One thing I always say is that it never hurts when you are doing it when it comes to wet shaving.........well with the exception of a cut. You have that special event and you are really focusing on that DBBS shave so you are going to town on the clean-up and all the while edging closer to your goal. You know you pushed it, but hey it was worth the results right? Maybe, but the next day you realize you pushed it a little too far and you are dealing with some minor irritation and redness. You know you need to R&R your face, but maybe you are like me and you can't just not shave for a couple of days because of a job or whatever it might be so now what? Well, it's time to come up with an R&R plan of wet shaving that will allow you to shave each day but recover as you go.
In the past I've tried to have one pass and that will get me with a passable looking face, but I find that as the beard grows it actually irritates the red areas more for some reason. Here's what I do that works for me:
1) I use a Parker Variant DE, so I shift down the aggressiveness from 4.0 down to 3.0
2) I get my slickest soap or most nourishing soap and do a nice thick lather. I make sure that it's in no way on the watery side because I need that slickness.
3) Now we all know @NurseDave advocates that even when you think you are not putting pressure on the blade, you are and he's right. But...........I also know that the more experienced you get that yes you can get away with pressure to help with blade deflection and you know how to get away with it. Well,, in my R&R treatment I go back to that newbie state and only let the weight of the razor do the work. NO PRESSURE!!!
4) I stick to a simple 3 pass shave of WTG, XTG, and then a gentle ATG. And dang-it I stick to just accepting what I get with those 3 quick passes without submitting to the temptation of clean-up. I remember that sometimes that clean-up time ends up being a 4th pass.
5) At this point, if I did the above steps right I have a decent shave and haven't made the red or irritated areas worse.
6) Post shave I take some remaining lather and gently wipe a generous amount all over my face and give it a light rinse with wet hands. This gives my skin some extra goodness from the soap and it feels really good. I'm a cold water shaver so all the rinses feel great to me. Sometimes the witch hazel post shave treatment can hurt more than help, so I go light with it trying to avoid any stinging. The final hand lather of the left over soap helps as sort of a barrier to ease the alcohol burn from the witch hazel.
7) With my wet face I then fan it with a cabinet door or even the bathroom door. This cools off my face really well and as much as the cooling menthol AS out there. For me, the menthol AS will just irritate the redness more, so the fanning technique gets me the refreshing cool without that
8) Of late, the shea butter at night before bed also seems to speed healing of the redness
That's my R&R and it will get me back to normal face conditions in a couple of days without stopping shaving. What's your R&R routine? Please share!
In the past I've tried to have one pass and that will get me with a passable looking face, but I find that as the beard grows it actually irritates the red areas more for some reason. Here's what I do that works for me:
1) I use a Parker Variant DE, so I shift down the aggressiveness from 4.0 down to 3.0
2) I get my slickest soap or most nourishing soap and do a nice thick lather. I make sure that it's in no way on the watery side because I need that slickness.
3) Now we all know @NurseDave advocates that even when you think you are not putting pressure on the blade, you are and he's right. But...........I also know that the more experienced you get that yes you can get away with pressure to help with blade deflection and you know how to get away with it. Well,, in my R&R treatment I go back to that newbie state and only let the weight of the razor do the work. NO PRESSURE!!!
4) I stick to a simple 3 pass shave of WTG, XTG, and then a gentle ATG. And dang-it I stick to just accepting what I get with those 3 quick passes without submitting to the temptation of clean-up. I remember that sometimes that clean-up time ends up being a 4th pass.
5) At this point, if I did the above steps right I have a decent shave and haven't made the red or irritated areas worse.
6) Post shave I take some remaining lather and gently wipe a generous amount all over my face and give it a light rinse with wet hands. This gives my skin some extra goodness from the soap and it feels really good. I'm a cold water shaver so all the rinses feel great to me. Sometimes the witch hazel post shave treatment can hurt more than help, so I go light with it trying to avoid any stinging. The final hand lather of the left over soap helps as sort of a barrier to ease the alcohol burn from the witch hazel.
7) With my wet face I then fan it with a cabinet door or even the bathroom door. This cools off my face really well and as much as the cooling menthol AS out there. For me, the menthol AS will just irritate the redness more, so the fanning technique gets me the refreshing cool without that
8) Of late, the shea butter at night before bed also seems to speed healing of the redness
That's my R&R and it will get me back to normal face conditions in a couple of days without stopping shaving. What's your R&R routine? Please share!
