Experiments in shaving
TL;DR: If you suffer from razor burn/bumps, try to shave without ever stretching your skin taut. This might mean you need to shave over the same area repeatedly to get a close shave, but it’ll still be a win. YMMV.
Shaving has always been a struggle for me because I have sensitive skin and I’ve always been prone to irritation.
For years, I shaved in the shower with a Mach 3. I had a fair amount of irritation, especially along my neckline, but never thought I could do much about it.
A few years ago, I switched to a Merkur safety razor after reading encouraging testimonials online. The irritation on my neck disappeared, but unfortunately, it was replaced by irritation on my chin, under my chin, and at the corners of my mouth.
For reasons I haven’t pinned down (or maybe just a bad memory), the irritation has seemed to get worse since I moved to Colorado. I frequently started getting razor bumps (even grosser than razor burn) on my chin.
Eventually I got fed up and just started using a beard trimmer, but quickly realized that having several days of scruff wasn’t going to cut it at formal events like weddings, graduations, etc. Also, if you know me, you know that I have the worst, most uneven beard ever. Needless to say, my girlfriend wasn’t a fan of the patchy perma-beard.
So a few months ago, I started a set of experiments to see if I could eliminate the irritation. I decided to include several variables in my experiments:
- Razor type: Merkur safety razor, Mach 3, Phillips Norelco 7300 electric razor
- Timing: Shaving before shower (electric), during shower, or after shower
- Shaving cream: Proraso shaving cream, Alba Moisturing cream shave
- Aftershave: None or Proraso
- Various shaving techniques
Some results:
- The Mach 3 still gives me extreme irritation on my neck
- The electric razor missed lots of hairs, requiring a lot of shaving time, and in turn causes light irritation on my chin and nick. I also had more ingrown hairs
- Shaving in the shower vs after a shower didn’t have an effect (but I had a harder time missing parts of my face in shower)
- Shaving creams didn’t affect irritation
After a lot of frustration, I finally stumbled upon the key factor. I had thought for years that the cause of irritation was shaving over the same area too many times. However, I recently read that razor bumps are caused when the hair is cut slightly below the skin, which happens when you shave on stretched out skin (i.e. when you contort your face to get your skin taut). The trick for me was to just purse my lips and then to go over the same area over and over with small, short strokes.
Here is the recipe that’s working for me. I’m sure that not all the steps are necessary (I bet I could swap out shaving creams without ill effect), but now that I’ve finally found something that works, I’m not inclined to change it.
- Leave a ceramic bowl submerged in hot water in a sink. Leave a shaving brush in the hot water as well.
- Shower
- Empty the bowl of water. Use the brush to mix a lather using Proraso shaving cream. Apply lather to face. Set the bowl back in the hot water to keep lather warm (making sure that no water gets into bowl)
- Using the safety razor, shave your face using small, light strokes. On any area that gets irritated (in my case, my chin), do NOT stretch the skin. Instead, go over the area several times with short, light strokes. Only shave with the grain, never against. Don’t worry if you don’t get a super close shave this first pass.
- Rinse your face with hot water
- Apply another coat of later. Shave face again, again with short strokes.
- Rinse with hot water
- Once lather is all gone, rinse face with cold water
- Apply Proraso aftershave
- Let face air-dry. Don’t dry with a towel.
Of course, YMMV. Good luck!
