Puff Daddy
Well-known member
- Joined
- Dec 9, 2007
- Messages
- 6,910
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Leave it to me to find blasphemy to be more sensible
Thousands of threads in the shave forums about hot showers, hot towels, warm soaking the beard, warm lathering, blah blah blah. Hot wet prep before a shave and three Hail Marys.
No matter what soap, cream, blade, razor or method I employed, I got tugging on the whiskers and an irritated neck. Then I read a couple of oddball, scoffed at threads about cold water shaving and figured "They all hate it, I'll try it!".
Damned if it didn't work better. Whooda thunk it.
I have been doing it daily for a couple of weeks now, it's not a one time fluke. No preshave shower or prep of any kind, shave first then shower. Just rub some cold water on my face, quick lather and go. A cold water rinse of the brush, shake it and load it. The badger brush with Proraso red cream works best, a close second is Mitchells Wool Fat soap and the Semogue boar. The Proraso has shea butter, the Mitchells has lanolin. Both seem to make a big difference. My skin seems tighter from the cold water, rather than warm and soft from the hot water, and this seems to make the shaving off of the whiskers go a lot easier. I jump into a hot shower right after shaving and apply a post shave balm after the shower. So much better than the hot face shave.
One pass is all it takes for my cheeks, lip and chin, a second pass on the neck, cold water rinse between passes. I keep my face lathered up during both passes even though I only shave my neck on the second pass, and then cover the face with whatever lather is left on the brush after I'm done shaving and leave it there while I clean up the shave stuff and get the shower ready. I think this keeping the face covered with the shea or lanolin cream is helping with any irritation, and the ensuing hot shower is softening the skin after the shave.
You hot shave guys might want to try it.
Thousands of threads in the shave forums about hot showers, hot towels, warm soaking the beard, warm lathering, blah blah blah. Hot wet prep before a shave and three Hail Marys.
No matter what soap, cream, blade, razor or method I employed, I got tugging on the whiskers and an irritated neck. Then I read a couple of oddball, scoffed at threads about cold water shaving and figured "They all hate it, I'll try it!".
Damned if it didn't work better. Whooda thunk it.
I have been doing it daily for a couple of weeks now, it's not a one time fluke. No preshave shower or prep of any kind, shave first then shower. Just rub some cold water on my face, quick lather and go. A cold water rinse of the brush, shake it and load it. The badger brush with Proraso red cream works best, a close second is Mitchells Wool Fat soap and the Semogue boar. The Proraso has shea butter, the Mitchells has lanolin. Both seem to make a big difference. My skin seems tighter from the cold water, rather than warm and soft from the hot water, and this seems to make the shaving off of the whiskers go a lot easier. I jump into a hot shower right after shaving and apply a post shave balm after the shower. So much better than the hot face shave.
One pass is all it takes for my cheeks, lip and chin, a second pass on the neck, cold water rinse between passes. I keep my face lathered up during both passes even though I only shave my neck on the second pass, and then cover the face with whatever lather is left on the brush after I'm done shaving and leave it there while I clean up the shave stuff and get the shower ready. I think this keeping the face covered with the shea or lanolin cream is helping with any irritation, and the ensuing hot shower is softening the skin after the shave.
You hot shave guys might want to try it.