Now I wasn't what I'd call a heavy smoker, anything between 10-20 a day, and not all my life. I picked up this habit serving on operations in the military, smokers are always more sociable during down time and they wore me down in the end, so I started, my choice, no excuses. Anyway, I noticed a while back that even anti-perspirant started to irritate me under my arms (where else!), so I had to switch to deodorant only, which seemed to ease things. Then I had the same with shaving products on my face, which seemed to make my face really dry ( Even the woolfat at times - incredible I know! ). So after many attempts to stop, I finally picked up on vaping and haven't had any tobacco for quite a while now, and don't feel the need to either - so far so good, I feel much better for it. So I picked up on DE shaving again recently, as previously posted about, and things have been much better, my skin has never felt so good, at least not for along while. So I started using Anti-perspirant again, which I prefer anyway, again, no more itching, no irritation. So I decided to throw the dice once again and today I even tried a long forgotten tub of Trumpers Sandalwood shaving cream which I found at the bottom of a drawer. Now this stuff used to leave my face feeling tighter than a Yorkshireman in a charity shop ( Sorry Yorkshiremen everywhere but you know it's true, I could have used Scotsman but you always get an easy ride and you're just as "thrifty" ). Well today no issues, no tightness, no irritation, no dryness - happy days
So here's what I've concluded, smoking either made my skin so dry that this was what caused my issues, or the toxins reacted chemically in my body to cause some sensitivity to other things, or maybe both. Either way stopping has definitely made things better on the anti-perspirant/shaving cream & soap front. My skin is clearly grateful for it, everywhere. Now I'm awaiting a stick of Arko for the ultimate test, now this stuff used to extract every bit of moisture from my whole body and leave me looking like prune extracted from a blast furnace. It is the test of skin irritation bravery for me, like sandblasting my face with washing powder. I'm quietly confident but not suicidal, I shall go easy and write my will beforehand, just in case, with a bucket of C45 cream and a paintbrush next to the sink, so fear not, I am prepared.
So in summary, if you're smoking and getting irritation, this could be the reason, I'm very convinced it was an issue for me. Vaping is fine, just like drinking coffee really and I enjoy a puff without the horrible side-effects, it's a hell of a lot cheaper too. If you can't beat the ciggies I feel for you, but give vaping a try, it's much kinder all round. One last thing, please, no lectures on smoking or vaping, I've been using an electric razor for a few years, you can't bring me any lower than that
