Should I Shave My Chest Hair?
Wondering if you should shave your chest? The natural look isn’t for everyone. Shaving your chest hair can help you to look more groomed and on-trend, boosting your confidence in the gym or on the beach.
Full-on chest hair for men has slightly dropped in popularity during recent years, ever since famous football players started whipping their shirts off and showing off shiny, hard pecs in major competitions. When TV celebrities also began to sport smooth and shaven chests, it started a bit of a movement - loads of men began to wonder whether to shave their chest on the regular.
When Do Men Grow Chest Hair?
Most men begin to grow some chest hair during late puberty, though it’s not uncommon to begin in your early twenties or even not at all. For some, the first sign of chest fuzz is welcomed as a sign of masculinity – for others, these new sprouting hairs are met with disdain, especially if you don’t know yet how to groom or trim your chest hair.
Chest hair or no chest hair, the best way to approach body grooming is to decide what will make you most comfortable. For plenty of men, a touch of manscaping is a way to express their personality, while sporting a range of chest hairstyles and growth patterns. But with delicate nipples contend with and ingrown hairs to avoid, what’s the best way to shave your chest?
You might want to shave or trim your chest hair to show off your tattoos, hide the fact you’re starting to go grey or disguise fuzzy or uneven hair growth. Whatever your reason, here are our manscaping tips for how to trim, shave, and groom men’s chest hair for smooth, smart results:
Shaving Your Chest Hair
Step 1: Prep Your Skin
Before you do any manscaping, have a bath or shower to soften your body hair and prepare your skin for the razor blade. Chest hair tends to be quite wiry, but hot water and soap will help to soften it, meaning it’ll be much easier to shave and there’ll be less risk of shaving cuts and nicks.
You might want to exfoliate before shaving, as this can help you to remove any dirt, oil and dead skin cells that could block your razor’s path. This will reduce the chance of developing ingrown hairs on your chest later on and will help you achieve a smooth, comfortable finish.
If you already have a few ingrown chest hairs that won’t go away, try to avoid shaving over these – it’s best to wait for the area to heal.
Most ingrown hairs go away within a week, but if they stick around for longer than a month, speak to your GP about next steps. Hit the link to find out more about how to prevent ingrown hairs when shaving.
Step 2: How to Trim Your Chest Hair
Never go straight in with a close shave, unless you’ve got a high pain threshold and the time to be dealing with an almighty tangle of clogged hairs! Thanks to its three different fixed comb length options, and built-in precision trimmer, our Gillette All Purpose Styler should be your go-to trimmer for making slightly longer hairs more manageable.
Using a fixed comb length when shaving your chest hair will give you a neater, more even finish. You could skip steps 3 and 4 if you’re happy with just a trim – it certainly means less upkeep!
Step 3: Lather Up with Shaving Gel
Use shaving cream to work up a lather all over your remaining chest hair to add extra moisture and make it easier to glide a razor through. Using gel means you’re less likely to get razor bumps and more likely to achieve a perfectly smooth finish, allowing you to look and feel 100% confident.
Step 4: Shaving Your Chest Hair
Attach a Fusion5 Razor Blade to your Gillette All Purpose Styler and start at one of the outer edges of your chest. Pull the skin taut and shave with the grain to avoid irritation and ingrown hairs.
Work your way into the centre of your chest, taking extra care around your nipples. After every few razor strokes, gently rinse the back and front sides of your blades. Shake excess water off each time, but make sure you don’t tap your razor on the side of your sink or wipe it on a towel – this risks damaging the intricate design of the blade. Discover more about how to care for your razor.
Rinsing blades regularly is important to stop a build-up of shaving gel, hair and dead skin, which could affect the performance of your blades.
Remember to keep reapplying shaving gel if you need to along the way. Choose a shaving gel that will protect your skin while you shave as well – our Fusion5 Men’s Ultra Sensitive Shaving Gel is a good option, as it’s designed to soothe and protect, and is suitable for using on sensitive skin.
Step 5: A Final Pamper
When you’re happy with your new chest hairstyle, rinse your chest to clean away any lingering hairs or shaving gel, then gently towel yourself dry. Let your skin recover for a few minutes, then apply moisturiser.
Trim your chest hair regularly to keep on top of it – if you’ve gone for a totally smooth finish, you’ll have to do this a lot more often, but always leave at least one day in between your manscaping sessions.
Get More Manscaping Tips from Gillette
With Gillette razors and body hair trimmers, your personal grooming options are endless. We’ve got tools to help you with all of your manscaping needs, whether you just want to shave your facial hair or want to take male grooming to the next level.
Check out more of our body grooming tips.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-gF6_G_YZk
