When I first started with this real wet shaving thing we do, I always used the alum bar after I had completed my shave and cleanup process. Each time however my face and neck would turn a rather bright red from all the irritation I experienced. At the time I thought that I was having a reaction from the alum so I concluded that I was one of the ones who was unable to use the alum bar after my shave. I felt this way for over 4 years, and even made mention of this fact in several posts I did over that time. Lets skip ahead to now, well over 5 years of wet shaving, and a vast improvement in my technique, and many really nice shaves, both with my DE and my straights. Just a few shaves ago after finishing a really nice DE shave, I picked up my for years unused alum bar and thought I'd give it another try. Now as I've mentioned my technique has improved greatly since those first shaves when I had so much trouble using the alum bar. Since then I've learned to shave almost without any pressure at all, and to my surprise, there was no reaction from the alum, and my face felt great. Of course I do realize that the reaction from the alum back then was a direct result of my having used way too much pressure back in those early days of my wet shaving. I've made mention before of how nasty a thing pressure is, and of the problems it causes. Here was a classic example of my putting aside a really good treatment for ones face, the alum, due to my having used too much pressure. This really goes to show that you never stop learning from the shave experience, here for years I was missing out on something that puts a nice ending to a really nice shave. And it also states that pressure is one of the most overlooked things which cause problems to the shave experience. For me it was a lesson that's well worth mentioning. 
