Unless you were lucky enough to have a father that taught you how to shave properly, the likelihood is that you learnt to shave either by watching him or another older gentleman do it – or worse, from a Gillette advert. Therefore, you would have never fully appreciated what it takes to achieve that perfect shave. Many gentlemen come out of the other end of a shave with a rash that lasts most of the day and then, because they’ve never understood the reason say, ‘this always happens when I shave’. It always happens when you shave, gents, because you’ve never understood how to shave. But that’s about to change: dunhill’s second-generation head barber at their spa in Mayfair is dishing out the dirt on how to achieve that perfectly smooth face – and with years and years of experience doing exactly that, we think he might know what he’s talking about:
“I find a lot of my clients have been taught incorrectly by magazine articles and television advertisements about how to shave. And now that the beard is a prominent style, a lot of guys don’t need to know how to shave. But I can tell by looking at a man’s face if he is using correct shaving techniques. If a man is shaving properly, the skin on his face glows and his hair grows in naturally well; there are no cuts, ingrown hairs, or razor burn. Often, if someone has had too close of a shave with too much pressure applied from the razor to the skin, typically the next day little white blisters will appear on the face. When a man continues to shave over these blisters it causes razor burn, and after shaving on top of razor burn, ingrown hairs develop. At this stage, we recommend a visit to The Spa & Barber for the skin to be carefully treated.”
Step one
Before shaving, it’s always necessary to properly cleanse the skin. A facial cleanser helps remove sebum that can block pores and contribute to ingrown hairs.
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