Cease me if this sounds acquainted: You’re within the bathe and able to shave your legs, however you’ve absolutely forgotten to interchange your razor (once more). Then, out of the nook of your eye, you spy your associate’s razor gleaming at you—newer, cleaner, method sharper than yours often is. Your intestine tells you it’s in all probability a nasty concept to make use of it, however it’ll simply be this one time! So that you seize it and get to work.
Should you’ve achieved this, both as soon as or a number of instances (responsible!), it’s completely comprehensible. While you’re dwelling with somebody or staying at a associate’s place steadily, it’s simple to justify “borrowing” every kind of hygiene merchandise, particularly in the event you’re in a rush.
However you actually shouldn’t share razors along with your associate—or anybody else, for that matter. “Sharing razors is a serious no-no from a dermatologist’s perspective,” Joyce Imahiyerobo-Ip, MD, a Boston-based dermatologist and the CEO of Vibrant Dermatology and Pores and skin Bar, tells SELF.
Shaving, even once you’re doing it gently, creates what Dr. Ip calls “gentle trauma” to the pores and skin. Minor scratches and tiny nicks attributable to the razor’s blades can function an entry level for probably dangerous micro organism, fungi, or viruses, which may finally set off an an infection. A razor is usually a surprisingly fertile surroundings for all kinds of germs. Give it some thought: Many razors have a number of blades (and thus extra floor space for organisms to reside on), lots of people don’t exchange their blades as usually as they need to, and razors are often saved in a toilet, which has humid circumstances that many bugs thrive in.
Clearly, “it isn’t preferrred to get another person’s micro organism or viruses into your pores and skin,” Dr. Ip says. In relation to frequent pores and skin infections, micro organism could cause points like cellulitis, sure viruses can result in warts, and fungi are inclined to unfold athlete’s foot and yeast infections, per the US Nationwide Library of Medication.
If that sounds fairly gross and type of unsettling, take a breather: The commonest aspect impact of utilizing one other individual’s razor is folliculitis, which is characterised by irritation of the hair follicles that may seem like small, reddened or infected pimples, set off itchy or tender pores and skin, or trigger a bumpy texture; it may be triggered by a pathogen that enters the pores and skin (mostly staph micro organism) or the friction of shaving itself.
“Bacterial folliculitis is extra probably you probably have been sharing a razor,” says Dr. Ip. So in the event you’re questioning why the spot you shaved now feels tough or appears to be like extra infected than ordinary, this could be a possible trigger.
Should you expertise gentle irritation—say, reddened pores and skin, a bumpy texture, and itchiness—you’ll be able to strive a drugstore therapy to appease the world first, like an over-the-counter antibiotic ointment or a 1% hydrocortisone cream. You too can contemplate a protecting ointment like Vaseline ($4, Amazon) or CeraVe’s Therapeutic Ointment ($11, Ulta) to cut back irritation and preserve the pores and skin protected because it calms down; each of those choices work for nearly anybody, even those that have delicate pores and skin. Dr. Ip additionally recommends Shea Moisture’s Restoring Cream ($11, Amazon), which incorporates antimicrobial tea tree oil and azelaic acid. (Simply be aware that some individuals discover these substances to be irritating, so in the event you’re involved about that, check out a small quantity of product on an unaffected space of pores and skin to make sure you don’t react negatively to it.)
