How to Avoid Body Acne When Shaving Your Body
September 19th, 2009How to Avoid Body Acne When Shaving Your Body
People shave parts of their bodies for many reasons, but many develop body acne after shaving. Men’s chests and backs are particularly sensitive to developing body acne after shaving, especially when shaven for the first time.
Here are some tips that could help in keeping body acne to a minimum.
The area to be shaven should be clean. It is therefore superior to shave in the shower and move until the hairs have become soft. Apply shaving cream to small areas and use a fresh shaving blade. Shave in the direction of the hair growth. It might be hard to determine what direction the hairs are growing in (particularly when shaving body hair for the first time), but after the hairs begin growing back you will have a superior idea.
To minimize acne due to ingrown hairs and stubble, treat the shaven area once or twice regularly with a skin care product containing salicylic acid (a beta hydroxy acid), which will gently exfoliate the skin. Products containing alpha-hydroxy acids are also a good choice. If the area that was shaven becomes red right after shaving, an ice pack can be applied to the area for 5-10 minutes to help reduce swelling of the skin.
Avoid shaving the same area on a regularly basis. This will only increase the acne and skin irritation and results in more ingrown hairs and stubble. Sea water has a positive effect on body acne, so go in the water when you are on the beach.
Shaving unwanted body hair will not make the hair grow back thicker, it just appears that way since the hair closest to the hair follicle is thicker. When the hair grows longer, the tip of the hair becomes thinner.
Some alternatives to shaving:
Depilatory Creams
To remove hair from arms, legs and backs, depilatory creams might be a good substitute to shaving. Most depilatory creams contain hydroxide and hair is removed by breaking down the keratin accelerator in hair. Skin is very sensitive to hydroxide and therefore depilatory creams should not be used on a regularly basis. Use of depilatory creams might result in less body acne due to less ingrown hairs and stubble compared to shaving. Use of depilatory creams makes the skin very sensitive, so stay away from using any skin care product for 24 hours after hair removal.
Laser Hair removal
If permanent hair removal is something you desire and you can afford it, laser hair removal might be the right choice. To remove all hairs growing in different growth cycles, you will need to be treated at least 3 times plus some follow up visits to treat stubborn hairs. The area to be treated should be shaven 24 hours before laser treatment, so that only actively growing hairs are being targeted by the laser. Since the laser targets melanin pigment, people with darker hairs and lighter skin are the best candidates for laser hair removal.
The author is senior editor for reverta.com. For more information about body acne go to: Body Acne Treatment or www.reverta.com
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