The Best of Twilight Sparkle's Twilight Time

by Greatmewtwo

Razor Bumps

The subject of medicine, anatomy, and physiology was naturally something Twilight wanted to study, but she was put off by the idea that those were all things that were happening within her body. Despite her inquiring mind, Twilight the Scientific was always grossed out by her own body and what it does.

As she was putting in some of the last clips of her anthology, she reflected on an incident regarding a lesson in regards to reproduction when she was in middle school. The underlying mechanisms of reproduction and certain infections freaked her out in class. Making matters worse, she stumbled across a journal left behind by Chrissy one day when she was dating Shining Armor. Out of curiosity, she cracked open the button and analyzed a few of the leaves. At first, she was intrigued about where babies came from, but as she went deeper into the dossier, the details of her most memorable moments with him made her throw up many times over a period of four days. The other girls, more immature than she seemed, laughed at her testimonies about Chrissy and Shining Armor, citing that it was all natural.

Days did come and go when she would hear stories about what became of Chrissy in the days since they broke up, everything from her being easy to her having birthed two children by the time she had thought to go to university, much less pursue a career in obstetrics and gynecology.

This question, being medicine-related and all, was of better help during the summer when everyone was getting their bodies right for the beach:

"And so that was an invigorating fight with a pair of scissors, some shaving cream, and a razor, but here we are on Twilight Time. Tonight's question comes to us all the way from San Brancisco, where @spitfire85 writes:"

Dear Twilight,
What are these painful, oozing bumps that show up after I shave, especially my bikini shave?

"Well," said Twilight, "After Shining Armor and I have had our mishaps with shaving over the years, I came to realize that those are what they call razor bumps. Razor bumps are actually a manifestation of post-shave irritation, usually arising from ingrown hairs."

Talking, she showed an image of hair growing back into the skin, depicting how painful and gross it is.

"As you shave, the hair continues to grow straight out of the hair follicle, but sometimes the hair will grow in such a way where it will dig itself back into the skin, causing redness, inflammation, and even infection; the pus that shows up in a razor bump is the result of an immune response."

"Primarily, razor bumps can be attributed to sensitive skin, along with poor shaving practices such as shaving against the grain and tugging and pulling the hair with bad razor blades. Another big factor includes how curly and rigid the hair is; people with coarser and/or curlier hair are more likely to have razor bumps and ingrown hairs simply because of the way the hair grows."

Presenting a set of black tweezers with some unpainted tips, along with a disposable razor that the uses for her legs, she went on to explain ways to deal with razor bumps.

"Dealing with it is usually another battle altogether. You can pluck the ingrown hair free so as to remove the inflammation source and allow the razor bumps to heal. You'll also have to avoid shaving until the bumps are entirely healed. Most importantly, shave your hair in the direction your hair grows, and make sure you use moisturizing lotions and antiseptics in your shaving to reduce the risk of infections."

"Yup. That bump on my leg was oozing a doozy yesterday...and they called that stuff soothing?"