Alum after a straight razor shave

[TheBeast]

Dear straight razor users, those of you which use alum after the shave. Do you get "feedback" or sting from it regularly? Do you only get it where you cut/nicked yourself? Or only where you pressed a little too hard? If you nail the shave, do you feel it at all?

Asking because I am working towards achieving a shave without irritation and bumps. I've used alum for the past three years, first with DEs. When I used too much pressure during the shave, the alum would sting, I would get irritation and bumps. So I was aiming for a shave without alum sting and my face would be pretty for a day or two after such a shave.

But last night I had a terrible SR shave (I ruined the edge trying to bump the finnish and I was stressed and tired so I messed up just about everything that day). And I said: "you know what? if I use alum, it's just gonna sting like hell, I don't need that right now". Now usually after a shave like that, I would use alum, suck up the burn, get all red and inflamed, look like a rotten tomato for a week.

This time I didn't use alum. And the shave was truly bad. But I just healed overnight. And now I look as pretty as I would after a shave that I pretty much nailed and used the alum after. What is going on? Should I question everything? Is alum just another thing people will pick up when starting and keep repeating it blindly without questioning it? Have I failed as a being that considers himself inteligent?

Now normally I would just stick to the change I have made and see if I detected an improvement in achieving my goal, or if it was just that the stars alligned for me that day. Then come here and casually let you know about my personal experience. But now I'm anxious that there was a primitive way of fixing my suffering for the past three years. And the fix was to throw the 5$ piece of a hydrated double sulfate salt of aluminium with the general formula XAl ₂·12 H ₂O, where X is a monovalent cation such as potassium or ammonium out the window? God....

Please share your experience with alum. Does your post shave feel better with it or without it?

 

[Mitzie]

There is a barber in Paris that uses alum as their second pass instead of lather for touch ups

 

[ArtVandelay123]

I always use alum after a shave, when my shave was good and my edge was good, I get no sting or feedback from it.

When my edge is a bit "brisk", I get some feedback, but nothing painful or bad.

When my edge is bad I get feedback accordingly, not nice.

But with my good edges, I get no feedback from alum.

 

[Tinmantoo]

I am an aggressive DE shaver, have been most of my shaving life, with a short pause using disposables. Under the advise of my father I have used an alum block after every shave not only for feedback/weepers but the antiseptic properties it offers. My father used to say, scraping your face with sharp steel is always a dangerous proposition. Fortunately I have never had an adverse reaction to using alum.

 

[TheBeast]

But with my good edges, I get no feedback from alum.

Great, so that matches my experience. Even though I only had a very few shaves that good.

I am an aggressive DE shaver, have been most of my shaving life, with a short pause using disposables. Under the advise of my father I have used an alum block after every shave not only for feedback/weepers but the antiseptic properties it offers. My father used to say, scraping your face with sharp steel is always a dangerous proposition. Fortunately I have never had an adverse reaction to using alum.

Understandable. I always thought about it not only as an antiseptic, but as a natural antiseptic. Simple, cheap, from the Earth, no crappy chemicals. Just a great package overall.

Altough it seems to irritate my face and dry it out, whether I rinse after a minute, 30 seconds, or right away.

So for purely antiseptic purposes, I can use an alcohol splash. Now I know that may irritate or dry out someone's skin and alcohol is not generally considered very beneficial for the skin. But you know, works better than alum for me and that's it.

 

[Stygo]

Could be my skin, but I stopped using regularly using Alum for the same reason - in cases where I had an off day it made irritation worse, not better. Now I use it only on locations where I see visible blood, which is pretty rare. Oh, and also to keep my fingers sticky for skin stretching.

 

[TheBeast]

Could be my skin, but I stopped using regularly using Alum for the same reason - in cases where I had an off day it made irritation worse, not better. Now I use it only on locations where I see visible blood, which is pretty rare. Oh, and also to keep my fingers sticky for skin stretching.

Great! So I'm not going nuts. At least not alone. (Thats a Joke, no disrespect)

+1 on good for stopping blood, but increasing irritation

+0.5 on sticky fingers. I have found that I Also run my fingers along my skin on top of the lather to check if it is hydrated enough for me. With alum fingers that doesn't work great. So I started using a handkerchief. Pick it Up for stretching, lose it for testing slickness of the lather.

 

[Darth Scandalous]

Altough it seems to irritate my face and dry it out, whether I rinse after a minute, 30 seconds, or right away.

Then don't use it. I've never used it myself and don't see a need to at this point. I do have another thing I use for bad cuts (yarrow salve) and it's very effective for that but also a little harsh. Most styptic substances tend to be irritants to one degree or another.

 

[Kyle89]

Under the advise of my father I have used an alum block after every shave not only for feedback/weepers but the antiseptic properties it offers. My father used to say, scraping your face with sharp steel is always a dangerous proposition.

Especially before antibiotics.

 

[RKell]

I never finished with alum. I’d use it before a balm or witch hazel. I want an antiseptic and an astringent, and alum seems good for that. I’ve been using alcohol based aftershave lately too, so I’ve dropped the alum. If I have a rough shave, anything that is an antiseptic seems to have some sting.

 

[silverlifter]

I use it after every shave, straight or DE. I just like the feel of it, it sort of "tightens" my skin before I apply a splash. At this point, it is purely ritual, and I'm OK with that!

 

[Alum of Potash]

If I'm using an aftershave, I will use alum just before. Like others have said, with a good shave, there should be no sensation, or maybe just a light tingle. If I'm using a solution based on witch hazel, I forgo both the alum, as the witch hazel has a similar astringent effect, and the aftershave as well. No risk of tingle or burn there whatever the shave might have been like.

 

[ZeelandsRoem]

In my opinion, an alum block isn’t necessary, but that’s just me.

If the edge is good, I don’t need an alum block to confirm that. If I am not happy with the edge, I just grab another razor and finish the job, I am not waiting for the alum block to confirm the edge isn’t good enough.

On the other side, I don’t cut myself often. I rarely have bad edges, I think I only had one this year where I had to stop and grab a different razor.

But if you like it and you think it is necessary, then use it. Nobody else can tell you what is best for you.

 

[Frank Shaves]

I use alum after using a straight to understand if and where I over exfoliated my skin. I recently stopped using alum after using a DE because I don't seem to need it any more.

The good news is that something happened around my recent third anniversary using a straight, and the irritation has dropped off significantly.

 

[TheBeast]

The good news is that something happened around my recent third anniversary using a straight, and the irritation has dropped off significantly.

My age didn't even have third anniversary. So I Guess I just need to be more patient.

 

[catchacoolbreeze]

I have yet to understand the beneficial purpose of Alum (besides stopping bleeding after a cut). There has never been a beneficial skin reason that I have ever seen articulated on this forum that I have read. Of course, after I realized how awful it was, I stopped researching it.

As such, I stopped using it immediately when I realized that all it did was dry my skin. Like alcohol-based aftershaves, it seems like a terrible idea for your skin.

If you want to use it to diagnose how well you did on the shave, I suppose you could... But once again, that isn't a skin benefit.

 

[TheBeast]

I have yet to understand the beneficial purpose of Alum (besides stopping bleeding after a cut). There has never been a beneficial skin reason that I have ever seen articulated on this forum that I have read. Of course, after I realized how awful it was, I stopped researching it.

As such, I stopped using it immediately when I realized that all it did was dry my skin. Like alcohol-based aftershaves, it seems like a terrible idea for your skin.

If you want to use it to diagnose how well you did on the shave, I suppose you could... But once again, that isn't a skin benefit.

Do you have a preferred way of disenfecting after a shave? Because I think that was supposed to be one of the biggest benefits of alum. And I would argue that after wielding a sharp piece of steel around my face, I would like to disenfect it afterwards. Especially after getting a nick or a cut thats visibly bleeding. But even if there is no visible damage to the skin.

 

[catchacoolbreeze]

I think the idea of disinfection is nuts. I understand that in order to sell you a product you first have to sell it's purpose but disinfection sounds nutso to me. I'm not trying to be flippant about it but it just seems crazy unless I'm missing something.

I just looked up the definition of disinfection - to clean (something), especially with a chemical, in order to destroy bacteria. I wash my face in the shower before my shave. I use shave soap that is more slippery than snot for 2 or 3 passes. I then exfoliate (hopefully as little as possible) my skin with those same 2 to 3 passes. I then rinse my face. I don't know how any bacteria could survive that. It sounds like adding alum would make that even worse. In my mind, my face is the cleanest it could possibly be for the entire day. Over a decade of wet shaving without alum seems to indicate that I don't need it. Others may - I don't know.

I only use alum on the rare occasion I get weeper and I'm in a hurry and I want to stop the bleeding fast so I can leave the house. It's a spot treatment only.

If you want to disinfect something, disinfect the razor and do it before you shave....not your face. I used to do that with my DEs (with alcohol) and quickly stopped. I noticed no benefit.

If you want to use alum, for some specific skin condition that may be another story... But that's not my lane. In the normal course of shaving... It falls into the same category as alcohol-based aftershave - never a good idea for any objective beneficial use. Even modern shave companies that sell all kinds of snake oil like modern Gillette doesn't even sell anything for the purpose of "disinfection". It's simply a non-issue (at least to me). As always, YMMV but I'm pretty sure guys just like the "sting" for some subjective sensory/psychological benefit. The best way to heal your skin is keep it moisturized (just like with any cut or laceration) - alum does exactly the opposite.

 

[Frank Shaves]

Do you have a preferred way of disenfecting after a shave?

Yep, alcohol aftershave splash - with low amount of alcohol. Floid Genuine is an excellent example. Low in alcohol, very soothing, and light scent.

 

[Ravenonrock]

I’ve never used alum. When I started DE shaving I used a Witch Hazel splash, saw others using it, figured it might be necessary, it wasn’t (for me). I really limit the products that go on my face, quality soap and water. In my years of shaving I’ve not used a disinfectant, or had an infection from shaving. Splash with water and go. I don’t have overly sensitive or problematic skin and any previous sensitivity I’ve had (under jawline) has been rectified by using a straight razor.