What To Do About Beard Acne (And Other Shaving Gripes)
Effective skincare is fundamentally the same, whichever gender you identify with. But when facial hair is thrown into the mix, there are added concerns to contend with.
Whether you like to sport a full beard, are never without a goatee or prefer being completely clean shaven, the ability to grow facial hair can cause all manner of nasties for your skin. We’re talking anything from gnarly pimples to a dry, itchy chin rash. And we’d bet neither of these are ever going to score high on your skincare wishes.
But all is not lost, because most shave-related skincare concerns are easily resolved with a few smart skincare choices. So, if your beard is causing you to breakout or your ‘stache is giving you the itch, it’s time to hone your grooming skills.
Here's how...
The Problem: Beard Acne
What Causes It: Breakouts around beard hair is a very common problem and comes mostly down to hygiene. How so? Because, even if you’re fairly vigilant about cleansing the skin on your face, grooming your beard often gets forgotten about. Massive mistake. Beard hair collects dirt, dust, grime and all sorts throughout the day, which, if left to their own devices breed bad bacteria and aggravate your skin, causing blocked pores and unwanted acne flare-ups.
The Solution: Make sure you cleanse your face, chin and neck thoroughly, morning and night. But don’t be fooled into buying oil-stripping cleansers that suck all the life out of your skin as these will make it way oilier which could lead to further breakouts. Instead, choose a mild, but effective face wash like our Skin Clearing Charcoal Face Wash. This combines activated coconut charcoal which draws out bacteria and toxins from the skin, while aloe vera and lavender help soothe and heal.
The Problem: Razor Rash
What Causes It: Anyone with slightly sensitive skin knows that feeling of burning, red raw skin you get after shaving. Things like shaving your skin while it’s dry is terrible for aggravating your skin and causing razor rash (aka razor burn), because it strips away the top layer of your skin. Using a crappy blade that’s been around longer than your toothbrush is also asking for trouble.
The Solution: Soak your skin with warm water for a good couple of minutes before shaving to soften both your skin and hair, and swap out your razor blade often to make sure you only ever shave with a sharp blade. Exactly how often will depend entirely on how frequently you shave, but if your razor starts to pull at your skin or feels rough or snaggy when you use it, that’s a sign right there.
The American Academy of Dermatology (AAD) also recommends downsizing your tool to just a single- or double-blade razor as multi-blades can sometimes be a tad too efficient, especially if you have sensitive or dry skin.
After shaving, always finish with a gentle moisturizing serum or lotion to preserve moisture and protect your natural barrier function. Our awesome Hyaluronic Acid Serum will take care of business nicely.
The Problem: Crazy Dry Skin
What Causes It: Shaving inevitably exfoliates your skin by removing the top layers as you glide your razor across your face and neck. And while gentle exfoliation is generally a good thing, shaving every day can be too much and may end up compromising your skin’s natural barrier which is important for keeping toxins and irritants out, while sealing moisture in.
The Solution: Dry, sensitive skin is mostly genetic, but if you employ a few simple shaving solutions you'll easily avoid exacerbating the situation. Your best bets are to keep well away from shaving foams, creams or gels that contain known skin irritants such as fragrance, alcohol and dyes; don’t be heavy-handed with your razor and try a single- or double-blade for a kinder shave.
Of course you must also moisturize, moisturize and maybe moisturize a wee bit more. Even better, moisturize when your skin is still slightly damp after shaving to help seal in water and keep your skin soft and supple for longer. Try our Vitamin C Daily Facial Moisturizer which contains jojoba oil and shea butter for next-level moisturization, minus any of that sticky residue many moisturizers often leave behind. Just remember, as with all new skincare products, perform a patch test first – especially if you have super sensitive skin.
The Problem: Ingrown Hairs
What Causes It: If you’re often plagued with painful, red bumps on your neck or jawline, you’ll hear us when we say how annoying ingrown hairs are. Well, if it’s any consolation (probably not), they happen to almost everyone. However, they’re especially common for those with wavy or curly hair. They occur when a hair that’s been shaven, plucked or even waxed does not leave the follicle, but grows back into the skin and under the surface. This often causes inflammation in the follicle which results in red, skin-colored or dark (depending on your hair color) bumps that are often mistaken for pimples. Ingrown hairs can also become itchy, but scratching and picking at them will just cause further infection and hyperpigmentation. So, don’t do that.
The Solution: Practising smart shaving is paramount so, as with razor rash, always shave after soaking your skin in warm water for a few minutes and never use anything less than a sharp blade. The Mayo Clinic also advises you avoid pulling your skin taut while you shave because this encourages hairs to grow inwards rather than out.
Keeping your skin soft, exfoliated and well moisturized is super important with this one because dry, dead skin cells block your pores, causing further issues with ingrown hairs. Try applying our Tea Tree Clear Skin Super Serum regularly which contains salicylic acid and retinol to encourage cell turnover, as well as anti-bacterial and anti-inflammatory tea tree oil.
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![What Happens To Your Skin During Menopause?]()
Menopausal skin can be anything from slightly tricky to downright terrible. But wayward hormones needn’t get the better off you. You just need to know what to expect and get ahead of the game.
How times have changed. Rewind ten, maybe just five years ago and the ‘m’ word was never spoken about. This important life-changing period of time that happens to every single woman alive, literally brushed under the carpet as if it were some dirty secret. Total madness.
Thankfully, we live in different times and the menopause (there, we said it!) is now a topic we can openly talk about without feeling ashamed or, heaven’s forbid, old. Because it’s an important time and can bring a lot of unsettling uncertainties to any woman going through this perfectly natural stage of life. Hot flashes, weight gain, mood swings, zero energy, they can all go hand in hand with the menopause.
And then there’s your skin which also has its own challenges to contend with.
How The Menopause Affects Your Skin
The menopause can be split into three stages. Perimenopause begins first, usually in a woman’s 40s (although it can start as early as your 30s and as late as your 50s). This period of your life refers to the time in which your body starts to transition out of your reproductive years and into the menopause. Your body’s production of hormones (mainly estrogen and progesterone, but also testosterone to a certain degree) starts to decline, your periods become irregular and a few of the classic side effects may come to fruition. Fun times!
Then you obviously get the menopause which is when your body’s hormones cause you to completely stop menstruating (which can take many years) and all those fabulous (said with a side of irony) side-effects get stronger and more frequent. More fun times. Once menopause is over and you’ve stopped ovulating for a year you’re then said to be in the postmenopause and will be forever more.
As you progress through these different stages, your hormones are all over the place which is never great news for the health of your skin. You see, hormone fluctuations can affect your levels of sebum (cue dryness). Not only that but they upset your collagen production which is already declining as part of the natural aging process (cue wrinkles and sagging skin). Estrogen is also important for helping your skin to retain water so when these levels decrease your skin can’t hydrate itself as efficiently (cue dehydration).
Of course, changes in your skin depend on your skin type but, no matter what, you can inevitably look forward to some kind of ‘unpredictability’ during the menopausal years of your life.
5 Ways To Care For Menopausal Skin
If you’ve started to notice that your skin is misbehaving a little more than it used to, chances are you’re in the stage of your life in which your hormones have become, shall we say, less reliable. Read on for a few effective ways to help keep your skin in check as your hormones are very much not!
1. Be Kind
The most important thing to remember? Don’t panic. Freaking out and overcompensating for dry skin, dehydration, breakouts or wrinkles that were never before is a sure-fire way to irritate your skin. Instead, be gentle with your skin, cleansing, toning and treating it with kindness and respect. Most importantly, avoid ingredients like synthetic fragrances and harsh alcohols that will strip your skin and generate further problems you didn’t sign up for.
A great way to do this? Switch out your regular cleanser for Soothing Cleansing Milk which is perfect for menopausal skin, nurturing and calming your barrier function while bringing vital hydration and even a little exfoliation to the table.
2. Moisturize To The Max
Research shows that the most common skin complaint during the menopause is dry, irritated, and often itchy skin. This is all thanks to lowering levels of estrogen (an important skin hydrator) as well as reduced sebum. Without both of these important moisturizing tools, water is able to escape more easily from the surface of your skin which leads to dryness, dehydration and everything that comes with it.
To help get ahead of this, you’re going to want to introduce a hydrating serum as well as a really good moisturizer into your daily regime. Try the kick-ass combo of our Multi-Vitamin Facial Serum and Renewing Longevity Moisturizing Cream every morning, and Vitamin C Deep Hydration Night Cream before bed.
3. Use Smart Skincare Ingredients To Control Breakouts
Cell turnover becomes super sluggish during this time in your life which gives dead skin cells a free ticket to hang around at the surface of your skin and make your complexion look kind of dull. When it’s combined with wayward hormones it’s also asking for acne breakouts to do a real number on your skin. For most people these are mild and easily managed with healing, anti-inflammatory skincare ingredients like salicylic acid, niacinamide and tea tree oil – well, hello there Tea Tree Face Wash and Tea Tree Super Serum+.
If you feel like yours are more serious and out of control, however, seek help from a dermatologist.
4. Look After Your Collagen
It’s thought that skin loses a massive 30 percent of its natural collagen levels during the first five years of the menopause. Sound like a lot, right? Yeah, that’s because it is. And collagen is extremely important for the strength, firmness and elasticity of your skin so you’ve got to do everything you can to keep it healthy and plentiful.
How to do this? With a healthy diet, good sleep, marginal stress (preferably none at all, but it’s OK, we’re all human) and some smart skincare choices. Namely retinol at night (is there anything retinol isn’t good for?!), alongside our fabulous Collagen range which includes Smoothing Collagen Serum, Firming Collagen Day Lotion and our Collagen Boosting Skin Supplement which contains vegetarian collagen (none of that animal stuff for us, thanks) alongside skin-strengthening vitamins, biotin and acai.
5. Apply SPF Like Your Skin Depends On It
Because, heads up, it actually does. Dark spots are likely to get darker, bigger and more prevalent during your menopausal years as decades of sun exposure combine with wild hormones, causing your melanin to lose control of itself. Your fine lines and wrinkles are equally likely to suffer thanks to a lack of collagen helping to reinforce the strength and plumpness of your skin. Sigh.
Our advice? Don’t leave the house without applying SPF 30 Mineral Sunscreen with Vitamin C to your face and neck. It’s packed with sun-protective zinc oxide as well as aloe vera to hydrate and nourish your skin and a TruSkin favorite, brightening vitamin C. It’s basically a skincare must. Every. Day. Of. The Year.
What Happens To Your Skin During Menopause?
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