Razor Burn (?) solutions

W

wooster

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Hi Chaps

I've been shaving with DE blades for a few weeks now. What I have noticed is that I get little red spots all over my shaved area, noticeable a couple of hours after shaving. These are not huge or particularly painful and they go after a couple of days, but they are a bit annoying. I believe these are simply razor burn though I could be wrong.

I started off using Taylors Sandalwood cream but after the appearance of these spots, I changed to their cream for sensitive skin and this has helped a bit. In fact the spots stopped coming back until the last couple of days. Now it might be that the reason for this is that I have had to shave most days in the last week due to work whereas normally I'd leave it for two or maybe three days depending on my work schedule.

The razor I have is a Merkur 34C and I've experimented with various blades in the last few weeks. I'm wondering if the answer is to try a sharper or duller blade. The blades I've used in the latest period of irritation are Red Personnas. When the problem first arose I was using Derby's which I found a bit draggy and assumed not sharp enough.

Is this problem likely to be caused by a blade not sharp enough or something too sharp? I wouldn't have thought the Personnas would be too sharp or unforgiving. Should I try something a bit sharper? Or would using something sharper make it worse?

Anyway, thanks for all advice which is gratefully received.

Wooster
 
They're commonly referred-to as shaving bumps - razor burn (which could be caused by a reaction to a cream) would be an area of redness which would burn or sting when aftershave is applied. Mostly, they're caused by poor technique; either the blade is coming into contact with your skin at too steep an angle (the edge is too close to being perpendicular to your face), or you're unknowingly applying pressure. You need to concentrate on maintaining a blade-to-skin angle of around 30 degrees, and not applying any pressure as you shave - just the weight of the razor.
 
Definitely either/ or both angle and pressure. Even with a tuggy blade, and shaving with the correct angle and little or no pressure, the worst you should get is a not very close shave. If you get this right then you should be able to do 3 or 4 passes with no irritation
 
Thanks chaps. I will take on board your comments. They're not really bumps though and my use of the term "pimples" was a bit misleading. I reckon these are more spots or marks and they are only very very slightly raised. Does it still sound the problem you suspect?

I am assuming though, that the remedy remains the same. I had assumed they were a reaction to one of the products but if not then my technique is something I will address ;)


EDIT Oops meant to say that I will give witch hazel a go. Do I just buy an ordinarly bottle of this stuff? Do I apply before my aftershave balm or intstead of it?
Wooster
 
I'd say technique too. I'm no expert yet but what brought this home to me was when I last used a shavette and swapped hands for each side of my face (trying to learn how to straight razor shave with either hand basically). One side of my face was fine, the other side which I used my off-hand for was covered in razor bumps.
 
just finished shaving for the first time with a 34c and gillette 7 o'clock greens. and have 3 same red spots on my neck (nowhere else) though they do not hurt nor sting with the AS.
Moisturizing cream made the appearence much better and I m under the impression that my angle was not rigth.

I have mentioned this here

http://www.theshavingroom.co.uk/forum/thread-16041-post-220290.html#pid220290

feel free to take a look. Perhaps some of the comments there will provide extra help.

cheers
 
Maybe the shave is too close. If you have a mild hair it could be that the blade is too sharp or too aggressive. Don't press too hard.

Dragging can be caused by using the wrong angle. This takes a bit of time to get right. You could try using a mild open comb razor like the Merkur 25C. I find that it helps me get the angle correct, so that I can use other razors properly. If you get the angle wrong with the 25C, nothing happens.
 
The solution I think isn't so much about the angle you hold the blade at, I think it's more the position you put your face/mouth/neck and any skin stretching you do. Every swipe of the razor should remove some hair. Keeping the swipes to a minimum is nice, but not if it means cutting off far too much at once. You're better off with two passes rather than one as long as each pass removes hair.

Where I get irritation is where I repeatedly try the same area again and again trying to get the last few hairs, or where I go ATG when there's too much hair remaining.

Sadly though I think this is something I learned by doing rather than by reading other people, and since I think there's no revelations in my post at all, you'll likely figure it out one day and it'll work.

If it helps any, the second last 'win' I had was stretching my head back as far as it goes when doing my neck. The last 'win' I had was doing this but doing another pass with my face forward because while it turns out that I get lots of hair off with my face pointing at the ceiling, it costs too much irritation to do 3 passes like that removing the last of the hair. I can do two passes, face to ceiling first and face forward second and have no noticeable neck irritation. Previously I was doing passes face forward.
 
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