Thread: Super sensitive skin!

Could the water really be an issue? I have pretty nasty water in my building, but I have a filter for my aquarium. If I wanted to use that water, I'd have to heat it first, though. Thoughts?

To answer your question on water, I have been using a house filter (Aquasana Rhino) for so long, its hard to say. I know hard water dries out my skin, leaves it scaley, and doesn't feel good on me. Since you shave with your pores wide open and the blade scraping by, I rather only have good filtered water in the mix. I have a great prefilter that gets pretty dirty ever 4-5 months and I always find sand type specs at the bottom of it when I change it. It certainly raises my ebrow every time I change it.

As for the fish tank, I wouldn't recommend it. Look into smaller filtration systems.

With all thats going for me and having sensitive skin, I can get away with 4 passes and not irritate the skin.

Good Luck!

Pabster

I have a 50 gallon-per-day RO/DI system for my aquarium. I can try taking water from that system and heating it up for use. See how that goes.

Originally Posted by Pabster

To answer your question on water, I have been using a house filter (Aquasana Rhino) for so long, its hard to say. I know hard water dries out my skin, leaves it scaley, and doesn't feel good on me. Since you shave with your pores wide open and the blade scraping by, I rather only have good filtered water in the mix. I have a great prefilter that gets pretty dirty ever 4-5 months and I always find sand type specs at the bottom of it when I change it. It certainly raises my ebrow every time I change it.

As for the fish tank, I wouldn't recommend it. Look into smaller filtration systems.

With all thats going for me and having sensitive skin, I can get away with 4 passes and not irritate the skin.

Good Luck!

Pabster

as some have already said.... i make as few passes as possible. also i get bumps like those in your picture if i dry my face w/ any motion w/ the towel. seriously... any motion. i blot dry my face after shaving. also i realized that after stropping my razor w/ paste on the strop i got lots of nicks and irritation on my neck and jawline. to remedy that i have to strop my razor on "bare" strop for more passes than normal. hope that helps?

I'm glad to hear that it's improving, if only slightly!

I don't know if this will help, but you may try only WTG & XTG passes.

I've tried electrics, different cartridge razors, then DE razors, and now straights, and I have never been able to get an irritation-free shave going ATG with any type of razor.

I know that many people consider going ATG neccessary for a good shave, but I have been shaving in this manner for so long that I can now get a BBS shave by going only WTG & XTG. (2 WTG passes, 1 XTG)

If you keep having those problems, I'd say that the top 2 reasons for that are:

1) Pressure
2) Edge smoothness

I have similar problems, and not yet resolved, although I will say that I found blade angle and using a very light touch helped a lot. My neck is really tricky, as on the horizontal part of my neck the har grows from chin to back of head, but on the vertical part of my neck hair grows upwards so there's a line in my neck where hair goes different directions and meets itself that's very hard to get without irritation.

I tried the WTG only thing, and it does work for no irritation on my cheeks etc but neck still has issues. The other downside to WTG only for me is that the shave ends up looking like I used the "clipper" side of a Norelco and still has the sandpaper consistency to it. I have found that the best shave for me is ATG only... best compromise. Still working on getting no shave bumps though.

i just read in the faq here about stropping w/ abrasive compounds (pastes) and there are some definite disadvantages to it. this is from the faq... not me.

What is a convex bevel?
When a blade is honed on a strop loaded with some sort of abrasive compound, the cutting bevel looses its triangular shape and becomes arc-shaped (or "convexed"). This has both advantages and disadvantages.
Advantages
Changing a triangle into an arc, per definition removes the most material near the tip of the triangle. Since the tip of our triangle is directly connected to the edges sharpness, convexing is highly effective for gaining keenness.
The abrasion, primarily taking place at the very tip of the triangle, aka "bevel", allows for very fast removal of steel. Fast enough so that we can use extremely fine abrasives and still be able to actually alter the shape of the bevel. (which is imperative for having any sharpening effect). Those same fine abrasives would be virtually useless in gaining keenness, when used in hone-form, simply because a hone doesn't divert most of its abrasive action to the tip of the bevel in the way a pasted strop does.
Disadvantages
Once the bevel is arc shaped, the very edge can no longer make contact with the flat surface of a hone. Not without resetting the bevel first. Hence one cannot touch up a pasted razor with a hone.
Since the abrasion is done with the edge trailing on pasted strops, the very tip of the bevel will be composed of bur-like steel, which isn't as durable. It depends a bit on the abrasive medium used, but in any case, part of the obtained keenness will disappear within very few shaves. The wow-effect of a pasted edge usually lasts but one or two shaves.
With each touch-up the edge becomes more arc-shaped. One can try to avoid that, but that also robs the process of its main advantages. In the end, the arc become so rounded, that the shaving comfort will be seriously compromised, and a lot of work to recreate flat bevel panes will be needed.

I found that what made the difference was the combination of soap/creme I was using. I got bad dry/burn when I used just cheap-o Williams Mug Soap (which I have to agree with someone else on the forum who said it made better hand soap!). I then used it in uber-lather with Bigelow creme and glycerine and still got the dry burn. I switched the Williams out with the Conk glycerine soap and used that in the uber-lather combo and No More Burn! I guess I have much more sensitive skin than I thought, but getting rid of the "soapy" soaps seems to have done the trick. I also just spread pure aloe all over my face/neck when I'm done and that's a big help (I'm not the biggest after-shave person...still looking for something I can live with). I was worried that my technique was bad, but it was reassuring to know that it had much more to do with the "stuff".

Julian

Well, after a number of shaves with this razor from Bart, I am definitely thinking of learning to hone on a coticule. Definitely the best few shaves I have had in a while!

I will try using some cream for my next shave. Lately it's been all soap... Mitchell's Wool Fat or Gentleman's Quarter.