What exactly is 'sensitive' skin?
Sensitive Skin
- Thread starter August West
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Good question Tony. Before I started using DEs I used to think my skin was sensitive. During the early stage of my DE journey I kept that opinion.
But then as my technique started to improve I realized my skin is not that sensitive, and that the ( minor ) issues I used to have were caused by poor technique ... It's impressive how things can get so much better once we actually learn how to shave.
But to answer your question ... well, I also am not sure what is sensitive skin. I know mine isn't. At least not as much as some other people's skin, according to what I read here.
But then as my technique started to improve I realized my skin is not that sensitive, and that the ( minor ) issues I used to have were caused by poor technique ... It's impressive how things can get so much better once we actually learn how to shave.
But to answer your question ... well, I also am not sure what is sensitive skin. I know mine isn't. At least not as much as some other people's skin, according to what I read here.
Wikipedia doesn't have too much.
+1
Same boat. As my technique has improved with a DE, I can shave without irritation daily (carts were every other day with +++ irritation).
While I do think there are individuals with skin that is easily irritated, I'm suspicious that it is overestimated...
Really good question...not certain.
My "sensitive skin" went away after I started taking better care of my face and switched to DE. I have wondered how many people actually have sensitive skin as oppose to how many just tear up their face with poor shaves and bad products.
My "sensitive skin" went away after I started taking better care of my face and switched to DE. I have wondered how many people actually have sensitive skin as oppose to how many just tear up their face with poor shaves and bad products.
I too think "sensitive" can often refer to poor technique and the learning curve.
1) Some of us are allergic to items found in the products we use. That's a technique free, aside from selection, issue.
2) Others may have a very thin dead tissue layer over the live tissue area. The older shavers amongst us will relate to this. Less dead tissue means less buffer between the blade and live skin.
3) I started shaving with a Futur. Few of us would say that it is a gentle razor. I learned how to get a close, damage free shave with this razor set at four and Crystal blades. I liked it. But, I found milder razors gave me an equally good shave with less irritation. (an alcohol aftershave is a great measuring stick) I also realized that getting a good close shave with a mild razor takes good technique.
Is my skin sensitive or did I find the right combination for my face?
1) Some of us are allergic to items found in the products we use. That's a technique free, aside from selection, issue.
2) Others may have a very thin dead tissue layer over the live tissue area. The older shavers amongst us will relate to this. Less dead tissue means less buffer between the blade and live skin.
3) I started shaving with a Futur. Few of us would say that it is a gentle razor. I learned how to get a close, damage free shave with this razor set at four and Crystal blades. I liked it. But, I found milder razors gave me an equally good shave with less irritation. (an alcohol aftershave is a great measuring stick) I also realized that getting a good close shave with a mild razor takes good technique.
Is my skin sensitive or did I find the right combination for my face?
Great question.
I thought I had sensitive skin for a long time but after toning it down on the aggresive shaves and the number of products I use my skin isn't as reactive.
So it really comes down to what/how many products someone uses. I don't think anyone has sensitive skin as much as using the wrong product causes sensitivities.
I thought I had sensitive skin for a long time but after toning it down on the aggresive shaves and the number of products I use my skin isn't as reactive.
So it really comes down to what/how many products someone uses. I don't think anyone has sensitive skin as much as using the wrong product causes sensitivities.
I'll also echo that I was among the large number of men who thought I had sensitive skin before I switched to wet shaving. Clearly carts and goo just tear faces apart, and many attribute the problem to their skin rather than the inferior products.
I do have some allergic reactions to various ingredients, so I have sensitive skin in that sense, but that's an entirely different issue than having skin that doesn't enjoy being sanded.
I do have some allergic reactions to various ingredients, so I have sensitive skin in that sense, but that's an entirely different issue than having skin that doesn't enjoy being sanded.
I have sensitive skin so I'll tell you....
Your skin is easily irritated by almost anything including products, sun and what you ingest.
You have a frequent flyer program with the dermatologist and he knows all about your present and your past.
You may have been treated for a medical skin condition.
You haven't been to the beach for years.
You have a great knowledge of sunscreen products, lotions, creams, exfoliation. And shaving items.
You probably have an extensive razor collection, having tried quite a few to find a good one.
Your shaving technique is probably professorial as you work at it a lot.
Your skin is easily irritated by almost anything including products, sun and what you ingest.
You have a frequent flyer program with the dermatologist and he knows all about your present and your past.
You may have been treated for a medical skin condition.
You haven't been to the beach for years.
You have a great knowledge of sunscreen products, lotions, creams, exfoliation. And shaving items.
You probably have an extensive razor collection, having tried quite a few to find a good one.
Your shaving technique is probably professorial as you work at it a lot.
is there any posts or sticky on how to use proper "technique' ?
Try in the wiki or try doing a B&B search using the websites own search engine.
I think Usascot has nailed it, but another example: when my son was just a young sprout, if we washed his clothes with normal laundry detergent he would look like a lobster in minutes. When washed with detergent without dyes and perfumes, everything was fine. We had to be careful with any product that might touch his skin.
When your dermatologist is on speed dial. You have sensitive skin. Like my severe eczema.
I should clarify certain things cause my eczema to flare up. And in different times of years. So far this summer. I have tried a lot of soaps and creams only flare Up was from prorasso white oddly.
As an example anything orange causes my skin to break out in an eczema attack
I should clarify certain things cause my eczema to flare up. And in different times of years. So far this summer. I have tried a lot of soaps and creams only flare Up was from prorasso white oddly.
As an example anything orange causes my skin to break out in an eczema attack
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You have a sensitive skin when you feel pain from painting on the lather and face lathering is impossible.
(The skin I have)
(The skin I have)
IMO it's just an easy way to describe a medical condition (which you may or may not know the name of) involving your skin that causes you to have allergic reactions to almost anything that touches your skin.
- Thread starter
- #17
It is the largest organ in the body(quite exposed to the elements) and is susceptible to allergies and problems just like any other organ. This just hit me.
Sensitive skin?! 
What's that?
It's truly fascinating.
I will give you my idea about "sensitive" skin, as I finally figured it out.
My skin is extremely dry due to various reasons like:
- I do not drink enough water for the simple reason that the water I drank for my entire life got infiltrated with bad things from a newly created living zone, and I didn't get use to another type of water properly for the last 5 years...
- I have my skin just like my father and also my grandfather, having dryer extremities and face.
After messing around with pretty much 20 types of creams/soaps I could not settle on an ingredient that caused me allergies yet I believed for a very long time that it was the synthetic citral making it for me. However, my results were inconsistent, and I simply could not get a proper answer about what causes me allergy. Luckily (if I can call it that), I tested not long ago Tabac and Haslinger Ewe. I could not believe that I was allergic to Haslinger yet not a single sting from Tabac. And even more curious, Tabac is a bit on the dry side, yet I could get a fantastic shave from it.
Result? I learned the hard way that if I shave without pre-hydrating my face, or if I go to shower before shaving, I am going to have the following problems: during shower, the soap I use and the hot water is simply dehydrating my face really bad. The moment I put lather on my face, it kind of disappears or it breaks the lather down, making it extremely hard to shave with. Why? MY face is simply sucking all the moisture from the shaving cream/soap inside, trapping there any aggressive chemicals that a soap could contain. Now I understand why I became sensitive over time to chemicals, and the best find I did was that I am finally able to pin point that I am allergic to potassium/sodium silicate.
Using a preshave oil/balm just before the shave, but rubbing it in so that the face is no longer sticky is extremely important, and can compensate for having a dry face.
All my creams except a select few contain sodium/potassium silicate. But due to the fact that it was not enough to cause a strong reaction until I tried Haslinger, I could get away with a proper shave be it for using a product with lanolin/oils that was getting enough moisture inside my skin to not let silicate do its job, or other products that are moisturizing enough to not let much silicate get inside my skin.
Now you can call my face sensitive for more reasons instead of just one. A dry skin is prone to irritation, cuts, sensitivity to chemicals, possibility to create allergies over time, making almost any product aggressive on the skin, for the simple fact that a dry skin will try to hydrate from the lather itself, making also the lather bad for shaving even though it seemed like being good enough at start.
All this leads to sensitivity to scritchy brushes or to a big number of blades that are not 100% smooth.
Only when I became "properly" allergic to silicates, by getting a proper dose on a day with very dry skin, and without using preshave oil, I understood that is all about hydration.
No matter how obvious some people consider my experience, but I was so blind to not see that it was not necessarily the ingredients themselves, cause they can be deceiving depending on how much product gets inside the skin, but the simple fact that my skin was too dry and was literally taking all the moisture from the lather that gets applied to my skin.
This is how I ended up selling half my soaps and now I am trying to sell my creams, with the biggest loss being Musgo Real which contains silicate and even though it has a high content of lanolin and jojoba oil, which is wonderful for a dry skin, I can't use them anymore.
I really hope that if there is anyone else like me out there, that cannot find an answer related to the allergies/random reactions from soaps/creams, that it should look first at the way they hydrate their skin, cause that is the first barrier against becoming allergic to chemicals that are contained inside creams/soaps.
So I was calling my face sensitive, due to the likeliness of getting a bad shave knowing that the changes/mistakes are minimal.
My skin is extremely dry due to various reasons like:
- I do not drink enough water for the simple reason that the water I drank for my entire life got infiltrated with bad things from a newly created living zone, and I didn't get use to another type of water properly for the last 5 years...
- I have my skin just like my father and also my grandfather, having dryer extremities and face.
After messing around with pretty much 20 types of creams/soaps I could not settle on an ingredient that caused me allergies yet I believed for a very long time that it was the synthetic citral making it for me. However, my results were inconsistent, and I simply could not get a proper answer about what causes me allergy. Luckily (if I can call it that), I tested not long ago Tabac and Haslinger Ewe. I could not believe that I was allergic to Haslinger yet not a single sting from Tabac. And even more curious, Tabac is a bit on the dry side, yet I could get a fantastic shave from it.
Result? I learned the hard way that if I shave without pre-hydrating my face, or if I go to shower before shaving, I am going to have the following problems: during shower, the soap I use and the hot water is simply dehydrating my face really bad. The moment I put lather on my face, it kind of disappears or it breaks the lather down, making it extremely hard to shave with. Why? MY face is simply sucking all the moisture from the shaving cream/soap inside, trapping there any aggressive chemicals that a soap could contain. Now I understand why I became sensitive over time to chemicals, and the best find I did was that I am finally able to pin point that I am allergic to potassium/sodium silicate.
Using a preshave oil/balm just before the shave, but rubbing it in so that the face is no longer sticky is extremely important, and can compensate for having a dry face.
All my creams except a select few contain sodium/potassium silicate. But due to the fact that it was not enough to cause a strong reaction until I tried Haslinger, I could get away with a proper shave be it for using a product with lanolin/oils that was getting enough moisture inside my skin to not let silicate do its job, or other products that are moisturizing enough to not let much silicate get inside my skin.
Now you can call my face sensitive for more reasons instead of just one. A dry skin is prone to irritation, cuts, sensitivity to chemicals, possibility to create allergies over time, making almost any product aggressive on the skin, for the simple fact that a dry skin will try to hydrate from the lather itself, making also the lather bad for shaving even though it seemed like being good enough at start.
All this leads to sensitivity to scritchy brushes or to a big number of blades that are not 100% smooth.
Only when I became "properly" allergic to silicates, by getting a proper dose on a day with very dry skin, and without using preshave oil, I understood that is all about hydration.
No matter how obvious some people consider my experience, but I was so blind to not see that it was not necessarily the ingredients themselves, cause they can be deceiving depending on how much product gets inside the skin, but the simple fact that my skin was too dry and was literally taking all the moisture from the lather that gets applied to my skin.
This is how I ended up selling half my soaps and now I am trying to sell my creams, with the biggest loss being Musgo Real which contains silicate and even though it has a high content of lanolin and jojoba oil, which is wonderful for a dry skin, I can't use them anymore.
I really hope that if there is anyone else like me out there, that cannot find an answer related to the allergies/random reactions from soaps/creams, that it should look first at the way they hydrate their skin, cause that is the first barrier against becoming allergic to chemicals that are contained inside creams/soaps.
So I was calling my face sensitive, due to the likeliness of getting a bad shave knowing that the changes/mistakes are minimal.
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