned as a cast-iron skillet.
(Side note: feels like the Korean beauty industry has put as much effort and resources into the development of top-of-the-line skincare products as the U.S. put into the development of the nuclear bomb.)
I do it consistently, and the results are exactly what I wanted. I didn’t want to stop aging in a vain attempt to reverse an unstoppable process. I just didn’t want to look like a Cheers cast member in 1982. I would prefer looking my age range rather than looking like I just sipped from the wrong cup of Christ.
I wish I’d started sooner, because as I’ve learned, a skincare routine works best when you implemented before you actually need it. You might be 25 and still looking like a newborn, but if you don’t start doing the very basic, very simple, very affordable maintenance now, you’re going to wake up one day and realize you’ve turned into a 40-year-old who looks ready for the grave.
Sun damage, dryness, and fine lines don’t show up overnight. They accumulate slowly over the years, often so subtly that you don’t notice them taking hold until you catch a glimpse of the infant you used to look like.
The stigma is fading because the logic is sound. Looking better helps you feel better. Feeling better helps you do better in every aspect of life. One of the best ways to do that is by starting up and consistently sticking to a simple skincare routine that you can decide to take as far as you want. That simple action is all that separates your youthful supple exuberance from a version of you that looks like it grew up near a chemical factory during The Depression.
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