Alum vs ingrowns

Hey

In a case of ingrown hairs, does the alum help or make it worse? I read one should avoid alcohol but what about alum?

 

Alum is great for a post shave. I have used an alum block for a year or so now and it helped me out a lot with ingrown hairs. It really rinses your pores out and then closes them off if there is any little cuts from the razor. Closing your cuts and pores off protects your skin from bacteria forming from your everyday activities. Following your alum wash, a good moisturizing aftershave it great!

 

That sounds good. I've used alum for a long time myself but I wondered if it made matters worse.

Today I tried alum alone for the first time, no balm. Skin feels great!

I hope I can fight back the ingrowns.

 

Alum is basically used to stop weepers and small nicks more than working ingrown hairs. Salicylic acid is used in a large number of products for skin issues of this type.

Here is an article on the compound which is in the same family as Aspirin which has a following article.

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/druginfo/meds/a607072.html​

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_aspirin​

Some people use Aspirin to relieve the symptoms but there have been issues with this as well as to using too much for too long.


When I get an ingrown, which is rare I use a product called Bump Stopper 2.

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The active ingredients are: Resorcin (6%) Bromelain (2%), Vitamin A (150,000 IU)

It works well for me when I get one (usually from testing an unfamiliar aggressive razor).

Here is some additional treatment methods.

http://www.webmd.com/skin-problems-and-treatments/guide/ingrown-hair-causes-symptoms-treatment​

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http://www.onhealth.com/ingrown_hair/page4.htm​

I hope this was not too much information and that it provides some help.

 

Be sure your not applying to much pressure on your razor either. Let the razor do the work cause you can always go over for another pass or touch up. If your press to hard with the razor you are basically cutting the hairs off under the skin and causing them to grow bad abnormal underneath the skin. Alum is a good indicator if your pushing on the razor to much. If you feel any stinging in spot's when you rub the alum across your face its cause that spot of course has gotten irritated from the blade.

 

I have a patch of ingrowns on my neck below the jawline.

The shape of the area is so I cannot shave properly there. Hence my problems.

Today I've started WTG only below my jawline to see if it helps.

I'll have a look at those links when I get home from work, thank you very much!

I don't apply pressure.

 

That is a trouble spot for me also at times, my correction for that was to grow a chin strap beard . I have seen were a lot of guys will stretch the skin that is on the bottom of the jaw line to were its ontop of the jaw line. After you shave that area and release the skin, the jaw line is shaved. Take's a little technique to do that but it does work very well I have found.

 

I'll have to try some techniques

My beard is so sparse there I can't let i grow.

 

I feel I need to attach an image of my problem. It's not a huge problem, but a bit sensitive and not the most appealing look of my skin.



Tiny red dots and feel a bit sore after a 3 pass with ATG in the end. The alum and/or alcohol splash doesn't really sting and the redness calms hours later, but not 100%, maybe 50% less.

And as you can see, I haven't even cut the hairs totally down. It's impossible for me, due to the concavity of my face there on the neck.

Am I right these are ingrown? I don't get "sits" and pus from'em. Only the redness.

 

Today, my shave was actually a replica of the list on the webmd link. The image is from yesterday.

 

I think that is just more irritation that anything myself. Im not an expert of the skin haha but my experience is its just irritation. You might not go against the grain and see if that helps any. I know a lot of times to get a BBS shave you have to. But im a one pass guy and its plenty smooth for me and looks fine.

 

+1. I can only do ATG passes with certain razors. I mostly do one pass WTG and then touch up whatever areas I missed or need to hit again. I use my Slim and lower it down to 3 to do ATG passes. I can do it with my Tech and Krona too, so maybe you can try it with a very mild razor.

 

Defiantly have to learn the limits of your skin that's for sure.

 

I read what you write, but I don't 100% understand because: I can easily go ATG on the rest of my face without red dots. Why do I only get them there in that area?

So it might be my solution will be no ATG there. I'm determined to try a few days or the rest of week maybe with only WTG in that area - to see how my skin reacts.

 

It may not feel like it's irritating your skin at the time of the shave or pass but once your done shaving and getting cleaned up that's when it starts to show. If you shave everyday you might start giving your face a days rest in between shaves to let the skin heal back.

 

Yeah, that's not gonna happen, lol I love shaving so I'd rather shave not so close and everyday than BBS close everyother day.

But I understand your point of view.

 

that works to! Not making so aggressive would def help out I bet