The purpose of this post is to ask for some advice. I'll give a brief history of my experience with shaving in hopes it will procure the best responses. Thanks in advance!
I'm a 44 year old mixed caucasian male (Italian/Spanish/German heritage) with medium brown curly hair. Most of my facial hair (whiskers) have turned white, as has my chest hair (but not the hair on my head). I started shaving when I was about 15 years old and always had a problem with ingrown hairs/razor bumps, etc that led to infections, crusty skin and just a host of shaving problems over the years. While I could sometimes shave and initially it would feel ok, it was rare that it felt or looked good hours later or days later, as I would see razor bumps forming, sometimes a few, sometimes in patches (picture below, though it got much worse than that; this is the only pic I have).
Over the years, I have tried: single, double and triple blade disposables, foil and rotary electric shavers, depilatories, straight razors and about eight different double edge safety razors with a variety of blades. While the latter combination seemed to be the best, I still had the same outcome. The patches of bubbling, scabbing infections around my mouth and chin only seemed to get worse and worse. Sometimes I would just notice that while whiskers above my lip and on my cheeks were growing back, I couldn't see any whiskers coming in below my lips on both sides and I could feel trouble brewing below the surface. Sometimes the whole area would crust over and be infected with pus underneath. I was taking antibiotics orally and applying topically. To have to shave again was almost unbearable, and it took weeks to heal, just to start all over again. It got to the point that I decided to stop shaving about 3.5 years ago, since which time I have maintained a beard (picture below), which is what dermatologists and skin estheticians have recommended for me to do for many years now. While I was happy to find out I can have a very nice looking beard that is filled in and well-shaped, I've never really wanted or had a beard before, though I grew accustomed to it (though I dyed it since a lot of it is white, especially on the cheeks). Still, I prefer to be clean shaven.
A couple of days ago I decided to give shaving another go for a few reasons. For one, I now live in a different environment (near Cancun, Mexico) and didn't know if that would have any effect since places I previously lived (the 'foothills' of South Carolina; Panajachel and Antigua, Guatemala) were different in elevation, humidity, etc. Also, maybe there are some advances in products in the last few years that I haven't tried. Mostly though, I think I can try to be more methodical and careful in my approach to shaving. I somewhat did this when I started wet shaving with DE razors (age 35-40), but perhaps I could give attention to pre-shave and post-shave practices that will help. I don't know if it is the products, attention to cleanliness of equipment, process or whatever - but I am hoping to get some good advice here.
Currently I have a Vikings Blade "The Chieftain" DE razor, a good variety of blades, Proraso Eucalyptus and Menthol Shave Soap and GoodFellas After Shave Moisturizing Balm. I don't have any pre-shave product, but was considering the Proraso Refreshing Eucalyptus and Menthol Pre Shave Cream. I invite and greatly appreciate any advice you can give (products, routines, best practices, etc), especially if you have had a similar issue and had success overcoming it.
I'm a 44 year old mixed caucasian male (Italian/Spanish/German heritage) with medium brown curly hair. Most of my facial hair (whiskers) have turned white, as has my chest hair (but not the hair on my head). I started shaving when I was about 15 years old and always had a problem with ingrown hairs/razor bumps, etc that led to infections, crusty skin and just a host of shaving problems over the years. While I could sometimes shave and initially it would feel ok, it was rare that it felt or looked good hours later or days later, as I would see razor bumps forming, sometimes a few, sometimes in patches (picture below, though it got much worse than that; this is the only pic I have).
Over the years, I have tried: single, double and triple blade disposables, foil and rotary electric shavers, depilatories, straight razors and about eight different double edge safety razors with a variety of blades. While the latter combination seemed to be the best, I still had the same outcome. The patches of bubbling, scabbing infections around my mouth and chin only seemed to get worse and worse. Sometimes I would just notice that while whiskers above my lip and on my cheeks were growing back, I couldn't see any whiskers coming in below my lips on both sides and I could feel trouble brewing below the surface. Sometimes the whole area would crust over and be infected with pus underneath. I was taking antibiotics orally and applying topically. To have to shave again was almost unbearable, and it took weeks to heal, just to start all over again. It got to the point that I decided to stop shaving about 3.5 years ago, since which time I have maintained a beard (picture below), which is what dermatologists and skin estheticians have recommended for me to do for many years now. While I was happy to find out I can have a very nice looking beard that is filled in and well-shaped, I've never really wanted or had a beard before, though I grew accustomed to it (though I dyed it since a lot of it is white, especially on the cheeks). Still, I prefer to be clean shaven.
A couple of days ago I decided to give shaving another go for a few reasons. For one, I now live in a different environment (near Cancun, Mexico) and didn't know if that would have any effect since places I previously lived (the 'foothills' of South Carolina; Panajachel and Antigua, Guatemala) were different in elevation, humidity, etc. Also, maybe there are some advances in products in the last few years that I haven't tried. Mostly though, I think I can try to be more methodical and careful in my approach to shaving. I somewhat did this when I started wet shaving with DE razors (age 35-40), but perhaps I could give attention to pre-shave and post-shave practices that will help. I don't know if it is the products, attention to cleanliness of equipment, process or whatever - but I am hoping to get some good advice here.
Currently I have a Vikings Blade "The Chieftain" DE razor, a good variety of blades, Proraso Eucalyptus and Menthol Shave Soap and GoodFellas After Shave Moisturizing Balm. I don't have any pre-shave product, but was considering the Proraso Refreshing Eucalyptus and Menthol Pre Shave Cream. I invite and greatly appreciate any advice you can give (products, routines, best practices, etc), especially if you have had a similar issue and had success overcoming it.