How To Use An Alum Block

Alum is a moisture shaver'due south go-to for calming down razor burn and stopping cuts from bleeding. Here'due south everything y'all demand to know about how to use an alum block for those painful post-shave moments.

What Is An Alum Block And What Is It Made Of?

Alum cake is an incredibly popular moisture shaving remedy for post-shave cuts and irritation. Some men like to apply it all over their confront, similar an aftershave, while others only utilise information technology on spots where they've accidentally nicked themselves.

At showtime glance, an alum block looks like a solid piece of slightly-transparent rock. It could just as easily be a block of salt. In a way, it sort of is a salt – the metallic, acidic kind instead of the type y'all'd have on your dinner table. Alum blocks are unremarkably made of potassium alum, which is the double sulfate of potassium and aluminum. Occasionally y'all'll notice options made of slightly unlike compounds.

Alum acts as a powerful astringent and antiseptic. Astringents, if you're not familiar, are materials that tin can cause tissue to constrict.

Accept you lot always had that tight feeling in your rima oris after drinking a very dry wine or biting into an unripe fruit? That's astringency! When practical to the pare, astringents make it feel tight. Their effect helps to tame inflammation past reducing swelling and redness.

There are a lot of astringents in the grooming world (particularly as aftershaves and toners), just alum blocks accept it upwards a notch. They're very powerful, so they don't just constrict the pare to reduce redness and razor burn, but they can actually assist stop bleeding from minor cuts.

As for antiseptic, this means that alum helps to impale off bacteria that might lead to skin infections like folliculitis. The winning combination of severe and clarified make information technology a wonderful preventative for razor bumps.

Because alum is acidic when mixed with water, information technology will sting whatsoever parts of your skin that are a little more irritated. Some men like to rub it all over their face up, equally a style of checking for irritation and figuring out if they did a skillful job with their shave.

Alum Block vs Styptic Pencil

Alum blocks and styptic pencils are usually the same material but packaged differently. Choosing betwixt ane or the other is by and large a question of convenience and price, so hither'southward the basic breakdown.

An alum block is just a large chunk of alum, while styptic pencils are alum (or similar materials like aluminum sulfate) shaped into a thin cylinder and mounted on a plastic base of operations, with a encompass.

A large alum cake costs about the same equally a small styptic pencil, so if y'all're strictly judging based on quantity, alum blocks offer the ameliorate bang for your buck.

If y'all're looking for something you can rub all over your face up later shaving, an alum cake is an obvious choice. You can apply it to your entire face in seconds – something that isn't possible with a styptic pencil.

Styptic pencils tend to eolith more than alum when yous rub them over the skin, and then they're ameliorate for deeper cuts.

Because of the smaller size, styptic pencils are a trivial more convenient if you're only spot-treating small-scale areas, only not by much.

How To Use An Alum Block

Utilize the alum block after you've finished shaving and rinsed abroad any shaving cream residual.

After shaving, splash your face with a healthy amount of absurd h2o, so it's slightly clammy.
Rub the block over the areas that need to exist treated, whether it'southward all-over or only on specific spots.
If you don't experience similar any alum is coming off on your skin, y'all may want to dampen the block direct, although doing this regularly can cause the block to lose some of its smoothness.
If you merely take a couple of minor cuts you want to seal, but dampen a modest corner of the cake, and rub that over your pare.
Let the alum sit down on your skin for around 15-twenty seconds at the very least (some shavers prefer to leave it for a few minutes), until bleeding and irritation become down.
Rinse off the alum with more cool water.
Alum can leave your skin dry out, so finish off your post-shave routine with an aftershave balm or moisturizer.
Finally, make sure to dry the alum block with a towel, and leave it somewhere clean to dry.

Can You Utilise An Alum Block Everyday?

Alum is potent stuff, then non anybody can employ it every mean solar day. I recommend easing your way into it. After the kickoff fourth dimension you apply it, expect a few days and encounter how your skin reacts.

If all is well, you tin endeavor using it for a couple of days in a row. If you don't notice any signs of irritation, you tin can use information technology every day. On the other paw, if you observe that it does slightly irritate your skin with repeated use, you may want to only use it when highly necessary.

How Long Should You Utilise Your Alum Cake?

Here's a quick rundown of alum cake timing:

Leave it on your peel for a few minutes or less once y'all finish shaving.

Many wet shavers utilize it every day with good results, but others discover it irritating. To figure out how often you lot need to use information technology, introduce information technology slowly and close pay attention to signs of stinging or redness.

Alum blocks don't elapse, then you can use yours for as long as it feels smooth on your skin.

Should I Wash Off My Alum Block?

Probably. Alum is a powerful astringent and information technology does its job quickly. There aren't any benefits for leaving information technology on any longer, just you take a chance irritating the skin, which is counter-productive.

Oh, and that layer of invisible alum cake on your skin isn't necessarily going to stay undetectable, which is another reason to rinse it off. If you exit it on, you may detect white, powdery patches on areas where you went a lilliputian heavier with the alum. Information technology can also clump up and get visible if you follow information technology up with aftershaves.

It also has a sour metal flavour that you don't want to accidentally taste when you lot lick your lips. Your romantic partners probably won't appreciate it, either.

All that said, there are guys who find they get slap-up results and no irritation or white patches even when they leave the alum on their peel. If leaving it on works for you and doesn't cause issues, who am I to tell you to practice otherwise?

How Long Does Alum Block Last?

Alum blocks don't expire, but they can lose their smoothness or harden to the point where they're difficult to rub over the skin. If you're diligent about keeping your alum block dry these issues won't crop upward, and it'll hands final y'all for years and years of shaving even with daily utilize.

Does Alum Stop Hair Growth?

No. There'due south a myth that alum volition slow down pilus regrowth, but it's largely spread by pseudoscientific DIY recipe articles that prey on insecure women. Information technology's not based on whatsoever science or inquiry. Every bit hundreds of thousands of men who've been using information technology for decades tin can attest, their facial hair is still growing at the exact same rate.

Other Uses Of Alum Blocks

There are a lot of ways to employ alum, so here's how you lot can become more utility out of your cake.

Antiperspirant: Your alum cake tin can too be a great deodorant. The active ingredients in commercial antiperspirants are all aluminum-based, much like an alum block. When left on the skin, that layer of pulverisation helps to cake the sweat glands to prevent sweating and bad odors very effectively. To use alum every bit an antiperspirant, dampen your cake and and so rub it under your armpits every bit you would a regular deodorant.

Acne treatment: A lot of men notice that they interruption out less oft once they starting time using an alum block in their shaving routine. Its constricting furnishings make it a great ingredient for bringing down carmine, painful pimples, while the clarified effects prevent infection in the first place. You tin utilise it as a spot handling or even as a preventative face mask.

Post-waxing: Waxing is even more irritating than shaving since it pulls hair direct out of the pilus follicle. If you wax, use alum afterward just as you would for shaving. It can assist prevent or reduce redness, irritation, and bumps.
Bug bites: Itchy bug bites got you down? Your alum block tin can come to the rescue still again! In a pinch, rubbing a little bit of alum over a bug bite can give some relief against the swelling and itching.

Miles is a professional men's grooming analyst who believes that to look good a human being just needs to take expert care of himself. He's all about wet shaving, sustainability, and evidence-based grooming - an obsession he'due south ready to share. Miles is known for his in-depth analysis of men'southward training products, brands, and all-time practices you can't find anywhere else.