Thread: More ingrown hairs from proper soap?!?

I recently started using proper Dr. Harris Arlington soap along with a badger brush with my Mach3, and the shave is wonderful compared to the canned gel-lather crap. BUT, I get much more irritation post-shave on my neck and a lot more bumps than with the canned crap. Any ideas? My theory is that the water-free gel doesn't make the hairs extend at all, so when the 3-blade pulls out the hair and cuts it just bellow the skin the shave works out well, but when you add proper lather which contains water the hairs extend up to 20%, which the razor then cuts, and then you end up with hair cut a lot further down than it's supposed to be when the water evaporates... It's gonna be interesting to see the irritation-level with soap and a new Dovo, now I'm off to rub Aloe Vera gel into my irritated face. ^^

Yeah, but I've been shaving daily with that crap for like ½ a year, but only got this kind of weird irritation when I switched from "Gillette Sensitive Skin Gel Shaving Lather" to the Dr. H. soap and a best-badger brush. It might also be that I switched from doing a WTG pass on my cheeks, ATG pass on my neck, and then XTG on my neck, to doing a full face WTG, then XTG, and then ATG... :/

Maybe the Gillette is "proper".

Don't assume that just because it is old (or new) that it is better. Pay attention to your results, not people on the internet.

When I first started using a badger brush and shaving soap last summer I was still using my Mock 3 (I didn't use an actual straight until quite a few months later). I did notice that the brush/soap provided a far closer shave than any canned crap rubbed on with your hands ever will, and that was with the cartridge razor! If the brush provides a closer shave then I would recommend (if you haven't already) mapping your beard closely and be careful not to over-shave those sensitive areas. This pretty much eliminated irritation for me, so, short of an allergic reaction, I don't think it's the soap.

Maybe you just need to use less pressure. You can bear down pretty hard with a cartridge razor, indeed you normally need to. But with good lather and prep that pressure probably does more harm than good.

Since you have already tried the "DE" method of multiple-pass stubble reduction, and DE-quality lather, it makes sense you should also use DE style minimal pressure (no more than roughly the weight of the razor itself.)

Okay, today I shaved again using the same stuff as yesterday, and for some reason it wasn't as hard as yesterday; here are the specifics;

- Yesterday the rubber strip produced an awful amount of drag against my face, compared to the gel which you don't get any friction at all with, today it was as smooth if not smoother than with the gel?

- Today's lather was made against my face instead of a mug, which I think made it smoother, which may be why the razor didn't drag as much. I also swirled the brush on the soap a bit longer and I had more water in the brush when doing so.

- Today I reverted back to the "bad" habits I've developed earlier with the gel, which is as follows;
ATG pass on the neck twice, re lather in between. WTG on the cheeks first, then ATG, and on the second pass ATG from S to N on the jawline, and then a pass sideways along the jawline up along the sideburns. That final stroke progresses from XTG to ATG, but it's kinda hard to tell since my beard has a lot of swirls in it so in many places the stubble grows in more than one direction. This method gave me much less irritation, and the alcohol AS splash didn't sting at all today compared to the burning sensation I got yesterday.

- I also showered right before shaving today, compared to just wasing my face yesterday, which might have softened my beard more.


As you might have noticed, I tend to over-analyze things... ^^

I find D.R.Harris Arlington range is actually slightly irritating on my skin. Which is a real shame because the scent is incredible. For example, the AS Balm will always make those little weepers you sometimes get start bleeding again, even after using alum. The alum stops the bleed, then later I put on the AS balm and they start to weep again... only slightly, but noticeably.

I've long thought that there's something in the Arlington range which is the opposite of an astringent. It's the only AS balm that seems to do it to my skin.

As for the Arlington pre-shave... that stung like hell the first time I used it.

Mm, I had some kind of reaction against my skin first time I used it, but I put it down to a new badger brush. Luckily it's okay now... and hopefully as my lathermaking improves shaving also will, which recent shaving experiences seem to point at.

The fact that you start bleeding again from AS might be that you rub away the tiny amount of coagulated blood that keeps you from bleeding, esp. if you used alum (which just constricts the blood-vessels which temporarily stops the bleeding but doesn't fix it.). Try letting small nicks (those that doesn't really bleed to much, just a couple of drops or so) stop by themselves, it helps if you wash your face with really cold water and splash an alcohol AS in you face right after. I have a clotting-disorder, and no alum block or styptic pencil, so if it works for me, it should work for you.

Well, I don't have very sensitive skin on the whole (like hands, arms and legs, dunno about my face since I've never fancied rubbing plants, oils and gasoline in it ), but anythings possible. I'm not allergic to anything (got a full panel as a kid) but one type of grass we get here in Finland, and still I only have minor reactions from very major exposure.

But I guess I could get a reaction without being allergic, luckily that first reaction wasn't much, and now every shave has been better than the previous. I'm pretty sure I would have noticed the difference between irritated skin due to some essential oil in the soap compared to razor burn, and what I got felt like bad razor-burn, like what you would get if you put a coarse sandpaper to your face and went to town.

I'm putting this down as a problem with the lather-quality due to too little soap or water brought on by acute noobness.

Originally Posted by Stuggi

Mm, I had some kind of reaction against my skin first time I used it, but I put it down to a new badger brush. Luckily it's okay now... and hopefully as my lathermaking improves shaving also will, which recent shaving experiences seem to point at.

The fact that you start bleeding again from AS might be that you rub away the tiny amount of coagulated blood that keeps you from bleeding, esp. if you used alum (which just constricts the blood-vessels which temporarily stops the bleeding but doesn't fix it.). Try letting small nicks (those that doesn't really bleed to much, just a couple of drops or so) stop by themselves, it helps if you wash your face with really cold water and splash an alcohol AS in you face right after. I have a clotting-disorder, and no alum block or styptic pencil, so if it works for me, it should work for you.

The strange thing is that Arlington is the only AS that does that to my skin. Everything else I have used doesn't start the weepers up after alum. My conclusion is that it's the Arlington.

That said, I rarely get weepers so it remains on my shelf.