Welcome back to Gentleman's Gazette!
In today's video, we discuss how to prevent and treat nicks and cuts from shaving.
If you are into wet shaving, chances are, you deal with nicks and cuts on an ongoing
basis.
If you are new to it or if you have the wrong tools, you may get more nicks and cuts.
If you are a seasoned pro, you may get them once in a while but all of them will have
them.
A few years back, I met Kaivan at a conference and he was telling me about a new thing that
he was working on and he could not quite reveal what it was and just a few weeks ago, he sent
me his product called Glyder; and it's a styptic balm that helps to deal with nicks and cuts.
I tested it and it's good stuff but before we talk about how you deal and treat a cut,
it's best to discuss how you actually prevent them in the first place.
Now, before we talk about Glyder, I want to show you how you can prevent nicks and cuts
because there's nothing better than not having them in the first place.
Preventing nicks and cuts boil down to 9 core items.
The first one is that you should abstain from using cartridge razors and cartridge razor
systems.
That may be a surprise to you but the Gilette Mach, Dollar Shave Club and whatever they're
called with their multiple blades are too dull and not sharp enough and you are more
likely to get nicks and cuts in the long run.
Not only is a cartridge system bad for your wallet, but it's also bad for your skin.
They make the blades duller so you don't cut yourself more often but the problem is, once
you have shaved for two or three times, the blades are so dull that you automatically
get lots of nicks and cuts.
Which means you'll be forced to replace them which is great for the razor companies because
they make continuous money off of you but it's bad for your wallet and your skin.
Instead, switch to a double edge razor or a cartridge razor and you can learn more about
those techniques in our guides on the website or if you want to get the one stop shop for
the perfect shave, check out our shaving guide, here.
Two, do a proper pre-shave process.
That means you have to clean your skin first, you want to heat up your skin and open those
pores and you want to use a rich, creamy lather that protects your skin from the sharp blades.
If you have sensitive skin, it helps to add a pre-shave oil before you lather up because
it's an additional layer of protection.
Three, use a shaving brush to apply the lather.
Using your hands works and you can spread the lather around but using a brush actually
helps to open up those hair follicles and it massages your skin and it makes sure that
the lather is evenly distributed across your face.
The brush really helps to coat your skin and lift the hairs entirely which you can only
do with a brush.
To learn more about shaving brushes, please check out our guide, here.
Four, invest in quality shaving products.
SKip the run of the mill shave cream in a can because it has lots of air and it's not
very lubricating.
On the other hand, if you use a traditional shaving cream, it has to be lathered up manually.
You put the air in yourself and it has much more high-quality fats and a higher amount
of it which ensure proper lubrication.
Five, shave with a proper technique.
That means you do short strokes and you wash in between and you re-lather areas before
going over them again.
To learn all about shaving techniques and the proper way to do it no matter if you use
a straight razor or a double edge razor or electric shaver, check out our shaving guide
here.
Six, use a fresh, sharp razor blade every time you use a double edge razor.
Now, with the cartridge system that is super expensive.
With a double edge system, you can afford to do that.There are just a few it's no problem
to use a new one every time, your skin will thank you for it.
To learn more about double edge shaving blades, please check out this guide here.
Seven, experiment with different kinds of handles and blades because every face and
every skin is unique and the way your beard grows and sometimes, the sharpest blade is
maybe not the best solution for your face because your skin is too sensitive and the
hair is too thin and something a little more dull is actually better.
In blades, you can have different degrees of sharpness and with handles, you can have
different angles as well as a rotation which makes it more or less aggressive.
Eight, give your face time to adjust.
the first time you use a sharp blade on your face no matter if it's a double edge shaver
or a straight razor, you'll experience nicks and cuts.
The more often you do it, the more your skin gets used to it.
the better your technique gets, nicks and cuts will vanish.
Nine, deal with underlying skin issues.
if you suffer from acne or have other skin issues, you have to deal with those first
so it does not interfere with your shave and with nicks and cuts.
To learn more about that, please check out our guide on how to have clear skin here.
So, even if you follow all of those nine steps, you will still get cuts every once in a while
simply because you don't pay attention or there is maybe a zit that causes it but when
you have that, and you get a cut, here is how to treat it.
The old method was to use a styptic pencil.
Some people use a piece of toilet paper.
Others came up with a chapstick but the problem with all of those solutions is that none is
perfect.
The toilet paper is not hygienic and may cause an infection.
With the chapstick, you have that same issue.
With a styptic pencil, they often break, they sometimes hurt, and it's always a pain to
use them.
It seems every few years, shaving companies come up with one new big thing even though
it may not work better, it certainly makes more money but one area where they haven't
innovated is dealing with nicks and cuts.
So, Glyder is a styptic balm and it's different from a styptic pencil in a sense that it's
much softer.
It's in this nice tube, you can undo it and just use it like a chapstick and just apply
it to your nick.
Its formulation contains argan oil, aloe vera, vitamin E, tea tree oil, and jojoba which
is great for your skin, it helps to sterilize that nick and cut without using alcohol which
is bad for your skin and your face.
It basically consists of soothing ingredients which is great for your face and good for
your nicks and cuts.
It does not leave a chalky residue and best of all, it does not contain any alcohol.
The big problem about classic styptic pencil is it does not have a handle so whenever you
cut yourself, you have wet hands, and it's all a mess and it breaks very easily versus
Glyder that comes in that chapstick like tube where you can just twist so it's easy to handle
when you have that nick and cut, everything is wet and you have shaving cream all over
your face.
It won't dissolve in your hands and it does the job every time.
So how exactly should you use a styptic balm once you have a nick and cut?
First of all, once you notice you have a nick and cut either because you see a bleeding
or you feel it, stop shaving.
put your shaver down, clean it with water, and then immediately use the styptic balm
and apply it to your face.
Rub it around a little bit on it, make sure you look at it in the mirror and leave it
on there and wait until it stops bleeding.
Once you have done that, you can lather up again and continue to finish your shave.
Ideally, you apply Glyder on the nicks and cuts area once you're done with your shave
and before you go into your post shave routine.
So, overall, styptic pencils cost a few bucks and you can get them in most drugstores.
On the other hand, Glyder is a little more expensive and two of them comes shipped to
you for just $14.99 at the same time, if you break it down, of cost per use, it's negligible
and it works so much better than the styptic pencil and overall, you have to buy a lot
more styptic pencils because you drop them and they break or they just come off and not
sterile anymore so I would use this styptic balm any day of the week and so far, I've
used really a minuscule amount of it so I can foresee it will last me for probably years
to come.
The only downside of Glyder right now is that it has a slightly grainy formulation so I
think they are already working on that and try to come up with a better solution but
I will still keep using what I have because it works so well and I enjoy using it.
The best way to deal with nicks and cuts is to prevent them in the first place by following
the nine steps we outlined before and if you inevitably have a nick or a cut, use the styptic
balm to make sure you don't get infections and to deal with it professionally.
In one of our recent ASKGG YouTube live sessions, people asked for me to show my outfit and
explain what I'm wearing.
So, here we go.
First of all, I'm wearing a vintage orange hand blocked madder silk print tie and it's
paired with a navy blue custom suit with a very fine wool fabric, it's a three ply and
almost feels like cashmere.
I'm wearing a white club collar shirt with charcoal stripes, it's a double cuffed shirt
and I'm wearing it with green malachite cufflinks from Fort Belvedere which you can check out
in the shop here.
I'm wearing a matching pinky ring in malachite and silver and I used the color of green and
orange in my pocket square to tie it altogether paired with some blue tones so my whole outfit
is coherent, consistent, and looks well-balanced.
You can also find green in my shoes which is kind of an olive green and it's not the
exact same green but you find tones of it again in the pocket square.
For socks, I opted for a light grey and light blue pair of shadow striped socks from Fort
Belvedere which you can find here.
Even though they are contrasting, the shoe and the pants, they are kind of muted and
the blue is again picked up in the pocket square.
My jacket has peak lapels, it's a button configuration of 6*2, I have side vents, and it's a very
lightweight fabric with a beautiful lining that is herringbone and has an effect that
is contrasting.
Last but not the least, I'm wearing a boutonniere from Fort Belvedere which is light blue and
works well with the socks and the pocket square.
I chose a very small boutonniere because the pocket square is very high up and I want to
keep my outfit from being overloaded.
However, I have a large lapel so a small flower looks very good on it.
For a selection of boutonnieres, please take a look here.
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