I personally think that this is a very important topic; an anonymous user posted the question on the last post about shaving. Here is my take on it, Happy New year to everyone as well!
To start, i'm only 15, which means I don't have a massive experience with shaving in my life, but I have had experience with shaving with severe acne. I have noticed that the less severe my acne has been, the better experience I have had with shaving; less bleeding, less after-math of inflammation and ingrown hairs, there is a whole list of things that shaving can cause.
As a point of reference I message Susanne Williams (My Danné dermatologist) what she thought about shaving.
"It is not a good idea to grow a beard as this could cause folliculitis and the dead skin cells don't exfoliate. Best to shave, but not ever day as this will irritate the skin. I like to get patients on to the Alkaline wash as soon as possible if they normally shave everyday. Having the alkaline wash will kill the bacteria in the hair follicle. Also it will give the skin a few days with out having to shave."
I think that is great advice and I couldn't agree more. If I shave too often then I tend to get the odd spot where my sideburns tend to grow. Before I had my Danné treatment, I would shave and have a break out the next day without a doubt breakout, I put this down to the products I was using (And I have used a lot of products in my time) a standerd Clearasil or Neutrogena cleanser didn't help at time; which was depressing *Sigh*.
Side note for new comers: The alkaline wash will remove the hair from the hair follicle, thus a much safer alternative to physical shaving.
Me and Susanne followed the same strategy mentioned in the quote; Alkaline wash, at the start of my treatment when I had very severe cystic acne I would not shave (I did before finding Danné) until my skin got to a point where there was no more large inflamed pustules covering large amounts of the skin. This was around 2-3 months into my treatment I could begin to shave.
How to shave acne-prone skin:
1) Wash your face with lukewarm water, removing anything that's on your skin and preparing it for step 2.
2) Put a small amount of Danné cleanser onto my palm, start to rub your hands together and after 10-20 seconds the cleanser becomes a lather, it should look white and feel more like soap(See photo below). This is perfect to use as shaving foam.
3) Cover the part of the face you intend to shave with the lather that you just made in step 2.
4) Begin shaving, I tend to go over the skin 3 times just so I get really smooth skin.
5) Rinse the razor blade every 10 seconds.
6) Once you have shaved your face to your ideal, again wash the face with the Danné cleanser.
7) Apply your standerd products.
Side note: I tend to shave on the days when I am not using Retosin, this is just because I then have safety using all the other products which will help battle any spots that could be offset by shaving.(Which I will get to). I always wash before a shower, then use my hair products and once again use cleanser as the hair product may get onto my skin (Which will make acne worse).
Razor blades:
From my experience today, a 1 blade razor is not a good choice. It felt like it ripped the top layer of my skin off and I was sat for 15 minutes waiting for the blood to congeal on my face! (Everyone has been in this situation lol!).
From what i've heard using a 2 blade razor is the best for acne-prone skin, anything more is going to agitate the skin even more.
In conclusion; I will let you experiment, to be fair I cannot offer your great advice apart from the fact that I tend to use 2 blade and so do a lot of the Acne.org community.
Please post comments below if you have any further advice, any ideas of what I should next write about or to talk for advice.
Than you and as always take it easy. William x
Contact- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WTTR2597
Email: Wttr2597@gmail.com
Same guy as last time! Figured out how to stop posting as anonymous ;)
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree with you and Susanne that shaving is a must. Im 21 and if I dont shave for 2/3 days I get a big increase in acne around my chin where my beard is thickest. If I shave everyday my skin is red raw so I settle for every second day.
Got my second danne treatment tomorrow! Taking it slow for my first few treatments cause my skin is so reactive and fragile but hopefully I will be able to try out the alkaline wash soon!
You use retosin as well?! How many products are you on :O
I'm hoping I won't have too many cause the price tag is scary haha.
Just out of interest, of you had to pick 3 skin care products and they are the only ones you are allowd to use, what would they be?
I'm really excited about getting the new face wash/mist!
My biggest worry about my skin is that after all the danne treatments what if my 'comes back'. Cant afford treatments every week forever and I've had such bad experience with home products... Hard to believe these can be any different!
Ahh cool, nice to put a name to a comment!
ReplyDeleteWhere abouts are you having your treatment Liam? Yeh the alkaline wash is pretty good, you may feel a little burnt on the first one, but after a while your skin will get used to it! Worth it.
Yes, i'm guessing that you use Retison? I have; wash, EFA, spray, beta-gel, moisturiser, then sun block. Extra products like contraderm, aku-klear, aku-therm and melaoplex. A lot! Crazy.
I couldn't narrow it down, you can't, you have to use every product (Apart from the extra products)
From what i've heard the acne won't come back, the home products will continue to keep the acne away. Susanne told me that a guy came into the clinic a few months ago; he had the treatment year or 2 back and still is clear. People that start Danné tend to stay on it for a life time.
Will x
I'm getting mine done in a clinic in Edinburgh, it's 30 mins away from my house so pretty handy! Only place round here that offers it too.
ReplyDeleteSo far the only home perscriptives I've been given are beta gel and vit c serum. They have ordered in the new acne range so next time I go I'll be picking up the acu cleanser, mist and moisturiser for sure. Maybe acu therm too, and there was mention of retosin at my first visit but I'm not too keen on getting it. Had bad experience with retinol products in the past.
Would be nice if danne was finally the end of the line for my acne. Knowing I can stick with them forever with any acne problems. I've only had two sessions now but I saw slight improvements after the first so I'm really optimistic! Got my next one in two weeks and then after that they are weekly so I imagine results will be faster then too. I'm excited!
Ahh that's good if it's not far away, makes it much simpler, as for the Retison, there is an alternate called revise-a, that's a toned down version if you can't handle the Retison. Give it a go though, you will get the results soon. I am guessing you're seeing improvements already?
DeleteYeah only two treatments down and im seeing results already which is so exciting. Only issue is that i get some horrible break outs after each treatment, Does this get better? Did it take many treatments?
ReplyDeleteWhat you planning on writing about next?
Ahh that's great, well from what I remember vaguely that i'd have a treatment, then the week after that my skin would be amazing, then a few days before the next treatment it would get a little worser. Eventually it stops happening and it gets less worse each time. Just keep going through with it, it will go quicker than you think! I think it took 2-3 months to stop breaking out. I don't break out anymore now and all my treatments are finished.
DeleteI don't know what to write about next, what would you like me to post about?
Will x
Aww im the opposite haha, get it done then my skin flares up for a few days after then as it calms down its better than before.
ReplyDeleteI personally would like to hear about your full danne regimen at home but other people who arnt with danne might not be as interested.
Would also be cool to talk about how things are different now youre acne free. All i think about is what will change if i get clear!
Ahh right, well at least it's working.
DeleteYeh I think that I will get to that eventually, maybe in a single post? I might do that Friday or Saturday night.
Yes I wil write about that, will take good planning, as I can't think of what i'd put! Maybe compare the before ad after, say before my life was like this and now it's like this, etc?
WIll x