If you shave, wax or otherwise remove hair from your body and suffer from bumps, ingrown hairs and the like, it can be extremely annoying. Not to mention painful and very unsightly. There are a number of products on the market that purportedly help prevent or reduce skin irritation and ingrown hairs but they tend to be expensive. They work fairly well but the cost can be prohibitive. If you are African American or have very curly hair, ingrown hairs can be a considerable headache.I've just started using Whish Flawless Ingrown Hair Serum, but at $22.50 for 1.1 ounces, unless it works miraculously I'm not sure it's a habit I can keep up. Another very popular product is called Tend Skin which is cheaper at $20 for 4 ounces, but many find it to be too harsh.
So, what's a bumpy girl (or boy) to do? Well, I found a recipe for making your own version of Tend Skin, which consists basically of Isopropyl (rubbing) alcohol, witch hazel, purified water and uncoated aspirin, which are similar to the main ingredients in Tend Skin. It sounds like you can skip the witch hazel and water in the mixture, if you want to keep it simple. The beauty of making it yourself is that if you find the original formula to be too harsh, you can dilute it by reducing the alcohol and/or aspirin and increasing the water.
Anyway, the cost is considerably less to make it yourself so it's definitely worth a try even if it doesn't work out for you. Here's the basic recipe:
5 oz Isopropyl alcohol
15 uncoated aspirin
Add the ingredients to a squeeze bottle and shake to mix. You'll need to shake before use as some settling may occur. Apply with a cotton pad or cloth after shaving or showering or however often is needed. And, remember to exfoliate several times a week and moisturize to help prevent ingrowns.
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7 comments:
as far as i know isopropyl alcohol (sd-40) is harmful for the skin. it is a harsh chemical that irritates and dries out the skin. it is made from propylene, which is based on petroleum, so clearly not a good choice. i know my english doesn't sound good enough to be convincing, but please check the facts above and think twice what you put on your skin. i would never use such a mixture.
also checked the ingredients of the expensive product you linked, and in this rare case it is definitely much better for the skin. fragrance is a bit problematic, because it is a synthetic material (unless stated otherwise - from essential oils, etc), and polysorbate 20 could cause problems since it helps the ingredients penetrate the skin - also anything else from the environment. but basically this product should be fine.
but i also have to state that being expensive doesn't mean that it is safe to use. only in this case.
sorry, last one on this, i promise... also checked the ingredients of the cheaper product, it is clearly bad for the skin, especially the bigger batches that contain propylene glycol as well as isopropyl alcohol. these are petroleum based synthetic chemicals. PG is also used in the car industry as part of the brake hyraulic system.
i guess i'm a bit too much now, so i'll just stop analyising...
psz - If you are concerned about the rubbing alcohol (and it certainly appears that you do :) you can switch it out for witch hazel or, as someone point out in my original post, you can use vodka or a high proof grain alcohol.
thank you for the advice. for me it's hard to find anything suitable because i have extremely sensitive skin with various allergies.
Thanks for this crunchy. I am going to give it a try with witch hazel. I love sugaring but I get horribly itchy spots when the hair grows back in that and my legs end up looking like I got eaten by mosquitoes rather than nice and smooth. =P Here's hoping it works! =)
This is a good product to use to avoid ingrown hair or hair bumps. It smoothens the skin keeping it even and making it easier to shave.
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