SHAVING
IN YOUR
20s
Your 20s are when shaving habits form — and most of them form wrong from the start. Here is the honest guide to skin, technique, money and the myths that cost young UK men the most.
Nobody teaches men to shave properly. The average young UK man learns from a brief, wordless demonstration from a father who himself learned the same way, supplemented by whatever YouTube or TikTok surfaces on the topic. The habits formed in the early 20s — the brand chosen, the technique adopted, the frequency established — are the habits that persist for decades. Getting them right early saves money, skin damage, and years of routine irritation. This is the guide that nobody gave you when you needed it most.
THE MYTHS YOUNG MEN ARE TAUGHT — AND THE TRUTH
This is the most persistent shaving myth in existence and has been scientifically disproved since 1928. Shaving cuts hair at the surface — it has no access to the follicle root that would be needed to change hair growth rate, thickness, or colour. What you feel as coarser regrowth is the blunt cross-section of a cut hair — not a thicker hair. This myth causes young men to delay shaving unnecessarily or to stop mid-adolescence worried about consequences that do not exist.
Verdict: Completely false — disproved for nearly 100 yearsThe Gillette pricing model is built on this assumption — and it is not supported by independent testing. Which? consumer tests, academic blind trials, and large-scale user surveys consistently find that mid-range and own-brand cartridges perform comparably to premium blades once blade count, lubrication, and sharpness are controlled for. The price differential largely reflects marketing spend, brand equity, and retail margin — not superior blade metallurgy.
Verdict: Price does not equal performance above a quality thresholdDaily shaving with a sharp blade, proper preparation, and quality aftercare is not harmful to healthy skin. The belief that it is stems from the experience of daily shaving with a dull blade and inadequate prep — which is harmful. The frequency is not the variable. The technique and blade quality are. Men who shave daily with correct preparation and fresh blades consistently have calmer, more even skin than those who shave sporadically with poor technique.
Verdict: Daily shaving is fine — poor technique is the problem, not frequencyOily skin and hydrated skin are not the same thing. Oily skin produces excess sebum — a protective oil — often as a response to dehydration. Skipping moisturiser on oily skin typically increases oil production as the skin compensates for the moisture deficit. A lightweight, non-comedogenic moisturiser applied post-shave reduces both post-shave irritation and — counterintuitively — excess oiliness over time.
Verdict: Oily skin needs moisturiser — just a lighter, non-comedogenic formulaTHE 6 THINGS TO GET RIGHT IN YOUR 20s
The single most common technique error among men in their 20s is pressing the razor against the face. A razor blade cuts through properly prepared, lubricated facial hair under its own weight — approximately 40–50 grams. Any additional downward pressure is not helping the cut. It is increasing skin friction, multiplying micro-tears, and causing the razor burn that most men in their 20s assume is just their skin type. It is not their skin type. It is excess pressure. Let the razor’s weight do the work and the irritation stops.
Takeaway: The razor’s weight is all the pressure you should ever apply. Ever.A dull blade does not simply cut less cleanly. It drags. Every drag stroke bends the hair before cutting it — pulling the follicle, causing friction at skin level, and requiring 2–3× more strokes to achieve the same result as a sharp blade in 1. The accumulated skin damage from daily shaving with a blade that should have been changed a week ago is the primary cause of chronic razor burn among young shavers. Change your blade every 5–7 shaves. SmartShave’s monthly subscription does this automatically.
Takeaway: Dull blade → drag → razor burn. Change every 5–7 shaves without negotiation.The most skipped step in young men’s shaving routines is warm water preparation — and it has the largest single impact on result quality. 60–90 seconds of warm water contact before any blade contact softens facial hair by up to 70%, reducing the force required to cut it and eliminating most of the friction that causes post-shave redness. Shower before shaving and the prep happens automatically. Skip it and you are asking a blade to work 70% harder than it needs to — every morning, for the rest of your shaving life.
Takeaway: Shower first, shave after. The warm water is doing half your prep work for free.UV exposure is the single largest driver of visible skin ageing — and it is cumulative from your earliest years. Every day without SPF is a small deposit into an account of skin damage that compounds over decades. Shaving removes the outermost protective layer of skin cells, temporarily increasing UV vulnerability. An SPF 30 moisturiser applied post-shave costs 30 seconds and prevents the kind of skin ageing that men spend thousands of pounds trying to reverse in their 40s. The 25-year-old who starts this habit looks meaningfully different at 45 from the one who did not.
Takeaway: Start SPF now. Every day. The compounding benefit is enormous and begins immediately.Most men in their 20s are shaving with Gillette Fusion5 because that is what was on sale when they needed their first razor, or because their father used it. At £3.50–£4.00 per cartridge, a daily shaver spending their 20s on Fusion5 blades will spend approximately £2,500 on shaving cartridges across the decade. SmartShave’s monthly subscription costs approximately £14.99–£19.99 per month for the same or comparable results. The decade saving: over £1,600. The switch cost: £9.99 for a starter kit.
Takeaway: The blade brand habit formed in your 20s will cost you thousands if you do not evaluate it now.Most young men shave and walk away. No balm, no moisturiser, nothing. Shaving removes skin cells and temporarily disrupts the skin barrier — a process that requires active support to resolve quickly. A fragrance-free post-shave balm applied immediately after shaving closes this window in minutes rather than hours. Men who adopt this habit in their 20s maintain noticeably calmer, more even skin than those who do not — and the compounding benefit over decades of daily shaving is significant.
Takeaway: Balm is not optional. It is the final step that makes everything else work properly.THE MONEY REALITY FOR MEN IN THEIR 20s
| Product | Cost per cartridge | Annual cost (daily shaver) | 10-year cost (20s decade) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gillette Fusion5 (full price) | £3.80–£4.20 | £198–£219/year | ~£2,090 |
| Gillette Mach3 | £2.20–£2.60 | £115–£136/year | ~£1,255 |
| SmartShave GG5 monthly subscription | ~£1.25 | £65/year (£14.99/mo) | ~£650 |
| SmartShave BB5 monthly subscription | ~£1.65 | £86/year (£19.99/mo) | ~£860 |
The difference between starting your 20s on Gillette Fusion5 and SmartShave GG5 is approximately £1,440 across the decade — with independent testing showing comparable performance. This is not a small difference. It is a holiday, a month’s rent, or a meaningful investment contribution. The habit formed at 21 runs for 50+ years. Getting it right financially at the start is the highest-leverage grooming decision a young man makes.
THE HABITS THAT SET UP YOUR SKIN FOR YOUR 30s AND BEYOND
Sunscreen after every morning shave, every day, regardless of weather or season. UV exposure is cumulative — starting at 21 instead of 31 is worth roughly a decade of skin ageing avoided. This single habit has a larger long-term skin impact than any other product you will ever buy.
Change every 5–7 shaves without exception. Set a reminder if needed. The discipline of this single habit eliminates the primary cause of most shaving irritation — not just now, but for the rest of your life. A subscription removes the need for discipline entirely.
Alcohol-free balm within 2 minutes of every shave. The compounding skin benefit of this habit over 10 years of daily shaving is visible to anyone who compares skin at 30 between men who maintained it and men who did not. Start now. It costs £8 and 30 seconds.
Your 20s are the highest-leverage decade in your grooming life — because the habits formed here persist. Get the technique right now — zero pressure, sharp blade, proper prep, balm after — and you will shave comfortably for the rest of your life without ever having to unlearn anything. Get the economics right — SmartShave over Gillette — and you save £1,400+ across the decade with no compromise in quality. Get the skincare right — SPF daily, balm always — and your skin at 40 will look noticeably better than men of the same age who did not. Nobody gave you this guide when you needed it. Now you have it. Use it.