Shaving Tips For Newbs

Shaving for the most part is pretty harsh on your face. Dragging a steel blade across your face every (or nearly) morning doesn't really sound all that gentle, does it? To avoid having problems with ingrown hair, try out the suggestions below and let me know what you think. I guarantee you will have fewer problems.

Understanding the problem

• Hair grows out of your face typically in a downward direction. This is called the ‘grain’ of your face, much like the grain of a piece of wood. Shaving ‘with the grain’ means to shave in the direction that the hair is growing out of your face (for most people, this is downward, from cheeks to chin). However, your face may be different, and your neck almost certainly is. Take a good look at your face and figure out your unique ‘grain’ pattern. You will need to know this.
• Hair tends to retract into the follicle when it is pulled. Anyone who’s ever tried to tweeze out a hair has probably seen this. If you pull a hair almost all the way out, but loose your grip on it, it will frequently retract below the skin. This same effect is present when you shave, and is one of the primary causes of ingrown hair. Once the hair is under the skin, it is likely that it will grow into the surrounding skin, causing the hair to become ingrown. The primary focus in minimizing ingrown hair is to prevent this retraction from happening, or to minimize it’s effect. The curlier your hair is, the more likely it is that a retracted hair will become ingrown.
  

Minimizing the Damage

1. Shave with a standard razor. Ditch the electric. Electrics have problems with the way they cut as to make them a bad choice for people with ingrown hair problems. For example, most electrics require you to shave against the grain (any foil electric does). This makes the hair as short as it can possibly be, and with the associated pulling/tugging on the hair as it is cut, is guaranteed to make it retract below the skin. And electrics pull the hair much more than a sharp razor.
2. Don’t go for a razor that will give you the cleanest shave of your life. The closer the top of that final hair is to the skin line, the greater the risk for ingrown hair. I would recommend using a 2 bladed razor like the Sensor Excel rather than a Mach3 for that reason, but if you have the Mach3, it's probably fine.
3. Shave in the shower. This is critical. You need to make the hair as soft and as easy to cut as possible. When you get in the shower, gently wash your face to remove the oils from your beard. Oils on the hair will prevent them from soaking up the water, and you want them to be waterlogged. Make shaving the last thing you do, to maximize this soaking process.
4. Before shaving, try to get the hair to retract into the skin. The best way to do this is to try to ‘pull’ the hair. I've found a Buff Puff (yeah, I know..just get your girlfriend/wife to buy it for you) works very well for this as it will grab the hair as you run it across your face (against the grain). Remember, the effect you're after is to cause the hair to retract as much as possible before shaving so it won’t retract any further when the razor pulls/cuts it.
5. Shave with the grain of your face. Never shave against the grain. Make as few passes as you can, and unless your beard is super heavy, this means you will make (1) pass for each 1 ½ “ strip of your face. Touch up if you must, but remember, it’s better to have 5 o’clock shadow than a bunch of ingrown hair.
6. You'll find that in the shower, it's not that necessary to rinse your blade frequently. Rinsing your blade should be done as little as possible to avoid wearing out the lubricating strip on the top of the blades. The truth is, you can probably shave your whole face without rinsing at all.Use your razor for at most (7) shaves. You can modify this if you want, but I use mine for only (6) shaves before I replace it. The duller the blade, the more it will pull the hair before cutting it.
7. Try to shave at the same time every day. For some reason this seems to help, but it’s not critical. I take one day off of shaving a week (Sunday) and I don’t have any problems. But even if you take a day off shaving, don't take a day off of the Buff Puff.
8. Don't bother with the after shave. All it really does is hurt. If your skin is dry, you might put some moisturizer on your face while it's still damp from the shower. Apart from that, just pat your face dry and be done with it
   

That's pretty much it. Please let me know if you've found something that works that's not listed here. I'd be interested to hear what everyone else is doing.

shaving tips ingrown hair