Shaving is both a blessing and a curse, isn’t it? It’s the agony and the ecstasy. 

We’ve been trained by social messaging to read and interpret freshly shaved skin with many things, and rightly or wrongly, we respond to these messages. When you think about it, shaving and the products that come along with it are the essence of modern aesthetics.

The aesthetic preeminence of shorn skin requires at its very core the fruits of modern consumer culture to maintain. One must have regular access to hot water, soap, fresh razors, and then the skin care products used to nurture tender skin after the razor has passed.

And all that is a lot of work! It can also lead to a lot of stinging and cutting and irritation. It’s not a process that is always fun!

But sometimes it is glorious.

There is something about the way your skin feels after a beautiful hot shave that is really something else, unlike anything else in the world.

The confines of the contemporary barber shop are in many ways based on this experience. And now, Skin Actives wants to be part of it too.

Skin Actives is proud to reveal our newest product: Hydrating Shaving Cream!

Why Shave?

Where does the idea of shaving come from? 

Like most anything else, hair, where you should have it and how long it should be, are very much up to the whims of fashion. 

The Ancient Romans, for instance, signaled status with sparse hair, and they left us thousands of years later, with statues of clean shaven men wearing haircuts incredibly severe by the standards of their time. 

The uncharitably named “Dark Ages” saw the return of long hair and beards along with the axis of European power moving away from the Mediterranean peninsula and into the cooler climes of Central and Northern Europe. 

We would be foolish to presume that these historical understandings of beauty and desirableness have not followed us into contemporary times!

But so far, our discussion of hair and beauty has been restricted to men. 

Where we stand now, here in 2021, women actually are asked to shave a much higher area of skin than men are on a regular basis! Where does this come from?

Well, as we stated in the introduction, this fixation on shaving as an extension of beauty and hygiene was developed alongside the concepts of modernity at the opening of the twentieth century. Before that, women were expected to remove the much smaller, less noticeable growths of facial hair that occur on their faces and necks. 

As ideas about how the very concepts of femininity changed between 1900 and 1915, it became fashionable for women to shave under their arms. Almost immediately after, hair removal from legs began to trend and by the 1940s, surveys show that the vast majority of American women had adopted the practice. 

Since then, fashion has continued to promote further and further forms of hairlessness including brows, arms and other areas that seemed unthinkable as early as the late 1990s. Watch Season 1 of Sex and the City if you want to see Carrie and her friends scandalized by a practice accepted as very common 2021.

So history continues to challenge our feelings about hair, over and over again. But what about the skin underneath it?

Your Skin and Shaving 

No matter what area of your body you choose to shave, or how often, your skin is going to take the brunt of it. And it makes a certain amount of sense: running a sharpened blade across the surface of your skin barrier is probably an activity that you would avoid in any other circumstance. 

Skin that is healthy, thick, supple, and even has a better chance at resisting the blade than does skin that is thin, brittle and uneven. 

But the blades themselves require much care for when you are running them across your skin, and you’ll need optimal circumstances as well. This is why the idea of a ‘dry shave’ is enough to make many people wince, just at the thought. Even if your skin is incredibly healthy you’ll want to make sure that it’s been exposed to warm humidity for maximum malleability. And as the hairs that you’ve cut begin to regrow, you’ll want to make sure that your skin is delicate enough that it doesn’t trap growing hairs, but is strong enough to remain healthy!

Skin Actives New Hydrating Cream

At Skin Actives Scientific, we’re really proud to introduce you to our newest innovation: Hydrating Shave Cream.

Hydrating Shave Cream is formulated to meet the needs of both men and women, so you’ll find an incredibly smooth shave for any part of your body. Like all Skin Actives products, you’ll find our shave cream dense in the active ingredients necessary to keep your skin healthy. Sea Kelp Coral adds gel-like flow along with a host of vitamins and nutrients. Aloe and Beta Glucan fight inflammation and irritation before they begin. 

Hydrating Shave Cream is free of irritating fragrances and colors and is never tested on animals.

We have however been using it around the office!

Below you’ll find a testimonial from Ben, the manager of our shipping department. If you’ve ordered from us over the past 10 years, there is a good chance he either keyed in your order, or packed it himself. While he’s gone on to some higher level duties at this point, he’s still been testing our Hydrating Shave Cream on his head and face to keep them silky smooth. Take it away, Ben!

I always hated shaving! I have been shaving my head for the last 9 years or so since my male pattern balding became impossible to ignore. But I have avoided shaving my face for many years. Shaving my face was mostly an exercise in self-flagellation. No matter what I tried (various and sundry marketed shaving gels and creams, electric razors), the result was horrible and left me with just ugly raw skin until just recently. The Skin Actives Hydrating Shaving Cream has completely changed my shaving life.

I now use this shaving cream religiously. It is by far the most pleasant experience I have ever had while shaving. It only foams slightly and feels great on application. The shaving itself feels smooth and easy. It helps reduce drag in a way that normal creams have not for me and because of that, my skin is left feeling smooth without any of the normal, raw feeling I have when shaving with a normal gel or cream. Not only is my skin left without any of the typical raw sensation, but it feels more moisturized too after use. I have less redness. I have less skin flaking as well.

I recently ran out of Hydrating Shaving Cream. But I was used to shaving so I tried to continue my routine with some shaving gel from before I switched to Skin Actives Hydrating Shave Cream. I lathered up my face and shaved. The experience was such a negative one. I felt raw. My cheeks and especially my upper lip looked red. Before I even saw how I looked, I decided to skip shaving my head. The experience was so terrible, I resolved to skip shaving until I had more of the Hydrating Shaving Cream.

This is how I feel about the Skin Actives Hydrating Shaving Cream: It is wonderful. I love it. I cannot do without it. I would rather have a beard than shave with any other product. And maybe bald spots and receding hairlines are just not worth the hassle and terrible outcomes of shaving my head with any other product.

So there you have it folks! Check out Skin Actives new Hydrating Shave Cream and experience the life changing results for yourself. 

Thanks for reading all the way to the bottom Skin Actives Family! Stay tuned here when the Season of Giving returns for Part II, this Friday, November 5th! See you then!