jamie17

Hey

Those red bumps/rash are probably little irritated hairs, best case scenario, or ingrown hairs, worst case scenario. As you found out, it gets worse the more frequently you shave and if you don't shave for awhile it goes away. I would recommend using electric clippers to trim the hair down rather than shave it. Alot of guys do this --- it gives a very groomed look and has none of the drawbacks of actually removing the hairs. Depending on what your hair pattern/density is, you would only need to touch up with the clippers every couple of days to once a week, and again, depending on what your hair is like, it might almost look like you are smooth.

But, if you are determined to shave, here are my tips: waxing lasts the longest & is the most maintenance free, but there's no guarantee that you won't get red bumps that way, either. Yes, it hurts like hell, but it's over fast. Definitely go to a salon or something to get it done --- you can do it yourself with one of those kits, but it can be messy and it takes awhile to work up the skills to do a really good job, and it ends up taking forever to figure it all out and do it (you're sitting there in the bathroom with all this sticky goo all over you and all over the counter and on your fingers and little strips of paper everywhere and you know it's going to hurt and you're trying to work up the courage to just do it and rip your hairs out and everytime you start you go too slow and it hurts even more, and someone's pounding on the door wanting to know why you're in there so long....), whereas when you go to a salon it's like zip zip zip and it's over. I found a place that would do it for $10 - $15, so it wasn't even that expensive.
Shaving: definitely do it in the shower so that your pores are all opened up and your hairs are softened. Start with a fresh blade, and if you are really hairy, you might need to change blades halfway through. If your hairs are really long, trim them first with those electric clippers I was talking about. Try to shave cleanly the first pass --- shaving over and over the same area tends to encourage irritation and ingrown hairs. You may even want to buy one of those razors for women's legs because they are curved and fit around a body's contours better, but that's not necessary. Depending on you rate of growth, you may want to do it a couple of days before your "big event", to give the rash some time to go down, then just touch up a little bit the day of.
Another thing you might try is a depilatory, like Nair for Men, sold in the shaving aisle. You spread on this white creamy stuff pretty thick, wait about ten minutes, and wipe it off in the shower. It works by dissolving the hairs just under the surface of your skin, so it lasts longer than shaving, but not as long as waxing. It doesn't hurt at all, but it does smell kind of nasty, so you'll probably want to take a shower afterwards anyway. Also, it doesn't get every single little hair, so you still have to go over your chest with a razor. Yes, that means that you are basically doing the whole process twice, but it might be your best bet in terms of how long you can stay hair free and without irritation. Do the Nair once before you go (the day of) and then just touch up with a razor here & there during your trip, if you even need to.

Alot of work, right? As I've noted on another thread, body hair is making a comeback, big-time in some circles. Think of this: if you leave your hair as is or just trim it a little, you may stand out (in a positive, hip, kind of ahead-of-the-curve kind of way) and get lots of great attention for that!

Hope all this helped --- let me know if you have any other questions.