Shaving Your Face For Younger Looking Skin? Not Quite What You Think!

When people hear about the concept of shaving your neck, décolletage, and hands to gently exfoliate, it was a mixed bag of being freaked out and also intrigued. We don’t blame you—after all, we’re taught at an early age that shaving makes your hair grow back thicker and darker, and should be restricted solely to legs, underarms, and your bikini area.

Or should it?

We’re taking this myth head on today and bringing to your attention the idea of shaving your—wait for it—face as an anti-aging technique. But before you throw your razors at us and call us crazy, hear us out.

Keep scrolling to see how shaving your face is a total anti-aging game-changer!

The Benefits of Dermaplaning

There’s quite a few benefits of shaving your face, also known as at-home dermaplaning, such as exfoliation, collagen stimulation, deeper product penetration, and smoother makeup application. Shaving your face can have somewhat similar results to a professional dermaplaning procedure. Dermaplaning provides a deeper exfoliation than shaving at home, but they both remove the dead outer skin and vellus hairs.

The Stigma

Now it’s time to address the (hairy) elephant in the room: Won’t shaving your face leave you with thicker, coarser hair than before? No one wants to channel their inner caveman, which is why we’re adamant about the fact your hair won’t grow back thicker. While it sounds controversial, shaving your hair does not make it grow back thicker or darker. You aren’t changing the structure of the follicle. Your actual hair follicle sits deep under the skin—when you shave, you’re cutting the hair off at the base, which might be thicker than the ends. 

You aren’t messing with the follicle itself, which means your hair will grow at the same rate, width, and texture as before. 

The Technique

Yyou have three options when it comes to razors:

1) a normal women’s razor for your legs (just make sure it’s not actually the one you use on your legs)

2) a women’s facial hair trimmer or

3) an eyebrow shaper

Start at the top of your ear and shave going down to your jawline and in towards your nose, to get the whole cheek, jawline, chin, and upper lip. Then, do the sides of your face by your eyes, followed by the forehead, using downward strokes. Lastly, stroke my neck downward from your jawline.” Caution though: very little pressure is needed—after all, you’re just exfoliating the dead outer layer of skin and removing the fine hairs. 

Also, make sure to shave only clean, dry skin. Pull the skin taught and shave downwards in short strokes with the razor at a 45-degree angle against the skin. Before you get too shave-happy, know this: You really only need to be doing this about twice a month to see results. 

The Follow-Up

So, your face is (lightly) shaved and soft as a baby’s bottom, but your work isn’t done quite yet. After shaving, immediately follow up with a hydrating serum or any other serum you use in your normal skin care regimen. Having a fresh, clean face will help those serums penetrate more deeply! Follow with a moisturizer to lock in the serums, then use an SPF of at least 30 if it’s in the daytime.

Exfoliating addict? Try this: If you want to get a little more aggressive with this at-home treatment, after shaving, you can applying a light AHA or enzyme peel for deeper exfoliation, then follow with serum and moisturizer. However, wait to do this until after you’ve shaved your face several times and your skin has adjusted. 

Professional Dermaplaning Option

Dermaplaning at home is not for the faint of heart. It can get patchy or you could back out halfway through – then what? To keep everything how it should be with the best results, choose to get dermaplaning from the professionals. Call Botanica Day Spa to book one of our many fabulous facials (some of which already include dermaplaning) at 727-441-1711 today!

Love,

Gen