How to Make a Shirtless Selfie for Any Gay or Straight Man (With Examples)

Level Up Your Selfie Game

So you want to take a hot muscle selfie but are not sure how to go about it. You have seen your friends take great selfies, which seem to be getting a lot of attention. You, on the other hand, have a crappy one and feel a little left behind.

Sound familiar?

If so, then you have certainly come to the right place! For those who do not know what the term "selfie" means: a selfie is a slang term used to describe a picture that a person takes of themselves, usually with a handheld digital device like an iPhone, Android, or other smartphone.

Selfies are all the rage in the gay community and have been gaining momentum in the straight community for some time. Many people take selfies and then upload the pic to Facebook or Twitter as a way of connecting with friends. The most popular selfies are ones that are taken in front of a mirror, because they show the person usually in a natural state.

Here's What You Need

1. Hair Dryer
2. Q-Tip
3. Glass Cleaner
4. Paper Towel
5. Razor/Clippers
6. Anti-Shine Product
7. Smartphone
8. Moisturizer

Great Selfies Require Great Preparation

Many gay and straight men don’t know how to take a proper selfie. In fact, they end up snapping a picture that looks like crap, and it causes them to lose out on the attention they were hoping to receive.

It doesn’t have to be this way. You can create an attractive, hot and fun selfie that you will be proud of to share with your friends, admirers and potential dates.

And so this particular article will walk you through the process of taking high-quality, attractive, G-rated selfies of yourself in the mirror with just eight steps. Example photographs are offered to help guide you through the process.

You will need to do some front-end work, however, if you want to create a selfie that will give you mega-watt celebrity stardom like a Hollywood star.

Remember, the hottest selfies you have likely seen did not just occur through happenstance. The fact is the person probably did a lot of advance prep work to create something amazing and memorable.

Mister Hollywood will walk you through each step of the process and provide you with easy to understand tips in the instructions. Are you ready to hook yourself up with a hot muscle selfie?

Let's jump right in!

1. Clean Your Phone Lens

This is an important step and one that many people forget—screwing up what could have been a really hot selfie.

Take your phone and manually inspect the lens with your eyes to see if there is debris. To remove this debris, take a hairdryer and turn the setting to low and preferably on "cool air" if yours has this option. Then carefully aim your hairdryer at the base of the lens of your phone using a side angle. A good rule of thumb is to hold the hair dryer back at least two feet.

Do not use your mouth to blow on your lens. The reason is that your breath contains trace amounts of saliva (spittle) which can damage the coating of your phone's lens. Bet you never thought of that huh?

After you have cleared any debris, you may want to wipe the lens and clear it of any finger prints or smudges. One effective way of doing this is to take a Q-Tip and lightly swab the lens.

Some people have found success by dipping the Q-Tip into an alcohol based liquid to get a tiny amount of cleaner onto the tip. This can be risky because even a minute amount of liquid can damage the lens.Should you choose to do this - do it with caution. Caution is the keyword here.

When you are done, put the phone down now and move on to the next step. Make sure your phone is charging because you will be need it fully charged for your muscle selfie shot later on.

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2. Clean the Mirror and Prep the Space

This is another important step that many people forget.

Mirror

Have you ever seen a selfie where the mirror looked dirty or in some way took away from the person’s selfie?

For this step, all you need to do is get some glass cleaner, like Windex, and do a super powerful job cleaning the mirror until it shines. That means getting rid of any smudges and fingerprint markings.

Space

Do you have grooming products on the mirror cabinet ledge? If so, remove any ones that you do not want to show up in your selfie.

Also, make sure you look into the mirror and see what is reflecting back at you from behind. Do you have unfolded towels, open cabinets or unclosed bathroom curtains? If so, now is the time to get things looking exactly as you want them in your selfie.

You can tell a lot from a picture and if someone sees a dirty space, it can distract from your selfie. Take the time to do this step.

3. Go Workout

Now that you have your camera ready for your selfie and the space that you will take it all cleaned up and tidy, you will want to make sure you are pumped up for the photograph.

One easy way to do this is to go to the gym and workout, preferably an upper body workout that focuses on your chest, biceps and triceps. Consider throwing in some dips for the triceps so that they pop in your selfie. If you have tattoos on your biceps or pecs, a quick set of push-ups can help these look bigger, particularly just before you take your muscle selfie photograph.

4. Shave Your Face and Manscape

When you are done with your workout and you are back at home, take the time to do a little (or a lot) of facial shaving, manscaping and hair styling. The order of these activities is up to you.

Shaving

This step is fairly easy. If you wear a beard, now is the time to shape it with your clippers. Use a razor around the outlines of the jaw to get rid of any straggly hairs. If you want to go clean with no facial hair, take care to shave with upward strokes. And of course you want to use hot water and a high quality shaving cream. An example of taking care with shaving is offered to the right by yours truly, Mister Hollywood, in a selfie of me shaving.

Manscaping

After shaving, you now want to do some light manscaping. For those of you who may not know, manscaping is a 25 cent term used to describe the trimming or removal of body hair with a razor or electric clipper. Many guys manscape the chest, arms, torso, and underarms to create an attractive, leaner look.

Because this will be a G-rated selfie, you are encouraged to do some light manscaping of the upper body area if you are particularly hairy. Philips Norelco makes some great clippers at reasonable prices. Mister Hollywood has provided a link to a Phillips Norelco trimmer if you want to buy one.

If you are muscular dude, manscaping can help to accentuate your pectoral muscles and biceps. How much manscaping you want to do is entirely your choice. This suggestion is being made as a way of helping you prep.

If you shave or manscape with a razor, make sure it is clean to prevent folliculitis.

Style Your Hair

This is a fairly easy step that you have done a thousand times before. Just make sure that when you style, you create a look that is fun and hot. An example might be “bed hair” to give that sexy, wild look.

5. Use an Anti-Shine Moisturizer

This is another important step.

Face

Mister Hollywood encourages you to not use just any old moisturizer as many of them can give off an unintentional shine that will show up in your selfie. Moisturizers often contain oils, which in a picture can give off an unattractive look.

You are encouraged to use an anti-shine moisturizer, such as L'Oreal Men Pure Matt Moisturizer. This product has a finishing matte that helps to reduce that dreaded shine. It is fairly inexpensive and very effective at giving you a handsome look. Using an anti-shine product is highly recommended for guys with naturally oily skin.

Some people have also found success in this step by using a light tinted powder or a liquid bronzer to help with evening out skin tone and to help reduce shine. The choice is yours.

Body

You can then move about using a regular moisturizer on the rest of your body however, be mindful of how much you use on the upper body for your selfie. Mister Hollywood encourages you to use something is affordable and easy to apply, like Gold Bond Men’s Everyday Essential Oil. Use a towel during this step to remove excess moisturizer from the upper body.

You are almost ready now for your selfie!

6. Lighting and Test Shots

This particular step is one that many guys simply do not do. Lighting is extremely important for your selfie. If you are going to be using your bathroom mirror for your muscle selfie, make sure the area it is not too bright. This may require that you unscrew a lightbulb. Too much lighting will highlight your flaws—something we all have but do not want to show up in a picture.

The opposite problem may be that you don’t have enough light. If so, you will need to figure out a way of correcting this. One solution might be to screw in a brighter light bulb or use another space with better lighting for your selfie, like a hallway mirror (If change locations, repeat step 2).

Natural lighting can sometimes work well but it can also interfere with your selfie. The time of day that you take your picture will be important. Is the sun too bright? It is shining directly into your selfie space?

One way to figure this out is to take a few test shots and to see how things look. A photo at 10 am versus one you take at 3 pm may look a lot different, depending upon the lighting. The example photographs presented here show guys testing their lighting with some test shots.

Finally, some people have found taking selfies at night work best, particularly if your selfie-space cannot escape the sun’s rays. Folks out on the West coast and in Florida will understand this point for sure. Again, do some test shots to see what works best.

7. Take the Shot!

Once you have everything in place and you feel the lighting is optimum, it is time to take your selfie! Here are some practical tips on this point.

• Don’t stand too close to the mirror—3 feet or more is a good rule of thumb.
• Wear a hat to slightly cover your face if you do not want to be easily recognized.
• Think of striking a pose and flex your muscles a bit.
• Smile if you want to come off friendly.
• Don’t smile if you want to come off as rough and tough.
• Consider taking a selfie at your gym locker room for something different.
• Hallway mirror selfies are great for getting the full torso.

If you are uncomfortable showing your full face, tilt your head forward a bit when snapping your selfie in the mirror. This way the viewer gets a silhouette of you while you get to keep a bit of mystery.

8. Edit Your Muscle Selfie

This step is optional but some guys find that they need to do a bit of editing on their selfie before sharing with others. You can likely do some basic edits with your pic on your phone for free. Check your phone's camera to see what it has to offer.

The iPhone 5 for example has a built in edit feature that adjusts color, contrast and so forth. Other options include cropping the photo, brightening or darkening, removing "red eyes" and so forth. There are also several apps that you can download to give you greater options if you so desire.

Experiment With Different Environments, Lighting, and Devices

Hopefully this article provided you some help in taking your own personal hot muscle selfie. You may have to experiment with different environments, lighting and even digital devices (aka smartphones) in order to snap the optimal shot of yourself.

What is important is that you have fun with the process. Remember, you are taking your selfie to share with others and perhaps gain a little attention.

Maybe you want to do it impress your friends with all that work you have put into the gym. Maybe you want to do it because you want to attract a new mate.

The important thing is to go into it with the right mindset and enjoy. Remember, a picture is worth a thousand words!

So get your Hollywood on and take some hot muscle selfies. It's a real blast! Plus, we all want to see you. Who knows, you may become a mega-watt superstar.

-Mister Hollywood

P.S. If you found this article interesting, please be sure to like on FB and share with your buds.

Comments

Braxton Robinson on March 12, 2019:

I don't have enough muscle to take a selfie shirtless...

Sgt Strode from Australia on April 12, 2018:

"Don’t smile if you want to come off as rough and tough"

... and actually come off as just another bland, expressionless selfie. Still, no smile is preferable to the gormless ducklips pose!

John Hollywood (author) from Hollywood, CA on September 23, 2014:

Thanks and I appreciate!

SpaceShanty from United Kingdom on September 23, 2014:

There is a small typo in the introduction of this Hub! You don't have to approve this comment, just letting you know.

Brent Whistler from Chicago, Illinois on January 07, 2014:

Holy crap - you've got the market cornered on hot selfies.. I will follow these instructions in March, when I'm back from my 3 week kickboxing camp in Thailand!

Arthur on January 06, 2014:

Actually the first step is: be hot and ripped.