Painfully itchy legs after shaving

[Techno_Spice]

I need help! About 12-24 hours after shaving (never right away), I develop and overpowering itch on the shaved areas (legs, armpits too, although the legs tend to itch the worst). This itch is so bad that I have woken up in the night reflexively scratching my legs until they bleed.

I've tried all the suggestions the internet has to offer. I've tried:
- nearly every shave lotion the market has to offer, including organic ones and regular body wash.
- nearly every razor the market has to offer; I use replaceable-head razors (Venus Divine) and I replace the head frequently.
- tried lotioning my legs after, and before  after showering with both Aveeno and St. Ives Intensive Healing
- tried using baby oil after, and before & after
- tried using tea tree oil and various other organic itch-calming treatments

None of these have worked

Once the itch starts, there is very little that will end it. I've tried:
- Regular and intensive lotions
- Eucerin anti-itch calming lotion
- Aloe Vera sunburn treatment (I thought the aloe or lidocaine in it might stop the itch)
- Benedryl (just in case it was an allergy to something in my shaving creams)
- OTC Hydrocortisone cream

Nothing works to stop the itch after it has begun. Pretty much all I can do is scratch and hope the itch ends before I scratch down to blood. It is agonizing and keeps me up at night. The same itch happens with Nair as well, but not hair-buffing although I could never get that to work to remove hair very well.

My doctor has no idea and just keeps saying "try a different shaving cream". He's not a very good doctor but I don't have a lot of insurance in-network options there. Has anyone heard of this? Do I have no option but to stop shaving?

[Kaht7]

I have the same problem I have this absolutely excruciating pain and itch after I shave , I also use to have horrible eczema all over my body since I was a child I have this problem with dry itchy skin , as a kid it was so bad sometimes my mom took me to the hospital because she thought it was allergies. I would itch so bad sometimes it looked like I got hives, I was put on steroids any type of prescription possible nothing helped!!  One of my friends suggested coconut oil she gave me some of hers it's chunky , the packaging is a white jar with a orange strip it's at Walmart any local grocery store really . Any way so I gave it a shot I took some and mixed it with aveeno stress relief lotion and all my eczema is gone , but my itch is still there I am now doing laser hair removal because I'm just so fed up . I wash my sheets every three days and that has helped a little but honestly these things have helped but not cured !!! Does anyone know a subsitute for shaving creames ?? Or anything that could take this absolute painf burn or itch away ,if so please help i would really really appreciate it thank you

[Nw10]

I have the exact same problem... thing is I used to wax, and although I would have the benefit of waiting an extra week or two for the irritating itch, I would get more in-grown hairs, and wait till its grown to wax again. So I tried IPL laser, which meant i had to return to shaving between treatments, and happy to say i ended up with some clear patches, however i had to leave the procedure due to medical issues. As well as that, it was expensive! So now... I shave, and its irritating!!! I'll shave and a day later I am attacking my legs till they bleed, and its extremely painful!

I need a solution :( my legs look terrible, feel terrible! No idea what to do, i am so uncomfortable getting my legs out!

My hair also grows back so quick its unreal! Even when i shave, i just feel like its not completely done.

[buntbean]

Wow!  Thank you.  The itching drives me insane.  Didn't know so many others suffer.

[Bev08]

I'd prefer not to shave at all , I leave them fir weeks as its just painful it's definitely the hair coming threw that's the problem , waxing shaving both are same , I recon a procedure to stop hair growing  at all in the leg area , them machines or a professional procedure

[itchychest200031]

I don't know if it makes any of you feel better, but I am an MD and had shaved my chest when I was in my early twenties, a little over 10 years ago.  My hair was bothering me so I decided to just trim it with clippers, expecting that it was the shaving and regrowth that caused the itchiness.  Wrong.  I believe it is the sharp hair ends caused by shaving.  I don't know if you have ever got a haircut and got itchy afterward because a few of the hairs got under your shirt, but I think it is the same idea.  Anyhow, I just trimmed my hair with clippers by less than an inch.  It got so itchy that I couldn't stand it, so then I waxed the worst parts.  The other parts were still itching so I ended up shaving.  As long as I shaved every day, I didn't itch.  But I was getting razor bumps and shaving my chest every day was just annoying and added to the time it was taking me to get ready.  I started to let it grow out about a week ago.  It started itching 2 days later.  I bought hydrocortisone cream (OTC) and that didn't help.  Today, I developed welts (urticaria) and it is REALLY itchy.  It is all I can do to not scratch.  I think if I start, I'll go down to the bone!  I might try something with Benadryl since I'm actually developing hives now.  Anyhow, I'm pretty sure it is related to the pointy hair ends we create by shaving.  With waxing, it is probably more the short, inflexible hairs that also stab at the skin (but itching isn't for a few weeks out because the hairs aren't as pointy and have to grow a bit longer than shaved hairs before they can stab).  Once hairs get long enough and aren't pointy, they can't stab any more which is probably why normal, long hairs don't itch.  I think the itching is just a reaction to irritation, which in the good old days ways probably caused by bugs, and our bodies making us scratch was a good way to make us get them off of our skin.  I guess I'll just suffer to some degree or another for the next few weeks.  Ah!

[afurman]

Just wanted to add something that hasn't been said yet

I am a guy and have the very same problem every year, I have to shave for my swim team. I seem to be the only one on my team that cant stand it, the day after I shave the pain is almost unbearable. For the two weeks after I shave my mood is greatly affected and I am easily irritated, which is not my normal attitude at all.

My hair is really thick, even for a guy, so I thought that was it for the longest time but I'm pretty sure the intensity of what I feel cannot be solely as a result of that.

Also any help would be appreciated (: