Preventing strawberry skin—the clogged pores and inflamed follicles that can be a common byproduct of shaving—are pretty easily managed.
Prepare skin by doing some gentle physical exfoliation before getting started shaving. It’s the best way to make sure the skin is as free as possible of dead skin cells, which can clog up and dull a razor almost immediately. There are tons of ways to physically exfoliate (body scrubs, dry brushing, body mitts), but the important part is to be gentle with it. The goal is to remove dead skin, not cause inflammation, which could exacerbate the appearance of strawberry skin.
Fresh razors give the best shaves both in terms of hygiene and closeness, so rather than an expensive multi-blade situation, a fresh, sharp, single-bladed option might be a better choice. This obviously depends on budget, frequency of shaves, and preference—but a newer, sharper, blade will always perform better than one with more shaves under its belt. A lot of people keep their razor in the shower, which makes sense, it’s convenient. Unfortunately, it also encourages things like rust and bacteria to grow which can then be introduced to newly shorn follicles on the leg. It’s best to dry and store your razor outside of the shower.6
When shaving, make sure to use a hydrating shaving solution. Hair conditioner works surprisingly well—it softens (and moisturizes) the skin and the hair, and lets the razor glide along the skin without damaging it. If shaving cream is preferred, look for a hydrating formula. Try not to make several passes over the same area and shave in the direction the hair grows. This might seem counterintuitive, and shaving this way doesn’t produce as close a shave as shaving against the grain, but it does prevent the hairs from being pulled in the opposite direction from how they grow, and then getting violently snapped back the other way once the razor chops them off. Which is of course how the follicles get stretched out, making room for all that gunk, and voila: strawberry legs.
Keeping legs well exfoliated is another key step in preventing strawberry legs. In addition to preparing for shaves with physical exfoliation, the regular use of chemical exfoliants on skin will keep dead skin at bay, pores clear, and skin ready to accept moisture. There are body cleansers with AHAs like glycolic and lactic acids and BHAs like salicylic acid that can be used sporadically to keep skin exfoliated. There are also countless AHA and BHA leave-on serum and gel products, even AHA and BHA body lotions and creams.
Skin that is well exfoliated is better prepared for hydration, which will help in preventing strawberry skin. There are a few more things to try that aren’t completely obvious that can help skin achieve optimal moisturization.
As good as a hot shower feels, hot water is mostly good at drying out skin. Keeping shower and bath water closer to body temperature will prevent the oils that are necessary to skin’s hydration from being stripped away while bathing. It’s also a good idea to choose a cleanser that isn’t stripping, drying, or overly lathering. All of these run the risk of robbing skin of the oils it wants to hang on to.
When finished bathing, don’t scrub across your skin with a towel dry. Gently pat, and don’t worry about getting all the water off. If there’s still water on the skin when moisturizers are applied, especially when using a body oil, then the skin can absorb and retain that moisture, along with the added hydration the product provides. So always be sure to moisturize as soon as possible after getting out of the bath or shower.7If hair that’s darker than the skin around it is the culprit behind the appearance of strawberry legs, then the only thing that can prevent it is removing that hair from the root of the follicle and even then, in most cases, the hair will eventually come back.
Waxing pulls hairs out from the root which keeps legs free of their strawberry look much longer than shaving, but not indefinitely.
Laser hair removal uses a concentrated beam of light to zap and burn up the shaft of hair, all the way down to the follicle. While many expect laser hair removal to kill off follicles altogether resulting in permanent hair removal, there isn’t data as of yet that supports those claims. Research has however shown that laser hair removal can and does produce a reduction in hair counts (the number of active follicles in a certain area of skin), especially after multiple treatments.8There are at-home DIY laser hair removal kits but they don’t have actual lasers as their light source and generally only work for folks with dark hair and lighter skin. For the real deal, visit a licensed, board-certified dermatologist for laser hair removal treatments.
The only hair removal method deemed permanent by the FDA is electrolysis—a process where a small needle is inserted into the follicle and an electric current is sent through it to kill the follicle.9 As thorough treatment requires the elimination of each individual follicle, electrolysis often calls for multiple, sometimes painful sessions to completely remove hair from an area of the body. A body part as large as the legs (where strawberry skin most commonly occurs) will require many lengthy sessions over several months to achieve permanent hair removal.10However, once the needed electrolysis sessions for a particular area are completed, the follicles will be dead forever—eliminating strawberry skin and hair regrowth concerns permanently.
