Shaving : ingrown hairs and pimples, especially neck

[Timoteo]

I've shaved with shaving soap and a shaving brush for years, with cartridges or a safety razor. I shave with the grain first, then either against or sideways. My ingrown hairs usually are on the neck and the area of the jaw, below the ears. TendSkin has done a great job of eliminating them. I only shave every two to three days - if I shave more often than that, my skin gets really irritated. After shaving and using TendSkin, I splash some Lucky Tiger tonic on my face to sooth it (it's got aloe vera, chamomile and calendula in it). At some point in the future, I'll experiment with a straight razor.

 

[bachelor tax]

Shaving my neck is impossible. The hair grows in all different directions, there is no grain to shave with. I've tried multi-blade razors, single-blade safety razors, and electric razors. They all leave my neck raw and bloody. The only thing that comes close to working is this:

http://www.amazon.com/Cleancut-ES412-Personal-Shaver/dp/B001IZZX1C

It's actually marketed towards shaving your genitals but I use it on my face and neck. It uses a different mechanism than electric razors. It cuts the hair off AT the skin (not below it like many razors do) and wont ever cut your skin. The blade isn't even sharp, it works more like clippers. Which means it doesn't ever really get dull, which is nice.

It takes a long ass time, usually 15-20 minutes. It's not a one-pass deal. Instead of shearing the hair off at the skin, it kinda "eats" it up from tip to stem over several passes.

It also won't shave hair that has gotten too long. You have to combine it with a pair of clippers to take care of any stragglers it misses, or to give yourself an overall trim if you let your beard grow out too much. I shave every 2-3 days and rock stubble in between. I won't lie and say it's an amazing shave, but it's the best I've been able to get with my facial hair.

You want to use it when your face is bone try. You can try some talc or something if you have oily skin. Follow-up with Tendskin. You'll also want some rechargeable AA batteries.

 

[ryanf]

I ordered the tendskin from amazon yesterday, and purchased some baby oil today. I used baby oil to shave for the first time. The shave didn't get as close, and my sink is a gunked up mess; however, I did get quite a pleasant shave. Doesn't burn afterwards, no nicks, and neck isn't red. Don't know about ingrown hairs yet, but time will tell. It's looking like a winner.

 

[Mikestar]

How do you treat an ingrown hair in the downstairs department, especially one which turned red and painful although now decreased slightly in size? (Asking for a friend) I will never use an electric shaver there again. Do I need to visit the doctor? I really hope it heals soon.

 

[polar]

You might want something specific to ingrown hairs (Vanish PFB) or something with a high concentration of salicylic acid, like a wart treatment (haven't tested it, use at your own risk, don't use it for too long, and keep a baking soda and water slurry ready to neutralize the acid).

Overall goal is to 1) reduce inflammation (salicylic acid is aspirin) 2) get the hair to come out via exfoliation

 

[Mikestar]

You might want something specific to ingrown hairs (Vanish PFB) or something with a high concentration of salicylic acid, like a wart treatment (haven't tested it, use at your own risk, don't use it for too long, and keep a baking soda and water slurry ready to neutralize the acid).

Overall goal is to 1) reduce inflammation (salicylic acid is aspirin) 2) get the hair to come out via exfoliation

Thanks I will check those treatments out.

 

[Kieran]

I get them a bit on the back of my head if I have a skin fade, and a little on the edges of my beard at my cheeks, and on the sides of my neck in one small patch where the hair changes direction. I'm white with straight hair, but if I study the hair growth at the points where I get them on my beard, a lot of the growth is in weird directions and points steeply down so it could be pointing back into the skin causing irritation. The stuff on my face is minor but I could do with sorting my head so that I can get a fade whenever I want so I'll have a look into some of these products. I've noticed that anything that causes the back of my head to crease temporarily (for example to top part of a shrug in the gym) seems to aggravate it (I guess the creasing could be causing the hair to stick into the skin where where the skin creases).