Simple Tips for a Smooth Shave

Maybe don’t listen when someone tells you they have a “so-crazy-it-just-might-work” method for avoiding annoying redness and irritation.

If there’s one really annoying thing about shaving, it’s the unfortunate tendency to wind up with irritating little red bumps on the parts of your face where the prospect of irritating red bumps is most likely to maximize that annoyance. The neck, the crease around your chin, the the base of your nose — all are susceptible to that which we call “razor burn” (or “razor bumps” if you prefer). And because those areas are either the first place someone might look (like around your chin and nose), or have skin that is especially soft and prone to chafing (like around your neck), they’re the areas that can least afford the unsightly, reddened appearance razor burn causes, or its painful effects.

Which is to say, for the men who drag a razor across their face (almost) every morning, achieving a “zero razor burn” shaving safety record is the ultimate name of the game. And, naturally, there have been many alternative “theories” for how to avoid razor burn which have been concocted in pursuit of that achievement. 

For example, one of the most out-there that we’ve come across is whether shaving at the same time every day — as in 7 a.m., on the dot — can train your facial hair to avoid the causes of razor burn. As you might have guessed, the answer is decidedly “no.” Sorry my dudes, while it’s believed you can train your beard in some ways (like making hair grow in a certain direction), you cannot train your hair to become immune to the scraping, irritating effect of a razor.

But although you can’t train your facial hair, you can put those ingrown-prone little hair follicles in a position where they’re less susceptible to the rash-causing repercussions of shaving. For example, making sure you shave with the grain — i.e., in the direction your hair naturally grows — with a high-quality, lubricating shaving cream is a simple way to help prevent short, pointy hairs from embedding in your skin and becoming ingrown.

Another quick and easy way to help avoid razor burn (and drastically more effective than setting your alarm for your 7 a.m. shaving deadline) is to exfoliate your skin prior to shaving every morning (because of dead skin and other oily gunk, our hair follicles can get clogged, a clogging that will force your hair to grow inwards).

The bottom line is, don’t believe everything you read on the internet, and don’t listen when someone tells you they have a “so-crazy-it-just-might-work” method for avoiding razor burn — because as is commonly the case in life, the simplest methods tend to be the right ones.

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