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If you exfoliate to help prevent ingrowns...

so for the past few months ive been exfoliating daily with salicylic acid, and shave about twice a week. however, i was still experiencing ingrowns and i couldnt figure out why. i just went on vacation for a week, and i forgot my face scrub. low and behold, basically zero ingrowns! i was reluctant to believe that this scrub was actually causing ingrowns, because how could removing dead skin be promoting hair growing below the skin? counter intuitive, wouldnt you think? nope. my skin looks great. no irritation, no ingrowns, just got a DFS with 2 passes with a straight. YMMV, but if you use any of those ingrown hair treatments and they irritate your skin and still wont prevent ingrown hairs, try dropping that product and see how your skin reacts. just one more epiphany on the quest for BBS.
 
makes sense to me .. really shaving is a form of exfoliation and if your shaving plus doing an exfoliating treatment .. then you could be over-exfoliating
 
makes sense to me .. really shaving is a form of exfoliation and if your shaving plus doing an exfoliating treatment .. then you could be over-exfoliating

I agree. it works for some of us, but not all. Was it straight salicylic acid, which is a liquid, or one of the grittier scrubs?
 
Many simply use a soft bristled tooth brush prior to a shave to exfoliate their skin with solid results. You really have to find what works for you. Best of luck.
 
Honestly, I don't, but I also assume that ingrowns are usually a product of my poor performance rather than anything else...

Best,

Boomer
 
Honestly, I don't, but I also assume that ingrowns are usually a product of my poor performance rather than anything else...

Best,

Boomer


thats what i used to think as well.n then i would try a tech with a derby and zero pressure, still got the ingrowns. dropped neutrogena 2% salicylic acid cream cleanser, great results.
 
It makes absolute sense, considering over exfoliation will irritate your skin which in turn means swelling, that means trapping of hair, that means more irritation in a never ending cycle.

I do a every second day scrub and just do salicylic acid masks/scrubs when my skin is becoming clogged, as a treatment and not a prevention method.
 
well another week of the same thing, and my skin definitely looks great. im definitely not looking back at this point.
 
It sounds like a positive result for you. We tend to take better care of our skins that lots of other groups- maybe your exfoliation was a little aggressive.
 
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