Being in the UK you have at your disposal one of the best shave soaps ever, the Palmolive Shave Stick. At 49p that and a boar brush would be all you need. I read in your earlier post about how you wet your beard in hot water for at least 3 minutes, and if the water is too hot your doing your skin a disservice before you even begin to shave. Try cutting down on the heat some to just warm water and see if that helps.
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I agree! This is much better advice than I could have expected. I'm definitely gonna stick around here. I will try out your tip with the oil. I had bought some oil a while ago, with menthol for sensitive skin, but it only seemed to make my skin react a lot worse :S Thanks! I will try out slightly less hot water next time
I feel your pain on the sensitive neck, I just stepped up to de shaving. I stumbled onto The Art of Shaving products while searching for info on the sensitive skin issue. The products are expensive, I bought a sample pack and will find a less expensive alternative when it is gone. Here in the states at least and on Amazon.com you can get a sample pack for $25.00, this gives pre shave oil, a small badger brush, shave cream, and aftershave. I am getting better shaves than before, definitely less iritation. After a month or so of just knocking the beard down with trimmers, I would go for a shave with a cartridge. My neck and face would look good for the first day. The next few days the itching would become insane. Anyway, figure one pass with with a de is one pass, one pass with a three blade cartridge is three passes, go opposite diredtion now you are at six. The people on this site are more than helpful. I also just picked up some witch hazel and it definitely helps. All of the things I just brought up I found on here. I am 38 and feel like a kid looking for Christmas presents as I view the amazing number of different products out there. Keepup to date on your progress and I will do the same. I am determined to find something that works.
I recently just bought a DE razor and brush and soap from Boots. Nothing amazingly expensive and the quality I doubt is as good as the expensive razors you talk about here. But it seems to be doing the job much much better than cartridge, so thank you guys! That constant 'just shaved' feeling that used to last for a day after shaving no longer happens which is great. I've been cutting down on the shaving now for a little while whilst my neck heals. So limiting it to once every 2 days or so. The problem is, even beneath the hairs on my neck after a day or 2 without shaving I can still see the red marks and bumps which don't seem to have yet healed. Is there advice on actually getting them to heal? I tried tweezers as some suggest but there doesn't seem to be any ingrown hair to pluck out.
A shot of peroxide helps. And if I may ask which razor did you buy. Some of the less expensive ones are actually pretty good quality and performers.. fancy and expensive isn't necessarily always an indication of what is really best..
http://www.pharmacyfirst.co.uk/men-39-s/wilkinson-sword-classic-double-edge-razor/prod_5185.html Just one of these, it's all I could afford :S I ended up accidentally cutting into one of the bumps whilst shaving earlier despite applying almost no pressure. Apart from that it was a decent shave.
Ya you seem to have made some progress and later on you might want to look for one of the Lord razors. These go for about 5 to 10 bucks on line and are probably better than the Wilky..but you've made a good start. And how's the lathering going.. do you find that a proper lather helped as well?..
A lot, yes! And it just feels so much better applying soap to my face with a brush. Not to mention I can now gauge how much I'm actually using.
Great advice so far on moving to a brush and soap/real cream. If that doesn't completely fix the problem, the next thing to focus on is the direction you're shaving. Neck hair can grow in weird patterns so make sure you're really going WTG on the first pass. If you're like me, the pattern is so crazy you'll just have to experiment with directions for each pass until you find what works.
It's a bit tricky to explain on paper, angling the razor path as you go, you kinda find the path of least resistance for the razor...
I have been cursed with the most sensitive neck ever. Even if I prepare my skin perfectly and go nice and slow with the grain, I break out with a hideous rash. I did have an ingrown hair but it has since been removed yet this continues to happen. I aspire to have my neck, after shaving, looking like it did before I'd ever even grown hair there before. Some people manage it! I should mention I'm quite thin too, which only makes shaving my neck that much more difficult.[/quote] =============== The barber textbooks all advise that the neck area is the most sensitive, and that to avoid skin irritation, it should not be over shaved. If your skin in general is sensitive, no doubt your neck skin is hyper sensitive. Curly hair, under a microscope is flat like a ribbon, and when shaved close, it tends to curl back into the hair follicle, thus creating an ingrown hair. The closer the shave, the more likely the hairs are to become ingrown. Normally, straight hair does not present this problem. A couple of things you might try: 1. Wash your hands thoroughly before shaving, and make sure the razor is sterilized. It is possible that some allergen is on your hands, and is being transferred to your scraped skin by your finger tips, thus causing an allergic reaction. For example, I have a dog allergy. Were I to shave right after petting a dog, my skin would immediately break out. 2. Only make one pass with the razor, but try to make sure you are using the correct pressure the first time to achieve the closeness you desire. 3. Try to find some "Barber's Secret," or "Wilkinson Shave Cream" I'm not sure if either is available in the U.S. but they may be available in Europe. The cream will have a pearlescent look to it. If you can find some, use it as a pre shave and leave it under the lather to act as a skin lubricant for the razor blade. 4. Finish with a mentholated cream, and an alcohol based aftershave. Do not finish with an oily aftershave. If you can't find anything that works, ask your friends how they think you'd look with a beard. You probably wouldn't be the first person to choose a beard over perpetually irritated skin.
Being new to this also, but having read and read and read a little more, I have been using witch hazel it is awesome.
Hi Galactus, I can say I have the same problem. Initially it was cause by poor technique and I over shaved my neck and got a bunch of ingrown hairs. Now those have healed up and my technique improve, and yet I still have neck irritation most times. It looks more like an allergic reaction rash then razor burns. I agree with not overdoing things, such as too much hot water to prep your skin, over exfoliation in the shower before a shave, not overly using very cold water (let alone ice cubes!) after you're done since those would all irritate your skin. Even though sometimes there is no apparent damage right away, it might be there in the deeper layers of your skin and if you shave everyday, it is bound to surface one day or another. Stuff that helped me (read: it's better but I didn't beat it yet!) was going back to the basics, and avoiding irritants like I said earlier. After a shave with irritation, I'll use the alum block (or not since it stings a bit), Thayer's Witch Hazel (unscented and alcohol-free, that's a good pain reliever) and a good face moisturizer (Nivea sensitive skin of my usual ASB) to promote healing. If there are razor bumps, which are actually infection in the follicle, then I'll swap WH for an alcohol-based product (splash or other) to disinfect the area and help healing. Hope this helps! Please send any other advice my way too!
Hi, I'm in the UK also, supermarkets stock a few Items of shave gear, Namely Wilkinson Sword shaving soap, Palmolive cream and shave sticks, I started off with a boar hair Wilkinson sword brush and shaving soap both readily available at either Tesco or asda, also try Boots the chemist, they keep quite a range in stock especially their own brand lather shave cream which is very good( I have two tubes Myself), hope this is helpful!!!!
Does anybody know: Can the alum block give you a rash? I didn't try to isolate this component yet to figure it out, so I think I'll try this week.
