DE Blade advice for a newbie..

BJS said:

Does your face skin toughen up the more you wet shave?
I had pretty much given up shaving prior to taking on this de shaving challenge. All I used to do was run a beard trimmer over my face once a week or so.
When I first started this de shaving, my face was coveted by cut, nicks etc and my neck felt so raw, I couldn't bare to shave again for at lease three days!
Yes, my technique has improved dramatically after taking onboard all your advice, but could some of it due to my face skin toughening up as well?
Brian.

Click to expand...

I would say yes, to some degree. At the end of the day, you're running a surgically-sharp razor across your face repeatedly. Any untoward pressure would cause the micro-abraisions you've described (cuts/nicks/weepers) so it's natural that your body tries to counter that - think callouses with hands/feet. It won't be to the same degree as callouses, obviously, but I think there's some weight in the suggestion that skin 'toughens up', so to speak.

I found the same, when starting I struggled to get good shaves without irritation but turned a corner. Similarly, if I go without for longer than a few days, I can almost guarantee that I'll feel the shave more, usually as a tingle proceeding the shave!

In the immortal words of @riverrun , "NO PRESSURE!"