Red bumps a day or two after a shave

I've been using a DE for a couple years now ... and have almost always had this problem. about a day or two after I shave I get red bumps on my chin and above my lip ... they often turn into some sort of zip like things. It's very annoying and embarrasing. It totally prevents me from shaving more than once every three or four days. I recently shaved off a beard I had been wearing for seven months ... and was hoping this would've gone away ... it hasn't. I can minimalize the effects if I only go with the grain ... and if I use tea tree oil a few times a day on the problem areas.

I've tried different blades, different creams, different soaps. I've gone to my doctor who prescribed tretracycline (or something like that) ... none of this has had any impact. I am just purchased an Ingrown hair and a razor bump cream from Anthony's ... but after the first use there is little difference. I make it a point to hold the razor by the bottom so that I don't put any extra pressure on my face when I'm shaving ... I try just to let the weight of the blade do it for me.

Honestly I just hate this ... I love shaving ... but can't do it on a regular basis ... and have to go around with two or three days of growth on my face most of the time.

This was the reason I started wet shaving in the first place ... and it started off better ... I was able to go against the grain and get a BBS ... but now I can't even do two passes with the grain without getting these bumps.

Anyone have any ideas? I'm out of things to try.



Todd

I have the same problem form time to time. For me, this morning I got it real bad. But that was do the lak if tecnique. I have found that if I just go WTG, and then two Passes XTG, i do alot better. For some reason this morning I decided to go ATG, and as a result I will be staying in for the rest of the day and laying low. I can however get a BBS if I use a M3 on my last pass, and go ATG with out the irritation. Maybe a Bi Disposeable would hel you for your last pass. I have not used one in about 8 years, but did always get a great shave from them when I did. Meuker sells a two blade cartrige system, that might look a little promising.

You could always grow a gottee, and still get to shave the rest of your face on a daily basis, and keep your gottee nicely trimmed.

They do sound like ingrowing hairs. I've used Anthony's gel and it worked really well for me. I think you're supposed to use it twice a day when you first start using it to get all the hairs already stuck out and then use it once every other day or so as ongoing maintenance.

It's strange that you were able to overcome this before but it has come back. Maybe your technique has gone off a bit whilst wearing a beard and you need a bit of time to re-adjust. For me I find the two best ways to prevent ingrowing hairs are to not try and shave too closely and to make sure my shave is irritation free. Try just sticking to WTG for a few weeks to see if it clears up.

I am currently doing two passes with the grain ... and that's all ... one pass leaves way too much behind for me to stop there. I have no interest in growing a goatee for the purpose of hiding this ... this is a problem and I am trying to find a solution ... that would feel like I am simple running away from it and trying to ignore it.

I fear I may have to go with an electric razor, which I've always hated.

Another thought I've been having is maybe there is some bacteria in my brush or on my razor ... I'm currently looking into where I can find Barbicide in Toronto ... hoping that may help resolve the problem.

I got those red bumps turned zits above my lip on weekly basis BEFORE switching to DE and wet shaving. Those zits were the result of dry close shave that turned into ingrown hairs. It took me 2-3 weeks to get rid of that problem after switching to DE. So I guess your skin probably need some time to adjust too.

But I've been doing this for a couple of years now ... and it's just getting worse.

what's your aftershave regimen? i think using an Alum Block or alcohol aftershave may help, sometimes these bumps are like pimples and can be minimized by removing the bacteria. best...

I've never tried an Alum Block ... I've tried Nivea after shave blam, Aqua Velva, AOS Sandlewood aftershave balm. I use a stypic pencil when I nick myself. Currently I'm trying Anthony Logistics Razor Bump Repair and Ingrown Hair repair ...

I usually put some Tea Tree oil on the problem areas after I shave ... in hopes that it reduces the impact. Which I think it does ... it just doesn't eliminate it.

Have you tried just shaving every single day without fail? I used to do it like you do, but I've noticed that almost all the ingrowns that I get tend to be either from shaving the hair too short (usually due to accidental over stretching/ accidentally shaving against grain in problem areas) or more frequently they occur when the hair starts to grow out a little bit on day two.

I have been doing 2-3 pass shaves everyday for the past week and a half and have noticed a big decrease in ingrowns. I also think alcohol based Aftershaves are essential. I have yet to try an alum block, but I'm pretty sure that the antibacterial effect is important. I used to do tea tree oil and witchazel together, but I have dropped the tea tree and am still seeing improvement.

For me those red bumps definetly caused by ingrown hair. I usually saw like a bunch beard grow from that spot when my red bumps went away. I used whole bunch acne treament products and no luck for 3 years.

So what I did was ... grew beard for a week, shaved it off WTG x 2, grew my beard for two days, shaved it off again WTG x 2, zits popped up again, so I grew beard for another week, and repeat for a month ...

I'm very new to DE shaving and am having a similar issue with my upper lip area and neck. If I shave more than 2 days with a DE razor I get little red bumps too.
Interestingly enough if I then switch to my modern multi-blade razor and keep shaving those bumps will go away in a few days.

I've assumed it's my technique to based on the fact that the irritation goes away when I switch to a multi-blade which basically requires little skill.
Only thing I can think of is that both of those areas (above lip and neck) seem to have the toughest hair, so I have to do more passes to get a good shave, so it gets irritated.
Whereas I can do just a single pass with the multi-blade razor and get the same shave.

Shmoooooo said:

I've been using a DE for a couple years now ... and have almost always had this problem. about a day or two after I shave I get red bumps on my chin and above my lip ... they often turn into some sort of zip like things. It's very annoying and embarrasing. It totally prevents me from shaving more than once every three or four days. I recently shaved off a beard I had been wearing for seven months ... and was hoping this would've gone away ... it hasn't. I can minimalize the effects if I only go with the grain ... and if I use tea tree oil a few times a day on the problem areas.

...

Anyone have any ideas? I'm out of things to try.



Todd

Click to expand...

I've been experiencing this exact problem, and, in fact, I was just about to create a thread about it to try to find out some answers myself. Luckily my bumps/acne/etc haven't been too extensive, but it is still very annoying and prohibitive of frequent shaving.

I'll be sure to post here if I come up with any solutions. I've been trying some acne treatment gel with benzoyl peroxide, but I haven't been using it long enough to verify if it is working or not.

I had similar problems when I started DE shaving a few months ago. 2 things helped me to overcome the problems. #1) I was shaving what I thought was WTG, but it seemed to be tugging a lot. So I changed to what seems to be XTG, and then do another XTG the other way. That has helped a lot on the tugging, and seems to have helped with the red bumps as well. Maybe my face likes XTG better, as my whiskers seem to grow almost parallel to my skin.

#2) I started using Witch Hazel immediately after shaving, after a warm splash of water to clean my face off. I use quite a bit of witch hazel, and then use a cotton pad to really rub it in and get my face clean.

These 2 things have really helped to turn things around for me, hope they help you as well.

Whenever I get bumps, the cause is one of two things: Whiskers that are too long, or unwittingly going across or against the grain before going with. You've been at it for a years so I presume you know your growth pattern pretty well, but I've had to really examine my neck, for instance, a few times before I finally got it figured out. You say you can only shave every 3 or 4 days - what happens if you just shave right over the bumps every day?