Too much skin care?

[jaimes]

Hi there, another lurker finally joining.

I've been shaving with a brush and soap since I was 14; before that I'd get irritations with canned foam. Since then, it's been a slow trickle of improvements over my technique, until 2 months ago I ditched my Mach 3, bought a Merkur HD, and started reading B&B. Much quicker progress now!

Anyway, one thing I wanted to share: last winter, my third in NYC, I decided it was time to take moisturizing my face seriously. I got respected products, and following the conventional wisdom, started on a routine of daily cleansing and moisturizing. Applying moisturizer at night did wonders for my neck, which had always suffered from ingrown hairs. However, I also noticed a little reddening of my moustache area. No itch, just a few very subtle red splotches that I could see only close to the mirror.

After switching to the DE, I don't get irritation in my neck, even if I forgo moisturizer at night The redness is my last dissatisfaction. I've tried different creams, shea butter, rosehip and jojoba oils, with no results.

A while ago I caught a post in B&B talking about avoiding the daily facial cleansing, since it strips away your skin's oils, and throws it into production of extra oil. I wondered if moisturizing could have a symmetric effect, ie. inhibit the natural secretion of oils.

I've been experimenting with reducing my skin care routine, and putting my shave at night to avoid the drying office AC right after shaving, and things are getting better. Now I don't use cleanser on my face, just let the shower do its thing, and periodically use the Nancy Boy replenishing mask. After shaving, at night, I just splash Thayers Rose Witch Hazel. In the morning, a tiny bit of moisturizer to combat that damn AC.

With this reduced routine, I find my skin seems to recover more quickly from breakouts, nicks or irritations (which don't happen often these days ), and the red splotches seem to be dwindling.

Just wondering if others have found reducing the skin care routine effective.

Thanks B&B for all that accumulated wisdom an camaraderie.

jaime

[MasonM]

Except for using something to sooth an actual problem, I just let my face do whatever it wants. It seems to work.

(That's what she said)

[Jim]

Welcome Jaimes !

[Dinder1]

Welcome, and you brought up some good points to think about.
Cheers, DJ.

[htownmmm]

Welcome to the collective Jaime- you will be assimilated!

I used to engage in a regular face routine of washing, cleansing,etc,etc but did not find the results to be worthy of the time spent upon it.

After returning to shaving the proper way, I have found that the extra exfoliating. cleansing,etc,etc is not needed. the time spent on my face for the shave is sufficient-unless something specific crops up.

Look around through other posts, post often, ask questions (the only stupid ones are the ones you don't ask). Enjoy your stay.


Marty

[Queen of Blades]

Welcome to B&B, Jaime!

[Larry C in Texas]

Welcome Jaime. I've kind of got the opposite problem on my face - fairly oily skin, even in winter. I'm of the same belief as Mason - use something for a specific problem, like occasional razor burn, but don't overdo the products. If it ain't broke, don't mess with it (unless you're bored or have a new tool to try out).

YMMV.

[jaimes]

Thanks.
It seems to come full circle. You experiment a lot until you find the few things that make everything else unnecessary.

[BroJohn]

If I know that I've over-shaved (unconsiously) my neck area, I go over it with an Alum block and while wet, spash on witchhazel. I leave wet while cleaning up. After cleaning my bowl and brush, I pat face with dry towel. On days that I've over-shaved I use Pinnaud Clubman lotion. That seems to be the only stuff that reduces redness and leaves the neck soft and smooth and takes care of the irritation. On those days, I forego colognes. Seems to work, and the Pinaud is cheap. Who'd a thunk?...

-- John Gehman

[rtaylor61]

Jaime,

On the rare days that I don't shave, I use Equate Skin Cleanser Gentle Formula to wash my face. On days that I do shave, I only use cleanser on my T-zone. I let the soap/shaving cream take care of the rest of my face.

Randy

[TimmyBoston]

I get dry skin especially in the winter on either side of my nose, but it seems if I moisturize too often it makes the problem worse. I've noticed this being true with chapstick as well.

[vespergo]

Yes, I've also noticed that going simple is the best route for the face. Keep things the same and in a routine, changing the shave creams and soaps, but keeping the rest of everything the same. Like showering and washing of face, etc.

[Stauff]

Personally, I can't wash my whole face (just the T) every day as this would result in red bumps and dryness. Shaving exfoliates the skin and shaving soap or cream cleans as well, so there is no reason for me to wash the lower half of my face before hand. Moisturizers that contain strong perfume sometimes cause irritation on me. I only reapply a moisturizer before going to bed (most often: Nivea in the blue tub - tried and tested, can't go wrong).

[Birds]

I don't use moisturizers except for a small amount of aftershave balm when done shaving

For me, I found that the redness on the upper lip area had more to do with razor burn from pressure and razor angle than anything else.

I kept thinking I was using no pressure and a correct angle, but I would end up with a red area or two. This was the only area where I would experience redness and no nicks. It has taken a number of months to get the technique for this area down so that there is no redness.

Keep working on not using pressure when doing the upper lip. One technique that has helped me is, on the first pass, to roll the razor on the upper lip from the nose down to the lip keeping the razor in the same location. You roll the blade around a fixed point (rather than drawing it down) in a similar fashion to how one uses a straight edge in the area - but you do it with no pressure applied. I do additional passes are from the sides with a very high angle (bottom of handle pointed more away from the face). I also found it is very important to pull the skin taught in this area. The result has been no redness.

Good luck.

Chris

[tjkirch]

Welcome to B&B! I've also found that natural treatment is best. I started out by overdoing everything, simply because I had so many neat products to try, but it wasn't always better than the simple treatments.