Teen son shaving thoughts

Our oldest is now headed to the 8th grade and facial hair has surfaced a bit as well as that dreaded puberty acne. He has mentioned that I need to teach him how to shave before school starts in a couple weeks.

Here's the thing, I'm not sure DE shaving is the best fit. A few years ago I got my dad a redone fatboy, a great soap, and badger brush. I thought I nailed the Christmas gift. He never used it. Come to find out, he was traumatized from his days as a teen slicing zits open with a DE(not trying to be gross) he hated DE razors!

He now DE shaves and the fatboy has been loved for years. His Dad "taught" him how to shave but grown men with no acne have it easy comparatively I would guess.

I use this as a reference point because cuts and acne are not something I have had to deal with since I picked DE shaving up years past that stage in my life.... But I can see where my dads hesitation could come from and don't want that for my sons in particular, our eldest. My thoughts right now are an electric razor although he will inevitably ask "why don't you shave this way". Welcome to thoughts and would appreciate them.

Just explain him what the different choices are, with their respective advantages and downsides, and let him choose his way. Whatever that is, he will always be able to convert to another one.

Everything I have read and know about shaving and acne is, shaving helps acne as it removes a lot of the crappy oils. Most report acne going away or disappearing once they started wet shaving and using quality products and alcohol splashes etc. Now all this may be in adult acne and I have no experience with shaving over zitts.

There are a ton of threads on B&B about it if you are interested:

This thread directs you to a few others:
http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showthread....-a-reality

A Google search brings up endless reading. Hopefully it's doable and I look forward to having my kids choose wet shaving over electric or cartridge once they start in a few years. I'll be watching this thread for advice.

https://www.google.ca/search?q=wet+shavi...fj8Ae3yI0Q

I agree with brucered although I may start your son with quality soap, brush, AS and a cartridge razor.

He can perfect his lathering and get the general process down then let him "graduate" to a DE razor down the line when hopefully his gear has cleaned up his skin and he has perfected his basic technique [lathering, WTG/ATG, etc.].

I agree with brucered although I may start your son with quality soap, brush, AS and a cartridge razor.

He can perfect his lathering and get the general process down then let him "graduate" to a DE razor down the line when hopefully his gear has cleaned up his skin and he has perfected his basic technique [lathering, WTG/ATG, etc.].

Or, instead of a cartridge, perhaps start him off with a very mild DE/blade combination and (if he'll allow it ) watch him and give him help along the way. Eventually, he should be able to develop a technique that is satisfactory for him. All the best to him in this new adventure on the road to maturity.

some good points fellas, appreciate them!

My experience was just like your fathers. Bad acne when I started shaving with either a Gillette FB or Slim, can't remember which. Anyhow it was a bloody mess every time I tried to shave. Then my out of town brother in law stayed with us for a weekend while traveling. I discussed with him and he told me to go try the injector razor that was in his dopp kit. Huge improvement. I stayed with an injector until I switched to a Gillette cartridge. I think it was an Atra or Sensor but not sure. (Both still available). The bottom line is the injector then cartridge were much nicer to my acne covered face than the DE. I'm pretty sure you can pick up an injector for next to nothing and maybe a pack of the Gillette disposables fairly cheap to let him try. One more thing, I am not sure I would suggest that he use a shaving brush as I think this would just cause more irritation. Maybe a brushless cream. Hope this helps. After decades of cartridges I came back to DE's a few years ago and am quite happy!

Post Edit: Sure wish these boards were around when I was a teenager!

My son has been at this stage for a few months, now.
He has a bit of acne on his lip area and he has been using an Atra cartridge razor and using light pressure with good results.
Also, he has been using a Plisson synthetic with a tiny bit of soap to lather which takes him all but ten seconds.

I wish your son luck.

It is worth trying a real shave setup for a few shaves in my opinion. I had acne in high school but did not have facial hair. Now I have both, and in my experience, you may get some necks or minor bleeders during the shave, but shaving when you have acne is going to make them disappear sooner. That is the case for my face. The longer I waited to shave, the acne would come back.

I can also recommend researching clay masks and using those in a post shave routine. This is something that isn't talked about in the community so if you want to PM, feel free. But yes, after I shave, before applying and alcohol AS or balm, I whip up slurry using aloe vera juice or rose water and combine that with a variety of clays and let it sit on my face for 5-10min until it has dried. It gets washed off, and then it is time for the normal post shave routine.

My take is try with a double edge razor and make sure the keep the communication lines open. Talk with him about the experience of your grandfather and let him know to check with you if he's having trouble. Let him know how much you enjoy wet shaving, and that you want him to enjoy it as much, so to make sure and let you know of any problems.

You all might even shave together once a week or so.

I don't have acne, but I do have areas on my lower neck that love to get razor burned. There are always some inflamed areas. With good technique, I never see blood in that area. I know that unless I use a really light touch that there will be trouble.

His buddies will probably use cartridges, so make sure he understands that this is better, but that you have to pay attention when shaving with a double edge razor.