Does your skin adjust?

[YoungGeezer]

So I essentially always shaved WTG with my catridge razor.

Maybe 1-2 times a week I go ATG with my DE. My neck and upper lip always seem to be a little sensitive and suffer some irritation.

Will my skin "adjust" to DE shaving and going ATG in a month or two?

Will the irritation go away as my technique improves?

Is it a combination of skin "adjusting" and technique?

Or will my skin in these areas always suffer irritation when going ATG?

[Austin]

The short answer is yes. Your skin will adjust as you perfect your technique, use balm/AS to soothe your skin. It may take a few months until you have mastered razor pressure and found the products that work for you. Hang in there and feel free to ask more questions.

[evandood]

I am curious as to why you only go ATG once a week. Is it the sensitivity problem? I do the three pass, WTG,XTG,ATG every day. You might want to prep more and go very light and reduce gradually.

[YoungGeezer]

I am curious as to why you only go ATG once a week. Is it the sensitivity problem? I do the three pass, WTG,XTG,ATG every day. You might want to prep more and go very light and reduce gradually.

Yes, sometimes I get a little razor burn, bumps, etc... Thus making it harder to get a close shave the next day with cutting said spot again.

I go ATG the grain on cheeks whenever I have time and feel like it, just the neck and upper lip give me trouble.

I always shower before shaving and make sure to let the hot water run on my face a bit.

[Big Jay]

I was just like you, a one pass cart WTG. I learned XTG and ATG once I started DE shaving. Needless to say, my learning curve was bloody and brutal. However, after about 4-5 months my technique got better.

It's really about technique.

3 factors:

1) Angle
2) Pressure
3) Pulling the razor parallel with your skin vs. "raking"

[gzk]

What are you lathering with? What's your aftershave?

Personally I go WTG ATG every day with no irritation unless I'm trying something new and risky. I used to get a little on my neck (not as much as with the plastic) when I was hand lathering with regular hand soap, not with Proraso and a boar brush.

[YoungGeezer]

What are you lathering with? What's your aftershave?

Personally I go WTG ATG every day with no irritation unless I'm trying something new and risky. I used to get a little on my neck (not as much as with the plastic) when I was hand lathering with regular hand soap, not with Proraso and a boar brush.

Arko shave stick. Kent Silver-Tip Brush. Aftershave I either use some Neutragena (sp?) or some Ollagalla aftershave.

I have some Cella, and DR Harris soap (puck and stick) and aftershave on the way.

[Eric V]

I rarely use an ATG pass. In a three pass shave, I use WTG, XTG, XTG. The ATG pass, especially without the greatest reduction of beard growth, is not nice for my skin.

As your technic improves, you will find a DFS easily available using WTH XTG XTG. Save your skin! No sense in being irritated if you don't have to be irritated!

[LuckyR]

Yes your skin will adjust but I have found that the key to XTG and especially ATG passes is to do a great job on the WTG pass first. (Otherwise why couldn't you just do one ATG pass and be done with it?)

[damooshki]

The short answer is yes. Your skin will adjust as you perfect your technique, use balm/AS to soothe your skin. It may take a few months until you have mastered razor pressure and found the products that work for you. Hang in there and feel free to ask more questions.

+1

Make sure and check the ingredient list on products that don't agree with your skin.

For example: My skin can't tolerate lanolin or lanolool for more than one shave. So, RSC (Real Shaving Co) and AOS (Art of Shaving) creams irritate my face if I use them for two consecutive shaves.

Because of this I haven't even bothered with MWF.

[Akarui]

The short answer is yes. Your skin will adjust as you perfect your technique, use balm/AS to soothe your skin. It may take a few months until you have mastered razor pressure and found the products that work for you. Hang in there and feel free to ask more questions.

+1 it takes a while and can range anywhere from a few days to a few months. I'ts taken my skin about 3 weeks but now its better day after day.. :D

[kf4tqj]

Your skin will adjust some. Consider the calouses on your feet. Also your tetchnique will improve. You didn't mention the razor though. I'm having that trouble to some extent with a new Edwin Jagger and have had that problem with an old Gillette slim adjustable but never have it with a 1954 Gillette Super Speed. You may well benifit from a less agressive razor than whatever you may be using now.
All the best,
Woody / KF4TQJ

[YoungGeezer]

Your skin will adjust some. Consider the calouses on your feet. Also your tetchnique will improve. You didn't mention the razor though. I'm having that trouble to some extent with a new Edwin Jagger and have had that problem with an old Gillette slim adjustable but never have it with a 1954 Gillette Super Speed. You may well benifit from a less agressive razor than whatever you may be using now.
All the best,
Woody / KF4TQJ

1951 Gillette SS, Aluminum Black Tip

[Go West Young Man]

Your skin will adjust some. Consider the calouses on your feet.

If your face callouses up, you're doing it wrong.
In fact, your face should be getting SOFTER and HEALTHIER, not TOUGHER.

It's all about your technique.

[JohnnyDemonic]

If your face callouses up, you're doing it wrong.

Age has a little to do with it as well. Us *ahem* older guys have many more miles on our faces plus out hair tends to be tougher.

My nephew is 21 and has been hacking his face to bits for a couple of weeks now. Yesterday he came in standing very proud because he found his technique and came away with a DFS--weeper/nick free, even on his neck.

Technique, lather, enough water, comfortable razor and good blades. I consider myself on of those lucky new guys because I took to wet shaving very well. I don't take many risks on my neck (still figuring it out), but the rest of my face is super smooth.

[Codfish]

I do not see where the skin has any capacity to "adjust", other than it stops being irritated when it is properly treated. It has no capacity to learn and respond on its own. Skin is not trainable and it can't do tricks.

Good prep, good technique and good care are rewarded with softer, more hydrated and healthy skin. Unless you develop callouses, your skin does not toughen or "get used to" shaving, IMO. It feels better when it is abused less.

Better technique is what makes skin respond positively.

Codfish

[Dalejr]

It's all about patience and practice...

[OLDMAN]

Mine did, it took a couple of months.

[dmalcolm]

I do not see where the skin has any capacity to "adjust", other than it stops being irritated when it is properly treated. It has no capacity to learn and respond on its own. Skin is not trainable and it can't do tricks.

Good prep, good technique and good care are rewarded with softer, more hydrated and healthy skin. Unless you develop callouses, your skin does not toughen or "get used to" shaving, IMO. It feels better when it is abused less.

Better technique is what makes skin respond positively.

Codfish

Skin does adjust to some degree. At the risk of committing heresy, when I started shaving with an electric my neck was very irritated. But after a couple of weeks the skin adjusted and the electric never irritated again. I suspect the same is true with new DE shavers. My first half dozen shaved ended with nicks. I think the nicks were technique, but the skin irritation was both technique and skin needing to adjust. I'm still somewhat new at DE but spent 40+ years blade shaving (cart)prior to the electric, but irritation is disappearing. Just have to not do ATG.