As a noob one of my questions that I could not resolve even after reading many, many posts, was whether to include aftershaves with alcohol or stay with my Nivea Sensitive regimen. So my experiment went for a week, in which I continued to use the Nivea balm on my whole face (which gets very dry after washing or shaving in the winter), but added the very alcoholic Aqua Velva on one side of my face before the balm.
Conclusions? I'm sure the experts are right, alcohol does dry the skin...but not for me when I include the balm after the AV. There was no difference either shave to shave, or over the course of the week. As a further control, for a couple of days I experimented with drying one side of my face and leaving the other wet before applying the balm. There I did notice a greater tendency to dryness on the 'blotted dry' side over the 'apply while damp' side.
And there, after weeks of mooching off the collective expertise of B&B, I have contributed something: the definitive answer to the alcohol-dryness issue. YMMV.
Conclusions? I'm sure the experts are right, alcohol does dry the skin...but not for me when I include the balm after the AV. There was no difference either shave to shave, or over the course of the week. As a further control, for a couple of days I experimented with drying one side of my face and leaving the other wet before applying the balm. There I did notice a greater tendency to dryness on the 'blotted dry' side over the 'apply while damp' side.
And there, after weeks of mooching off the collective expertise of B&B, I have contributed something: the definitive answer to the alcohol-dryness issue. YMMV.
