New to soaps/cremes...need advice because my neck is hating it.

For the last 10 years or so I've been using Aveeno shave gelor it generic equivalent coupled with a Mach III blade. I’ve shave Mon-Fri (the past couple of monthsI’ve gotten lazy and have been shaving M,W,&F.) My routine has been shower,shave, rinse with warm water, towel dry and that’s it. No aftershave, no nicks, no irritation, facea touch dry in the colder months but no big deal really.

My actual shaving process is with the grain above the jawline followed immediately with against the grain w/out relather on right cheek…repeaton left cheek. The neck gets against thegrain treatment from the get. I can get 6-8 shaves from each cartridge. I can push it further if I’m too lazy to goto Sam’s and buy some more but it’s not a real comfortable shave…still no skinirritation though.

Well, nostalgia got the better of me and I decided to startshaving with soaps and a straight. Haven’tused the straight yet, still on the cartridges, but here’s my dilemma. I picked up a cheap soap at the local RiteAid a month or so ago, can’t remember the name of it. I used it two days in a row and my necklooked like a pair of irritated ostrich skinned boots. I threw it away and didn’t shave for a fewdays to let it calm down, which it did, went back to my generic Aveeno and noproblems since.

Fast forward to a Christmas day. I got the Mitchell’s Wool Fat that was on myChristmas list and lathered it up no problem. This stuff glides like nobody’s business but it was loading up my MachIII cartridge pretty good…had to rinse the razor more often. My neck is not a happy camper with thiseither. First day I didn’t use anaftershave. Second day I bought someNivea for sensitive skin and my neck didn’t really seem to appreciate it. My neck doesn’t look as bad as it did withthe cheap soap but it is definitely irritated. So I won’t be shaving for a couple more days.

By the way, I’ve got a Merkur 38c on the way along with asample pack of blades from amazon..should be here on Thursday. It’s got Feathers, Gillete 7 oclock, Astraplatinum, some other platinum, and Lord something or other. Any recommendations on which to use first?

So now what? I’m notreal keen on spending 150 bucks on different soaps looking for something thatworks. Funny thing is economics was a very close second to nostalgia in thedecision to switch. Looks like I may beshaving for another 20 years before I start seeing a return if I have to buy a100 different things to find out what works.

It really sounds like you have a technique issue. Usually when you get irritation it's a sign you are damaging your skin so you need to find out what you are doing wrong. maybe angle, maybe pressure you need to figure that out. Once you get the DE you will need to learn how to use it. if you are using the wrong angle or pressure your result will be even worse than with the cartridge you are using now because those cartridge systems are made to be pretty foolproof. That is not the case with the DE. Just start off slow and easy.

your skin does take a little while to get used to the soap. With a shaving cream or gel, it dries out your skin but leaves the oil; with the soap, it moisturizes your face and cleans out some of the oils around your follicles. Your body is not used to having the skin moist and the hair un-oiled. It took my skin about a week to get used to the soap and brush with the cartridge razor, but ymmv.

Welcome to SRP!

Mt first thought is that your problems started when switching shaving soaps, so you may be allergic to the new products. Give it another go or two and if the irritation persists set them aside or sell them. I usually recommend using alum immediately post shave, and you could try it but I still think it's a skin reaction to the product.

Second thought, cut out the ATG shaving for now, especially when you start DE shaving. That is a major source of irritation, and usually an XTG pass will get the job done.

Third, you may want to nail down the source of irritation with your cartridge shaves before moving on to your new DE. DE's shave wonderfully, but they do take an adjustment of technique and there is a learning curve. You'll have to learn what no pressure means, and as I mentioned, you may want to lay off the ATG pass for awhile. Don't worry too much, it's fairly easy. The 38C is a great razor, it's heavy so you let the weight of the head do all the work for you. I'd recommend starting with the Astras, which are better for a beginner than the sharper, less forgiving brands you got in the blade sampler.

Good luck.

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Originally Posted by thebigspendur

It really sounds like you have a technique issue. Usually when you get irritation it's a sign you are damaging your skin so you need to find out what you are doing wrong. maybe angle, maybe pressure you need to figure that out. Once you get the DE you will need to learn how to use it. if you are using the wrong angle or pressure your result will be even worse than with the cartridge you are using now because those cartridge systems are made to be pretty foolproof. That is not the case with the DE. Just start off slow and easy.

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Thanks for your input, but I don't understand how it could be a technique issue when the only thing that changed was going from canned gel to soap. Does the gel mask a poor technique still allowing good results or something?

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Originally Posted by Ryan82

Welcome to SRP!

Mt first thought is that your problems started when switching shaving soaps, so you may be allergic to the new products. Give it another go or two and if the irritation persists set them aside or sell them. I usually recommend using alum immediately post shave, and you could try it but I still think it's a skin reaction to the product.

Second thought, cut out the ATG shaving for now, especially when you start DE shaving. That is a major source of irritation, and usually an XTG pass will get the job done.

Third, you may want to nail down the source of irritation with your cartridge shaves before moving on to your new DE. DE's shave wonderfully, but they do take an adjustment of technique and there is a learning curve. You'll have to learn what no pressure means, and as I mentioned, you may want to lay off the ATG pass for awhile. Don't worry too much, it's fairly easy. The 38C is a great razor, it's heavy so you let the weight of the head do all the work for you. I'd recommend starting with the Astras, which are better for a beginner than the sharper, less forgiving brands you got in the blade sampler.

Good luck.

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Thanks for all the info.

Remember those gels are made to go with the cartridge systems so yes it's possible the medium you are using is making your shave more forgiving.

Turns out tecnique was it. I guess I wasn't exactly accurate in my description of how I shave. On my neck I go south to north. When I used the soap I went north to south to go WTG to alleviate any irritation. Well, I was feeling my beard yesterday and realized that the grain on my neck goes south to north while the grain under my jaw goes north to south. So when I did the north to south pass two days in a row it tore my neck up pretty good. This morning I did a south to north pass only and everything is good...well, the other part of my face is complaining just a tad but it's no big deal.

Thanks for the comments everybody.

Sounds like you've got the right idea now. It's all about learning your beard. And having good pre-shave preparation. I can't overstate how important that is. What is your prep routine?

I too used to use Aveeno shave gel (which was awesome by the way) and noticed lots of irritation instantly from the MWF (and some of the other popular wet shaving tallow soaps). No change of technique or tools, just a different soap for me and I found that most big brand canned gels are formulated without anything that might irritate anyone in them. They are scientifically irritation free for the most part because that's what grabs the biggest market. Traditional shave soaps and cream use more essential oils and ingredients that can cause many people allergic reactions. The sad truth is until we compile and post up a spreadsheet showing brands of soap on the X and ingredients on the Y so that people may use it to identify their allergies and their perfect soap it is a crap shoot. I have some 30 different soaps and creams now and I would say about half cause me irritation.

I would like to propose to the group here that we together compile a spreadsheet of all products vs ingredients here... (and make it a sticky)

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/...GticzAwN2pKWVE

I started the spreadsheet with a few I have but feel free to update this with more products. The first sheet is soaps, the second is creams. We may also add a third sheet for pre-shaves, and a forth for postshave balms, fifth for aftershaves...

I think the DE is causing the problem. If I'm reading you right you haven't shaved with the straight. I get irritation from DEs and I know its because they're just not as sharp as I need them to be. I don't get irritation from straights. I'd suggest shaving with the straight making sure it's well sharpened beforehand. Aveeno gel should be fine with them. I use the stuff from time to time and, like all Aveeno products, it works really well.

You might also want to try cold-water shaving. Many of us prefer it, for a variety of reasons that include reduced skin irritation.