Pores are the part of the face men most want to change and can do the least about.
What a pore actually is
A pore is the opening of a hair follicle, and sitting inside most of them is a sebaceous gland — the small factory that produces sebum, the oil that keeps skin from drying out. Every pore has a job. You were never meant to be without them, and closing them for good was never the goal.
That matters, because there is no muscle around the opening. Pores do not clench shut in cold water or spring open in a hot shower. When people talk about "opening" and "closing" pores, what they are really describing is a change in how full and how visible a pore looks — not a change in its actual size.
Why some look bigger than others
Three things mostly decide how prominent your pores look, and the first is out of your hands. Pore size is largely genetic. If your father had visible pores across his nose and cheeks, there is a fair chance you will too.
The second is sebum. The more oil a pore produces, the more the opening stretches to accommodate it, and the more it catches the light. This is why pores tend to look largest across the T-zone — the forehead, nose and chin — where the oil glands are densest. Men produce more sebum than women on average, which is part of why this is such a common complaint.
The third is time. As skin loses firmness, the tissue around each pore gives a little less support, and a pore that was barely visible at 25 can look more open at 40. Sun exposure speeds this up by breaking down the collagen and elastin that hold skin taut — one more reason daily sun protection earns its place.
The summer effect
Heat makes all of this more obvious. When skin warms up, sebum thins and flows more freely, so oil sits at the surface and pores look fuller by mid-afternoon. Sweat and city grime settle into the mix. None of this is your pores changing size — it is oil and debris making the openings easier to see. It also explains why a good wash makes such a visible difference in July and does very little in January.
What actually helps the appearance
The honest answer is management, not removal. You cannot permanently shrink a pore, but you can keep it from looking worse than it needs to.
Cleanse properly, morning and evening, to clear the oil and dead skin that collect in the opening and make it look wider. Do not scrub — abrasive exfoliation irritates the surface and tends to drive more oil, which is the opposite of what you want.
Beyond cleansing, a few ingredients have a genuine, if modest, effect on how pores look. Niacinamide helps balance the feel of oil at the surface and supports a smoother-looking texture over time. The Doers of London Clear Serum pairs 12% niacinamide with 5% zinc PCA for exactly that — daily use aimed at balance and the look of clearer, more even skin, not an overnight change. Used consistently it earns its place; used once, it does nothing.
Sun protection belongs on the list too, because protecting the collagen around each pore is one of the few things with strong long-term evidence behind it.
What doesn't
Cold water does not close pores. It briefly tightens the surrounding skin, and the effect is gone within minutes. Pore strips pull out the visible plug but do nothing to the pore itself, and used often they can aggravate the skin around it. Anything promising to erase or shrink pores for good is selling you a result that is not biologically possible.
If your pores come with persistent congestion, painful bumps, or breakouts that do not settle, that is worth a word with a GP or dermatologist rather than another product on the shelf.