Avoiding Razor Burn, Ingrown Hairs & Other Shaving Irritation

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How Does The Video Help?

Dr. Simi Adedeji’s incredibly friendly persona makes this video (below) on avoiding skin irritation, ingrown hairs, and razor burn after shaving a pleasure to watch.

To keep things simple, she breaks down her guide into 10 simple tips.

What Are The 10 Simple Tips?

Tip 1: Prioritize Hydration. Shaving dry hair can lead to increased skin irritation, so Dr. Simi recommends moistening the hair by showering or using a warm, wet towel for 2-4 minutes before getting the razor out.

Tip 2: Avoid Dry Shaving. Dry shaving not only removes hair but can also remove the protective upper layer of skin, which contributes to razor burn. To prevent this, simply use some shaving gel or cream.

Tip 3: Keep Blades New and Sharp. This one’s simple: dull blades can cause skin irritation, whilst a sharp blade ensures a smoother and more comfortable shaving experience.

Tip 4: Avoid Shaving the Same Area Repeatedly. Multiple passes over the same area can remove skin layers, leading to cuts and irritation. Aim to shave each area only once for safer results.

Tip 5: Consider Hair Growth Direction. Shaving in the direction of hair growth results in less irritation, although it may not provide the closest shave.

Tip 6: Apply Gentle Pressure While Shaving. Excessive pressure can lead to cuts and nicks. Use a gentle touch to reduce these risks.

Tip 7: Incorporate Exfoliation into Your Routine. Exfoliating helps release trapped hairs and reduces the risk of ingrown hairs. For those with sensitive skin, it’s recommended to exfoliate either two days before or after shaving.

Tip 8: Avoid Excessive Skin Stretching. Over-stretching the skin during shaving can cause hairs to become ingrown.

Tip 9: Moisturize After Shaving. Shaving can compromise the skin barrier, leading to dryness. Using a moisturizer can be a simple fix.

Tip 10: Regularly Rinse Your Blade. Make sure that, during the shaving process, you are rinsing your blade frequently to remove hair and skin debris. This keeps it sharp during your shave.

If this summary doesn’t do it for you, then you can watch the full video here:

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  • How can I stop using food to cope with negative emotions?

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    Have you ever noticed changes in your eating habits when you are sad, bored or anxious?

    Many people report eating either more, or less, as a way of helping them to cope when they experience difficult emotions.

    Although this is a very normal response, it can take the pleasure out of eating, and can become distressing and bring about other feelings of shame and self-criticism.

    Adding to the complexity of it all, we live in a world where diet culture is unavoidable, and our relationship to eating, food and body image can become complicated and confusing.

    Drazen Zigic/Shutterstock

    Emotional eating is common

    “Emotional eating” refers to the eating behaviours (typically eating more) that occur in response to difficult emotions.

    Research shows around 20% of people regularly engage in emotional eating, with a higher prevalence among adolescents and women. In a study of more than 1,500 adolescents, 34% engaged in emotional eating while sad and 40% did so while anxious.

    Foods consumed are often fast-foods and other energy-dense, nutrient-poor convenience foods.

    Stress, strong emotions and depression

    For some people, emotional eating was simply a habit formed earlier in life that has persisted over time.

    But other factors might also contribute to the likelihood of emotional eating. The physiological effects of stress and strong emotions, for example, can influence hormones such as cortisol, insulin and glucose, which can also increase appetite.

    Increased impulsivity (behaving before thinking things through), vulnerability to depression, a tendency to ruminate and difficulties regulating emotions also increase the likelihood of emotional eating.

    Man stands in kitchenette
    Depression increases the likelihood of emotional eating. TommyStockProject/Shutterstock

    So what do you do?

    First, know that fluctuations in eating are normal. However, if you find that the way you eat in response to difficult emotions is not working for you, there are a few things you can do.

    Starting with small things that are achievable but can have a huge impact, such as prioritising getting enough sleep and eating regularly.

    Then, you can start to think about how you handle your emotions and hunger cues.

    Expand your emotional awareness

    Often we label emotions as good or bad, and this can result in fear, avoidance, and unhelpful coping strategies such as emotional eating.

    But it’s also important to differentiate the exact emotion. This might be feeling isolated, powerless or victimised, rather than something as broad as sad.

    By noticing what the emotion is, we can bring curiosity to what it means, how we feel in our minds and bodies, and how we think and behave in response.

    Tap into your feelings of hunger and fullness

    Developing an intuitive way of eating is another helpful strategy to promote healthy eating behaviours.

    Intuitive eating means recognising, understanding and responding to internal signals of hunger and fullness. This might mean tuning in to and acknowledging physical hunger cues, responding by eating food that is nourishing and enjoyable, and identifying sensations of fullness.

    Intuitive eating encourages flexibility and thinking about the pleasure we get from food and eating. This style of eating also allows us to enjoy eating out with friends, and sample local delicacies when travelling.

    It can also reduce the psychological distress from feeling out of control with your eating habits and the associated negative body image.

    Friends eat dinner out
    Try to be flexible in thinking about the pleasure of food and eating with friends. La Famiglia/Shutterstock

    When is it time to seek help?

    For some people, the thoughts and behaviours relating to food, eating and body image can negatively impact their life.

    Having the support of friends and family, accessing online resources and, in some instances, seeing a trained professional, can be very helpful.

    There are many therapeutic interventions that work to improve aspects associated with emotional eating. These will depend on your situation, needs, stage of life and other factors, such as whether you are neurodivergent.

    The best approach is to engage with someone who can bring compassion and understanding to your personal situation, and work with you collaboratively. This work might include:

    • unpacking some of the patterns that could be underlying these emotions, thoughts and behaviours
    • helping you to discover your emotions
    • supporting you to process other experiences, such as trauma exposure
    • developing a more flexible and intuitive way of eating.

    One of the dangers that can occur in response to emotional eating is the temptation to diet, which can lead to disordered eating, and eating disorder behaviours. Indicators of a potential eating disorder can include:

    • recent rapid weight loss
    • preoccupation with weight and shape (which is usually in contrast to other people’s perceptions)
    • eating large amounts of food within a short space of time (two hours or less) and feeling a sense of loss of control
    • eating in secret
    • compensating for food eaten (with vomiting, exercise or laxatives).

    Evidence-based approaches can support people experiencing eating disorders. To find a health professional who is informed and specialises in this area, search the Butterfly Foundation’s expert database.


    If this article has raised issues for you, or if you’re concerned about someone you know, call Lifeline on 13 11 14, or the Butterfly Foundation on 1800 ED HOPE (1800 33 4673).

    Inge Gnatt, PhD Candidate, Lecturer in Psychology, Swinburne University of Technology

    This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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  • Edamame vs Natto – Which is Healthier?

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    Our Verdict

    When comparing edamame to nattō, we picked the nattō.

    Why?

    Yes, they are both soy beans, but in the battle of young and green vs old and fermented, there are some important differences:

    In terms of macros, nattō has nearly 2x the protein for only slightly more carbs, and slightly more fiber, as well as more fat, but it’s not much and it’s a healthy profile, mostly polyunsaturated. All in all, a win for nattō in the macros category.

    In the category of vitamins, edamame has more of vitamins B1, B5, B9, E, and K, while nattō has more of vitamins B2, B6, and C, this a 5:3 win for edamame in this round.

    When it comes to minerals, edamame is not higher in any minerals, while nattō has more calcium, copper, iron, magnesium, manganese, phosphorus, potassium, selenium, and zinc. An overwhelming win for nattō.

    A word on phytoestrogens: soy in general contains these, including both of these iterations of soy, and/but the human body can’t use plant estrogens as such. What it can do, however, is break them down and use the bits to make human estradiol, if and only if you have ovaries that are present and operational (so, no menopause and/or bilateral ovariectomy). Either way, there’s nothing to set one ahead of the other in this matter in this head-to-head.

    As an extra point in nattō’s favor, nattō is, like many fermented foods, extra-good for gut health by bringing a wealth of beneficial bacteria. Edamame is also good for gut health (just by virtue of being an edible plant and containing fiber), but not on the same level as nattō.

    Adding up the sections makes a clear win for nattō, but by all means enjoy either or both—diversity is good!

    Want to learn more?

    You might like:

    21% Stronger Bones in a Year at 62? Yes, It’s Possible (No Calcium Supplements Needed!) ← nattō features in the method!

    Enjoy!

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  • The Calorie Myth – by Jonathan Bailor

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    First we’ll mention: the author is not a doctor, but the book is endorsed by assorted well-known doctors in the field, and the science described is consistent with current scientific consensus (and, for that matter, consistent with what we wrote in our mythbusting feature: Are You A Calorie-Burning Machine?).

    It’s often (correctly) said that “not all calories are created equal”, but how should we quantify them? He proposes his “SANE solution”, which is based around the ideas of:

    • Satiety: how quickly calories fill us up
    • Aggression: how likely calories are to be stored as fat
    • Nutrition: how many micronutrients calories bring with them, and how much
    • Efficiency: how easily calories are converted

    To this end, he recommends a diet high in foods that score well on his “SANE” factors, and provides such things as recipes, meal plans etc to help, as well principles for exercising more usefully in the context of metabolic base rate, and moving (rather than fighting) one’s “set point”, which is usually associated with one’s weight but it really has more to do with metabolic base rate. In fact, Bailor recommends throwing out the bathroom scale and focusing on pursuing good health itself, rather than obsessing over changing one’s relationship with the Earth’s gravitational field.

    Yes, it says “lose weight” in the subtitle, but the idea is that this will be a by-product rather than the thing actively pursued. After all, we can control our actions, so that input variable is where we should put our focus, not the output variable of the numbers on the scale which can often be misleading (muscle weighing more than fat, tendency to water weight fluctuations, etc).

    The style is a little flashy and salesy for this reviewer’s personal taste (a lot of references to his own businesses and neologisms associated with such), but it doesn’t take away from the quality of the content, and in terms of science, study references come at a rate of about one per page on average.

    Bottom line: if you’d like to rethink your relationship with calories, then this book can help give you a much more practical angle.

    Click here to check out The Calorie Myth, and take control of your metabolic base rate!

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  • Why Some People Get Sick More (And How To Not Be One Of Them)

    10almonds is reader-supported. We may, at no cost to you, receive a portion of sales if you purchase a product through a link in this article.

    Some people have never yet had COVID (so far so good, this writer included); others are on their third bout already; others have not been so lucky and are no longer with us to share their stories.

    Obviously, even the healthiest and/or most careful person can get sick, and it would be folly to be complacent and think “I’m not a person who gets sick; that happens to other people”.

    Nor is COVID the only thing out there to worry about; there’s always the latest outbreak-du-jour of something, and there are always the perennials such as cold and flu—which are also not to be underestimated, because both weaken us to other things, and flu has killed very many, from the 50,000,000+ in the 1918 pandemic, to the 700,000ish that it kills each year nowadays.

    And then there are the combination viruses:

    Move over, COVID and Flu! We Have “Hybrid Viruses” To Contend With Now

    So, why are some people more susceptible?

    Firstly, some people are simply immunocompromised. This means for example that:

    • perhaps they have an inflammatory/autoimmune disease of some kind (e.g. lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, type 1 diabetes), or…
    • perhaps they are taking immunosuppressants for some reason (e.g. because they had an organ transplant), or…
    • perhaps they have a primary infection that leaves them vulnerable to secondary infections. Most infections will do this to some degree or another, but some are worse for it than others; untreated HIV is a clear example. The HIV itself may not kill people, but (if untreated) the resultant AIDS will leave a person open to being killed by almost any passing opportunistic pathogen. Pneumonia of various kinds being high on the list, but it could even be something as simple as the common cold, without a working immune system to fight it.

    See also: How To Prevent (Or Reduce) Inflammation

    And for that matter, since pneumonia is a very common last-nail-in-the-coffin secondary infection (especially: older people going into hospital with one thing, getting a secondary infection and ultimately dying as a result), it’s particularly important to avoid that, so…

    See also: Pneumonia: What We Can & Can’t Do About It

    Secondly, some people are not immunocompromised per the usual definition of the word, but their immune system is, arguably, compromised.

    Cortisol, the stress hormone, is an immunosuppressant. We need cortisol to live, but we only need it in small bursts here and there (such as when we are waking up the morning). When high cortisol levels become chronic, so too does cortisol’s immunosuppressant effect.

    Top things that cause elevated cortisol levels include:

    • Stress
    • Alcohol
    • Smoking

    Thus, the keys here are to 1) not smoke 2) not drink, ideally, or at least keep consumption low, but honestly even one drink will elevate cortisol levels, so it’s better not to, and 3) manage stress.

    See also: Lower Your Cortisol! (Here’s Why & How)

    Other modifiable factors

    Being aware of infection risk and taking steps to reduce it (e.g. avoiding being with many people in confined indoor places, masking as appropriate, handwashing frequently) is a good preventative strategy, along with of course getting any recommended vaccines as they come available.

    What if they fail? How can we boost the immune system?

    We talked about not sabotaging the immune system, but what about actively boosting it? The answer is yes, we certainly can (barring serious medical reasons why not), as there are some very important lifestyle factors too:

    Beyond Supplements: The Real Immune-Boosters!

    One final last-line thing…

    Since if we do get an infection, it’s better to know sooner rather than later… A recent study shows that wearable activity trackers can (if we pay attention to the right things) help predict disease, including highlighting COVID status (positive or negative) about as accurately (88% accuracy) as rapid screening tests. Here’s a pop-science article about it:

    Wearable activity trackers show promise in detecting early signals of disease

    Take care!

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  • Spelt vs Bulgur – Which is Healthier?

    10almonds is reader-supported. We may, at no cost to you, receive a portion of sales if you purchase a product through a link in this article.

    Our Verdict

    When comparing spelt to bulgur, we picked the spelt.

    Why?

    An argument could be made for bulgur, but we say spelt comes out on top. Speaking of “sorting the wheat from the chaff”, be aware: spelt is a hulled wheat product and bulgur is a cracked wheat product.

    Looking at macros first, it’s not surprising therefore that spelt has proportionally more carbs and bulgur has proportionally more fiber, resulting in a slightly lower glycemic index. That said, for the exact same reason, spelt is proportionally higher in protein. Still, fiber is usually the most health-relevant aspect in the macros category, so we’re going to call this a moderate win for bulgur.

    When it comes to micronutrients, however, spelt is doing a lot better:

    In the category of vitamins, spelt is higher in vitamins A, B1, B2, B3, and E (with the difference in E being 26x more!), while bulgur is higher only in vitamin B9 (and that, only slightly). A clear win for spelt here.

    Nor are the mineral contents less polarized; spelt has more copper, iron, magnesium, manganese, phosphorus, potassium, selenium, and zinc, while bulgur is not higher in any minerals. Another easy win for spelt.

    Adding these up makes a win for spelt, but again we’d urge to not underestimate the importance of fiber. Enjoy both in moderation, unless you are avoiding wheat/gluten in which case don’t, and for almost everyone, mixed whole grains are always going to be best.

    Want to learn more?

    You might like to read:

    Take care!

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  • Should Men Over 50 Get PSA?

    10almonds is reader-supported. We may, at no cost to you, receive a portion of sales if you purchase a product through a link in this article.

    It’s Q&A Day at 10almonds!

    Have a question or a request? You can always hit “reply” to any of our emails, or use the feedback widget at the bottom!

    In cases where we’ve already covered something, we might link to what we wrote before, but will always be happy to revisit any of our topics again in the future too—there’s always more to say!

    As ever: if the question/request can be answered briefly, we’ll do it here in our Q&A Thursday edition. If not, we’ll make a main feature of it shortly afterwards!

    So, no question/request too big or small

    ❝Loved the information on prostate cancer. Do recommend your readers get a PSA or equivalent test annually for over 50 yr old men.❞

    (This is about: Prostate Health: What You Should Know)

    Yep, or best yet, the much more accurate PSE test! But if PSA test is what’s available, it’s a lot better than nothing. And, much as it’s rarely the highlight of anyone’s day, a prostate exam by a suitably qualified professional is also a good idea.

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