Shaving. As if it wasn't dangerous enough with all the blades? Now there's those little ingrown hairs to deal with known as razor bumps. Here's how not to get them. Long time lurker, first time instructable, so please be a critic. But please, I beg you, be constructive. And hey, if you like it, please gimme a vote!
Update: Now with 50% more rambling about shaving tools! Bullets now included.
Update: Now with 50% more rambling about shaving tools! Bullets now included.
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Alrighty, you're about to shave, but wait, you don't know how? Or you do, but you need some pointers. And you definitely don't want any funny little bumps. Here's what you need, but there are more complex things if you wanna go further than these basics.
- Hair that needs removin
- A razor (Not electric). Any old bic or cheapo will do, though if you wanna get fancy you can buy one of those ten bladed Gillette's that vaguely resemble an onion slicer.
- Shaving Cream. Again, you don't need anything expensive, but you can always shell out
- more cash if you wanna for gels or the like.
- A sink, or some other water holder. No need for fancy.
- Washcloth. Not exactly necessary, but it beats using your hands to wipe your face.
- Scissors. Again, really not needed, but nice for whacking down the major shrubbery before
- you mow it.
- Aftershave. Makes you smell nice, and helps kill anything nasty on your face.
- Mirror. Almost needed. If you're good you can do without it, but I wholly recommend being able to see yourself while you work.
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I usually use the cheapest aftershave I can find, and lots of it. However, I have recently found Savlon Wound Wash spray which works just as well, doesn't sting, and doesn't make you smell like a big tart.
If you disinfect and then wipe your face with a towel....you've just reapplied a layer of germs. Disinfect again. About 10 minutes after you've finished shaving I think the danger has passed.
I used to suffer from awful razor burn, but since doing this it is a distant memory.
By the way - this applies to wet or electric shaves!
For years now I've shaved in the shower with a disposable razor. I shampoo, wash all over with soap, then turn to the suction-cup mirror on the shower wall, lather up with soap, shave, then rinse everything starting with the hair and work my way down.
The benefits of this is that the time I've spent in the shower doing all of the preliminaries allows the warm water and moist air to soften my beard. It's less messy, I don't have to worry about cleaning the sink and I NEVER have to worry about errant stubble that makes its way into a shirt collar.
I buy the Gillette twin-edge disposables in the 52-pack from Costco. They're relatively cheap, I change them once a week or so and Gilette ins't making a mint off me.
Good instructable.
If you go with the grain, the cut won't be as close to the skin.
However if you go against the grain on the first pass, it will irritate the skin.
Now if you do it a couple times with the grain and do the last shave against the grain, the result will be a much smoother shave. That is what I do and I don't get any ingrown hair from that. It just might not work for you.
There's a lot of little tricks that might work but most of all, it's good to use the proper shaving products, most women I know just use soap or bathing gel and it doesn't work nearly as good.
http://www.instructables.com/id/So-you-want-an-old-fashioned-double-edged-safety-r/
Sure, an electric razor is a totally different beast, but I've been using one for the last two years to good effect.
When I use(d) a disposable razor, right after hopping out of the shower in the morning I would apply some cream and shave. I find the electric razor works most effectively and painlessly on dry skin, i.e. before I shower. Even though I knew how to shave as you tell everybody here, I'd still get nicked on a regular basis with disposables. There's a rough patch on my throat that would always get scraped raw and bloody from just one or two passes of a disposable razor.
I don't have any such problem with my electric. The drawbacks are lack of precision, and it doesn't shave quite as close. Neither of them is a very big deal to me, since I've grown a circle beard and bought a precision trimmer to groom it, and my growth isn't thick enough to give me a bad 5 o'clock shadow.
my girlfriend shaved my legs once when i was 16
not even two year ago in fact
funniest thing EVER
clogged up her "Venus" shaver so many times she got annoyed
then once finally done
(pictures taken and since "lost" =p )
a day later she was complaining of the stubble on my legs
funniest
thing
EVER
i dont Think you can
i never can except slightly raised hairs where my sideburns would be
if the rest of the hairs on my face are effected
its not noticeable
gutted
=p
good idea though
maybe you should do a leg shaving instructable?
if its so hard / different
i dont know
just thinking as this instructable helped me realised why i kept getting ingrown hairs on ma chin
although ive only ever got razor burn from using an electric shaver
which i will never use again
but meh
just an idea +
trying to get more instructables out there to the world!
http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=16546909
I use this method, and shave against the grain. I have not once gotten razorbumps using this method, and my skin is healthier!