Keeping the skin soft: Not just for girls
While the practice of using lotions and creams for the softening of the skin has been going on for longer than memory serves, it has largely been restricted to the unique domain of women, having the desire to keep their skin soft and fresh, not at all a surprising trait in the fairer of the sexes after all. As time crawled on, the methods of moisturizing and softening the skin advanced and became easier and easier to implement. What once had consisted of a powder that ladies would mix with heated water and pound into a paste became more refined, less toxic and slowly evolved into a usable product that came in a convenient jar or waxpaper box.
At this point, most lotions, creams and ointments were actually beneficial to the user, rather than harmful, as many early types of lotions and emollients turned out to be. Some creams in the earliest days of skin care products would remove hair and warts, along with skin and patches of flesh, while some lotions and ointments were no more than ordinary soap or vanishing cream, packaged in a fancy box and did little more than smell good. Often times they didn't even do that.
But slowly and surely, the populace got wiser and more educated and harmful or even just useless products got relegated to the sands of time and were never seen again. With the advent of the new, more effective moisturizers and lotions, many women became enamored of a new use for the moisturizers and lotions that they had accumulated. Seeing as how the men had the roughest hands, then the men should keep their hands soft as well. Women in later years have become more stridently vocal about their desire for their partners to take care of themselves, physically maintaining an attractive exterior for the aesthetic pleasure of the female.
This concept has been met with resistance by men everywhere, as using a fancy lotion or scented oils is about as masculine as crying when Bambi's mom dies, or shouting at the screen when Old Yeller gets shot. The general stiff resistance from the male of the species generally dies down when the fairer sex insists on soft hands before becoming intimate with their partners. This insistence on caring for the dry and often calloused hands of the female's prospective mate nearly always results in the male capitulating to the female's requests, followed shortly by the female capitulating to the male's requests.
At this point, many of those males involved in such happy circumstances make a startling realization involving the softness of their hands and the willingness of their significant other to become intimate with them and enjoy intimate moments. As the male begins to take better care of his skin, the female seemingly becomes more and more appreciative of his amorous attentions on the whole. This generous reciprocation is usually more than enough motivation to adopt the practice of applying moisturizer to the hands in order to better accommodate the female in a comfortable environment.
It is very likely that men who take advantage of the use of a good lotion or balm for the softening of their hands might have increased chances of success with their significant other.