Well, that's completely okay, and it isn't stupid, if there's just things you don't know or immediately understand.
The thing is, we will most likely need at least a list of the mods you're also using and/or your load order. Robert's Male and HGEC "should" be working fine together, if on their own, as like you said the one does have an ESP, the other doesn't, and the one's ESP makes it so the other will also work right. So as you are still encountering this issue regardless, you must be using more than only those two, and one, or more, of this is messing up the results at the end of your load order.
As for how to create a bashed patch, most critical mods' ESPs will already be pre-tagged correctly with their according Bash Tags. The load order auto-sorter tool BOSS will even add missing tags, as the community found them appropriate in its accumulated load order list. I don't know much about its successor LOOT, or if it also introduces missing Bash Tags as needed, but LOOT was also very often reported as not producing the perfect load orders for Oblivion mods, so using BOSS instead would anyways not be such a bad idea.
Given that the ESPs requiring it have the proper Bash Tags at the head of their descriptions alright, the next step necessary is to locate the file "bashed patch 0.esp" (or a similar name) inside the load order that you see on the Plugins tab in Wrye Bash. If you right-click that one, there's an option in the pull-down menu "recompile bashed patch" (or similar, my memory's lacking), which, if you click it, will open a menu which at first looks very intimidating, but in most cases you can just leave everything at its defaults anyways. In this menu you can fine-tune most of the features the bashed batch is going to introduce in the end, select which race or cosmetic mods should be included in the merge, configure convenience features like reducing weight of certain item types, make it so all upperbody and/or robe items will no longer hide amulets, gloves will no longer hide rings, etc. etc. Wrye Bash truly is a Swiss Army Knife tool for Oblivion modding.
Once you told it to recompile the patch, it will do that completely automatically, and the resulting file will replace the existing "bashed patch 0.esp" (or similar). Then only take care the bashed patch will always load last, at the bottom of your load order, unless instructed otherwise by certain other mods you use, and your modded game should be correctly set up.
In case you need more references, here's the Wrye Bash mod page itself and a Pictorial Guide to get you started.
I hope this helps out at least a little already. Don't be intimidated, if things sound too complex or difficult at first. Modding really isn't rocket science, but there's lots and lots to get to know. Always keep in mind none of us possessed our knowledge of today right from the start. All of us learned it all ourselves one thing after the other along our way. And those of us who learned a lot luckily often feel an urge to share what they know. The people around here for instance are oftentimes really happily giving, if you just ask.
But now excuse me, I'm afraid I can't be of much more help for today. It's my birthday tomorrow and I need to be up soon for a brunch with family and friends... oh, and then there's also Christmas, of course.
Well, Merry Christmas and Happy Seasons, or whatever it is you're celebrating these days! 