Do you use hot or cold water?

I use a safety razor. I also shave in the shower. (Not that it should matter) A friend swears by dipping the blade in ice water. He says it contracts the blade and makes the edge sharper, and also causes the skin to draw tighter as the blade passes over, giving a better shave.
I used warm water all my life, but have been trying this lately. It does make sense and seems to give a closer shave. Your thoughts?

 

Many people do cold water shaves. I rinse with cold water (especially with Stirling Glacial soaps ) I really don't notice a difference. YMMV

 

Wash face with warm water.
Splash face with cold water inbetween passes.
Rinse face with cold water after shave.
Turn water off while shaving, and inbetween passes and splashes.

California is in a drought.
It's all about personal choice.

 

Hot water for mixing lather, hot water post shave, hot water rinse between passes, final rinse with cold water.

 

I usually shave post-shower.
Cold water-filled basin with the brush soaking in it. Cold water splash, lather, & Cold water rinse.
Here's a good article on the benefits of Cold Water shaving
This guy knows a bit about cold-watershaving…and other stuff,as well.

 

I've also heard about using a cold razor(dipped in ice water) giving a closer shave and for the exact same reasons as stated above.. Many people do their entire shave with cold water for the same reasons. I've shaved using all three water temps(HOT,WARM,COLD). For me I never found that much difference using either water temp in my shave.

While cold water shaving may actually have an advantage, from a personal comfort stand point I prefer shaving with my water in the VERY warm to hot range. While I do feel there is some validity to getting a close irritation free shave using cold water, I shave in the morning and usually find a cold water shave somewhat uncomfortable and since I usually get close(DFS+), irritation free shaves using warm and hot water, I find I prefer using those temps.

I think the BEST of all worlds would be using warm/hot water for making my lather and rinsing my face between passes, with cold water handy for dipping/rinsing my blade between passes. But IMO that's making my shave a little more involved and complicated than I want early in the morning.
My usual shaving routine is hot water for preshave(including hot towel), for shave and for rinsing off soap at the end of the shave, followed by a cold water rinse to tighten skin, then applying Nivea Post Shave Balm and AS splash of the day.

 

I used hot water for my wash
warm to soak my brush
hot to make lather
hot to rinse between passes
cold for final rinse

when I say hot,I use the hot water handle to get it. but it's on and off, on and off. other than my initial wash, it doesn't run long enough to get more than just warm.

 

That's what I do.

 

I shower with warm/hot water, but I use cold water for my shaves. We shall see how that works out this winter, but so far I am loving the cold water shaves.

 

You know after reading this post a few times including HolyRolla's piece on the benefits of "Cold Water Shaving". I might just try using unheated tap water for my shaves this week.

Addendum:
Well I used basically lukewarm water for every shave all this week(10/13-10/17). I filled the sink about 1/4 full with hot tap water and let my brush(just the bristles), face towel and lather bowl soak while I took my shower.
Before my shave I'd fill the sink the rest of the way with whatever warm water was left in the tap on the hot side of the sink. So basically I shaved and rinsed my razor in lukewarm water. I didn't find much if any difference in my shave quality(closeness and lack of irritation) over my usual hot water shave. Although the lukewarm shave was a little quicker, because of not needing to wait for the water to heat up.
That said the over all shave was neither as nice or comfortable as my usual hot water shave.

My conclusion if it's ever possible I'm going to install an instant water heater under my vanity in my bathroom. That would be perfect "instant" hot water to soak my brush, then lather, shave and rinse my face with and a bowl of cold tap water(possibly with a couple of cubes of ice in it) for rinsing my razor off in.

 

Hot water to start but it's probably just warmish by the time I finish.
I fill the sink before taking my shower and let everything soak while I'm in the shower, then I empty and refill the sink with hot water again to shave. The number of passes determines the water temperature for the final rinse.
I suppose if I lived in the tropics a cold water shave might appeal to me but I like shaving with hot/warm water even in the summertime.

 

Cool-warm to wash my face and make lather. Never hot.
Same for rinse after shaving.
A bit more toward cold water in warm weather, and a bit more toward the warm side in cool weather.

 

Oh yeah I forgot, hot water for my lather.

 

Nope neither Not Cold Not Warm HOT really freaking hot measured at the tap at 145 ..

So hot it almost burns the fingers when I wring the washcloth..

The cold water rinse at the end however is just the opposite, ICE cold

 

This….if I dont take a shower before I shave. Near-scalding hot washcloth on the face before lathering...

 

Very good read. Think I will use cold water for a while to see how it goes. I think I try it once but can't remember what happened.

 

Hot water for everything.

 

Just to clarify, I'm talking about using hot water on my face- I just dip the shaver into ice water between passes.

 

Hot water for everything year round. I have tried cold water and it didn't seem to make any difference.

 

Have tried cold tap water, Luke warm, and hot from tap. I've found I prefer hot water (not near scalding) for everything except final cold water rinse.