(I'm posting images in the posts below in this thread).
So I've been shaving with those plastic razors with multiple blades and Gillette foam out of a can since I started shaving some 14-15 years ago (can't remember exactly). And throughout the time that I have been shaving, I've dealt with irritation and ingrown hairs near and around my Adam's apple area. Recently I was doing some reading online and stumbled on some reddit posts and forums (including some posts on Badger & Blade) that suggested that a lot of ingrown hairs and irritation is the result of multi blade razors and that DE safety razors (or straight razors) at times solve the problem, if done right and if other factors aren't at play.
Being in Argentina where finding anything decent is a royal PITA, I thought this stuff wasn't for me. But then I found out that old DE safety razors can be had for a very low price at the local antiques/flea market. And that is exactly what I did.
The razors are, as far as I can tell, Gillette flare-tip Super Speed (made in the US). Date stamps on one of them is F4 and the other one is G4 (funnily enough F4 was cleaner than G4).
These razors were pretty disgusting looking so I went to town cleaning these puppies before I even thought of bringing them anywhere near my face. I may have gone a little crazy but these are the steps I followed (with the products that I had at home):
After I was satisfied that they'd been sterilized enough and cleaned enough (to be honest, I don't think they look that different from when I purchased them other than the fact that the soap gunk is all washed away), I added a Gillette "Super Delgada, Mejorada" blade that I'd purchased earlier from a kiosk to the razor with the F4 date stamp and went to the bathroom to shave.
I prepared my face with hot water and when it was nice and ready, I proceed to put form from a can into my hand and onto my face. GASP!!! I know, its horrible but regular stores and kiosks don't sell either the brushes or shaving cream soaps around where I live so all I had was the foam can thing.
Anyway, moving on
, the razor and the blade felt great on my face. I had already learned that one should not apply any pressure and boy was it fun to shave without having to work out at the same time applying pressure in all kindsa different angles. The blade just slid on my face taking all the little hairs with it.
I was completely scared of the blade so I was literally shaking like someone was holding a knife to my throat. Because of this it took a long time for me to get to the neck part. By the time I got there, the foam was already starting to dry but I didn't realize that was happening and kept shaving (N - S direction).
In the end, I ended up with irritation again. But it seems like it is irritation from going over existing ingrown hairs.
I thought it was because I hadn't showered right before shaving and plus the foam had already started drying too so next day I showered with really hot water, put my face under there for quite a while and then used the canned foam thing again but this time I put more of it on there. Sadly, I ended up with the same result even though the foam hadn't dried yet.
I seem to be going over existing ingrown hairs and irritating my neck real bad. I am not giving up on this though and want to continue learning to shave (as I do realize that it may take a couple of months before things get better). So in the interest of that, I'm going out today to buy myself some shaving cream or soap and a brush (found a place that has brushes made with horse hair...not sure what to think of that
).
Oh and I'm not going for BBS shave just yet because I think I gotta learn to figure out the trick to shaving comfortably and without irritation. So any tips in that department are totally appreciated but I am also going through the forum posts here and trying to figure out the best way to shave for me.
EDIT: I forgot to add the price of the razors. I bought both of them for $15 dollars. I thought that was a pretty decent price for two functioning razors.
So I've been shaving with those plastic razors with multiple blades and Gillette foam out of a can since I started shaving some 14-15 years ago (can't remember exactly). And throughout the time that I have been shaving, I've dealt with irritation and ingrown hairs near and around my Adam's apple area. Recently I was doing some reading online and stumbled on some reddit posts and forums (including some posts on Badger & Blade) that suggested that a lot of ingrown hairs and irritation is the result of multi blade razors and that DE safety razors (or straight razors) at times solve the problem, if done right and if other factors aren't at play.
Being in Argentina where finding anything decent is a royal PITA, I thought this stuff wasn't for me. But then I found out that old DE safety razors can be had for a very low price at the local antiques/flea market. And that is exactly what I did.
The razors are, as far as I can tell, Gillette flare-tip Super Speed (made in the US). Date stamps on one of them is F4 and the other one is G4 (funnily enough F4 was cleaner than G4).
These razors were pretty disgusting looking so I went to town cleaning these puppies before I even thought of bringing them anywhere near my face. I may have gone a little crazy but these are the steps I followed (with the products that I had at home):
- Took a pot, added some aluminum foil to line the pot with then added water and boiled it, added baking soda and salt to the water and dropped both the razors in there for 10 minutes.
- Took the razors out and dropped them in a pot with soapy hot water.
- Used a toothbrush to scrub the razors in all their nooks and crannies, washed them with water and then dipped them in alcohol and scrubbed again with alcohol.
- Let the razors dry on their own.
- Got a locally made metal polisher thing (never worked with metals before so not sure what this is called, but you know the thing that is supposed to make metals shine? that.) and "cleaned" both the razors with it.
- Meanwhile got a pot ready with aluminum foil lining and fresh water and put it on to boil.
- Repeated steps 1 through 4.
- Put the razors in the dishwasher and ran it at the longest, most clean freaky setting possible (this one runs for like 4 hours).
After I was satisfied that they'd been sterilized enough and cleaned enough (to be honest, I don't think they look that different from when I purchased them other than the fact that the soap gunk is all washed away), I added a Gillette "Super Delgada, Mejorada" blade that I'd purchased earlier from a kiosk to the razor with the F4 date stamp and went to the bathroom to shave.
I prepared my face with hot water and when it was nice and ready, I proceed to put form from a can into my hand and onto my face. GASP!!! I know, its horrible but regular stores and kiosks don't sell either the brushes or shaving cream soaps around where I live so all I had was the foam can thing.
Anyway, moving on
, the razor and the blade felt great on my face. I had already learned that one should not apply any pressure and boy was it fun to shave without having to work out at the same time applying pressure in all kindsa different angles. The blade just slid on my face taking all the little hairs with it.I was completely scared of the blade so I was literally shaking like someone was holding a knife to my throat. Because of this it took a long time for me to get to the neck part. By the time I got there, the foam was already starting to dry but I didn't realize that was happening and kept shaving (N - S direction).
In the end, I ended up with irritation again. But it seems like it is irritation from going over existing ingrown hairs.
I thought it was because I hadn't showered right before shaving and plus the foam had already started drying too so next day I showered with really hot water, put my face under there for quite a while and then used the canned foam thing again but this time I put more of it on there. Sadly, I ended up with the same result even though the foam hadn't dried yet.
I seem to be going over existing ingrown hairs and irritating my neck real bad. I am not giving up on this though and want to continue learning to shave (as I do realize that it may take a couple of months before things get better). So in the interest of that, I'm going out today to buy myself some shaving cream or soap and a brush (found a place that has brushes made with horse hair...not sure what to think of that
).Oh and I'm not going for BBS shave just yet because I think I gotta learn to figure out the trick to shaving comfortably and without irritation. So any tips in that department are totally appreciated but I am also going through the forum posts here and trying to figure out the best way to shave for me.
EDIT: I forgot to add the price of the razors. I bought both of them for $15 dollars. I thought that was a pretty decent price for two functioning razors.
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