Shaving Irritation

Okay, I've been shaving for 3 weeks; it's been every day for the last two weeks. I have been concentrating on my shaving and things are going well. However, the last two days, I have had the worse burning sensation on my neck below my chin down to my adam's apple. The rest of my face is fine, but the small strip on my neck burns when I shave. The skin is smooth and isn't red, no other irritation; it just burns when I run the razor across it. It's weird that it doesn't burn when I run the alum block on it, and it's not red.

Is there something that I doing or not doing right? I shave with a light pressure stroke and the razor is sharp. Or, should I just take a couple of days off in that area?

Sounds a bit odd, I must admit.

Yes, give your skin a couple days off and see what that does.
If that doesn't help, I would try to remove or change one thing at the time, and by doing this hopefully discover what might be causing it.
The area is a place where a lot of guys experience irritation, so it might be that a product you are reacting mildly to, is only felt on that area.

It is hard to pinpoint by your description alone, but try to change prep a bit, maybe a different puck of soap, a slightly different stroke on the affected area or some different post shave treatment.

What products are you using?

Warm water, AOS Sandlewood shaving cream, Le Grelot. Most of my neck hair points north. When using a regular razor, I shave up and then down. With the straight, I tend to shave down first and then up.

That's a good product, but maybe your skin is sensitive to the sandlewood. Might want to try an unscented product just to see if it makes a difference. My face reacts to Tabac that way except it gets really red too

Sounds like a plan. I look for the lavender or unscented.

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Originally Posted by jerrybyers

Sounds like a plan. I look for the lavender or unscented.

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Their lavender is very good too, and so is the DR Harris lavender. My wife has extremely sensitive skin, and she used the DR Harris with great success. Let us know how it goes :)

I had a bit of the same experience early on. You might want to check your angle as you shave that part of your neck. You're shaving down a curve, and in my case it took a few days to get the hang of keeping the angle of the blade to the contour of my throat constant. The places where I let it get above 30 degress were the places that burned.

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Originally Posted by richmondesi

Their lavender is very good too, and so is the DR Harris lavender.

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I ordered some DR Harris last night. I will let you know how it works when I get it.

I never that about the changing angle on the front of the neck from the chin down; I'll keep an eye on that.

That is very bizarre because burn is burn no matter what causes it and being that it's irritation typical products like the alum should make it feel worse. Try dabbing some alcohol on it and see if it burns.

I would guess either your skin is more sensitive there or you are doing something different there without realizing it like more pressure or angle change or just holding the razor differently.

Okay, I got the DR Harris in yesterday and shaved with it this morning. To tell you the truth, I wasn't really impressed with it. First of all, it wasn't very creamy for being a cream. Is that normal for this brand? The texture was more of a thick soap. The AOS that I'm using is like a cold cream consistency. The DR Harris was thicker than that, almost gummy. The second thing that threw me off was that it was deep purple. There has to be a dye in there to get this color. For something for sensitive skin, I wouldn't think to put in a dye.

The other thing that I noticed was that I had to re-lather a lot, since it dried out quickly or just got gummy. I tried to add more water and build up a better lather, but it stick stuck to my blade, or my blade dragged on my face.

This is the first time that I've used DR Harris, so maybe my expectations were wrong. After using the AOS cream, I just thought the DR Harris would be about the same consistency or creamer/slicker.

Has anybody tried the Lavender AOS?

yeah, that sounds about right. Try loading the brush like a soap. It performs well, though. Spend a little time working on the lather :)

AoS is very good, though. In fact, their soaps are among the best on the market. So is the D.R. Harris lavender soap. But your cream should be ok too.

Just an update on the irritation: it is pretty much gone. So, what did I do different? I tried the DR Harris shaving cream, but went back to the AOS shaving cream. The DR Harris was just drying too fast, much like my Col. Conk's soap. I did start adding glycerin to my soap mix. That seems to make a difference, as long as I add sufficient water. The other thing that I'm trying is to keep the blade stropped; to keep the edge aligned and keep the edge clean.

I'll continue to watch the blade angle and keep the blade sharp.

Glad to know things are getting better! Once it all starts to come together, it's very satisfying.

I have identified a sensitive spot, the small area right under my lower lip. It feels like the blade is scraping, but I just push through and only shave it one pass. I'm guessing this is probably a sensitive area for many.

Were you not stropping before and after shaving previously? I would guess you're running into one of two issues...

1. Angle, your hair may change angle depending on the location, so even if you are holding the razor at the same angle it may be approaching your hair at a different angle thus causing the irritation.
2. Stropping is used to realign the metal on the blade, if you don't strop and you have metal that isn't lined up I could see that easily causing what you are describing in more sensitive areas like the neck.

Those would be the two areas I would look at first.

I've pretty much eliminated the irritation. I'm watching the blade angle as suggested and I went with a sharper blade. I went back to the AOS shaving cream and adding some glycerin. The biggest challenge is the shaving angle; I can shave down with no problems. I'm still working on the angles to shaving up the neck.

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Originally Posted by jerrybyers

I ordered some DR Harris last night. I will let you know how it works when I get it.

I never that about the changing angle on the front of the neck from the chin down; I'll keep an eye on that.

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I have a bottle of Dr. Harris Milk and I love it for the days I feel like I have a little burn.