Some time ago, I got bored with shaving and reduced my shavings to once or twice a week. Within the last several weeks, however, I've been buying and trying all sorts of new stuff - soaps, splashes, blades, razors - and found my whiskers aren't growing back fast enough! What's happened now, though, is I've gotten a few gnarly ingrown hairs on my cheeks!! I've never gotten an ingrown since I started DE shaving and i'm really surprised.
Too Much Shaving?
- Thread starter lassmanac
- Start date
Perhaps you are doing too many passes. Stick with the with the grain and cross grain passes for now. Keep with one setup and don't introduce too many changes at the same time.
Good advice!
- Thread starter
- #4
I typically do a 3 or 4 pass shave. But have just been doing two while I sort out these ingrowns.
M
member 119848
I agree with the post above. Shaving every day is not the problem.
2 passes should be enough...
2 passes should be enough...
If you are prone to ingrown hairs, then there's only so much you can do to prevent them. A BBS shave might actually be your enemy.
The issue could just be all the new gear. It may take some time to get used to.
Many will disagree but 4 passes is in my view overkill, especially if you shave every day.
I would recommend 2 pass every 36-48 hours just to see how that works for you, I think your face will like that a lot better.
I would recommend 2 pass every 36-48 hours just to see how that works for you, I think your face will like that a lot better.
It really depends on your beard. If I skip a day or two I will get ingrown hairs on my neck. It seems that some whiskers start to bend over and go back into my neck resulting in ingrown hairs.
The grain of my beard particularly on my neck changes in so many directions and then in spots swirls so that a WTG pass in meaningless. I look to see in what direction my beard grows the most and that becomes my WTG pass realizing that in some spots it may be XTG and ATG. I then use a very light touch in going in that direction. For me, the ONLY way I can get a decent shave is to do a 4-pass shave. On my neck, I must use a very light touch
I have been doing a 4 pass shave for many years and as long as I shave every day I have no problems.
The grain of my beard particularly on my neck changes in so many directions and then in spots swirls so that a WTG pass in meaningless. I look to see in what direction my beard grows the most and that becomes my WTG pass realizing that in some spots it may be XTG and ATG. I then use a very light touch in going in that direction. For me, the ONLY way I can get a decent shave is to do a 4-pass shave. On my neck, I must use a very light touch
I have been doing a 4 pass shave for many years and as long as I shave every day I have no problems.
No one needs a baby butt smooth shave to look presentable.
I never shaved ATG on my face and never had ingrown problems. At one time shaving ATG was frowned on. On this forum it’s considered almost a necessity. I do shave my head ATG, and only rarely get one.
I had not heard that shaving ATG was frowned on. Was there a reason?
I think most of the “how to shave” and beginner resources are the pushers of no ATG. Once most of us figure out what we’re doing and have the right kit, I would imagine most can safely go ATG. Although with my beard ATG only occurs on the third pass, otherwise I have quite a bit of pulling. The whole name of the game in DE shaving is beard reduction with each pass. I suppose there are some with more sensitive skin that don’t make it to enough passes to have the ATG be comfortable?
It also depends on your razor. When I switched to a slant, I just do 2 passes daily. Bbs everywhere except my neck and Adams apple which can't be helped.
Years ago I had read that barbers were trained not to shave ATG. My guess it was because it might cause ingrown hairs and irritation on some people.Mind you I’m talking many years back. Today their training may be different. My shaving started in 1960 .
A few days off between shaves fixed all my issues. Shaving too often was irritating my skin which led to ingrowns. Shaving irritation (on a microscopic level) is damage to the skin. Like any other wound you you need to leave it alone for a bit.
One pass WTG and any necessary touch ups has always worked just fine for me.
- Thread starter
- #19
I do like my BBS shaves, that's for sure. I'm pretty sure the ingrowns occurred when I was using my Futur, which is a pretty agreesive razor. I also puffed my cheeks out a bit during an ATG pass to see just how bbs i could get. Which is something i very rarely do. This week i've been doing three passes: WTG; XTG; and then another XTG, but in the opposite direction. This has been allowing things to heal up nicely. While not BBS, it certainly give a nice CCS, which is good enough for my office.
Interesting!
There are so many variables in play, differences in skin, beard, technique, etc. For me the answer to ingrown hairs was to shave daily, plenty of exfoliation with face-lathering, and good technique with 3-passes.
There are so many variables in play, differences in skin, beard, technique, etc. For me the answer to ingrown hairs was to shave daily, plenty of exfoliation with face-lathering, and good technique with 3-passes.
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