If you follow beauty influencers like Huda Kattan (or, you know, the Huda Beauty), then you know she and many other women in the beauty community have a rather unexpected method for keeping their skin smooth as butter for makeup application.
Yes, I'm talking about face shaving. Women have historically been expected to shave everything except for our faces, which is why the hair removal technique is rather surprising. And though plenty of women swear by plain old face razors for eliminating peach fuzz on the jawline and upper lip, others fear the side effects.
It's a common belief that once you shave your face, you risk thicker and darker regrowth. Shaving, like it does for any other body part, can cause redness and irritation when done too harshly. In order to test all these side effects and determine if they're worth it, I took the plunge and started shaving myself.
Huda Kattan is the biggest beauty blogger in the entire world. Recently, she revealed that the secret to her incredibly perfect skin and makeup is... face shaving.
Huda says that you should use special razors to shave your face, but the ~*fancy*~ ones she recommends wouldn't ship for three weeks, so I improvised.
I use Gillette Tropical Razors ($8, Drugstore.com) to shave my legs, so I broke out a brand new, never-before-used one to de-fuzz my face. YOLO, right?
Here is a map of where I shaved.
Even though the hair on my face is fine and super blonde, I am a PEACH FUZZY PERSON. I have more downy fluff on my face than a baby chicken does, especially by my cheekbones — my follicles are just dreaming of the day they can grow full-on sideburns.
Anyway.
I shaved the sides of my face, extending up and around my eyebrows and down my neck. I shaved the sides of my chin, but avoided the actual chin proper — I've been breaking out pretty crazily lately, and didn't want to make the situation worse. I also shaved above my upper lip, because why not.
As for HOW I shaved, I found that short, quick upward strokes on clean, damp skin was the easiest.
Does this look awkward? It felt a little awkward, but holding your hair — or eyebrows — out of the path of your razor is an ESSENTIAL trip. While I can shave my legs in my sleep, I'm still learning how to shave my face, and you can't exactly hide a face-shaving accident. One false move could leave you with a bald spot, or accidental Spock eyebrows.
Incidentally, I found that these razors worked really well on my face — if they can get around my knobby knees without nicks, they deal with my facial angles.
I've been shaving my face for three weeks now, and guess what? I LOVE THE RESULTS.
The results probably aren't super-visible to anyone who isn't me, but I love how smooth my skin feels and the way it looks on camera.
I also made all my Revelist coven members touch my face after I'd shaved it for the first time, and while most were just confused about why they were caressing my cheeks, Jess said "OOOOH, that's nice! Feels like a baby's bottom!" and then petted me a little longer.
So definitely shave your face if you want your friends to touch you a lot in unexpected places, is what I'm saying.
I also found that my makeup applied a lot more smoothly, and stayed on my skin SUPER perfectly.
Again: if my life only took place in the real world, I'm not sure this would make SUCH a huge difference. But for the purposes of being on camera, it's like a whole new world of perfection.
But it's not all good — shaving your face does come with downsides.
Constant vigilance is required to guard against ingrown hairs and stubble. I've been making sure that I exfoliate gently but persistently to make sure I don't get any red lumpy-bumps — and there have been none so far.
Stubble is another thing altogether. Peach fuzz regrowth feels like a rapidly drying out sunburn — rough, dry, and uneven. I start to notice it about 18 hours after shaving. If you have thicker or darker facial hair, you'd likely have to shave every day to avoid visible regrowth, which is a commitment.
And before anyone asks: no, shaving doesn't make hair grow in thicker or darker.
I also haven't seen any of the anti-aging or scar-reducing benefits Huda promised, but I'll keep my eyes open.
Honestly, the skeptic in me wonders if these things aren't just caused by people taking better care of their skin — cleansing more, exfoliating regularly — to prevent ingrown hairs. But I'll keep at it and report back, because this is definitely something I plan to keep up. Shaved faces forever!
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