The Perfect Shave

I’m currently having a course of laser hair removal on my underarms which I hope will mean I won’t have to shave the area any more, as not only is it a hassle, it’s also something that I struggle with due to the fact that I get really uncomfortable regrowth.  As the hairs start growing back a lot of them become ingrown resulting in a sore and itchy rash.  Lovely eh?

Hopefully this will all be a thing of the past for me, but in my first post about laser hair removal I briefly mentioned the faffing about I do to ensure the regrowth is as minimally invasive as possible, and consequently I got a couple of e-mails asking me to elaborate.  So I thought I’d post about what I do to ensure the shave is as clean as possible with minimal painful regrowth.

Other than the razor, obviously, the two things that I believe are essential for shaving are a good oil and a good scrub.  It really doesn’t matter what you use, I find a bit of trial and error works best until you find the two products that you like the most.

I use Baby Oil for shaving just because I use a lot of it and as it’s cheap, I don’t have to worry about treading carefully with how much I use.  I use The Body Shop’s Cocoa Butter Body Scrub because I love Cocoa Butter, but also because it’s quite a moisturising scrub and I figure anything that’s going to add a bit more moisture to the underarms is no bad thing.

The idea of the scrub is to remove any dead skin so that the razor will only snag on the hairs themselves creating as smooth a shave as possible.

I shave in the shower and after I’ve given myself a clean (I use a shower pouf with The Body Shop’s Cocoa Butter Body Wash at the mo) I start by giving my underarms a scrub with the body scrub.  I think it’s always best to tread carefully in this area as you don’t want to irritate it at all.  Once this is done I apply a layer of Baby Oil.  I really do work it into the skin and I’m very generous with how much I use.

I then leave that to soak in and get on with other things like washing hair etc.  After about five minutes or so, I repeat the same process with the Baby Oil and I do this a third time before starting the actual shave.

My theory is that I’m adding as much lubrication to the area as possible whilst also softening the hairs.  When I’m ready to shave, I apply one more layer (I kid you not; we’re at four layers now…can you see why I’m so excited about the laser hair removal?) before squirting some of the oil through the blades of the razor and starting to shave.

I really concentrate on removing the hair using as few razor strokes as possible to again minimise any irritation.

That’s pretty much it! I don’t use any deodorant for 24 hours afterwards but apart from that there’s not much else I do.  When I’m in a hurry and only have time for a quick scrub and oil I really notice the difference the next few days, so this technique definitely works.  So if you’re prone to post-shave irritation it’s definitely worth a go.