How To Shave When You Have Sensitive Skin

How To Shave When You Have Sensitive Skin
If you have sensitive skin, then you know that shaving can be a real struggle that often leaves you with painful razor bumps, razor burn, and ingrown hairs. The good news is that there are ways to avoid them! When you take the proper steps, shaving with sensitive skin can result in smooth and nourished skin rather than bumpy and irritated skin.
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What Does Sensitive Skin Look Like?
Odds are that you have heard the term “sensitive skin” without knowing what it actually means. This makes sense when you consider the fact that sensitive skin isn’t a specific medical condition but instead a group of symptoms that tend to develop as a result of ingredient reactions, environmental factors, or even underlying skin conditions.
Generally speaking, sensitive skin refers to skin that is reactive to certain triggers. Again, these reactions differ from person to person in addition to various different triggers. Some of the most common skin reactions related to sensitivity include redness, irritation, dryness, itchiness, flakiness, and pain. Some of the most common skin triggers related to sensitivity include harsh ingredients like alcohol, sulfates, and fragrances in addition to environmental factors like heat, cold, and wind.
Once you have determined that you have sensitive skin, it can be difficult to nail down the cause. It may be a good idea to audit your skincare and personal care products for potentially irritating ingredients. From there, remove potentially problematic products from your routine and monitor how your skin reacts. It may be helpful to keep a skin journal with all of this information so that it’s easier to track. You may also want to track environmental factors and conditions that may be triggering your sensitive skin.
If your sensitive skin is still an elusive issue that’s really affecting your life, you should speak with a dermatologist about your concerns. Bring your skin journal with you to the appointment to provide the doctor with all the information they need to make an accurate diagnosis and come up with the best treatment plan.
The Best Shaving Tools for Sensitive Skin

Shaving with sensitive skin can trigger pain, irritation, and inflammation if you don’t do it properly using the best shaving tools. So no matter how tempting it is to keep using that razor until it no longer works at all, this definitely isn’t the right move. Instead, you need to start out with a sharp and clean blade for every shave. While this doesn’t necessarily mean that you need a new razor every single time you shave, it does likely mean that you need to replace it more often.
Generally speaking, razors have a lifetime of about five uses. As soon as you see signs of a dull blade or things like rust -- it’s time to replace. Not replacing your razor often enough will further irritate your sensitive skin by contributing to issues like ingrown hairs, razor bumps, and razor burn. Even worse, shaving with an old and dull razor can increase the likelihood of developing nasty infections.
To increase the lifetime of your razor, don’t store it in the shower. While this advice sounds counterintuitive since you usually shave in the shower, doing so shortens the lifetime of the razor by making it more prone to developing rust and bacteria. Additionally, make sure that you dry off the razor after using it by either using a soft towel or even a hairdryer to prevent the growth of bacteria or rust.
The Best Shaving Routine for Sensitive Skin
There’s more to a good shave than meets the eye. Instead of simply grabbing your razor and getting to it, you should take a more involved approach. Specifically, you should be practicing shaving preparation and shaving aftercare for each and every shave.
Shaving Preparation
If you’re shaving without any preparation, you aren’t doing your sensitive skin any favors. Instead, you should prep your skin before shaving for the best results. But what does this entail? First of all, it’s a good idea to wash your skin to give yourself a clean canvas to work with. If you’re shaving your face, use a gentle face wash. If you’re shaving your body, use a calming body wash.
Once your skin is all nice and clean, it’s time to move on to exfoliation. This is a key component to a proper shaving routine that many people skip to save time. However, exfoliation removes dead skin cells and leftover debris from the surface that can affect the quality of your shave. For instance, skipping exfoliation can leave hairs stuck under the skin that are then missed by the razor. Furthermore, skipping exfoliation can leave you with rough skin that’s easier to knick or cut with the razor.
So for the closest and safest shave, it’s always a good idea to exfoliate beforehand. The best way to do this is by using a gentle scrub. Pay close attention to the ingredients in your scrubs to avoid irritating your sensitive skin. Jagged and rough particles like crushed nuts can be damaging and irritating to sensitive skin. Instead, look for more gentle natural components like sugar, coffee grounds, or oats for a soothing and effective scrub.
Shaving With Sensitive Skin
After cleansing and exfoliating, it’s finally time to start shaving. But before you do so, you should always apply a shaving cream or oil to aid in the process. Look for soothing ingredients like shea butter, honey, aloe vera, and Vitamin E in your shaving cream. Apply a generous coating of the cream or oil to the prepped areas with lukewarm water.
Using your sharp and clean razor, begin to shave with the grain of your hair. Many people tend to like to shave against the grain to get a closer shave, but this is actually quite irritating to the skin and can leave you with more knicks and cuts as a result.
So if you have sensitive skin, it’s probably a good idea to shave with the grain of your hair to prevent irritating razor bumps and razor burn. If you do need to get a really close shave for an area like your legs, shave with the grain first before then shaving against the grain to reduce irritation.
While you’re shaving, make sure that you’re consistently removing or rinsing out the accumulated hair from the razor blades. Depending on the amount of hair, you may even need to rinse out your razor after every pass! Doing so helps ensure that you get a close and clean shave. Once you have finished shaving, switch the water temperature from lukewarm to cold to effectively tighten your skin and help prevent the development of ingrown hairs.
Shaving Aftercare
Once you’re done shaving, you then need to practice shaving aftercare. First of all, you need to gently pat dry the affected areas with a soft towel. You may want to apply an aftershave product to soothe the skin. Avoid aftershave products with ingredients that can potentially irritate sensitive skin like alcohols and menthols. Instead, look for gentle and natural ingredients like aloe vera, rose water, and plant oils like avocado or argan.
After applying an aftershave, you then need to moisturize. Obviously, this is something that you should be doing on a daily basis anyway but it’s especially important to do after shaving. In fact, the sooner you apply moisturizer after drying your skin -- the better. This is because the moisturizer can help lock in existing moisture on the skin from shaving. Look for moisturizers with powerful yet natural ingredients like hyaluronic acid, shea butter, glycerin, and ceramides.
Other Skincare Tips for Sensitive Skin

Other Skincare Tips for Sensitive Skin
Shaving is simply one aspect of dealing with sensitive skin. Since your skin is so reactive, you need to diligently care for it to prevent inflammation and irritation. Figuring this out on your own can be challenging, which is why it may make sense for you to speak with a dermatologist.
However, there could be another solution in the form of custom skincare. PROVEN Skincare has gathered tons of data on skincare products and ingredients and incorporated it into the Skin Genome Project. This project is able to take this data and combine it with information about your unique skin to come up with the best skincare regimen for your skin concerns.
The Skin Genome Quiz only takes a few minutes to complete with information about your skin type, skin concerns, environment, lifestyle, and heritage. From there, you are matched with a personalized skincare formula based on the recommendations of three Stanford scientists.
Within your personalized skincare formula, you will receive three custom products that are able to meet all your skincare needs. For instance, your 3-in-1 cleanser also has toning and exfoliating properties. Your 2-in-1 moisturizer also has sun protection. Finally, your night cream has high concentrations of the ingredients you need to soothe your sensitive skin.
It’s possible to avoid painful razor burns, ingrown hairs, and razor bumps when you shave with sensitive skin so long as you use the right tools and the right routine. Additionally, you should care for your sensitive skin with the right skincare routine that utilizes gentle yet effective ingredients that won’t irritate your skin.
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