Since shaving is a daily activity for many of our lives, we must learn to do it perfectly by meeting all the necessary obligations. It may come to you as a surprise that many of the consumers who shave at home do not exfoliate during their shaving process! And the ones who do, they either don’t know how to do it properly or even when to do it ideally.
This leads to the question that’s asked very commonly: do you exfoliate before or after shaving? The short answer is that you should exfoliate before your shaving as it has more benefits and on the other hand, exfoliating after shaving has some certain drawbacks. Why have our experts given such opinions? Scroll further down the article to find out!
As an addition, we’ve provided all the knowledge regarding exfoliation so that the ones who didn’t exfoliate before can start now after understanding the necessity. With the exfoliation process breakdown, we’ll tell you all the pros and cons about exfoliating before & after shaving, so stay tuned!
Contents
What Is Skin Exfoliation?
According to WebMD, exfoliation refers to the process where the dead cells of your skin are scrubbed off for the sake of a healthy skin care. As our body is composed of billions of cells, the outer layer of skin contains a lot of them that are dying frequently, which is a very natural process for everyone.
Usually these dead cells are blown away naturally, but for a manual process many people use scrubs or soaps that help them speed up the process. It ensures your skin’s integrity and makes it look neat & clean. Many even recommend making exfoliation a part of your weekly skin maintenance.
For shaving your face, exfoliation is a very important step as it ensures a smooth skin surface without any dead cell or dirt build up. It lets the blades glide over smoothly without hitting any bump that can result in a painful catastrophe. Thus, exfoliation has become an integral part of everyday shaving!
Should You Exfoliate Before Or After Shaving?
This is one of those questions that leave even the experts clueless and quite often we hear consumers complaining about various shaving issues that actually originated from this matter. As experts, we recommend that you exfoliate right before your shaving for the best outcome in more than one dimension, and here’s why.
Shaving is not a straightforward activity no matter how you see it. It’s complex as you’re having to remove your hair from your skin with blades, follow your hair growth direction and maneuver over skin’s bumps. Exfoliation does you so much help in mitigating these issues that you may not have ever known about!
Once you exfoliate before your shaving, it makes your skin damp along with your rough & tough beard strands. It helps the blades cut through them almost effortlessly – a degree of convenience that shaving foam alone can’t guarantee you. It prevents shaving related burns, accidental nicks, cuts or even stops ingrown hair from taking form!
Additionally, exfoliation removes all the small build ups at the roots of your beard, removes residues, dirt and skin cells that often obstruct your blades from a smooth shaving operation. A proper exfoliation can overcome all these obstacles and make your shaving experience into something completely new!
From all the conveniences mentioned above, you probably can realize it yourself why you should exfoliate before your shaving. But what happens when you exfoliate after you perform shaving activities on your skin? Jump to the next section to find out about it!
Why You Shouldn’t Exfoliate After Shaving
Now that you know you should exfoliate before your shaving and not after as it offers greater benefits in terms of health and convenience, let’s check out what could go wrong if you exfoliate after your shaving.
Until you’ve shaved, your skin is covered with a dense beard that protects your skin from every other thing in the environment. When you exfoliate in this state, it tones down the scrub chemicals and saves your skin some pain & damage from the actions.
But when you consider exfoliating afterward, your newly shaved face is currently in a vulnerable state after being used to the protection of beards. In such a sensitive condition, exfoliating will end up damaging the skin badly, if not, it will certainly cause you some pain after you’re done with scrubbing.
Also, you have noticed that exfoliating actually helps your shaving aside from improving your skin condition. Exfoliating after shaving will deprive you of that convenience and make your shaving not so fine of an experience overall.
Based on the upsides and downsides from both sides, it’s clear as daylight that you should exfoliate before shaving, because doing it after won’t do you much good, and it can even go to the extent of hurting you in the process.
How To Exfoliate Properly?
Here, our experts are going to tell you how you can exfoliate effectively to achieve a fine shave and make the experience go as smooth as silk!
Step 1: Location
Where you place yourself for the exfoliation process is of utmost importance, as it demands you to have access to a running water source at all times. Ideally, you can set your operation beside a sink – that can be in your toilet or beside the common tap. Keep a face towel or paper towels around, along with exfoliation scrub and face wash around.
Once you have all of these in order and at your arm’s length, sit down on a chair beside the sink and move on to the second step!
Step 2: Wash
Wash your face with regular water at first. With your face still wet, apply some face wash and thoroughly rub every corner but without hurting your skin. Certain degree of finesse is required because going too easy on the cleaning process can leave behind some oil, dirt or residue on your skin.
Your goal is to make your skin as clean as possible so that the scrub can sit perfectly. Rubbing your facial skin during the facial wash process also ensures proper blood circulation underneath which makes your skin healthy!
Sprinkle water once the washing is done to remove all the soap mixed with dirt picked up from your skin and now you’re ready for step number three!
Step 3: Exfoliate
While your face is still wet from the initial wash, apply the exfoliating cream all over your face leaving your eyes and lips exposed. Scrub them over the skin nicely, especially the region where you’re going to shave later on. Scrubbing detaches the dead cells from the skin effectively so it’s a very important part of this step.
Scrub your skin in a circular motion for around 5-10 minutes. Take all the time you want for the scrubbing process since it’ll ensure the smoothness for running your blades effortlessly. After scrubbing, leave the solution to sit on your skin for around 2-3 minutes. Wash everything under running water and wipe with a paper towel to make sure nothing is left behind.
After getting done with the mopping part, your skin is now dead cell & dirt free, properly exfoliated and ready for a fine shave! And we hope now you understand better why it’s wise to exfoliate before shaving rather than doing it afterward!
FAQ
Let’s check out some of the frequently asked questions made by consumers online regarding exfoliating the skin. Our experts have answered these to offer you a greater understanding of the process for the long run.
Q: How can I exfoliate my skin naturally?
A: Instead of buying products from the market, you can make your exfoliating solution with natural ingredients at home. Mixing coffee, soda and sugar gives you a nice ointment that can naturally exfoliate your skin.
Q: What can I use instead of exfoliating?
A: Some experts have suggested that honey is a great alternative for exfoliating. Simply wash your face and leave it on for 10 minutes before washing it off!
Q: Is it okay to exfoliate everyday?
A: We don’t recommend exfoliating everyday as it can in turn damage the natural properties of your skin. It’s healthy to exfoliate twice a week or to exfoliate before every shave that contains a longer beard than a stubble.
Thoughts
Now that we’ve reached the end of this article, we hope that you’ve been able to comprehend our answer to the question ‘do you exfoliate before or after shaving?’ With this knowledge, you can now apply it to your everyday life for a healthier outcome!
Also, for the ones who weren’t familiar with exfoliation, you now have a thorough idea on how you can exfoliate, and when to exfoliate – which is to right before shaving. This spares you a lot of trouble, pain, helps your skin in the process and turns the overall shaving experience into something that you look forward to regularly!