By finishing off the shave, you may have gotten rid of the unwanted hair growth on your face but do not consider the job finished yet. A good shave is incomplete sans a post-shave care process. Shaving for daily grooming often causes burns, cuts, itching or inflammation, which can be damaging for the skin in the long run. The best way to go about this is to include post-shave care as a routine task after your daily shave. This will help your skin heal in a quicker fashion and get prepared for the next day’s razor drill. A few tips that can help you along the way include:
1. Rinse your skin with cold water and pat dry. Just how warm water opens up the skin pores, cold water shuts them off. Avoid rubbing as it could cause skin irritation. It could invite the very problems that you are trying to avoid by investing in post-shave care!
2. Apply an aftershave gel, lotion or cream on the skin right after shaving. Such gels and lotions usually have antiseptic properties that help heal the skin. It is best to use alcohol-free products to avoid dryness. Lotions having a moisturizing effect are beneficial as they help keep the skin hydrated for a longer duration. To get the best results, treat you skin with a good moisturizing lotion all the time and not just after shaving.
3. If you do seem to develop itching or redness, using hydrocortisone creams or salve immediately after shaving can be effective. These reduce redness, burns and stings that your razor might have put you through. The salve works by soothing the skin and healing any irritation that has been caused during the procedure. It is to be noted, however, that using hydrocortisone cream in routine causes the skin to become used to it, which could reduce its effectiveness. Therefore, its use must be limited to treating itching and redness on the skin.
4. Apply a small portion of benzoyl peroxide on your skin immediately after shaving to reduce redness, irritation or bumps. Originally created as an acne treatment, benzoyl peroxide is now used as a common treatment for razor burns.
Other tips that could help avoid the painful effects of shaving altogether are ones that you can take before shaving. A convenient step to include in your routine is to wait for a shave until after your warm bath or shower. Exfoliating the skin while preparing it for a shave is another important step that many tend to skip. It might seem like an extra to-do point in your routine shave given your hectic schedules, but you don’t want to get into skin problems that eventually drive you to a clinic! Sticking to this small step will help avoid just that. Exfoliating your skin helps align your hair for a uniform shave and sweeps away the dead skin. If performed after finishing off the shave, it unclogs your skin pores from the shaving cream deposits and prevents ingrown hair that eventually cause razor bumps.