One year into DE shaving - help!

No I haven't. What does it actually do?

It's great for soothing the redness. Although from the photos I doubt it could heal all your neck. I use witch hazel mixed with aloe vera gel, and I find it great at keeping my skin in good condition. I even use it in the back of my neck after a haircut (my barber uses a shavette here, with BIC blades).

It's not miraculous, but helps, and using it as a routine really made a difference for me.
I also keep a Floid at hand, great for when it goes bad.
 
No I haven't. What does it actually do?

One more question, did you feel the blade struggling to cut? Did you feel discomfort at any stage of the shave? A good shave should feel comfortable, and cut your facial hair with ease, if not, then there's something to change, be it technique, hardware or software. From what you said, technique shouldn't be the fault, that leaves us with software and hardware.
 
One more question, did you feel the blade struggling to cut? Did you feel discomfort at any stage of the shave? A good shave should feel comfortable, and cut your facial hair with ease, if not, then there's something to change, be it technique, hardware or software. From what you said, technique shouldn't be the fault, that leaves us with software and hardware.

No, this is the frustrating part really. Like I said, I get what I consider to be good lather, and generally the shave itself feels fine and the blade seems to cutting perfectly well. I only sense tugging when going ATG which I no longer do anyway. . Many a time in the throes of shaving I've thought to myself "This is a great shave, maybe may face will look better after this one", only to find that it doesn't. I've mapped my beard well so don't go ATG. I feel my technique is ok, thinking about it, I've been doing this for a year so will have DE shaved about 180 times. I guess there is room for improvement still but if I was getting angles, pressure etc, drastically wrong, I'd surely have realised this by now. Also I'd be getting weepers, nicks & blood galore, which I'm not.
 
Hello mate, no matter what you use on your face either before or after the shave, it all comes down to the soap, razor & blade. You seem to be doing everything right but try this. Just go WTG for both passes, two passes will give you a great shave, secondly, you're using a mild razor which is fine but you're also using a mild blade. Get yourself a really sharp blade, a Feather & give that a go. Give your skin a rest, grow some beard & go slow with no pressure. Good luck buddy
 
Hello mate, no matter what you use on your face either before or after the shave, it all comes down to the soap, razor & blade. You seem to be doing everything right but try this. Just go WTG for both passes, two passes will give you a great shave, secondly, you're using a mild razor which is fine but you're also using a mild blade. Get yourself a really sharp blade, a Feather & give that a go. Give your skin a rest, grow some beard & go slow with no pressure. Good luck buddy

Thanks. I've generally moved away from the DE89 and prefer the iKon OC anyway. I used the iKon for a month solid after buying it, but since have tried 2 loan razors and than had a couple of DE89 shaves as I'd almost forgotten what it was like! I plan to stick with the iKon OC full time now and hopefully pinpoint the root of the problem by eliminating things one at a time, as per post #8 (thanks @tryemall) . tried Feathers and similar very sharp blades a few months back and my skin hated them, though there's a chance I was overdoing it in terms of passes back then as I knew no better. I suppose 2 x simple WTG passes with a sharp blade could be worth a try. Who knows, perhaps my face doesn't even like XTG passes as for years with carts I did ONE single pass with the grain, got out the bathroom as quickly as I could and thought nothing of it, and had good skin!
 
Thanks. I've generally moved away from the DE89 and prefer the iKon OC anyway. I used the iKon for a month solid after buying it, but since have tried 2 loan razors and than had a couple of DE89 shaves as I'd almost forgotten what it was like! I plan to stick with the iKon OC full time now and hopefully pinpoint the root of the problem by eliminating things one at a time, as per post #8 (thanks @tryemall) . tried Feathers and similar very sharp blades a few months back and my skin hated them, though there's a chance I was overdoing it in terms of passes back then as I knew no better. I suppose 2 x simple WTG passes with a sharp blade could be worth a try. Who knows, perhaps my face doesn't even like XTG passes as for years with carts I did ONE single pass with the grain, got out the bathroom as quickly as I could and thought nothing of it, and had good skin!
It's a strange one for sure, but don't give up. It really is the best way to shave. Give it a go - two WTG passes. Whatever razor/blade your using. Cheers
 
A lot of good advice has been given. As soon as I saw the pictures I winced. My advice would be visit your GP. It looks more like an infection to me. Google folliculitis and see what you think.

Seriously, I would suggest stop shaving for the time being and go see your Doctor. I think medical intervention is the solution rather than trying different blades, soaps etc. A quick swab by the Doc with a result and antibiotics to target the specific type of infection could have you sorted in a week or 2.

I genuinely hope you get this cleared up as it looks so painful!

Good luck.
 
A lot of good advice has been given. As soon as I saw the pictures I winced. My advice would be visit your GP. It looks more like an infection to me. Google folliculitis and see what you think.

Seriously, I would suggest stop shaving for the time being and go see your Doctor. I think medical intervention is the solution rather than trying different blades, soaps etc. A quick swab by the Doc with a result and antibiotics to target the specific type of infection could have you sorted in a week or 2.

I genuinely hope you get this cleared up as it looks so painful!

Good luck.
Totally agree. That is NOT blades, or razor at fault. They don't cause damage like that. Or shouldn't if used correctly. I am suspicious of all balms and face washes until I've used them a few times - they're the most likely thing to cause inflammation and therefore broken skin after shaving.

I'd do exactly as mentioned above. Give it a weeks rest until healed up, try again with a cartridge and can, and see if it causes problems. DE shaving isn't worth all that trouble if carts work fine.

And in the meantime see if you can get a GP appointment. Good luck.
 
@GordyC @Dansco Thanks for the advice. I think that seeing the GP will put my mind to rest so I'll try and get an appointment. I have wondered if it could be an infection.

So, Folliculitis. . .”is a common skin condition in which hair follicles become inflamed. It's usually caused by a bacterial or fungal infection. At first it may look like small red bumps or white-headed pimples around hair follicles — the tiny pockets from which each hair grows. The infection can spread and turn into nonhealing, crusty sores. . . Make an appointment with your doctor if your condition is widespread or the signs and symptoms don't go away after a few days. You may need an antibiotic or an antifungal medication to help control the condition.“

Sounds and looks very much like this could be what I have. As for not shaving, I can't go more than a few days without, also ideally I'd need to shave just before seeing the GP so they can judge it at its worst. I think I'll try just 2 WTG passes per shave until I've been seen by the doc. Thanks for your help everyone, if it does turn out to be an infection and I can get it cleared up with meds, I will be mightily relieved
 
Come to think of it, it does resemble Folliculitis. I've had it in the past, but I didn't shave often anyway, so it was basically large pimples.

At the time, I recall not shaving for almost two months. Ended up just trimming carefully with an electric every two weeks or so.

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I'd cut out all these products for a week, just use Pears soap or something really mild, and see what happens. The product which caused me to have a huge breakout complete with cystic acne was Thayer's Alcohol Free, so it can easily be something you think must be innocuous.

I would run your products through a website like this to check them out for potentially problematic (for some people) ingredients if you have had this for a while: http://www.cosdna.com/eng/cosmetic_57b4402619.html (use only products with almost exclusively green safety ratings and no acne/irritant rating). Geraniol can cause breakouts for a lot of people.

Thanks for this. I can't believe how many ingredients are in some things. If I ran all the ingredients in Nivea Deep Cleaning face wash through that site, it would take ages. I have noticed that I get some white residue left on my face after using this, so perhaps it doesn't help. On my non shaving day too. Only thing put on my face today and it still left it's mark
 
I agree with the advice to visit the doc's n lay off the shaving while things hopefully heal up. Running a blade over already aggravated skin is best avoided. Once things have calmed enough to try shaving again I'd keep it simple - lather up, shave, rinse. No pre or post - by n large healthy skin doesn't need it. If you're skin's used to a balm or moisturiser or splash it may take a while for it to adjust to being left to it's own devices but when it does it'll be all the better for it.

I (eventually, it took a while for the penny to drop) followed the above approach about 3 years ago when I had a flare up of bad skin out of the blue. It sorted things out though it took some time for things to clear up properly (months). My facial skin seemed to decide it had had enough of the splashes or balms I'd been using for about 4 years since taking up DE. I now avoid using splashes / balms / moisturisers on my face. It's much happier for it.
 
Quick update: I promise not to bombard the site with horror pics after this, but felt I should put up a few for comparison. . . After reading the advice on here I thought there's nothing to lose going back to my old WS Protector cart razor (3 blade) for a few shaves. Still using decent cream & a brush. Generally I paint it on as scrubbing it round my face only makes things worse. So I had 3 cart shaves and here is my face one day after the 3rd shave (warm towel face wash, T&H Ultimate Comfort cream, Razorock Bruce Synth brush, 2 passes WTG). A few spikes, consistent with one days growth I guess, but generally very little irritation and a much better result than shown in my first post.

Next post will show what happened when I went back to a DE razor. . .

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. . . a bit late for Halloween but now we have a horror show result from today's shave with a DE razor. Pics taken one hour after shaving. (iKon B1 Deluxe open comb, post shower, Rapira Swedish Supersteel blade, Yaqi Tuxedo synth brush, T&H Ultimate Comfort cream, 3 pass WTG / XTG / XTG other way). The pics speak for themselves. I tried not using a balm afterwards as per one of the recent posts about cutting gear out one at a time, but I wish I had used one as my face feels like it needs it. Contrary to the pics, my irritation is generally not painful, only visible. However today for the first time in a while, my face actually feels red raw. Missing my Barts Balm and now stuck in work til the evening! Comparing these two sets of pics makes me want to give up on DE razors, but then perhaps like with the Voskhod, the RSS simply doesn't agree with my skin.

I still plan on seeing the GP in case I do have some infection, but for now I think I might drop (not literally) the open comb, and have a few cart shaves to every one DE shave with my DE89 and blades I know don't leave my face looking like a pizza.

@Bogeyman as mentioned further back, I don't go ATG anyway and use absolutely minimal pressure. Believe me, you would NOT want to see what happens if I go ATG !

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