sensitive skin

T

Thejollyboys

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64
Guy,

I have just discovered traditional shaving for the first time. Why did I not discover this years ago?

with some money I got for Christmas I bought a starter kit from traditionalshaving.co.uk a great site Matt has been great.

I have the 34c with the merkur blade in all seems great except I get readness below my lower lip. This is probably a lack of technique, but was wondering what is the best combination of soap and blade for sensitive skin?

Great site with great info for beginners like me.

Thanks

Andy.
 
everyone will give you a different answer... its a huge area this one.

for me, it was moving away from my merkur razor to an Edwin Jagger DE87. It was also moving to gillette bleue and platinum blades. I'd say your merkur blades might not be helping you. I found them to be rather harsh, unforgiving and not the greatest shave. I would be inclined to suggest you try something smooth like a gillette bleue, or perhaps a personna.

Lastly, i found a cream that works well for me in the form of Taylor Of Old Bond Street: Jermyn St Shaving Cream for sensitive skin. Not everyone loves it, but it gets a lot of good press, ive found it to be an absolute joy to use. I love the lather, the smell, the texture of it. It was a revalation in my shaving.

After that, its simply about not torturing your skin. Stay away from aftershaves, and even some balms can irritate sensitive skin. I usualy just go for a cold water splash, let my skin settle and dry naturally, and then apply a light moisturiser. Occasionally I can get away with a small splash of witch hazel as it doesnt irritate my skin. Aftershaves, aftershave balms and Alum, absolutely kill me after anything but the most gentle shave.

Other opinions im sure will follow :)
 
My two tips: Good lather (because that's a basic) and stretching of the skin.... on that lower lip, make sure you stretch the bottom lip over your bottom teeth. Give yourself a flat surface.
Third tip (and this is for free): I agree with Shrink: Change blades and start to find your ideal one... Merkur make great razors and slightly iffy blades... start to experiment: I like the Gillette 7 o'clock yellow. YMMV. Give them all a go, blades can be critical.
 
I have very sensitive skin and coarse beard..I prefer the Gillette Extra Bleue blades, Gillette Yellows from Russia and Dorko platinum blades..all smooth because of the coating abd wear down evenly

Blades
 
The redness under your bottom lip may be down to overshaving the area in your efforts to get those awkward little hairs that grow there,as others have said,get a blade sampler pack and work on your technique,walk before you run and you may find you dont have sensitive skin,this will then open up a whole new world of goodies for you to try.


Dave.
 
Welcome to the forum :)

As the others have said it is probably your blades that are causing the irritation so try some different ones.

I remember shaving with some Gillette yellows for a good while and then switched back to a Merkur blade I had lying around once and the result was "urrgh".
 
Things got a lot better for me when I moved to glycerine soaps and I use Trumper's glycerine skin food before and after shaving. You could maybe try buying a wee bottle of glycerine from the pharmacist (think the last bottle I bought was about £1.90 or so) and apply a few moments before lathering up, see if that assists. Don't worry if the glycerine feels warm on the skin when you apply it, it always did that with me before I got the skin food preparation.

JohnnyO. :shave
 
Hello Thejollyboys.

I'd say that it's early days and your skin is still getting used to the new regime. The main thing is not to overdo it for now - two passes maximum, no against the grain, minimal pressure. Whilst I fully agree that the Merkur blades aren't the best, don't worry about that so much for the time being. Lather is at least as important as anything else, good soap or cream used properly will provide a lot of protection from a harsh blade.

A couple of other things. Practically everyone thinks they have sensitive skin, and a few really do have intractable problems; the vast majority however find that things settle down nicely once they've acquired the skills and found the right combination of razor, blade, soap and aftershave product. That might take a while but you'll get there. Secondly, may I invite you to post something in the welcome forum so that we can all greet you properly?
 
What ho Andy? Enjoy your new regime.

Redness, tenderness? Watch the series of Mantic (effectively how to wet shave) instructional videos on-line. You will learn the secrets of face mapping, lathering and all of the other little techniques which will improve your technique. What works (blades, soaps et cetera) for other people may not be ideal for you; learn the basics and develop your own levels of comfort. It won't take too long.

Enjoy, happy viewing and good luck!

:)
 
Arrowhead said:
Hello Thejollyboys.

I'd say that it's early days and your skin is still getting used to the new regime. The main thing is not to overdo it for now - two passes maximum, no against the grain, minimal pressure. Whilst I fully agree that the Merkur blades aren't the best, don't worry about that so much for the time being. Lather is at least as important as anything else, good soap or cream used properly will provide a lot of protection from a harsh blade.

A couple of other things. Practically everyone thinks they have sensitive skin, and a few really do have intractable problems; the vast majority however find that things settle down nicely once they've acquired the skills and found the right combination of razor, blade, soap and aftershave product. That might take a while but you'll get there. Secondly, may I invite you to post something in the welcome forum so that we can all greet you properly?
Click to expand...

+1!!
 
Arrowhead said:
Hello Thejollyboys.

I'd say that it's early days and your skin is still getting used to the new regime. The main thing is not to overdo it for now - two passes maximum, no against the grain, minimal pressure. Whilst I fully agree that the Merkur blades aren't the best, don't worry about that so much for the time being. Lather is at least as important as anything else, good soap or cream used properly will provide a lot of protection from a harsh blade.

A couple of other things. Practically everyone thinks they have sensitive skin, and a few really do have intractable problems; the vast majority however find that things settle down nicely once they've acquired the skills and found the right combination of razor, blade, soap and aftershave product. That might take a while but you'll get there. Secondly, may I invite you to post something in the welcome forum so that we can all greet you properly?
Click to expand...

+1 again!

I thought I used to have sensitive skin when I first started shaving, with a Mach 3 and Gillette gel and made the switch to sensitive gel and balm etc. Just turned out to be the canned gel rubbish! It took my face a few days to get used to DE's and about a week to get used to a straight, so as Arrowhead said, it will prob settle when you find a good combination for your face!
 
Thejollyboys:

drop me a private message with your address... i'll send you a few different smoother and milder blades to try and i'll see if i can sneak in some nice cream samples too.
 
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