Aftershave

It is perhaps fitting that the first posting of the new month be a shaving post, since I now write so irregularly on the topic. But a response to one of Leisureguy’s posts got me thinking about the use of aftershaves. The reader confesses that he has stopped using aftershaves because of irritation and facial redness.

I am embarrassed to admit to the Sin Of The Obvious (SOTO). I learned of SOTO in my first marketing course in business graduate school. It is a warning given to all marketers that they must be aware that because something appears obvious to them, it may not be so obvious to others. And so here I am, assuming that because I long ago stopped using aftershaves on my face, well, probably so did most men! And for this reason, I’ve never really addressed one of the most important topics in shaving.

I grew up at a time when splashing on and enduring the excruciating burn of an aftershave were essential rituals of passage into manhood and machismo. If you could endure that pain every morning, well, you were ready to endure the other pains that would come your way during the rest of the day! It wasn’t so bad during the Summer months when my face was naturally hydrated by perspiration, but during the Fall, Winter, and Spring, the dryness of the air dramatically exacerbated the drying effect of the alcohol in the aftershave, and my face was a dry, red, peeling and painful mess. I remember being in Toronto for a business meeting in the Winter of 1987 and I was ready to jump out of my skin with pain and irritation. I ran madly into the street, like Diogenes looking for an honest man, when I spotted the Shoppers Drug Mart neon sign and burst into the store in search of relief. I grabbed the first cream that looked familiar…Nivea…quickly paid for it and ran back to my hotel, slathering the cream on as I was opening the door to the room. Ahhhhhhhhh! I know how you spell relief….N-I-V-E-A.

From that point on, I have never used an aftershave on my face. Frankly, unless you live in a perpetually warm and moist climate, aftershave has no business on your face. The notion of splashing alcohol onto skin that is raw from shaving is counter to even the most basic tenets of Dermatology and skin science. It harks back to a time when, lacking other effective antiseptics, surgeons splashed alcohol onto battlefield wounds. I suppose the practice acquired some elements of machismo from that experience, despite the fact that the alcohol probably killed as many as it saved.

Here’s my advice. Get a good moisturizing skin cream or lotion and save the aftershave splash for your body (it is quite refreshing after a shower….unless you’ve “manscaped” any other body parts!).