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So, I am luckily past the point in my life (am 23) where I dont get acne really anymore. however, I do get an occasional pimple on my neck, prolly resulting from ingrown hairs, dunno.
What sort of ... unfortunate situations, if you will ... will i get into when shaving with a straight? Will it completely slice the entire pimple off or just kinda cut it a lil like a safety razor does
I don't get pimples on my face area any more (I'm 37) but I do occasionally still get some on my head for some reason (bad diet, probably). Sometimes they get shaved straight off at head level and bleed; sometimes (if they are the blind type) the razor just goes over the top of them with no ill effects.
If you're worried about them, try a more acute angle and a very light touch with the blade - that will probably mitigate the damage a bit. But unfortunately you'll probably knock the head off some and get bleeding occasionally.
Good Luck!
James.
Depends on the pimple and depends on how sharp your razor is IME. I never had real acne, but at the age of 38, if I look hard enough I can probably say that at any given time I have a pimple somewhere on my neck, face, nose, forehead, etc.:rant:
I've had razors skip over bigger ones and I've had razors just slice em right off.
Chris L
Ingrown neck pimples get the tweezer from me even though thankfully now I rarely ever get them when I used to get a ton before shaving with straights. The alum block and Witch Hazel have really helped me with this as well.
yea with my "amazing" hot shave i had today :rant: i talked to the barber who happened to speak almost no english (young spanish stylist ugh) and he said that what it was is ingrown hairs (bottom corners of my beard area) and i asked well,, how to prevent them.
he said to just let my beard grow a little and then tweeze them. we shall see. have tweezers, gotta try that in a few days.. always thought was razor burn.
im so excited to get a straight, my roommate just came in and asked what im doin and saw i was on here doin research still... finds it interseting how basically obsessed i have become :)
now i am tryin to find a decent blade, preferably shave ready, to buy and start with!
A good razor will turn acne into scars. :)
I would think tweezing ingorn hairs makes ingrown hairs more likely.
How about let the hairs come out then shave once with the grain only, don't go aggressive. It's better to have stubble flush against the skin than under it.
If I had acne I wouldn't use a straight. I currently shave around any pimples I have now because I'd rather not scar my skin
I would try conditioning your skin a product containing benzoyl peroxide or salicylic acid. I prefer Aveeno daily moisturizer with 0.5% Salicylic Acid... but that's because I have sensitive skin (and I'm obviously not shaving my face as you are). Panoxyl products (with benzoyl peroxide) are good too, they are just too gnarly for my face. Both, as with many others products, are available at your local pharmacy (CVS,Wal-greens etc.). Once you get on a routine and then introduce the straight, you'll probably be better much better off. You shave those suckers off, and you will replace it with a scar most likely. I'm not trying to go all female on you, but the skin of a man's face (especially because you shave) needs to be cared for every bit as much as a woman's face. Oh, and I have done the tweezing thing too, but once you get on a regular product schedule combined with the straight, you'll probably eliminate a lot of the ingrown hairs.
yea i busted out my big mirror and my tweezers and pulled up in my chair with a spotlight and tried to tweeze... no cluew hat im doin.. actually, i ended up cleanin up my brow line haha
but yea... it needs to grow more since everything is just a little raw. im assuming its just ingrown hair. i have SOME acne but its not bad, i dont think. i used to have REAL bad acne problems... ill post a pic or two of my problem spots that im concerned about
thanks for your help! so you think those creams could be of help with my issue to help prevent getting any, or as many, ingrowns?
theres are all a few hours after my "hot shave" at my barbers
my right side
http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g1...k/IMG_0792.jpg
my left side (you can see the ingrown and one of my"pimples" i get near my goatee)
http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g1...k/IMG_0791.jpg
gross looking, huh? macro on my ingrown. if only i could see that when trying to tweeze. grossssssss
http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g1...k/IMG_0793.jpg
Looks like acne to me.
I have terminal acne :roflmao . Doesn't seem like I ever will completely get rid of it.
The straight shave seems to keep it down better than any other type of shaving and it creates less ingrown hairs too. I personally would just shave. Use a quality natural soap Like Mama bear or the gentlemans quarter and that will help too. I then like to finish off with an Alum block then a moisturising balm. This is the best method of exfoliation there is.
Good luck hope it improves, I expect it will.
That's incredible - look how the individual hairs grow in different directions when they are in such great proximity to one another! I'd definitely let those areas clear out before using a straight on them if you were me
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
ive been diagnosed as acne?! :P yea im definitely hoping and thinking that a straight will help this. well, once i get past my learning curve and mark my face up! haha
i wont go as far to say i like pain, but i dont mind it at all, i mean, moderate pain, gun shots and stuff i have no clue. but, not worried about applyin an alum block or a pencil to clean anythin up, or any splashs..
man.. just wanna buy some stuff and start shavin away :P
I'd definitely say get an Alum block. That stuff's been around for thousands of years for a reason. But the alum is what's going to help you after your shave.... if you nick yourself and to help close up your pores. I'd also consider your skin before you shave so there's less for you to chop off, so to speak. Quick and easy without a lot of perusing the beauty products in the store - get a Proactive kit and use it. It's going to get worse before it gets better, but it will get better. I used to be a professional diver and ingrown hairs were a problem, obviously not on my face, but I know exactly how it behaves. I just really see the beauty in a straight razor shave and I think your face deserves to reap the very best rewards from it. I guess it would be like buying a cheapo straight thinking you're going to get a high class shave... skimping on your face just isn't worth it. Obviously this is all IMHO.
Ctufano,
If I may offer my $0.02. I too have struggled with acne, and I have found what works far and away better than anything else. I have begun "method shaving" using a straight. I realize it has a bad rap among the shaving purists, but I seriously cannot tell you how much of a difference it has made.
If you're not familiar with method shaving, you can read up on it a bit over at B&B; however, I will warn you that most of the guys over there trash it because they have never tried it.
If you want more details, PM me and I'll be happy to talk to you about it.
PS -- I have absolutely no affiliation with Charles (the guy who makes/sells the products) other than just being a super satisfied customer. No joke, he had my face cleared up in 3 days.
What do you mean, like, go to a dematologist and get one? Not familiar with how proactiv works (i used to take accutane when i had real bad acne). Then wait for my skin to clear up pretty much all the way before using a straight? Or, treat it then shave, just want to make sure I fully understand.Quote:
Originally Posted by Viola
As for you bein a diver, awesome! I am a PADI Divemaster, used to live down in Stuart, FL and helped with classes or just runnin drag during checkouts for instructors... Rest of time spent buggin or hunting and workin in dive shops ;)
I think you can pick up Proactive at the drugstore now. It's just an easy system to work with. Again, at the risk of going all fem on you, it has all the steps you need to treat your skin right... and it's all in the same box. I used to be on Accutane too, so I can relate. Give it a week of using it and see if it starts to clear up. It may take a little longer. As with any product, it's going to get worse at first because it's going to be attacking and drawing out the impurities. IMHO, I'd lay off shaving for as long as you can while you start treating it. That way you aren't constantly irritating your skin in the same spot over and over. The men on here have great advice for skin care so listen to them too. It's just, unfortunately, all skin wasn't created equally so you're going to have to find what's going to work for your skin.Quote:
Originally Posted by ctufano
Oh, and yes, NAUI Dive Mistress:) here. Used to live in the Keys in my former life. I'm in Orlando now.
will check at publix tomorrow! fortunately, i dont mind lettin my face grow haha, in fact, i love it!
im in orlando too, senior at UCF
ctufano-
I pm'ed you an article on ingrown hairs that I just found and it's along with what I was trying to convey. Hope it helps.
Another old man (42) chiming in.... once you start treating your face to a hot towel and some decent shave soap, like Colleen's, applied with a brush you will begin to do a better job ex-foliating and truly cleaning your skin your acne will be much less of a problem. you will be amazed at what a nice job glycerin SOAP (not detergent) and water will do for your face
Hmmmm, based on those pics IMO he doesn't have acne but instead has an angry patch of ingrowns that were further angered from the shave. IME pimples don't occur for me at the hair follicle but the pore (I'm pretty ignorant to this, so maybe every pore is also a hair follicle?). Unless acne is a broad term that includes any situation where a pustule forms on the skin?
Someone had suggested waiting until the ingrowns surface. Sometimes, and I would even say most of the time in my past experience that didn't happen on their own. IME if left to their own accord, the chronology for me is: ingrown, infected ingrown, pustule, broken pustule, then released to the surface. I've never had any magically break free in a clean and peaceful manner.
I bought a pair of tweezers with the sharp pointed tips. A regular tweezer doesn't work well and will just irritate a broader area than necessary.
My .02
Chris L
yea, im goin to look into maybe an exfoiliating brush/comb to lightly scrub and break them free from their horrible tombs ;P
that should help i think. my situation isnt normally this bad, at all. the barber would shave an area several times quickly, so... that worked it pretty bad. and i felt the carnage as he was doin it, goin against he grain.
but to be honest, i dont know. i always though u should shave against hte grain because if i would go WTG, then ATG, id get razor burn from hell. so.. i always just went ATG once and hoped for the best with my mach3. also, if its too short (which, i was pretty fresh before my shave) ill get a good bit of irritation. so... imma let it grow out.. maybe buy some pointed tweezers to get t he obvious ones, but i just cant see what i need when lookin at a mirror -- possibly a magnifying mirror?
let it grow up and go from there :)
I used to have problems with ingrowns. I still get them....sometimes...but it is a constant battle.
1) let the ones you have grow out. Help them if you have to using a needle or tweezers.
2) though I have been known to pull them out, it is considerd better to just make sure they are not burried under your skin. Dermitologists seem to disagree here....
3) Wait untill they are healed to shave that area again if possible. As this helps to stop repeats, remember I said helps.
4) When healed shave with the grain as much as possible where you have problems. Try just one pass the first time, and then work up from there. The overall solution is that you cannot give yourself a BBS where ever you get shave induced ingrowns. Like me you most likely have a curly, wiry beard, which grows right along the skin. If you shave too close the hair ends up under your skin and remains there. I hope this may be of some help as it has helped me....oh, the sharper the blade the better off you should be....cleaner cut.
5) Hot water rise followed by a COLD water rinse. On days were I think I may have shaved too close or abraided my skin I avoid balms as it seems to cause problems then...odd eh, just when you think I would want to use the stuff. I use a alchohol base AS then and in fact most of the time. Fire yes, but it also disinfects. Which is just what you need when you have a wound and you just peeled off a layer of skin so.....
I used to relish finding the occasional uber whisker; you know, the ones that are freakishly thick and seem to be many whiskers fused together longitudinally? Through the years I've had them as thick as the diameter of a paper clip or larger. They would pull out too easily to resist. The problem was on rare occasion when they'd grow back the would want to grow at an angle deeply under the skin. Think painful boil or a deep monster zit you'd almost need to squeeze with a pliers (pain pain painful). So, I don't pluck any whiskers now.Quote:
Originally Posted by Belegnole
Chris L
Just to add one more conflicting opinion to this thread, I have been told this advice in the past, but I find that I get more acne when i don't shave. My theory is that when you have longer whiskers, it holds oils against your skin. :shrug:Quote:
Originally Posted by Viola
it makes sense, but also, i find that if i have some actual acne on my face where ishave if i let it grow out it clears up a good bit lol. i guess it varies? dunno... last night i used some apricot scrub in the showeron my face on my two bottom corners where the mob of ingrowns are and it helps a little -- hurt like a buzzard but... helped. exfoliated some of the skin and what not.
gonna let it clear up and then buy some tweezers and try to break the seal of any other ingrowns. go from there. maybe buy some cleaners u guys have been talkin bout