3 Best Shaving Creams for Men With Acne or Sensitive Skin

You probably already know why shaving with acne is tough: pimples act as barriers to your razor blade, causing constant cutting and preventing a close shave.

As if cutting wasn’t a big enough problem, razor blades tend to irritate skin,this is especially true with cartridge razors. 

Why is that you ask?

Multi-blade razors are designed to work like this: the first blade lifts the hair, the second and third blades cut the hair (sometimes it's even more).

This gives you a close shave but, at the same time the blades usually cut the hair under your skin and not above and this may cause a lot of problems, such as razor burn, ingrown hair and more.  You definitely don't want that especially with acne. To avoid that you should use a safety razor, which will give you a very close shave and won't irritate your skin.

Ok let's go back to the shaving cream.

There are a few strategies which can make shaving with acne easier, but the bottom line is that you’ll need to get control of your facial oils by using the right shaving cream.

How do we solve the difficulties we mentioned above with a shaving cream?

First, you want to make sure that your shaving cream isn’t going to contribute to acne in the future.

Next, you'll want to look for a shaving cream that won’t inflame the acne that’s already there by irritating the skin.

Finally, you’ll want a shaving cream which leaves the hair roots supple, preventing ingrown hairs and further irritation and acne.

Later in this section, we’ll explore how these features are very closely related. But let's start with what you should look for in your shaving cream:

Removing the dirt and oils from our skin is one of the main functions of shaving cream. If your shaving cream for use with acne isn’t helping to flush out dirt and excess oil, it may be trapping them inside your pores and causing your acne to get worse.

Dirt contains bacteria, which can lead to infections and inflammation of your acne. Oil, on the other hand, is gross and can cause new acne to form. A frequent advisory to those with acne is to wash their face with soap to remove dirt and oils, which is exactly what a good shaving cream helps you do.

But removing dirt and oils from your face if you have acne isn’t as simple as it may seem at first.

To remove dirt and oil, your shaving cream needs to contain a surfactant— just like soap. The catch is that surfactants in cosmetic products can strip out too much of your skin’s natural oils, leaving it extremely dry and irritated.

Shaving creams contain oils and fats which are necessary to carry the other ingredients in the cream, namely the surfactants and the water. Fats also help to lubricate the movement of the razor across your skin, so they’re necessary to avoid irritation. But if your shaving cream is extremely fatty and oily on its own, it’s unlikely to wash off as efficiently.

Once again, this is an issue of reaching the correct amount of oil remaining on your skin after shaving.

Given that many shaving creams advertise themselves as types of “butter,” you’ll need to be extra careful to find a shaving cream that only contains the bare minimum of fats and oils to carry the other components of the cream. Avoid shaving with olive oil until your acne has subsided.

Shaving creams that foam while being slathered are superior to other kinds of shaving cream for use while shaving with acne, according to dermatological authorities. These shaving creams moisturize the skin and hair root more effectively than others, leading to decreased irritation and decreased bacterial growth.

Too much foam indicates that the active ingredients in your shaving cream are too high in proportion to the total volume. A good shaving cream for use with acne won’t be heavier on bubble-forming surfactants and fats than is necessary.

Minimal foaming doesn’t make for an attractive looking figure while you’re shaving, but creams which don’t foam much are creams with high water content.

Why not use a dry shave method instead of wet shaving with a shaving cream, then?

Many people advocate using an electric razor when shaving with acne, as the electric razor is less likely to cause cuts. Electric razors have a barrier which prevents acne from passing through to the razors, but longer hairs can pass through and get cut just fine. There’s an issue with using electric razors when you have acne, though.

According to Acne.org, electric razors are extremely irritating to your skin by default. You may not be getting cut, and you may be able to trim your hairs, but you’ll be left with a very dry and abraded skin.

This very dry and abraded skin reacts by producing sebaceous oils, which will worsen your acne whether or not your sebaceous glands are already prone to secreting too much oil.

In light of this, there aren’t too many alternatives to shaving with a wet foam and razor if your acne is a serious issue. If you only have a few spots with unsightly hairs, it may be possible to tweeze them out—but that’s a far cry from shaving, and not viable for most men.

Now that you know the features to look for in your shaving cream let’s explore three products and see how they stack up.