I am unable to shave my facial hair. What do I do.

Are you noticing the "grain" of your hair, as in what direction it's growing in... Normally it's recommended to follow the grain so you don't irritate your face. But, then again... if you want it cut really close you'd probably want to go against it. I suck at shaving though, so that's about it from me.

The area around my adams apple will get red as well. I just have to be careful to make sure I shave with the grain. This should help out alot. I'm sure others will have better input.

what about going to a barber?

Have you ever used something like a pre-shave oil? How do you prepare your face to shave?

This is my shaving list.... I HAD some problems with irritations too.

- wash your face with warm water
- put on the foam (i use gel)
- shave with the grain (face and neck)
- put on more foam to the face and shave against the grain.

I don't shave the neck against the grain because it turns red and burns after it. It's enough if you shave carefully from outside to the middle.

Wash your face with low warm water to put off the rest of the foam/soap. Then get a cold and fresh washing!

There are 2 more important things:

a good shaver with good blades (i use Mach3)
a good after shave or emulsion ( i use Biotherm, especially the "repareteur cream" and aquatic lotion). Both creams will be 70 USD together but it helps...



Hope that will help you.

You don't have to go to the barber every time you need to shave. Just go once and ask a lot of questions.

Electrolysis?

Man, I feel for you. Beards rock!

Yeah, my first thought was to check your beard's grain.

For the most part - my beard grows down, so my first pass is straight down. Once I've shaved my face, I re-lather and my next series of passes are chin to ear. For this pass I take a little more time to make sure I'm stretching my skin - which keeps the hair from sliding under the blade.
Once this pass is done - and before rinsing - I check for any obvious misses. I have two spots that always give me problems, so I splash on a little hot water and mix it with the leftover lather to make a really thin, clear lather (which still has good slip), and I shave the trouble spots, going from ear to chin, again making sure I stretch the skin. If I have to get really close, I go south to north, but on most days that's too much work.

By now my face is smooth. Your face should be smooth at this point, but you just may have some really dark hair or open follicles that just make your face darker. If you still have stubble - you've got some options:

Really dark, thick, coarse stubble - shave after a hot shower, and use hot damp towels (and a good soap) to soften your beard. I think Proraso just might be the best for softening a coarse beard. If you still have trouble after that, I'd consider switching razors - try a Merkur HD or a wedge-type straight razor.

Fine hair - your best bet here is a really sharp blade - I'd take a Merkur HD with a Feather blade over anything else in this case.

In either case, be sure to stretch the skin. In fact, give that a shot the next time you shave and see if that helps.

Check out Mantic59's youtube videos (especially this one) and blog.

Single blade safety razor. The multiple blades on regular razors is whats causing the redness, as is the craptastic canned goo and lack of aftershave that is the norm.

It's possible, if you have dark enough hair, to always have what looks like 5' o' clock shadow. I wouldn't worry so much about that at first, and instead focus on taking care of the irritation. One variable at a time, though perhaps luck will take care of all the issues at the same time.