Hair vs Skin - What type do you have?

[luvmysuper]

I see posts where folks talk about having sensitive skin, and others who have coarse hair.
Just as often I see conversations which talk about whether a person has fine hair or coarse hair.

I'm curious what the general population here at B&B has in terms of both aspects of the question.

 

[Toucan]

Oily sensitive skin. Few, patches of sparsely distributed hair that are coarse. Like Keanu Reeves.

 

[Foyle]

Coarse, heavy, dark beard here. Even with a super smooth shave I still have a visible muzzle.

 

[SiBurning]

I have both.

Hard to characterize without feeling a lot of guys' faces, but I'll hazard a guess. My skin's just a bit on the dry and coarse side, but still rather soft. Not very sensitive, except to a very few chemicals, including that pink industrial soap and some rose and coconut creams. It seems to gets waterlogged easily. My hair's probably below average thickness, but varies to just barely coarse in a few places. OTOH, it's incredibly strong. Two separate barbers have complained about how difficult it is to cut my hair, and it's the same on my face. I've tried a sort of hanging hair test with a feather blade, holding the two ends of a hair taut while pulling the razor blade across, and had to pull hard enough to stretch the hair before it would cut through. The fortunate thing for me is that my facial hair, if not so much my head hair, also seems to waterlog fairly easily, so it's not so hard to shave.

 

[rockviper]

I voted "normal/normal," which is strange as they definitely would not be the first words to describe me that pop into the heads of those who know me
The only thing different with my facial hair seems to be the growth rate. It's pretty gosh darn quick.

 

[luvmysuper]

I've got grizzled salt and pepper facial hair that is quite coarse, but I don't get razor burn, I don't have any sensitivities to soaps, creams or aftershaves, and there has only been one DE blade I didn't get along with (Gillette in the white plastic dispenser, from Germany I believe but I could be wrong) and it didn't irritate as much as it just felt like it didn't cut properly. I shave at about 5 am daily, and stubble is still visible just below the skin surface, and I have a noticeable "5 O'Clock Shadow" around mid day.

 

[Haggises]

I was told at the door we all had steel cable stubble and skin as delicate as a fairy's kiss.

 

[jmacak]

Similar to Phil, above. Salt and pepper beard and no known sensitivities to product. I use a straight, though.

I voted the last option, coarse, tough.

Joe in Ballard, WA

 

[Bentley72]

Coarse, normal. Sometimes I think I have sensitive skin, but it gets abused by the elements at work and never have much problems. My beard is red and thick

 

[The Dean]

My skin used to be more sensitive than it is now. But the sensitivity is more to certain products than to razors. I've just started J-Hooking and buffing (a bit) and have seen or felt no ill effects on my face. (That J-hook thing is fantastic for a particularly troublesome patch on my beard.) If I steer clear of certain things, my face is fine now.

Fairly coarse hair, but I'm sure it's nowhere near the coarsest around.

 

[luvmysuper]

Similar to Phil, above. Salt and pepper beard and no known sensitivities to product. I use a straight, though.

I voted the last option, coarse, tough.

Joe in Ballard, WA

As do I, except when I'm travelling (which is a LOT)

 

[ksblazer]

I'm guessing my hair is normal? It dosen't grow real fast (only need to shave after about 1 1/2 days but can make it to 2 without looking like I need one) it's a little rougher around the chin and upper lip area though.

Unfortunatly I have sensitive skin that also dries out easy. I'm alergic to many soaps/dertergents. Can't use Ivory or Jergens for a body or face soap as it dries me out. Had a reaction to Irish Spring soap after a few days. Broke out with a poison Ivy like rash when I used Palmolive & Herbs of Bulgaria shave creams. After 3 shaves with Arko my skin would get very dry, even though I was using facial lotion after the shave.

Skin sensitivity is one of the factors that made me a little hesitant about trying wet shaving. When I cartridge shaved on a vacation where I forgot to pack my electric. The canned goo dried my skin out really bad after the 2nd shave.

 

[Toothpick]

i said coarse and tough. Coarse because it is really thick and very few DE blades give me great shaves, or can even cut through it after a 2 day growth. Tough skin because I can't think of any products i've used that have caused skin issues. that goes for soaps, creams, aftershaves...nothing has ever gave me problems.

 

[The Dean]

I'm alergic to many soaps/dertergents. Can't use Ivory or Jergens for a body or face soap as it dries me out. Had a reaction to Irish Spring soap after a few days.

I'm in the same boat, soap-wise.

 

[OldSaw]

I'm a red head, so my skin is very sensitive, but my whiskers are like copper wire.

 

[the gentleman hooligan]

This is a tough one. I would say my beard and skin are both normal as my skin is normally only affected by harsh man made chemicals and the diameter of my beard hair is probably average.
There is just a large volume of hair that grows a little faster than average, and is extremely tough (3 is the largest number of shaves I have ever gotten out of a cartridge razor).

 

[Toothpick]

I'm a red head, so my skin is very sensitive, but my whiskers are like copper wire.

I'm a red head as well and as I said above nothing bothers my skin. Except the Sun.

 

[Niles]

I voted normal for both categories.

 

[thorimmortal]

Coarse dark hair, skin is pretty normal a little sensitive to hot shaves and too much buffing.

 

[Graybeard57]

I'm going with normal/normal. Hair definitely fits here, and since I don't think my skin is especially sensitive, nor is it tough, I suppose it fits, too.