Lifestyle

Should Guys Shave Every Day? Here Are The Facts

2018-04-29 , 8:00 pm

Last Updated on 2023-03-31 , 7:23 pm

Men can go without girls or money, but there are three things they can’t go without: hamburgers, alcohol and shaving.

After all (not being sexist here), men have been proven to have more facial hair than women. Which makes shaving a definite necessity.

And yet, you can’t help but wonder after sustaining a cut for the third time in a row: “Is shaving daily really good for you? Does it affect your skin?”

The answer?

Yes, and yet at the same time…

No.

Shaving daily

According to mensxp.com, shaving daily could instill the following benefits:

Might improve rate of facial hair growth
Scrubs away dead skin
Increases level of skin protection
Makes you look younger, refreshed
Keeps razor bumps away

Health.howstuffworks.com too supports that claim, stating that the act can “actually be good for the skin, both increasing collagen production and acting as an exfoliant by removing dead skin cells”.

Guess the answer’s clear-cut, huh? Shaving daily is actually positive for you and your skin!

Or is it?

Health.howstuffworks.com later cautioned that while shaving daily would technically make your face look better, improper shaving techniques could lead to a variety of problems that are not only uncomfortable, but also unattractive.

Chief among these problems? Razor burn.

This pesky condition arises when the skin becomes irritated from the friction of the blade scraping against the skin (although time, a cold-water compress and some alcohol-free moisture is enough to soothe the angered facial skin).

But that’s not all.

If redness, itching and small, white-headed pimples develop, this can point to another problem:

Barber’s rash, or folliculitis.

This condition occurs when the bacteria Staphylococcus aureus penetrates the hair follicles. While it generally goes away on its own, persistent cases might require topical or oral antibiotics.

So… it’s just the technique?

Not quite, for there are some other problems in the background too.

One of them’s the theory that shaving removes natural oil from your skin and leaves your skin dry.

But of course, you can always fix that with some moisturizer.

Electronic razor

But all of that’s for the manual system!

What then, about the electronic razor?

As a faithful user of the electronic razor since 1965, I can attest that…

It’s good, but definitely not optimal for daily shaving purposes.

Reason?

The stubble growing above and below your lips might not be long enough for the razor to work its magic. It’s definitely visible, but just not substantial enough.

What you do get, however, are ugly cuts that are worse off than that little stubble you had just a few minutes ago.

Slowly I learnt to shave every other day instead, which worked way better, and offered a nicer look overall.

But of course, it could vary from person to person.

Consensus?

Whether the act of shaving daily is positive towards your skin is pretty much down to 3 key points:

Proper shaving technique
Equipment
Your genes

If you lack the proper shaving technique, you’re definitely gonna hurt your skin.

If you lack the proper equipment (clean or functioning ones), you’re definitely gonna hurt your skin.

If your genetics are programmed in such a way that facial hair doesn’t really grow that often, you might want to shave every other day instead.

So tune it to your own needs

Just as everyone has a different body type, shaving also requires some flexibility too.

So check out the facts above, and suit them to your needs!

Just because your friend shaves every day and has nice skin, doesn’t mean that you will have nice skin if you do too!

Featured Image: polkadot_photo / Shutterstock.com