Thread: Soap burn

Does anyone get soap burn?

From time to time I will shave twice a day. If I am going out for the evening etc. At the moment I am shaving twice to compare one razor against another for sharpness and smoothness. So I have been shaving at 8 am and again about 5pm rotating the razors so they get used randomly but after at least 24 hours per razor. The problem I have is my 5 pm shave gets a burning sensation from the soap. No problems in the morning at all no matter which razor I use.

I am thinking its one of two things. The brand of soap,( honey based glycering soap) or that my face is not recovered from the am shave.

thoughts????

Is it the same soap for both shaves? If it is, I'd go with your face was still recovering from the AM shave.

Unless you absolutely have to shave twice a day, I say give your face a rest.

Unless you absolutely have to shave twice a day, I say give your face a rest.[/QUOTE]

+1 to that. Don't know how much you've read throught the site thus far but you do a minor amount of "damage" to the skin every time you shave with a straight or DE. If your shaving two times a day you haven't given the skin enough time to refresh itself from the last shave. I don't really think it'd matter much what soap you use in this case (could be wrong I'm no expert) but for all intents and purposes your working in a contaminent that your body/face/nerve endings will react to.

Thanks for the info. It is probably the second shave and not the soap. The soap only begins to burn at the second shave. No problems in the morning. I am still working on technique and trying to get a really close shave. My morning shave is decent, but by 5 pm I do have some growth. As I said, i do not always shave twice a day.

The soap is getting into your pores on the second shave and causing discomfort. When learning, I did this once where I used castile soap as my shaving soap and figured I could revist the shave later that day to do a better job shaving and Yeoooow! when I put the soap on my face. If I waited 24 hours, there is no issue. The skins and pores are a little sensitive after a shave, especially a straight shave.

If you are getting a proficient BBS shave, I would think it would easily last you 18+ hours. Yes, straight shaving twice does put some stress on the skin and cause redness when you shave twice per day.

When learning, I was excited about straight shaving and the only thing that slowed my progress was waiting for something worth shaving.

Good Luck!

Pabster

I would think you would have to have a very unusual beard to require two straight shaves a day. I have a heavy beard and I'm still BBS 10 hours after I shave. Maybe if you did it all the time your skin might adapt to 2x a day.

I think it is more likely that my first shave is not as close as it can be. I am still learning and I get a closer shave with my quatro.... so I need work there.

Now I hate to ask this but I am gonna do it anyway because I cannot seem to find it on the site

What does BBS stand for? I know it has something to do with a really close shave, but other than that.......

Acronyms and Abbreviations - Straight Razor Place Wiki

BBS=Baby Butt Smooth

Originally Posted by leot

thoughts????

My first thought was that you must carry your razor around in your pocket.
On a more sensible note, like most of the others, I'd say it was the frequency of the shaving rather than the soap itself. Sometimes you can have too much of a good thing.

Possibly as the day wears on, your pores open up more. When I started using an electric razor a while ago, I read that after just waking up your skin is kind of swollen and that you shouldn't shave until about 30 min. after waking up. I have no clue if this is based in scientific reason. A good test would to be to not shave in the morning, but then shave in the evening. If it burns it's the soap. You could always do this on a saturday or sunday (or some day where a little stubbly will go unnoticed). Good luck. -Andrew