Shaving setback - hardware and/or software issues

I've been happily wet shaving for the last month and a half, but this week has been rough. I think I got a bit carried away with my experimentation after having such great success early on.

I seem to have several ingrown hairs on my right cheek, some small bumps to the side of my right eye, and some redness on my lower left neck area. I'm wondering if I have a combination of things going on perhaps with a soap and/or aftershave irritation and possibly a razor issue? Would the razor choice explain the ingrown hairs and the soap/aftershave the bumps and redness?

I plan to stick with known good hardware and software a few days until this clears up so I can figure out root cause.

Monday & Tuesday
Tabac shave stick
St. Charles Shave Savory Rose aftershave milk
Plisson Synthetic brush Monday, Shavemac brush Tuesday
Gillette NEW LC w/ Derby Blade

My bride commented on the bumps Tuesday afternoon.

Wednesday
Wilkinson Sword Shaving Soap Stick
Plisson Synthetic brush
Tabac aftershave
7 O'clock razor w/ new Derby Blade

Thursday
Tabac (from the ceramic bowl)
Tabac aftershave
Shavemac brush
7 O'clock razor w/ Derby Blade

I noticed redness/bumps from what looks like two ingrown hairs on right cheek area.

Friday
I went back to hardware and software I've used before that I know didn't cause issues.
Col. Konk Amber
Captain's Choice Cat O' Nine Tails aftershave
Whipped Dog Silvertip brush
Gillette Old Type w/ new Derby Blade

I noticed another ingrown hair and redness on neck area prior to the shave.

I've never had an ingrown hair so I can't really speculate on the root cause of that. But I do see a common element across your shaves is the Derby Blade. I always had rough shaves with Derby blades, which I used for about 6 months when I started wet shaving. I then switched to Feathers, Astras and Personna Lab Blues and my shaves are much smoother. Do you have any other blades you can try?

Very observant, shevek. To OP, have you used Derby blades before. Some gents here feel they are not as sharp as some other brands.

I've been using Derby's since I started in mid-September, and didn't have any issues until this week. I guess it could be the blade/razor combination?

I do have a sampler pack of blades from WCS, and I was planning on experimenting with them once I narrowed down a razor. I was on the fence between the LC New and the 7 O'clock. The Old Type works, and provides a close shave; however, it feels too aggressive for my newbie technique and/or Derby blade. I usually end up with some weepers.

Once my face clears up, I plan to test the two razors again to see if anything else strange happens.

I was worried it might be the Tabac soap and/or aftershave since I had the redness and bumps in non-shave areas. Have people had issues with Tabac products irritating the skin?

Looks like you have some really nice shave set ups Kyle, so I would be looking at technique for the cause of those bumps and irritation.

Checklist?

1. Are you using no pressure?

2. Have you mapped your beard growth?

3. Are you shave in the same direction as the growth on the first pass?

4. Are you shaving against the grain?

5. If you are, which pass is it? 1st? 2nd? 3rd?


And it could be the blade combo, I am one who believes that the Derby absolutely sucks...

Thanks for asking some probing questions. I posted answers below.

OkieStubble said:

1. Are you using no pressure?

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Yes, I believe i am getting a lot more conscious of pressure, especially when using the more aggressive Old Type razor!

OkieStubble said:

2. Have you mapped your beard growth?

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I haven't gone to the trouble of printing out a picture and drawing little arrows and such, but I know how hair grows on my cheeks where the bumps are and I know how it changes on different parts of my neck.

OkieStubble said:

3. Are you shave in the same direction as the growth on the first pass?

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Yes. On my checks, where the bumps are, it grows downward, so I do a North to South pass (WTG).

OkieStubble said:

4. Are you shaving against the grain?

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Yes. My second pass is a South to North pass on my cheeks (ATG). For the first 30 days, I was using an EJ89 Kelvin and my second pass was a XTG, but I dropped that pass when I moved on to the various open comb razors I tried.

OkieStubble said:

5. If you are, which pass is it? 1st? 2nd? 3rd?

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I do some touch up on the jawline, neck area, and some times chin and/or lip area if needed as a third pass. I don't find any need to touch on the cheeks again because I can get BBS there no problem.

That means the bumps are in a spot where I only did two passes.

OkieStubble said:

And it could be the blade combo, I am one who believes that the Derby absolutely sucks...

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Derby's have worked okay for me the last five weeks. It is just this week that I had any kind of issue with what I think are either ingrown hairs or some kind of irritation. They look like pimples, with white heads, and they feel hard.

You seem to be a very mindful shaver. I've never had ingrown hairs, so I'm no help there. I's start with the blades. After 6 months, I am still testing and retesting my WCS extended blade sampler. Three have risen to the top, the rest have all had issues, Derby, for me, I hasten to stress, was one of the worse.

Do you consider that you have sensitive skin?

Good luck

I hate to jump on the bandwagon, but I also think a good step might be to ditch those Derby 's. I know they caused huge problems for me and I hate them.

I'll throw my vote in with shevek on Astra SPs. They're what I started using as soon as I ditched the VDH blades that came with my starter razor. Great, great blades - especially for a relative newbie (which I am). Nice and sharp, but not so sharp as to be hard to use. Great prices too - a 100 pack is around 10 bucks.

Haven't tried Feathers yet - I hear they're quite sharp and not very forgiving of mistakes in technique. But, I will definitely try them once I have more experience.

Vespasian said:

Do you consider that you have sensitive skin?

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I don't think I have sensitive skin. I've used Col. Konk soaps (Almond, Amber, Bay Rum, and Lime) and Stirling (Sandalwood and Vanilla Sandalwood) and Mike's Lime with no problems. All five of the Captain's Choice aftershave samplers did OK as did some Bulldog aftershave I tried.

I guess I'll let my face get back to normal while I use hardware and software I know hasn't caused any irritation and slowly add one thing back at a time to see if it is blade/razor combination, a soap, and/or aftershave.

Thanks for the ideas everyone!

Ryan B said:

I'll throw my vote in with shevek on Astra SPs. They're what I started using as soon as I ditched the VDH blades that came with my starter razor. Great, great blades - especially for a relative newbie (which I am). Nice and sharp, but not so sharp as to be hard to use. Great prices too - a 100 pack is around 10 bucks.

Haven't tried Feathers yet - I hear they're quite sharp and not very forgiving of mistakes in technique. But, I will definitely try them once I have more experience.

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+1

When you were using your Edwin Jagger were you using the Derby blades?

I love Derbys in my EJ89, for me they are slightly better then Astra sp's In it, but in other razors they are trash. I found that my favourite blade in my Weishi (Wilkinson Sword) was my least in my EJ, and the Derbys were my least in my Weishi and fav in my EJ.

Not sure if this helps or not, but fingers crossed!

For me, I would immediately attribute it to the Derby blades, but since you seem to be fine using them, I would look to earlier in the week for your issue. Usually you'll get ingrowns from one bad shave and then they'll persist for awhile. Simple solution is to take a day or two off from shaving. Upon commencing shaving again, be very conscious of beard growth and razor angle/pressure. Should clear it all up. Alternatively, just do 1 or 2 WTG passes for the next couple days, see if it helps.

Finally, try 3 shaves in a row without Tabac products to rule that out.

My 2 pence.

chunkyluke said:

When you were using your Edwin Jagger were you using the Derby blades?

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Yes, Derby's have been the only razor blade type I've used. I change them after three or four shaves since I have a bunch, and I am using them as a "control blade" so to speak whenever I try a different razor.

paintflinger said:

For me, I would immediately attribute it to the Derby blades, but since you seem to be fine using them, I would look to earlier in the week for your issue. Usually you'll get ingrowns from one bad shave and then they'll persist for awhile. Simple solution is to take a day or two off from shaving. Upon commencing shaving again, be very conscious of beard growth and razor angle/pressure. Should clear it all up. Alternatively, just do 1 or 2 WTG passes for the next couple days, see if it helps.

Finally, try 3 shaves in a row without Tabac products to rule that out.

My 2 pence.

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Thanks Derek. I don't have an option of skipping a shave unfortunately due to work, but I'll take your tips on just going WTG in the area with the bumps.

I agree with you on no Tabac products for a few days to rule that out.

Sometimes, it is just the fact of trying for BBS, can be the problem of ingrowns. There can be a problem of shaving, 'too close'.

kansaskyle said:

I guess I'll let my face get back to normal while I use hardware and software I know hasn't caused any irritation and slowly add one thing back at a time to see if it is blade/razor combination, a soap, and/or aftershave.

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There's your answer...

Just go WTG on those problem areas for now....

+1 on trying some Asta SP's, the best value/sharpness/smoothness combination out there, IMHO!
Just

kansaskyle said:

Yes, Derby's have been the only razor blade type I've used. I change them after three or four shaves since I have a bunch, and I am using them as a "control blade" so to speak whenever I try a different razor.

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I would use another blade as a control blade.