WHY WE SHAVE

Since prehistoric woman let her prehistoric man dance with her cheek to cheek men have been indulging in the ritual of shaving.

Anthropologist Desmond Morris sites 4 advantages for being clean shaven:

1. It makes you look younger.
   
2. It makes you look friendlier; it's easier to read your expressions.
   
3. It makes you appear cleaner.
   
4. Its clearly better for sex.

Psychological studies have found 'women find male faces most attractive when they are masculine-looking but not ultra-masculine.' Women want dominant males, but ones friendly enough to care for offspring, they tend to see these traits in clean-shaven faces.

4 STEPS TO A PERFECT SHAVE

1) Wet shaving

It's best not to shave first thing in the morning as your face will be puffy.

Ideally take a shower before shaving, if this is not possible wash your face for a few minutes before. The cleaning removes dirt, oil, and dead skin and any other debris that can get between your skin and the razor, the hot (not scolding) water will soften the whiskers open the pores and relax your facial muscles. Keeping your face wet before and during the shave puts a layer of water between your face and the lather, the blade will skim the surface instead of dragging and tugging, dragging means the hair is not being neatly sliced and will cause irritation, redness, and bumps.

Grooming Health Recomends

2) Shaving cream and brush

Stop using your fingers to smear cheap shaving gel that smells like deodorant on your face.

Use a good quality glycerin-based shave cream which lubricates and protects the skin. Watch out for products containing irritating ingredients such as alcohol, menthol, mint, and camphor. Also beware of potassium or sodium hydroxide, they are designed to force the hair up and away from the skin by making the hair follicle and skin swell, supposedly for a closer shave, but because of the swollen skin some of the hair will be hidden, when the skin deflates, hairs may become trapped under the skin causing ingrowing hairs.

As always if a product burns, irritates, tingles, causes the skin to become inflamed, or hurts, don't use it.

Use a good shaving brush, the best brushes are made of badger hair. Dip the tip of the brush in hot water, it will absorbs the water and then when you whip the shaving cream up releases and mixes water with the shaving cream, this delivers a thicker, richer, more emollient lather.

When you apply, skim the brush back and forth across your face and neck in and up-down motion, the up-down brushing lifts your whiskers and suspends them standing upright in the thick lather exposing the maximum whisker length to your blade as it skims along your face.

See Shaving Creams

See Shaving Gels

See Shaving Brushes

3) The razor

The basics are:

• Disposables; the quality of the blades usually isn't good making then very hard on your skin, not recommended.
  
  
• Cartridge razors; a better choice, the Gillette Mack 3 is the most popular and defiantly one of the better ones.
  
  
• Double edge safety razor, you'll get a closer and more comfortable shaves than with a cartridge razor, but handle with care. See Double Edge Safety Razors
  
  
• The classic cut throat razor for the most adventurous. See Cut Throat Razors

Which ever razor you choose, use a sharp, clean razor (if your using a safety or cartridge razor change blades every three to four uses, depending how heavy your beards is). Begin shaving in the direction of the hair growth, shave first in the places where the whisker are not at their thickest, this ensures the thicker whisker a little longer to be softened by the shave cream and hot water on your face. Whist shaving keep the razor clear by frequently rinsing it with hot water. If you want a closer shave, wet your face again, lather up again, and shave very lightly against the direction of the hair growth. Go gently, many men find shaving against the grain causes redness, razor burn, and ingrown hairs.

Grooming Health Recomends

4) Aftershave lotion or moisturiser

When you've finished shaving, wash off any remaining shaving cream by splashing cool water on your face this will close pores calm the skin, and invigorate . Pat skin dry (do not rub-rubbing can irritate freshly shaven skin).

Finish by applying a moisturiser to replace the moisture you just scraped away or a shaving lotion (these are basically just gentle toners) Avoid applying any products with alcohol.

See Aftershave Lotion and Toners

See Moisturisers

RED AND IRRITABLE SKIN AFTER SHAVING

If using moisturiser or shaving lotion doesn't help use an aspirin-based topical product that uses additional potent anti-irritants. Aspirin is a very effective anti-inflammatory agent for irritated skin and is able to alleviate the redness and razor bumps/burn many men experience.

DEALING WITH NICKS AND CUTS

Shaving in a hurry or using a rough blade is the most common cause of nicks. But even if you're as careful as a surgeon from time to time cuts happen, the reason; the bumps and pimples that populate the skin many of which are invisible to the eye, when the razor passes over the blemish it shaves off the top leaving a bloody mess.

Make sure the skin is clean before shaving, avoid shaving scabs and blemishes, when you do get a nick apply a styptic pencil, this will stop the flow of blood and disinfect the skin.

Grooming Health Recomends

CAUSE OF INGROWING HAIRS

People with curly or afro hair are most susceptible to in growing hairs, the medical term is 'pseudofolliculitis barbae.'

When you shave, the hairs root is left in the follicle. Most will grow out of the follicle without problem, some however curve round into the surrounding skin and becomes ingrown. The hair will irritates the skin and can cause a lumpy reaction. The next time you shave you nick the tops of the lumps, worsening the inflammation and perhaps allowing an infection to occur.

DEALING WITH AN INGROWN HAIR

There are few products which can deal with the hair once it's started to ingrow, the best way to deal with it is, soak a towel in hot water and put it on the skin for a few minutes to soften the hairs. Then very carefully, using sterilised tweezers pull the end of the hair out of the bump. Don't pull the whole hair out of the skin, just the loose end, resist the temptation to pluck it, if you do the follicle could heal over and the new hair when it grows will have the same ingrowing problem.

Keep the area around any ingrowing hairs clean so as to minimise infection.