For sensitive skin: first pass with electric

Intro: I've got very sensitive skin with fine hair. Started DE wet shaving 6 months ago. Until recently, my standard shave had a basic 3-pass format. But I've never been able to make a 3-pass shave two days in a row with Merkur blades or even once with Feather blades. Well, I CAN, but inevitably my sensitive skin gets red and irritated. My lathering is good, prep is good, post-shave is good. Very confident I am not making major mistakes in those areas anymore. Technique is always getting better of course.

Discovery: My previous shave routine was quite normal - 3 passes, WTG/XTG/XTG+ATG (third pass ATG in less sensitive areas that can handle it, XTG in the opposite diagonal direction on more sensitive areas). Last month, I replaced the first 2 passes with a pass of my electric. I do this before my shower, and afterwards I only make one pass with my DE, just in the areas where I can actually still feel some stubble after the shower. This has allowed me to get an outstanding shave daily and never have to deal with redness or irritation anymore.

Be aware that I put a lot of care and experimentation (years ago) into finding an electric that would give me a good shave and never leave me with nicks or irritation. I landed on the Panasonic ES4289 and it's an absolute dream for me as far as electrics go. I use it dry because it simply can't slide across my skin under any kind of wet conditions at all. The best thing about it is the texture of the foil screen, which is unique among electrics if you inspect it closely, and is the only one that does such a good job for me.

Additional note (any comments?): The skin on my upper lip feels completely different when the blade is moved across it than the skin on my chin and neck. I can't even come close to ATG on my upper lip without shredding it brutally. In that area, the electric is by far the best shave I'm capable of getting, as it leaves me tremendously smooth. Even if I stretch my top lip down over my teeth and push my fingertips firmly ATG, I can BARELY detect any stubble after a pass with my electric. I'm pretty sure the only reason I'd have to try and get a better (or equivalent) shave there with any other method would be purely for the challenge. I do a little bit of cleanup right under my nose with the DE because the electric just doesn't reach that area, and it works out great.

If you're wondering why I haven't mentioned my cheeks at all...I don't grow any hair on them (I'm 26). I literally only have hair in the goatee area and slightly lower on my neck. Shrug.

Different horses for different courses.
If you find the 'electric' the best, stick with it. The varieties of the 'shaving' experience!

I have a hypothesis that if the electric is giving you a very smooth shave and the 3 passes of DE are irritated your skin, then you might be using too much pressure when "dragging" the DE over your face.

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Originally Posted by TwistedOak

I have a hypothesis that if the electric is giving you a very smooth shave and the 3 passes of DE are irritated your skin, then you might be using too much pressure when "dragging" the DE over your face.

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That was definitely a problem for me for a while getting started, but I've worked a lot at moving the razor with no pressure. I am still working on maintaining the shallowest possible angle with it all the time though :\

also edited the verb "drag" out of my OP. fair catch :)

Well, I'll venture to say you won't get too many people here wanting to use an electric for any shaving. I know when I used an electric (ages ago) when I finished my skin was BBS so I can't see why you would use a DE after that. It seems using a DE to begin with and experimenting with your technique would be the better way to go.

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Originally Posted by thebigspendur

Well, I'll venture to say you won't get too many people here wanting to use an electric for any shaving. I know when I used an electric (ages ago) when I finished my skin was BBS so I can't see why you would use a DE after that. It seems using a DE to begin with and experimenting with your technique would be the better way to go.

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i get a smoother result with the DE, but it gets irritated a while later unless i restrict its use to just 1 pass. so my method is to start with electric, which gives me a good-but-not-great shave, and finish with a single pass on my DE, leaving me BBS without the irritation, AND allowing me to shave every day instead of every 3rd day as would be the case when using just the DE. or every day, but somewhat less than BBS, as was the case with just the electric.

if i had it my way, i'd never use my electric because it's boring. but my skin just can't handle multiple passes with the DE if i want to shave daily.

I always found after shaving with an electric (and I tried them all) my neck especially was red and raw. It was the main reason I switched over to a DE many moons ago long before I contemplated a straight..

One fallacy:

Multiple passes are necessary.


With all the lip service given to WTG, XTG, ATG, BBS and all that baloney, it's easy to think it's important... but it's mostly newbs obsessing over it. :) With the right angle and no pressure you will eventually get to where one, uno, sol, ein pass is all it will take to get a perfect shave...

Keep working on using less pressure, playing with your lather, and figuring out how much you'll ask for the Panasonic at your next garage sale. ;)

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Originally Posted by BKratchmer

One fallacy:

Multiple passes are necessary.


With all the lip service given to WTG, XTG, ATG, BBS and all that baloney, it's easy to think it's important... but it's mostly newbs obsessing over it. :) With the right angle and no pressure you will eventually get to where one, uno, sol, ein pass is all it will take to get a perfect shave...

Keep working on using less pressure, playing with your lather, and figuring out how much you'll ask for the Panasonic at your next garage sale. ;)

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even with a DE? this seems intuitive to me for SR, but with a DE it seems like a single ATG pass on a few-days-old beard would cause clogging?

Hey, if it works it works.

But in the meantime I'll pretend that I never read the "E" word here at SRP :roflmao

My father used to use an electric razor and made a point of shaving his neck first. His reasoning was that when the area that contacted the skin got warm that was where the irritation came from. Shaving the neck before the heat built up seemed to help him. Of course he's dead now, but I don't think it was the razor that took him out.

I guess it just goes to show that we are all different.

I've tried an electric at 3 or 4 different times of my life as the technology changed in hopes that it might be the solution to the irritation I had when shaving. In every case the electric made my entire face red and raw.

Cartridge blades were a little better, but the best shave I've had is with a straight razor. I might try a DE sometime, just to compare.

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Originally Posted by vitalMyth

even with a DE? this seems intuitive to me for SR, but with a DE it seems like a single ATG pass on a few-days-old beard would cause clogging?

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I've shaved my entire head with an OC gillette and never had an issue with clogging. This was after at least a weeks worth of growth.

Have you tried doing two DE passes prior to the shower, and then a final pass after the shower?

That seems to be the other variable involved here...
Maybe it's not the electric, but the shower between that is helping you out.

@ Opening Poster,

A good shave is a combination of a smooth face and a no irritation of the skin.

If 3 passes is too much why not one or 2? If your beard hairs are thin as you describe you might be able to get a good shave going against the grain only. Or try XTG or WTG only.

My skin would not tolerate 3 pass shaves. I do ATG only. Works for me.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Kees

@ Opening Poster,

A good shave is a combination of a smooth face and a no irritation of the skin.

If 3 passes is too much why not one or 2? If your beard hairs are thin as you describe you might be able to get a good shave going against the grain only. Or try XTG or WTG only.

My skin would not tolerate 3 pass shaves. I do ATG only. Works for me.

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i've been doing the same the past few days with good results. i had read several people raving about multi-pass stubble reduction, and when i started doing it, i noticed an improvement in my results. but at this point i am pretty sure that the benefit was just from the lather sitting on my beard and softening it for a couple minutes, rather than from the first couple passes themselves. i'm now just doing a single pass XTG in sensitive areas and ATG elsewhere, but i have been applying the lather to my face and letting it sit for 60 seconds, rinsing, then re-lathering before my single-pass shave. it's been great, and no irritation.

thanks for suggestions all!