Thread: Should I shave at all?

Everytime I shave I end up with razorburns on my neck, it doesn't matter if I use electric, DE or a straight razor, I always look like I have polkadots on my neck.

How long have you tried using a DE or a straight razor? DE's can take months of practice to get a good technique to avoid burn, also the blades you use count big time.

Straights can take a year to practice and get good results with.

I've been using DE's for years and I have always had problems with my neck even if I stretch the skin or not, straight not so long. But even with an electric razor I end up with these "polkadots". Perhaps I shouldn't shave as often as I do, I shave every other day.

It sounds like a bad case of razor burn - maybe even ingrown hairs. If you're noticing this problem with DE and straight razor shaving and you know your techniques are sound, I'd start thinking about pre- and post-shave products to fix the problem.

A lot of the advice I've heard is basically to clean your face really well and get rid of any dirt or dead skin. You may want to try an "acne scrub" soap in the shower. Post-shave, there are razor burn products (I think Bump Be Gone, or Bump Zone, or something like that). They're in the shaving section of any major drugstore like CVS, and some of them have a topical analgesic to cure any pain.

This is a pretty common problem for guys with really curly beards, so you should be able to find a less drastic solution than to quit shaving. Good luck

I had the same thing going for quite some time. Eventually I gave up being stubborn and changed my technique. The hair on my neck grows sideways and I was only doing vertical passes. Now I start my shave off with sideways passes on my neck. That also means I am getting those hairs when the blade is sharpest. I also gave up on going for perfectly smooth in those areas. I can get it close enough that it looks no different and is smooth in most directions. But no matter what if I go for BBS I get ingrowns. My prep/lathering/technique/stropping still might not be perfect, but it works as a temp fix for now.

I used to get red spots on my neck as well. Nothing I did made any difference. After I switched to a straight, I've noticed that they are basically non-existent.

It's been a few months now, and I havent had NEAR the irritation on my neck as I used to. Maybe you will have the same good fortune

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Originally Posted by a350z4me

I had the same thing going for quite some time. Eventually I gave up being stubborn and changed my technique. The hair on my neck grows sideways and I was only doing vertical passes. Now I start my shave off with sideways passes on my neck. That also means I am getting those hairs when the blade is sharpest. I also gave up on going for perfectly smooth in those areas. I can get it close enough that it looks no different and is smooth in most directions. But no matter what if I go for BBS I get ingrowns. My prep/lathering/technique/stropping still might not be perfect, but it works as a temp fix for now.

+1 on this

I have always had the same problem, the hair on my neck grows up, so my suggestion would be to study the growth pattern on your neck and try to only go WTG.

You can always lets a seasoned professional Barber shave you and see if there is any difference. As some questions on the tools he uses.

It took me about 25 shaves to get acquainted with straight shaving, then another 10 - 15 to become consistent with the neck as my hairs grow in different directions.

If I have two to three day growth, then its three passes. If I have enough growth to shave and I need to look sharp, then just 2 and 3 get done. Other than that I just like to straight shave every two days as a general practice

1 Beard Reduction
2 XTG and near ATG
3 Clean up area - ATG or near ATG, special angles, face stretching.

A good lather each time or sometimes a little lathering during the shave.

It does take time to learn straight shaving and there shouldn't be any rush. I use a glycerin based shaving soap designed for straight shaving and it does a great job allowing the straights to smoothly glide over my face.

The shaving soaps I used for the Mach 3 before converting are not good enough for a straight razor. Nor was that cheap boar brush I bought from CVS!

Keep working at it and good luck!

Pabster

It could be the water...very hard water can cause such irritation....

However -it would be very difficult to avoid...trying to wash/shave your face with only bottled water would be a great pain....but might be worth a try to see if it really is the water.....