Thread: Super sensitive skin!

Originally Posted by wedwards

Have you tried not using pre-shave oil? I also have sensitive skin, and have NEVER found a pre-shave oil that did not cause a reaction for me.

If the frequency of the shave causes irritation, this may be due to the skin not healing itself quick enough. You may want to find some sort of skin food/moisturing product to help/speed up that healing process (maybe thats what the aftershave balm is supposed to do?). I use something called "face protector" from the body shop, but there are others out there.

I'll check out the face protector. Could be useful!

I use the Art of Shaving unscented pre-shave oil. I used to not use pre-shave oil, then added it to reduce irritation. I find it helps me.

Originally Posted by bromion

I'll try some of these suggestions, thanks!

The thought on the exfoliating soap is to get out those pesky ingrown hairs or at least raise them up a bit. I'll try without next time.

What would really help would be to heal the skin faster. Clearly, it takes a few days for my skin to heal, so if I shave again soon I get all burned up. I'll try the suggestion of putting some lotion on my face to help it heal overnight.

Lotion won't work nearly as well as Vaseline or Aquaphor. Trust me on this.

Well, with my sensitive skin, I find that less is more. I cannot use any of the preshave oils that I've tried. Using MWF soap really did make a big difference for me as well.

Originally Posted by Ryan82

I'd suggest adding a XTG pass before the ATG pass/touchup. You may find that the additional stubble reduction might help out, or you may find that the ATG pass is not required at all after going XTG. See if it works for you.

For me personally I find that I get a irritation free (or nearly irritation free) shave from using a straight exclusively, which is a far cry from my cartridge razor days.

+1

I just started doing this recently after coming from a 2-pass technique. Adding another pass between WTG and ATG made the ATG pass much smoother/comfortable.

My only advice here is to avoid shaving ATG. You did
say that you don't get a great shave this way, but I
highly doubt that on day 3 of your `recovery' that your
face is still BBS. Redness, cuts, ingrowns, bumps, will
_always_ look worse than a slightly-less-than BBS
shave.

- Scott

I wanted to post of photo of my neck this afternoon (taken 3pm today) after shaving with a nicely honed razor last night. I shaved last night around 2am.

Does this give any extra insight?

BTW, that was a hard picture to get : )

My dear Bromion,

I get skin irritation when shaving straight north, too. What I do is angle the pass, northeast on the left side and northwest on the right. I seems to work for me without causing irritation.

Most of the time, though, I shave across the grain on the second pass, from the mouth to the ear, thus eliminating the need to shave straight north or angled north.

Of course, beard patterns being different, that might not work for you. It's worth the try, however.

Regards,

Obie

From here, that looks like redness and some hair papillae that are mildly inflamed. I don't think you have any real ingrown whiskers.

Your skin obviously has difficulties coping with the straight.
I don't think that your problem is the direction of your pass.
Avoiding ATG is great for people that develop ingrown hairs easily, because ATG shaves close enough for the whiskers needing to start growing from below the skin surface. When a whisker fails to reemerge out of its little pocket, you get a heavily inflamed pore. I don't think that is your problem.

For the skin itself, it doesn't matter so much that you go ATG or WTG or whatever. Every pass is abrasive to the skin.
There still is a slight difference though: WTG, the direction of the whiskers guides the razor away from the skin, and ATG the razor is guided by the whiskers into the skin. That's why ATG requires less pressure than WTG. The whiskers help the razor to stay close to the skin. Let's look at a drawing:

You can clearly see how the razor is guided into the skin ATG. You can also see that ATG asks for a lower shaving angle. A lower angle ATG really makes a big difference on the amount of skin wear.
You could even try to flee forward, and skip doing several WTG and XTG strokes, that only add to the abrasion of your skin. If the stubble is still short because you shaved the day before, try going directly ATG with a shallow angle on the most sensitive spots. I might make a difference.

I'm also going to repeat that the finish of the edge could make a difference as well. I know it does for me. (I made a free honing offer in this thread, and you seem like the perfect candidate... )

None of these suggestions will work if you don't first allow your skin to heal and calm down.

Best regards,
Bart.

Yeah, that looks painful for sure! Looks like a bad combo of weepers, razor burn and ingrowns...... like my mach 3 days.

I'd say thats from the ATG pass, perhaps a too steep angle combined with super sensitive skin. I agree with the above, try a diagonal pass under your chin.

Just another thought, but have you tried another type of soap/cream? Many members swear by GQ, but it my not be for your skin. Especially if it's FO instead of EO based.

Originally Posted by Bart

I'm also going to repeat that the finish of the edge could make a difference as well. I know it does for me. (I made a free honing offer in this thread, and you seem like the perfect candidate... )

This is great info! I'd take you up on your honing offer, but sending the razor to Belguim and back might take a bit too long. I don't think I can be without my straight that long : ) Where in Belgium, by the way? I was in Antwerp some years ago -- loved it!

I get the same irritation with all methods of shaving, even DE, and a new DE blade has a perfect edge, basically. Straight razors produce the least trouble, especially if my beard has grown out for a few days. Those days, it's real nice.

In my picture, I should note I did start using a different soap recently. It's hard to compare, but I have gotten similar problems before. This soap is Mitchell's Wool Fat. Old soap was Gentleman's Quarter (don't recall either leatherneck or line margarita).

I wonder if it could be my stropping. I mean, I think I know how to strop properly by now, but I've never been checked on it! How many passes should I do? I usually do 50.