Thread: True or False

many years ago some guy who thought he was a wise sage told me after shaving you have exactly three minutes to get some aftershave on if you hope to minimize razor burn and other irritations. After that putting anything on your skin will do nothing. Over the years I've heard this repeated. So is it an old barbers tale or is it true? What do you think?

exactly 3 minutes? thats hard to say. i could see around 3 minutes considering that razor burn is caused by irritation which causes inflamation which your body should try to heal. this would take time, just like it takes time for a cut to scrab over. i don't think that if you wait longer that putting anything on will do nothing also, but i guess it would depend what you put on it also. plus the healthier you are the faster and more efficient your immune system will kick in to heal your face.

these are just my thoughts on it though.

3 minutes? bleh.

It depends on several things:
-how dry your skin is initially,
-how much moisture your shave cream product imparts to your skin,
-how dry the air around you is,
-how much damage your skin sustained during the shave...I'm sure there's more than that, but I am getting bored.

What he was thinking: I assume, was that skin sans aftershave product does dry out, and once that outer epidermis dries out, it's really hard to resuscitate it.

It's a hell of a lot easier, and a better idea, to apply product to face before your skin dries and the outer skin cells totally shrivel. With my normally super dry skin it's more like 30 seconds in the dry winter air.

For a more...oily chap, I would say they have a little more leeway.

I have no idea, Nelson.
Sometimes I wonder about all those products we can put on after a shave. Most of them, I simply use because they are a nice treat, or because my wife likes the scent. I tell myself my skin might benefit on the long term, but as far as an instant remedy goes for the (rare) occasions that I just can't call it a day and keep on shaving till my face burns, I haven't found anything that really made a difference yet.

I always do the cold water rinse and run the allum block over my wet face. Then I clean up before rinsing the dried allum away and putting on someting else (if I put something on at all). Of course the "3 minute" window being long passed by then.

I wonder what others will answer to your question.

best regards,
Bart.

I don't have a clue.

I can say with some certainty that my final pass takes me more than 3 minutes to complete. It usually entails a certain amount of touch up and buffing, so it takes some time. If the three minute rule is true, then I guess there is no hope for whatever section of face I start with on my last pass because by the time I finish I have spent over the max time.

I dont know if it's true or not, but I do remember my Pops telling me something like that years ago... Something about the pores being open so that the AS would clean and heal them.... had to be 40 + years ago

Hmmmmmm.........

The interesting thing is that your skin goes through a dry period right after shaving until the natural oils come back. My face always feels really smooth right after the shave and then a little dry for an hour or so. Then really nice and smooth. I believe it's a good ting to put something on your face right away to get the process going and help remedy the exfoliation process that has just taken place.

Lynn

for me coconut oil is the best moisturizeer i have found yet. i hate using moisturizers normally but with coconut oil you don't need much and it really works. apparently it does have a disinfecting property to it which would help.

BTW i am totally trying the 3 min time limit for applying it and seeing if it makes a difference. if it works it works right.

It doesn't appear to be true for me. I sometimes forget to put an AS on if I am preoccupied with clean up and getting dressed. In those rare cases I haven't noticed any irritation. I would sometimes get some irritation from DEs when I used to us them. With straights it is rare for me to get any burn.

I always start shaving on my left side burn and it takes more than three minutes for me to finish the shave, so i should inly aply aftershave on half my face? that doesn't sound good... or maybe i should put after shave while i'm shaving...