One of the advantages of wet shaving - for your skin - is that it cleans your face while shaving and also exfoliates (microscopically removes the surface layer.). What you see is the result of 1) too much pressure, and 2) insufficient post-shave care. The same thing would happen with a blade if you just shaved with a pre-shave and no soap or water. It's just as important to treat you face after a shave as before - if you shave dry with an electric (or even with a pre-shave), you need to wash your face afterwards and apply an astringent like witch hazel or a good aftershave. Not everyone does, but you do. An electric may not be for you, but the same skin care principles apply. Your skin is loaded with bacteria (even the cleanest of us), and shaving gives them access to the base of hair follicles, which can cause breakouts like yours. You need to lighten your touch, with blade or electric, and give your face extra care before and after shaving. Looking at the photos, you might benefit from just daily cleansing (without shaving) for a week or so, then start back with a mild (Tech range) blade (without an ATG pass) and a good post-shave regimen like alumn/witch hazel and a mild aftershave like Speick or La Toja. Good luck!
Braun Series 5 50-R1000s or Panasonic arc 3 es ll 21
- Thread starter miffed
- Start date
+1 to the above comments
- Thread starter
- #23
Good morning,
thanks Scaramoche for you input, greatly appreciate you having a look at my face post rotary use...i absolutely agree with you and believe me i am trying to emulate what you kindly suggested...
i try and wash my face in between shaves, i use dove gentle exfoliating bar soap, i found it to clean well and be gentle, before every shave i either shower and wash my face or just wash my face and then shave...i believe i am getting closer to the gist of what lather should be like, last night i shaved, cut myself quite badly, but for my second pass i had the sense to water down my lather, make it slicker, so to speak...
in order to make this at least comprehensive allow me to first express my concerns about the eventual continuation of wet shaving for me at least:
i have once succeeded in shaving with a DE razor without cutting myself at all...every single time i at least nick myself as opposed to last night when i literally CUT myself, that's my first concern, cutting myself every three days which cannot be good in any case, and the second main concern is that after i shave with a blade my skin is not it's normal colour, it's goes from red to a darker tint of red, especially after i apply aftershave, i deem this not to be desirable as from what i gather gentlemen after shaving have a pretty much consistent colour of skin in regard to before they start shaving, Geo for example has skin that a bit "redder" but i think that's because he has a warm water rinse before every shave....
these are my main two concerns about the continuation of wet shaving, i do get the odd whitehead but that's nothing major, up to three in three days after having shaved (wet) ...
as for witch hazel, the only product i can get my hands on here with witch hazel in it is the proraso green spalsh, i used it last night as well as after using the rotary Philips
i was under the impression that the whiteheads on my neck were due to ingrown hairs? i thought this as i use alum after every shave, rinse it off, then apply splash, i currently have: brut, old spice, proraso green, red one, pinaud clubman, might have another one or two but they allude me now...i like the smell of the red one best but the proraso is best result wise as far as i can gauge....
the whiteheads you saw on the photos appeared exactly two days after shaving, until then i was very smoothly and evenly shaved...
for the aforementioned reasons i was of the opinion that ingrown hairs were indeed the culprits for the white heads, this would in turn mean that shaving ATG with any tool would give me them...
i must stress that i waited to shave since Thursdays, so that's 5 days effectively, i did however try to rid myself of the whiteheads in order to try and have a smooth wet shave, i did not pop them but used various methods i thought up, i did not succeed, i slit one whitehead which caused quite a bit of bleeding and on my second pass i cut myself as amateurishly as possible...
also a gentlemen on a thread on this forum mentioned concentration in regard to how much is needed to be satisfied with one's shave, i fear that i simply do not and will not have the sufficient focus ie concentration to constantly shave without cutting myself
bearing all this in mind, i now find myself, once again on the precipice of either continuing to cut myself every three days or once again acquiring a tool that will, given current probability, give me whiteheads again...the options available to me are the oneblade, i might go for the pro version because it's 20 bucks more here then the base one (essentially they shave the same but the pro charges in an hour, the base takes 4) or a braun series 3, i can get the 3010 or ct4s models...the prices are respectively:
oneblade pro 75 euros
braun 3010 85 euros
braun ct4s 150 euros
i might even try shaving as i once did with my philips hair clippers, they cut down to 0.4mm, spec wise that's closer than the one blade and i was satisfied with the closeness of it to be honest...
dilemmas dilemmas
hope i haven't rambled on too much, thank you again for your thoughts and time
thanks Scaramoche for you input, greatly appreciate you having a look at my face post rotary use...i absolutely agree with you and believe me i am trying to emulate what you kindly suggested...
i try and wash my face in between shaves, i use dove gentle exfoliating bar soap, i found it to clean well and be gentle, before every shave i either shower and wash my face or just wash my face and then shave...i believe i am getting closer to the gist of what lather should be like, last night i shaved, cut myself quite badly, but for my second pass i had the sense to water down my lather, make it slicker, so to speak...
in order to make this at least comprehensive allow me to first express my concerns about the eventual continuation of wet shaving for me at least:
i have once succeeded in shaving with a DE razor without cutting myself at all...every single time i at least nick myself as opposed to last night when i literally CUT myself, that's my first concern, cutting myself every three days which cannot be good in any case, and the second main concern is that after i shave with a blade my skin is not it's normal colour, it's goes from red to a darker tint of red, especially after i apply aftershave, i deem this not to be desirable as from what i gather gentlemen after shaving have a pretty much consistent colour of skin in regard to before they start shaving, Geo for example has skin that a bit "redder" but i think that's because he has a warm water rinse before every shave....
these are my main two concerns about the continuation of wet shaving, i do get the odd whitehead but that's nothing major, up to three in three days after having shaved (wet) ...
as for witch hazel, the only product i can get my hands on here with witch hazel in it is the proraso green spalsh, i used it last night as well as after using the rotary Philips
i was under the impression that the whiteheads on my neck were due to ingrown hairs? i thought this as i use alum after every shave, rinse it off, then apply splash, i currently have: brut, old spice, proraso green, red one, pinaud clubman, might have another one or two but they allude me now...i like the smell of the red one best but the proraso is best result wise as far as i can gauge....
the whiteheads you saw on the photos appeared exactly two days after shaving, until then i was very smoothly and evenly shaved...
for the aforementioned reasons i was of the opinion that ingrown hairs were indeed the culprits for the white heads, this would in turn mean that shaving ATG with any tool would give me them...
i must stress that i waited to shave since Thursdays, so that's 5 days effectively, i did however try to rid myself of the whiteheads in order to try and have a smooth wet shave, i did not pop them but used various methods i thought up, i did not succeed, i slit one whitehead which caused quite a bit of bleeding and on my second pass i cut myself as amateurishly as possible...
also a gentlemen on a thread on this forum mentioned concentration in regard to how much is needed to be satisfied with one's shave, i fear that i simply do not and will not have the sufficient focus ie concentration to constantly shave without cutting myself
bearing all this in mind, i now find myself, once again on the precipice of either continuing to cut myself every three days or once again acquiring a tool that will, given current probability, give me whiteheads again...the options available to me are the oneblade, i might go for the pro version because it's 20 bucks more here then the base one (essentially they shave the same but the pro charges in an hour, the base takes 4) or a braun series 3, i can get the 3010 or ct4s models...the prices are respectively:
oneblade pro 75 euros
braun 3010 85 euros
braun ct4s 150 euros
i might even try shaving as i once did with my philips hair clippers, they cut down to 0.4mm, spec wise that's closer than the one blade and i was satisfied with the closeness of it to be honest...
dilemmas dilemmas
hope i haven't rambled on too much, thank you again for your thoughts and time
- Thread starter
- #24
Thank you i wrote up a little summary of the current state of affairs shaving wise for me, i thank you for your time and support
You're very welcome, and one of the beauties of this forum is shavers helping each other! The pimples you see are indeed ingrown hairs (which are a combination of bacteria/debris and the growing hair being trapped beneath the outer layer of skin), and they are almost exclusively caused by 1) shaving too close, and 2) a predisposition to have a curly beard, often genetic. Can't really do anything about the geneticsGood morning,
thanks Scaramoche for you input, greatly appreciate you having a look at my face post rotary use...i absolutely agree with you and believe me i am trying to emulate what you kindly suggested...
i try and wash my face in between shaves, i use dove gentle exfoliating bar soap, i found it to clean well and be gentle, before every shave i either shower and wash my face or just wash my face and then shave...i believe i am getting closer to the gist of what lather should be like, last night i shaved, cut myself quite badly, but for my second pass i had the sense to water down my lather, make it slicker, so to speak...
in order to make this at least comprehensive allow me to first express my concerns about the eventual continuation of wet shaving for me at least:
i have once succeeded in shaving with a DE razor without cutting myself at all...every single time i at least nick myself as opposed to last night when i literally CUT myself, that's my first concern, cutting myself every three days which cannot be good in any case, and the second main concern is that after i shave with a blade my skin is not it's normal colour, it's goes from red to a darker tint of red, especially after i apply aftershave, i deem this not to be desirable as from what i gather gentlemen after shaving have a pretty much consistent colour of skin in regard to before they start shaving, Geo for example has skin that a bit "redder" but i think that's because he has a warm water rinse before every shave....
these are my main two concerns about the continuation of wet shaving, i do get the odd whitehead but that's nothing major, up to three in three days after having shaved (wet) ...
as for witch hazel, the only product i can get my hands on here with witch hazel in it is the proraso green spalsh, i used it last night as well as after using the rotary Philips
i was under the impression that the whiteheads on my neck were due to ingrown hairs? i thought this as i use alum after every shave, rinse it off, then apply splash, i currently have: brut, old spice, proraso green, red one, pinaud clubman, might have another one or two but they allude me now...i like the smell of the red one best but the proraso is best result wise as far as i can gauge....
the whiteheads you saw on the photos appeared exactly two days after shaving, until then i was very smoothly and evenly shaved...
for the aforementioned reasons i was of the opinion that ingrown hairs were indeed the culprits for the white heads, this would in turn mean that shaving ATG with any tool would give me them...
i must stress that i waited to shave since Thursdays, so that's 5 days effectively, i did however try to rid myself of the whiteheads in order to try and have a smooth wet shave, i did not pop them but used various methods i thought up, i did not succeed, i slit one whitehead which caused quite a bit of bleeding and on my second pass i cut myself as amateurishly as possible...
also a gentlemen on a thread on this forum mentioned concentration in regard to how much is needed to be satisfied with one's shave, i fear that i simply do not and will not have the sufficient focus ie concentration to constantly shave without cutting myself
bearing all this in mind, i now find myself, once again on the precipice of either continuing to cut myself every three days or once again acquiring a tool that will, given current probability, give me whiteheads again...the options available to me are the oneblade, i might go for the pro version because it's 20 bucks more here then the base one (essentially they shave the same but the pro charges in an hour, the base takes 4) or a braun series 3, i can get the 3010 or ct4s models...the prices are respectively:
oneblade pro 75 euros
braun 3010 85 euros
braun ct4s 150 euros
i might even try shaving as i once did with my philips hair clippers, they cut down to 0.4mm, spec wise that's closer than the one blade and i was satisfied with the closeness of it to be honest...
dilemmas dilemmas
hope i haven't rambled on too much, thank you again for your thoughts and time
but often using an electric can help clear up ingrowns specifically because they don't shave as close. Another alternative is just doing a one pass blade shave (WTH) and calling it good for awhile, then trying 2 passes, and maybe eventually 3 but many shavers just use 2 passes daily, or even one. If you consistently nick yourself then you need to work on technique for a bit, and again use a mild razor - many good reviews here (AS-D2, Gilette Tech, etc.). Some shavers get along better with a rotary, and some with a foil as far as reducing or eliminating ingrowns - the Braun shavers are excellent foils, as well as being the most comfortable for most, but like everything else benefit from a light touch. I suspect part of the problem is trying to get a completely smooth shave (at first) like a blade shave, and that's not really the strength of an electric. If you use an electric again, us a pre-shave, and I recommend using lather like a blade shave, and go over your face lightly once - you're not looking for down-to-the-skin BBS. Forget about lathering technique for now - that's one more variable - and just use a good (maybe even medicated) shaving gel. Use some type of aftershave treatment - witch hazel is best IMO, but alumn (wash it off), or a mild splash or balm. The initial purpose just to eliminate the ingrowns. I haven't used a OneBlade, but it gets good reports. I suspect the issue there might be that it reportedly shaves very similar to a blade, and you might see the same problems, but maybe not. Keep posting and good luck!
Witch hazel is excellent - readily and cheaply available in the States and Britain - not easy to come by in Europe.
Understood, hence alumn. Alumn blocks have been around and used for cuts/scrapes probably for centuries, and should be globally available (at least through a local pharmacy). Wet face, wet block, rub on and rinse off, and lasts forever. Works great as an astringent and toner, just a little less convenient. Or use an AS that contains WH, I think Proraso as mentioned, but many others. Main point is to get clear skin, which at this stage is a lot more important to the OP than a close shave.
When I was younger (fifty years ago), there was a liquid preparation called Clearasil astringent for acne skin. It contained alcohol and perhaps other disinfectants. One could also use it as after shave. You could get it at the discount drugstore.
- Thread starter
- #29
good morining!
first of, i again sincerely thank you for your input and of course, primarily, your time i really do appreciate it...
i have read everything you wrote and i wholeheartedly agree with everything, i believe i have identified a few key instances that i intend to correct on my next shave...
i wash my face before every shave, be it wet or electric, with bar soap (dove gentle exfoliating) i however do not wash my face before i go to bed the night i shave, i plan to try this...i might go for the cerave foaming cleanser, but in essence i trust the dove soap bar to be fine...as for the genetic predispositions of ingrown hairs, i had hoped that i would not be susceptible to them being nearly blonde, but alas i am, i do have to report that i have two days after shaving had one whitehead appear, this goes to further the narrative that wet shaving does indeed vastly improve things ingrown hair wise (slicing my face salami style is another matter however) for me at least...the pics from my last post were two days after using the 7000 series rotary shaver, i believe it should be noted that it is one the highest rated models by Philips for sensitive skin, so i really believe that rotaries are a no go for me...another thing i use to do but don't anymore is wash my face with COLD water after shaving then apply alum then cold water wash it off again..what i do now is use lukewarm water, i also intend to change this, i will use cold water...another thing i am doing wrong is using warm to hot water to wash stubble of the razor in between strokes, alas, i will do this with cold water from now on...i also intend to wash my face every night, i sometimes "miss some nights" but i hope i will be disciplined...now, as for aftershave...the proraso has up to now performed best but i have indeed found a product that should be on par with the best of them, witch hazel wise, german brand weleda all natural and such, vegan et cetera, it's called Belebendes Gesichtswasser, suppose something along the lines of cleaning water...i just saw that an online pharmacy has it on it's website i hope i can acquire it here...
as for the actual reasons i do get whiteheads, i trust that i indeed get bacteria and other pollutants into my pores and that's why they appear but also the fact that some tools cause this in a lesser degree than others paves the way for wet shaving for me...the shave i get from a DE razor is visually very nice, i look sharp, however i do hate the fact that i have hair that is "left over" from shaving WTG i do lessen this effect somewhat with a XTG pass, i have yet to perfect this, i am intent on starting with a XTG pass and then a WTG pass, opposed to what i am doing now...
your input has really helped me understand the appearance of whiteheads, they really do appear two days after i shave which coincides with hairs actually growing above skin level, so to speak, this occurrence can actually be seen on my skin with the naked eye, i also am of the opinion, that anything mechanical shaves ATG and by doing this actually "pushes" pollutants into pores, bearing this in mind, washing your face with a good cleanser after shaving could and should help, the logic behind this premise is sound i believe, also a single blade does not cause so many whiteheads as i use it wtg and xtg, i get whiteheads when i shave atg with a DE razor as well, so the possibilities, as i see them now, are: either i cannot ever go atg with any tool and should make peace with this, or certain tools (i only have hope for the oneblade honestly) can actually shave me, without being butchered, with extensive face washing, also without whiteheads...
i will definitely try and buy the witch hazel "something german" water and the cerave foaming cleanser the oneblade...i am not certain to be honest...the thing that concerned me the most about it, before acquiring it, was the "closeness" and this was fine i did however gets some whiteheads from it, my memory betrays me and i cannot remember how many i got, my wife's memory is fine, but she is not that interested in my shaving, although she de facto got me into it....
another thing i have not touched upon is the "amount of vibration a foil shaver gives off", so to formulate the sentence, after using the andis profoil lithium, apart from it causing me instant redness, irritation, scratchiness that very evening, it left my face partially numbed by how much it vibrated, sound wise the philips sounded broken it was so quiet and audibly spun at less rpm, i think that the andis spins at around 9000 rpm the braun 7 series spins faster than it, i was in an electric store just yesterday, had a look at the new 7 series, it had some power in it and the lad switched it on...the power of it was evident and i did not like, now imagine the "power" of an arc 3 device with 13 000 rpm?! i fear id be deafened by it, i am somewhat bat like when it comes to hearing, gets very tedious very often..there is another monetary segment that comes into play when eventually choosing the one blade, there is a version i had in fact bought and used, it cost around 48 euros, it is the lithium battery version, gives and hour of use after a 4 hour charge, the pro version available here is 75 euros and charges in an hour and gives an hours use...there is a cosmetics store i often frequent that sells the new series 5 braun for 83 odd euros...i read that the motor in the new series 5 brown is "underpowered" as i did not get whiteheads from foil technology i am actually giving the 5 series serious consideration, money wise, i also believe that foils do not "push" so much debris into pores...everyone says that braun is very gentle, i believe that the price of the new braun s5 of around 83 euros is rather a good find especially here...i do however face the reality that whichever device i buy i am stuck with it...
so...decisions decisions....
i hope i have not confused anyone reading too much, i do, however, truly find myself, once again...miffed
have a great day everyone
first of, i again sincerely thank you for your input and of course, primarily, your time
i really do appreciate it...i have read everything you wrote and i wholeheartedly agree with everything, i believe i have identified a few key instances that i intend to correct on my next shave...
i wash my face before every shave, be it wet or electric, with bar soap (dove gentle exfoliating) i however do not wash my face before i go to bed the night i shave, i plan to try this...i might go for the cerave foaming cleanser, but in essence i trust the dove soap bar to be fine...as for the genetic predispositions of ingrown hairs, i had hoped that i would not be susceptible to them being nearly blonde, but alas i am, i do have to report that i have two days after shaving had one whitehead appear, this goes to further the narrative that wet shaving does indeed vastly improve things ingrown hair wise (slicing my face salami style is another matter however) for me at least...the pics from my last post were two days after using the 7000 series rotary shaver, i believe it should be noted that it is one the highest rated models by Philips for sensitive skin, so i really believe that rotaries are a no go for me...another thing i use to do but don't anymore is wash my face with COLD water after shaving then apply alum then cold water wash it off again..what i do now is use lukewarm water, i also intend to change this, i will use cold water...another thing i am doing wrong is using warm to hot water to wash stubble of the razor in between strokes, alas, i will do this with cold water from now on...i also intend to wash my face every night, i sometimes "miss some nights" but i hope i will be disciplined...now, as for aftershave...the proraso has up to now performed best but i have indeed found a product that should be on par with the best of them, witch hazel wise, german brand weleda all natural and such, vegan et cetera, it's called Belebendes Gesichtswasser, suppose something along the lines of cleaning water...i just saw that an online pharmacy has it on it's website i hope i can acquire it here...
as for the actual reasons i do get whiteheads, i trust that i indeed get bacteria and other pollutants into my pores and that's why they appear but also the fact that some tools cause this in a lesser degree than others paves the way for wet shaving for me...the shave i get from a DE razor is visually very nice, i look sharp, however i do hate the fact that i have hair that is "left over" from shaving WTG i do lessen this effect somewhat with a XTG pass, i have yet to perfect this, i am intent on starting with a XTG pass and then a WTG pass, opposed to what i am doing now...
your input has really helped me understand the appearance of whiteheads, they really do appear two days after i shave which coincides with hairs actually growing above skin level, so to speak, this occurrence can actually be seen on my skin with the naked eye, i also am of the opinion, that anything mechanical shaves ATG and by doing this actually "pushes" pollutants into pores, bearing this in mind, washing your face with a good cleanser after shaving could and should help, the logic behind this premise is sound i believe, also a single blade does not cause so many whiteheads as i use it wtg and xtg, i get whiteheads when i shave atg with a DE razor as well, so the possibilities, as i see them now, are: either i cannot ever go atg with any tool and should make peace with this, or certain tools (i only have hope for the oneblade honestly) can actually shave me, without being butchered, with extensive face washing, also without whiteheads...
i will definitely try and buy the witch hazel "something german" water and the cerave foaming cleanser the oneblade...i am not certain to be honest...the thing that concerned me the most about it, before acquiring it, was the "closeness" and this was fine i did however gets some whiteheads from it, my memory betrays me and i cannot remember how many i got, my wife's memory is fine, but she is not that interested in my shaving, although she de facto got me into it....
another thing i have not touched upon is the "amount of vibration a foil shaver gives off", so to formulate the sentence, after using the andis profoil lithium, apart from it causing me instant redness, irritation, scratchiness that very evening, it left my face partially numbed by how much it vibrated, sound wise the philips sounded broken it was so quiet and audibly spun at less rpm, i think that the andis spins at around 9000 rpm the braun 7 series spins faster than it, i was in an electric store just yesterday, had a look at the new 7 series, it had some power in it and the lad switched it on...the power of it was evident and i did not like, now imagine the "power" of an arc 3 device with 13 000 rpm?! i fear id be deafened by it, i am somewhat bat like when it comes to hearing, gets very tedious very often..there is another monetary segment that comes into play when eventually choosing the one blade, there is a version i had in fact bought and used, it cost around 48 euros, it is the lithium battery version, gives and hour of use after a 4 hour charge, the pro version available here is 75 euros and charges in an hour and gives an hours use...there is a cosmetics store i often frequent that sells the new series 5 braun for 83 odd euros...i read that the motor in the new series 5 brown is "underpowered" as i did not get whiteheads from foil technology i am actually giving the 5 series serious consideration, money wise, i also believe that foils do not "push" so much debris into pores...everyone says that braun is very gentle, i believe that the price of the new braun s5 of around 83 euros is rather a good find especially here...i do however face the reality that whichever device i buy i am stuck with it...
so...decisions decisions....
i hope i have not confused anyone reading too much, i do, however, truly find myself, once again...miffed
have a great day everyone
- Thread starter
- #30
Hello!
when i was younger as well, although some odd 30 ish years ago, they also had clearasil, this was London, the 1990's, i remember it well, as children that had early acne where using it and i believe that the other brand was clean and clear, i did not have acne in school, thankfully
Thank you for chiming in
