Ingrown hairs: one of the most uncomfortable side-effects of shaving, where a hair curls backwards, or grows sideways into your skin, causing irritation, inflammation, and pain.
And it’s no secret why you’re here, ingrown hairs have been haunting you and ruining your shaving experience. You’ve had enough, right? Well, you’ve came to the right place, EveryGuyed’s straight forward guide on How to Avoid and Treat Ingrown Hairs will have you smooth, satisfied, and pain-free in no time.
Prevention is the Best Medicine
The easiest way to ‘fight’ ingrown hairs is to take steps to avoid them before they happen. As your first line of defense, you want to start focusing on a daily skin care regimen. At its most basic, this means washing your face daily.
Products
Beyond that, investing in affordable exfoliating facial cleansers, facial moisturizers, specialty creams specific to ingrown hairs, and the like can be considered an insurance policy for your face.
Your goal is to find a balance of grooming tools and skin care products that work to keep your face clean and clear.
Other Resources
To save you the time in your busy day, you can visit a website like Finercut to fully understand which products are available to help you master men’s skin care.
All in all, achieving cleanliness is a win-win situation, since not only will you prevent ingrown hairs, but your skin will look more youthful and radiant.
The easiest way to ‘fight’ ingrown hairs is to take steps to avoid them before they happen.
Upgrade your Shave
Poor shaving methods are almost always the cause, or connected with the increased occurrence of ingrown hairs.
With that being said, tweaking your daily shaving routine can shave you a world of hurt. A proper shave requires more than a warm cloth and a quick pass with a blade.
Preparation
The skin should be exposed to hot steam or water (a shower or hot towel placed on the face) for at least 15 minutes to properly soften the hair.
Unless you’re absolutely in a rush, you should wait at least half an hour in the morning before shaving, since fluid is known to pool around your face, causing puffiness and swelling that prevents a truly close shave.
Shaving
Dampen your face with the hottest water you can stand, use a generous amount of pre-shave oil or cream and massage it into your beard to help raise the hairs. Lastly, remember to shave with the grain of your beard if you’re prone to ingrown hairs.
Electric Shaver
Already have tender skin from past/current ingrown hairs, and the thought of shaving makes you shudder? Simply trade your multi-blade razor in for an electric shaver. Highly praised to reduce ingrown hairs, the electric shaver will allow you to shave without such close contact with the blades.
The only downside is that you’ll notice a darker 5′ O clock shadow, since nothing gets as close as a traditional shave. Try temporary use of an electric shaver until your skin recovered to the point that you can wet shave again.
Unless you’re absolutely in a rush, you should wait at least half an hour in the morning before shaving.
Treatment
Hey, you’re human, and even roses have thorns. So when you find an ingrown hair, your first step is to use a facial scrub and gently (keyword: gently) apply pressure in a circular motion to remove dead or infected skin around the affected area.
From there, sanitize a pair of tweezers and pull the hair towards the surface.
Don’t pluck them out, or else they’ll regrow just as crooked and painfully as before. After lifting the hairs away from the swollen area and to the surface, apply an anti-spetic spray to prevent infection and soothe any discomfort.
Then apply an acne gel with salicylic acid to the infected area daily until irritation subsides, and to help prevent future ingrown hairs from forming.
So when you find an ingrown hair, your first step is to use a facial scrub and gently (keyword: gently) apply pressure in a circular motion to remove dead or infected skin.
Summary
- Prevention is the ultimate, lasting solution. Start taking care of your skin!
- Preparing for your shave is 75% of the battle, take time to tenderize your hair!
- Avoid pulling the hairs right off, instead, pull them out onto the surface.
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Suffer through your shave every morning? Got a home remedy for the toughest ingrown hairs? Let us, and your fellow readers know!
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