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How to Shave with Razor Bumps

How to Shave with Razor Bumps

Shaving can be so harsh on your skin, and the thought of shaving with razor bumps? Well, awful. But sometimes, it just needs to be taken care of.

There are proper steps to remove body hair in areas with razor bumps that aren't so challenging and won't further harm your skin. This article will give you some ideas on how to treat razor bumps if they’re already here.


  • Preparation before Shaving

1. Use a calming, mild chemical exfoliant

It’s wise to use a scrub before shaving, but you want to avoid any abrasion after any bumps arise. Preferably, you want a mild chemical exfoliant. Even though the word “chemical” sounds a little offensive, these products work mildly to terminate dead skin, compensate bacteria, decrease the bumps, and help the captured hairs push through the skin. 

2. Be patient

Just like you need to obtain the urge to squeeze pimples, let your razor bumps recover independently. And that is frustrating. It’s those more gnarly ones that you may need to approach individually—the ones that seem to have squatted inside your skin and resist disappearing on their own. Only once these outlier bumps reveal themselves will you need to take severe actions.

3. Skip shaving the area for now

Even if it's a single bump, you better skip shaving for a while—at least until it heals. If you still need to shave, you could shave around a sole bump while being extra cautious, but it'd be smarter to stick with an electric shaver for that. These particular shavers don't tear the skin's surface, they're an essentially bump-free way to shave.

4. Apply warm pressure while you wait

You can always apply a warm compress to the bumps to comfort and soothe the skin and help the hair loosen itself.


  • Steps to Shave 

1. Cleanse: Set up for success

Use a mild scrub and warm water to clean your skin or use a shaving brush before you start shaving. This step is essential to eliminating dirt and oil from the skin's surface and loosening trapped hairs, allowing your razor to make the right touch with your skin and hair.

2. Hydrate: Soften to reduce tugs

Moisturize your skin and use shaving cream to help hold the moist on the hair. As your hair absorbs the water, it expands and softens, making it more manageable for your razors to shave.

3. Shave: Let your blades do the job

Shave with soft strokes, and let your blade do the heavy lifting. Shave frequently to avoid the hair to grow to curl inside the skin. Using a razor intended for sensitive skin can support minimize the razor bumps. It swallows the hand's weight, smooths the skin, and raises the blades to reduce blade contact with delicate skin.

4. Maintain: Restore the moisture

Shaving can take away more than hair—it can also take moisture away, making the skin drier, tighter, and irritated. Use a moisturizer for after-shave products to restore moisture in your skin and hair after you shave.

Cleanse, hydrate, shave, and maintain—these four steps will give you the power to help manage your razor bumps.


  • Treatment

The size of razor bumps can be small to large, and their colors can be red or white-headed bumps. Although nothing forces them to disappear immediately, some strategies can help eliminate them quickly and let the skin recover. Here are some approaches below.

1. Use salicylic acid

Salicylic acid is a beta-hydroxy acid or BHA that supports exfoliation or peeling of skin cells. It can filter oil glands in the skin to unclog pores as well as combat inflammation. Salicylic acid works to alleviate razor bumps and slough off dead skin cells. This allows the ingrown hair to make its way out of the pore. It also minimizes the appearance of the bump. According to dermatologists, Salicylic acid can also help treat acne. It may be an excellent choice for people who experience both acne and razor bumps. Various products contain salicylic acid, including cleansers, toners, and lotions.

2. Try glycolic acid

Just as salicylic acid, glycolic acid improves the skin peel by removing old cells from the skin's surface. Glycolic acid is an alpha-hydroxy acid or AHA. Razor bumps occur when excess skin cells clog the pores and catch the hair inside. Glycolic acid can support getting those cells out of the way and letting the hair come through the surface. Since it rushes the skin's natural sloughing manner, glycolic acid items can help razor bumps clear up faster and provide the skin a smoother look quicker.

3. Tweeze

If the ingrown hair is noticeable, it may help to use clean and pointed tweezers to remove it out. Eliminating the captured hair could minimize the razor bump faster. Tweezers should be clean with alcohol and purify the skin and hands with soap and water before being used. If the hair is invisible on the skin's surface, tweezing could be harmful. It would be helpful to try not to pick or squeeze the bumps, as they could get worse or cause scarring.


4. Lightly brush the skin

The extra choice for removing dead skin cells and debris clogging the pores is using a smooth and soft brush in the areas you want to shave. Some people use a skincare brush or a soft toothbrush. A brush can help manage the hair out of the plugged pore not to become caught underneath. Brushing the area each day may help remove current razor bumps and prevent new ones from forming.


5. Use a lukewarm towel

Putting a warm, wet towel onto the skin can help soften the skin and bring the ingrown hair to the surface, especially when combining this technique with one of the other treatments above.  Likewise, you may wish to steam the area in a hot shower or sauna.


  • Razor bumps vs. razor burn

Though both can be irritating, razor bumps are different than razor burn.

Razor burn is a sort of skin irritation that the rubbing of the razor causes. It can cause areas of the skin to appear red and get and irritated quickly after shaving.

Razor burn can be caused if you do not appropriately lubricate their skin with shaving gel or cream when you shave. It may also be caused if you use a dull razor or have sensitivity to abrasion.

On the other hand, Razor bumps can appear days after the hair has been shaved. Once the hair has gotten a chance to grow into the skin and then can cause a blockage.

Apr 2nd 2021 Skin Beauty

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