If your beard is at all curly or wiry, you have probably experienced the misery of razor bumps at some time. Painful, unsightly, and possibly even scarring. Men of African descent are especially prone to this problem.
Multi-blade cartridges, by design, pull your beard hair out a tiny bit before cutting. This gives a shave that goes below skin-level. While that's a fine innovation for a close shave quickly, it's not a fine innovation for your skin. Curly beard hair that is cut below skin level can regrow in the wrong direction — pushing deeper into your skin rather than coming out the pore.
Unfortunately, the cartridge razors that dominate the market these days were originally developed with minimal study of how black men would be affected by them. This short-sighted development had a significant negative impact: Since black men often have curly beard hairs, multi-blade cartridges ended up as a major cause of razor bumps.
Now that the big manufacturers have put all their marketing might behind selling cartridge razors, men who suffer from razor bumps are stuck. The choices become:
The other option, and the one we at Badass Shaver Co. believe is best, is to switch to a safety razor. The single edge on the face cuts the hair right at or just above skin level, preventing the hair from growing inward and causing bumps in the first place. Additionally, dermatologists often suggest taking the additional simple steps of:
While there's no "one size fits all" solution for any man, the step of switching to a safety razor like the Badass Shaver is one of the simplest, cheapest, and most comfortable ways to try to put an end to the problem.