Thread: razor burn

Just thought I would share:

I have been suffering from fairly severe razor burn for the past 2 weeks since I have started this endeavor. that being said, I have found some pretty cool relief from razor burn.
When it is bad, several times throughout the day if necessary, I do a full shave prep (steam or wash for 4 minutes, lather and work it in well, rinse, and repeat. After this treatment I apply aloe vera gel (pretty awesome) or my trumper's skin food (also awesome, but much more expensive than the aloe vera).
Hope this helps?

If you are getting bad razor burn it sounds like you might be using too much pressure. I got wicked bad razor burn the first week too - and I really thought I wasn't heavy handed at all. It's a habit that I had to unlearn from using cartridges. I found that just essentially guiding my razor and letting its own weight do the work yielded a much less painful result.

Ditto the above advise. With cartridge razors, people get in the habit of using more pressure to get a closer shave. With straights, a good shave is reliant on good technique, part of which is using as light of pressure as possible.

Just to add a note too...try not going over the same area two many times...this will cause razorburn too.
Razorburn - Steve

Alot of razors won't permit pressure without making pinklather...

The heavy grinds tolerate it more, but the guys are telling it right - no pressure. It still shaves as well, and allows more passes without irritation.

Best of luck & keep posting.

maybe your blade is not shave ready?

have you bought it from the classified section on these forums? or striaght razor designs? if so, it's your technique. if not, you might want to have your razor checked for shave readiness.
beware of cheap razors. they're junk and don't deserve the title "metalworking".

Theres a few things that will lead to razor burn:

- Poor face prep (but it sounds from your post like you're doing this right)
- A badly honed razor
- Too much pressure

If you're relatively new its probably too much pressure (assuming you bought your razor from a reputable source).

The best thing to do is give your face a few days to heal. Creams and lotions will help but eventually you'll either end up beet red or with zits or something, and you dont want that.

Avoid the ATG stroke as well, thats a real one for getting your face sore. It tends to pull the pores at the base of the hair open slightly and that causes irritation as well as allowing germs/dirt to get in an infect the root of the hair. I simply cant do the ATG stroke at all, it just scarifies my face..!

Good luck and keep us posted!

For good measure:

I got Proraso razor burn repair. Works great, it just disappears.... I think i'll try the aloe vera gel as well....

I finally did the whole WTG, XTG, ATG shave today, Have been at this straight razor thing for about a week. My face is so smooth, but it is still on fire several hours later. I thought maybe I needed a different post shave routine but I am gonna try a lighter touch. After reading these posts I think I am being heavy handed due to the ol Gillette sensor. I did order some Thayers alcohol free rose water witch hazel with aloe. Hope that helps too.

This should make you feel a bit better guy, I remember when I 1st started and was getting very, very close shaves, lots of fire on my face, not cut up you understand, just from loosing 9 of my 7 layers of skins cells!! I actually had to use Ne-osporin straight all over my face like a face cream to make it easier to rest while it all healed up.

Now, that's razor burn!!

Have a good one, or two, tinkersd