Thread: Ingrown hair & irritation

I seem to get this irritation if I shave daily, it mainly occurs down the sides of my chin area, like where the sides of a goatee might grow (if, heaven forbid, I were to grow one!) The hair seems quite thick here, and it seems to be the only place where I get this trouble (I hate to say it, but it doesn't happen with a cartridge razor )

What can I do? It seems to be the only stumbling block stopping me from becoming a full time straight shaver...

I know I'm not the only person to have suffered this fate, a friend of mine gave up straights because of the same symptoms. Someone here must have some good advice for me!!

Try working your prep and shaving technique a little better. Doing several passes is probably a good idea. Once with the grain, once across the grain, again across the grain in the other direction and then against the grain. Hot towel and lather between each pass. This will allow you to get a very close shave with very little pressure and that should ease up on the irritation. It should also help with ingrowns as you'll be sure to clear the top layer of dead, pore clogging skin away. Good luck!

X

I've had my own share of ingrown hairs, so my advice comes from experience. Try the following (not necessarily in this order):

- Stretch your skin more whilst shaving with the straight. I find the better I stretch my skin, the closer the shave and with less ingrown hairs.

- DON'T shave against or even across the grain. It's better to do more than one pass with the grain than to do an across or worse, an against the grain. I know that my skin simply can't cope with an against or across the grain pass, so I just don't do either of these. Maybe your skin could be like this too? MY advice is to experiment on this one and see what works best for you.

- Use hot water - and by hot I mean hot enough to makes steam appear on the bathroom mirrors. Wash your face thoroughly with this. Xman's advice on using hot towels between passes is not a bad idea at all.

- If you're not doing so already, try shaving on alternate days (i.e. every other day).

- Wash your face morning and night and follow with a moisturiser suited to your skin. If I don't put moisturiser on, my skin becomes very tight, dry and flaky. This is apparently a prime cause of ingrown hairs.

- Use a good exfoliator once or perhaps twice a week to soften and clear out your face from dead skin cells. I can recommend a few to use, although you should really go fro something suited to your skin type.

I should add that if it weren't for straights - and this forum - I wouldn't have the face that I have now. Gillette and their fourteen and fifteen blade cartridges (or whatever they are now) caused me monster ingrown hairs and razor bumps. Not to mention a 9am shadow every day! Some would take months to heal (sic) and at some point I became reluctant to go out as these things looked so horrible on my face.

Hope this helps and good luck!

You have received advice already...

I was just surprised, because for me straights are so nice! - I used to get some (not many, but still quite frustrating) ingrown hairs with other shaving approaches, DEs included. I think this is the first post I see that a person says he gets more ingrowns with a straight than with anything else...

One thing I want to ask: while I myself do stretch with good results, doesn't this actually work worse for ingrown hairs? Maybe less stretching = less potential for ingrowns? I cannot really say, just because I don't get ingrowns from my straights

Good luck
Ivo

I always get ingrowns when I stretch the skin and use a DE razor.

I suppose it could also be the straight razor not being honed sharp enough?

Thanks for the advice - I'll be giving some of those tips a try over the next few days and see how things work out.
I know that shaving every other day works fine for me, it's just that I'm going to need to shave on a daily basis once I leave uni and join the workforce!
Maybe I need to send my blades for a professional hone job, I've only ever honed my own, so I've no point of reference to make a comparison.