Trouble with soap and balm combo, advice?

Good morning,

I've been DE shaving for a couple of months now and it has been going just fine. This past week I've shaved exclusively with shaving soap, having been only a creams man up until this point. The soaps used have been Mitchells Wool Fat and the Palmolive shave stick, both of which have given me fantastic and largely irritation free shaves. The lathers have been thick, and the razor appears to glide even better than with cream.

The problem has occurred when I've gone to apply Aftershave balms. In total I've tried 3 different balms, Nivea sensitive, Bodyshop Maca Root, and Bluebeards Revenge. All of them have really burnt my face, leaving me with noticeable red shaving rash and a sore face for some time after. The only two soap shaves where this hasn't happened is where I just applied alcohol splashes (Witchazel and Old Spice). What's even stranger is that non of the above balms gave me any trouble when shaving with cream, only with soap...

Does anyone have a clue what the heck is going on?!

Thank you in advance 😃

I get the same with a lot of balms. ESPECIALLY Body Shop stuff. I just stick to my different flavors of Velva and some Skin Bracer here and there.

Try this: Rinse soap off after shave with very warm water, huge splash of Velva Blue or equivalent, then a cold rinse. Whilst you're cleaning up and whatever, let you're face dry on it's own, then a tiny little splash again of Blue on a dry face. I have no red doing it this way, and my face is smoother than it was before, or I think it is. Good luck!

Thanks forth tips, maybe my skin is just better suited to splashes than balms. The Bodyshop Maca cream works really well for me, the balm not so much.

I use Nivea Sensitive AS balm, and I've noticed that after I use it for a while, I seem to become sensitive to it... I started using it when I first (re)started real blade shaving, and I needed the soothing effect, especially in the cold dry winter months. Now that (hopefully!) spring and [we can only hope] summer are coming, I am using splashes and no balm, and my face is much happier.

I should note that I've used splashes my entire shaving life, and just recently dabbled in balms. Looks like I will stay with splashes for the foreseeable future.

Assuming there is nothing wrong with your shaving technique giving you razor burn, I would check to see if you have a lanolin allergy.

I don't think it's that. I have shaved with MWF in conjunction with Old Spice and had no problems. Last night when I shaved with Palmolive, I was fine after just applying whichhazel, the trouble only begin when I decided to add balm.

leicesterteaguy said:

I don't think it's that. I have shaved with MWF in conjunction with Old Spice and had no problems. Last night when I shaved with Palmolive, I was fine after just applying whichhazel, the trouble only begin when I decided to add balm.

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Witch hazel and alcohol can both interfere with a normal inflammatory response.

In my experience moisturizers only cause redness if there is some kind of underlying irritation. Just keep in mind that inflammation is part of the body's normal healing process in response to injury. So unless it's an allergy, I would look at your shaving technique.

I use Afta quite often and in my experience it does the best at combining moisturizing with the toning effects of alcohol. I only use heavier balms such as Proraso when my skin feels dry. But ordinary alcohol aftershaves dry out my skin, and this is no surprise because when you shave the top layer of skin that traps and holds moisture is thinned out, and alcohol, being hygroscopic, absorbs the moisture from your skin and carries it away. Drying out your skin is one way to reduce redness, but its not necessarily the best thing to do long term - the best thing is to avoid irritation in the first place.

Thank you. For tonight's shave I might try cutting out the ATG pass on my cheeks, as that seems to be where I get the most irritation. Will report back!

What razor/blade combination are you using? If you have sensitive skin you could be using a combination that is a little too aggressive for your skin. Skip the ATG for sure and see how that works after a week.

The last few shaves have been with a Ball end Tech and a Rocket HD500, both using a Feather blade. Perhaps the latter is the culprit?

Just to emphasise, my skin has felt amazing after the wool fat shaves, maybe I should just skip a post-shave altogether when using that soap. Thoughts?

Maybe a soap problem sense you never had the problem with cream. I would look for common ingredients in the soaps that you may be sensitive to and try other soaps that omit that ingredient.

leicesterteaguy said:

Just to emphasise, my skin has felt amazing after the wool fat shaves, maybe I should just skip a post-shave altogether when using that soap. Thoughts?

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My experience with MWF is that I don't need to follow that with anything. Try it that way to see if it works for you.

Thanks Musikmann, I'll try that tonight! 😃