“There’s a little black hair on my face today”
I was ranting at the office about how Kyan deserves a piece of my mind
(as an experiment, I’ve shaved two days of stubble in the direction
of the grain only, with the result being one day of stubble) when
Darryl pointed me to the Shaving Gallery’s
“Guide To Wet Shaving”. The most surprising detail is this:
The only way to avoid sensitive skin and ingrown hairs is by NEVER
shaving against the grain.[…]
While it is possible to retrain beard hair, it is not possible unless
you resist the urge to shave too close, too soon. By tearing up against
the grain at any time, the hair will drop beneath the skins surface
thereby making the pore susceptible to bacteria, pollution and
irritation from shirt collars. Tiny crusts will form forcing the beard
hair to exit from underneath. Now we have acute directional growth and
a huge potential for coiling, hence a thick beard and/or ingrown hairs.
Zounds! The very activity which is undertaken to rectify the problem
in fact creates it!