Very few people have as much experiencing testing, creating, and innovating grooming tools than our own grooming expert, founder and CEO, Joshua Esnard! With so much time spent perfecting The Cut Buddy, Joshua decided to take some time out of his busy schedule to answer a common question from our customers: How can I avoid those annoying, itchy, and painful ingrown hairs?
Shaving Tips from Grooming Expert and CEO Joshua Esnard
In this video, Joshua gives out some of his best shaving tips for avoiding those annoying, itchy, and painful ingrown hairs. Check out the video and a step-by-step breakdown below. First, let's go over exactly what ingrown hairs are and how they happen.
What Are Ingrown Hairs?
According to the Mayo Clinic overview on ingrown hairs:
An ingrown hair occurs when a shaved or tweezed hair grows back into the skin. It can cause inflammation, pain and tiny bumps in the area where the hair was removed. Ingrown hair is a common condition that results from hair removal. Ingrown hairs are most prevalent in black men who shave facial hair. But ingrown hair can affect anyone who removes hair by shaving, tweezing or waxing.
Step-by-Step Instructions to Avoid Ingrown Hairs
Step 1. Clean your hands and head.
Clean the surface area that you're going to shave first and the items (your hands) that you're going to use to clean it! You can only It's impossible to get a great shave without making sure both your head (or other shaving area) and your hands are clean!
There are a few ways to do that. You can use your normal shampoo to wash your head so that you can clean everything blocking your pores. Or for the best results, you could make sure you do some...
Step 2. Exfoliating your desired shaving area.
Exfoliation is the removal of the oldest dead skin cells from the surface and is crucial to getting your best grooming results!
While you can't see it, there are dead and old skin cells all over their skin. We recommend using an exfoliation brush to achieve the best results possible! You can find a great exfoliation brush on Amazon or in places like Walmart or Target! Once you've exfoliated, then you'll need to start...
Step 3. Applying heat, a hot towel, or a shower to the area you're going to shave to open up the pores.
Why do expert barbers and groomers use hot towels or apply heat to areas before shaving them, you ask? Because it OPENS UP THE PORES!
Pores shut to avoid infection, yet your hair sticks out of them. By opening up the pores, it loosens up the hair and allows them to get shaved much more easily. You can open up your pores through wrapping a hot towel around your head for a few minutes or taking a hot shower. If you don't do this before shaving, you risk mashing in those old dead skin cells into your pores and blocking them -- leaving you with ingrown hairs!
Once you've exfoliated and applied heat to the desired shaving area, you have a "clean canvas" and you're ready to shave!
Step 4. Apply a shaving cream that has soothing and healing properties.
Thankfully, The Bald Buddy comes with a shaving cream that we designed specifically for helping people to avoid ingrown hairs!
Why does our shaving cream help? Well, if we're getting technical, it includes stearic acid, salicylic acid, jojoba, tea tree, eucalyptus, and willow bark extract which sooth your head and cool your head. Willow bark extract is actually used in aspirin! Once you put on a shaving cream designed to sooth and heal your head (and jojoba to help with the conditioning!), you've created a layer on your head that is going to allow a shaver to glide very easily!
You can also use The Bald Buddy in the shower! It's designed to be waterproof!
Step 5. Shave in slow, circular patterns.
You're off to the races! With The Bald Buddy, you're going to want to have it glide against the shaving area in slow, circular patterns. You'll want to change direction from time-to-time. Here's a GIF to help out:
What's even better than directions this easy? The Bald Buddy is patented rotary shaver with a brand new innovative design that makes it so you don't have to worry about the nicks and cuts you'd normally get shaving your head! With a razor with no guard, you're risking cutting up all those bumps we have on our heads and in other areas we shave on our bodies!
If you feel like it's not working exactly how you would like, you can even help the shaver by stretching and tightening your skin a bit in the desired shaving area! Here's another GIF to help out:
With bald men, the hairs near the edges of your hairline tend to be very stiff, specifically the ones that crown around your head. Wait, was that not clear enough in text form? Well, here's another GIF to help visualize which part of your head we're talking about:
☝️ These ones are the tough ones☝️
Stretching out your skin really helps with those hairs! For even more control, you can alternate the way you hold the Bald Buddy and hold it between your fingers with even more control, like so:
Finished? Not quite, but you're ready for the last step!
I wouldn't drink out of that without cleaning it first, if I was him...
Step 6. Clean your shaving tool when you're finished.
What could make avoiding ingrown hairs and getting a great shave even easier? Knowing that The Bald Buddy is also designed to catch all of your hairs!
However, like any great tool, you do need to take care of it! Thankfully, that's easy too! All you need to do is dunk it in some water while having it running but NOT plugged in and it'll wash out all the hairs, making for an easy cleanup!
Check out what it looks like to actually clean it:
Couldn't be any easier!
Just remember: keeping your tools clean ensures that you'll always have a great shave every time!
Step 7. Apply an after shave to help your shaved area heal.
"It's going to feel like a tiger slapped you on the head." - Joshua Esnard, The Cut Buddy Founder and CEO
As soon as you're done, you're going to want to blot the area dry with a towel and then use Cut Buddy Aftershave Solution to ensure that you avoid ingrown hairs. As Joshua says and all men who've used after shave products know, this is never a painless process. That said, it's worth it 100 times out of 100 once that initial pain is gone since your head will feel AMAZING!
Step 8. Close your pores by applying a cold towel or an ice pack.
Once you've applied the aftershave, we recommend applying a cold towel or cold water to the area to help finalize the process by closing up those pores and letting them heal safe and sound!
We recommend either using an ice pack or throwing a towel in the freezer for a few minutes to get it nice and cool to before applying to your freshly shaved area for the best results. You can also just use cold water to help close those pores up so you can't get any unwanted oil or bacteria in them!
Step 9. Protect your head (or any shaved area) by moisturizing using lotion and sunscreen.
Aftershave Solution and Aftershave Butter from The Cut Buddy helps your skin feel soft and moisturized. Also, please protect your skin by using sunscreen! The sun does a LOT of damage to skin and hair if it's not properly protected. Make sure you include sunscreen in your skin care routine.
And that's it!
This regiment allowed Joshua to avoid any ingrown hairs for years! Even if you don't use Cut Buddy after shave products, following these steps will help you avoid ingrown hairs. If you do support our products, you'll also be supporting a good cause. Cut Buddy is proud to offer discounts to essential groups like First Responders, healthcare workers, teachers, students, and those who serve with our Military and Veterans Discount!
If you have any questions, please Contact us and speak with a Cut Buddy Pro!