How to Prevent Shaving Rash

When using a standard razor, there are certain methods you can use to help prevent shaving rash. First, take a shower immediately before you shave. Ideally, you'll be able to shave in the shower (or bath, if you're shaving your legs). Allow the water to make direct contact for several minutes with the area to be shaved. Take your time -- after several minutes of exposure to steam and warm water, your hairs will become quite soft. Now, when you shave them, they won't be as sharp at the ends and won't be as likely to pierce the skin should they curl back into it. Also, the skin will swell slightly after you've been in the shower for several minutes. This makes for a less-than-ideal shave under normal circumstances, since it leaves behind stubble once you've shaved and your post-shower skin has tightened back up, but this is desirable for those dealing with shaving rash.

Anyone who's gotten an "old-fashioned" shave from a barber (or seen a Bugs Bunny cartoon) knows that a barber will cover your face with a warm washcloth for several minutes before getting started. Warm water on the skin serves several purposes:

What, besides warm water, will improve your shave while helping to prevent shaving rash? Proper shaving techniques, as we'll learn in the next section.

When you shave, it's important to use proper shaving techniques. Shave in the direction your hairs are growing in, and not against the grain. You may make a second pass over the skin, but do it gently, and don't push down too hard against the skin. Again, it's not in your interest to get a super-close shave. As such, don't pull your skin taut when shaving a particular area. When you release the skin, the hairs you just cut will recede beneath the follicle opening and be more likely to grow back into the skin or sideways through the follicle itself.

People susceptible to shaving rash should shave with a single-blade razor. Despite the marketing hype, you don't want an especially close shave. As such, you should avoid shaving systems that cut the hair beneath the surface of the skin by lifting or pulling the hair as it's being cut. Hairs cut below the opening of the follicle can easily become ingrown.

If left unchecked, shaving rash can result in discoloration that can last for months, and in severe cases, it may cause permanent scarring. But as painful and unsightly as shaving rash can be, it's also pretty easy to prevent, so long as you're willing to adjust your shaving routine. The severity of your shaving rash may determine how extreme those adjustments need to be.

Others may have better luck getting rid of shaving rash by using an electric razor. Electric razors, even at their best, usually don't create as close a shave as regular razors, which is favorable when it comes to avoiding shaving rash. You can also adjust how close a shave your electric razor gives you -- this works the same way lawn mowers work, allowing you to adjust the height of the grass (or hair) that's left when you're done. While a five-o'clock shadow doesn't look as fresh or clean-cut as a perfectly smooth shave (especially if that shadow is on your legs), cutting the hairs slightly off the skin allows them to grow out naturally without curling back and becoming ingrown.

Cleanliness may or may not be next to godliness, but it'll get you close enough when it comes to shaving, as we'll learn next.

If you get shaving rash, it'd be understandable if you thought the irritation on your skin was the result of slicing and dicing it with too sharp a blade. However, as any worker at an Alaskan fish camp will tell you, you're more likely to cut yourself with a dull knife than with a sharp knife. The same holds true for razors. When a razor dulls, its edge becomes slightly rounded, and tiny, imperceptible chips may form along that edge. When you run it over your skin, it now snags on some hairs while passing over others. Add to that the sloughed off skin and hair particles clogging the razor, and you're in for a rough shave.

Wash your razor after each pass over your skin. If you're not getting an easy pass over the skin with your razor, don't think twice about replacing it. Using a dull, dirty razor will make you more likely to pass several times over your skin, agitating it and cutting hairs unevenly. While missed hairs will stick out on the skin, hairs you've given the hatchet treatment to will likely curl and grow back into the skin. The result? Skin that's not only painfully scraped and full of ingrown hairs, but also skin that shows off unsightly hairs that were missed during the shave.

Also, don't forget to regularly take apart and wash your electric razor, if that's your weapon of choice. Roughly rubbing a poorly functioning electric razor over your skin repeatedly won't do anything to bring you a sense of relief.

If you have a bad shaving rash and the freedom to avoid shaving for a few weeks, most ingrown hairs will eventually free themselves when left alone. The same curl that caused this trouble will eventually behave like a spring, and the tightening coil created by the hair's continued growth will pop the hair free of the skin it's embedded in. Ingrown hairs can also be freed using a sterilized needle or tweezers to pull on the exposed loop of hair until the embedded tip comes free of the skin.

Start warming the water, sharpen up your technique, clean that razor and see the next page for lots more information.