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Section ShavingDocuments 05Revision 2026.08Reviewed 2026-08-01
Index

Shaving routine for men, in five protocols

Five documents. Ingrown hair is a mechanical problem with a mechanical fix, razor burn is a friction problem with eight testable causes, and both are made worse by almost every product sold to address them.

Documents 05 Revision 2026.08Published by Male Skincare Routine
Short answer

A shaving routine is five decisions in a fixed order: prepare with warm water and a lubricating layer, pick the tool the skin tolerates, cut with the grain on a fresh blade without stretching, rinse cool and moisturise within a minute, and keep actives off the face you have just shaved. Everything else is troubleshooting. Most shaving problems are technique problems. Ingrown hairs come from cutting the hair below the skin surface, so the fix is a single blade, with the grain, no skin stretching and less frequent shaving. Razor burn is friction, and the eight causes can be tested one at a time starting with blade age.

The shaving routine in order

Read them in this sequence the first time. One to three set the shave itself, four closes it, and five is the separate case of a face that is not being shaved at all.

No commercial links on this page

This article contains no affiliate links, no sponsored placement and no link to any commercial product, brand, retailer or clinic. Nobody paid for it, nobody previewed it and nobody can have a protocol changed. Our editorial standards set out the two disclosed archive exceptions, neither of which is this page.

Nothing here is medical advice. Speak to a pharmacist, a GP or a dermatologist about your own circumstances.

The advanced protocol pack

Everything in this section, plus the annual schedule and the full troubleshooting index. Free, delivered by email.

Free. One email with the pack, then a note when a protocol is revised. No product recommendations, because we do not make any.