ditto

Hey folks,

I'll be giving the OCM a shot as well, and I'll post results.

That's too bad

If I use cheap industrial soap I have the same issues but since I started to use superfatted (mostly homemade) soaps my dryness-issues are gone completely.

OCM: Day 3 report

Hello Folks,

Here’s my Day 3 report on using the OCM as described by Fritz.

Background/Goals – I have my Irish/German Granddads face. On Granddads’ wedding day, not so many days after V-J Day, he went to a barber in his neighborhood in Staten Island, N.Y. to get a shave. The shave was great, but by the end the barber was visibly sweating from concentration and effort. The barber looked to Granddad and said “Murphy, never ask me to do that again. You’ve got a beard like steel wool and a face like a baby’s behind.”

Somehow, Granddad has managed to keep his face well shaved and ship shape to this very day. Myself with all the ‘modern advantages’ at my disposal have not had the same experience which is how I found myself on a fine site like this. My goals simple, and therefore complex to accomplish. I want a clean classic 1950’s shave. I want to clear up my skin; which means both clearing up dry spots and clearing out blackheads that took up residence on my nose 15 years ago and have remained despite whatever chemical warfare I waged against them. I’d also like to shrink my pores to a point that I no longer seem to imitate W.C. Fields.

The Tools & The Method Utilized.
1) Hot water splashed on the face at the sink, then Noxema generously applied.

2) Into the shower, cleaning my face last with a glycerin soap and a washcloth.

3) To the sink again to apply the Fritz OCM mix (2 parts EVOO, 2 parts Castor, 1 part Glycerin). Massage into face, taking some time to listen to the Marketplace report on NPR. A good minute spent really getting the blood to the skin and the oil moved about.

4) Hot facecloth, rung out slightly and applied for 2 min, re-heating as needed.

5) Rinse out the facecloth, and scrub off the oil. I do not use soap at this stage as I intend for the oils to be my “moisturizer” for the day. I am careful to scrub WTG or XTC, but never ATG. No need to irritate the hair follicles before I even begin to shave.

6) Apply C.O. Bigelow Elixir Black pre-shave oil.

7) Lather up with Proraso.

8) Shave for now with cartridge while I eagerly await my sampler pack of blades for my e-bay won Merkur. Wipe off excess lather with warm cloth.

9) Apply alcohol free Witch Hazel (I think Harrisons? It has a nice mild citrus smell.)

10) Cold water to close the pores.


Results- Skin does have a nice healthy glow. I am not pumping out replacement oil and thus developing oil slicks the way I was previously. My skin is good and tight, which I can feel through the day, yet it is not dry to the touch.

I noticed some itchiness this morning, day 3, a good 10 min after I’d dried off and had breakfast. I applied some Body Shop Tea Tree Moisturizer, which addressed the worst of it. Now I am considering altering the mix to see if the itchiness goes away. I am planning on adding more EVOO to the mix, as I am not sure it is the Castor or the Glycerin that causes the mild itch. There is no evidence of rash or redness.

Will report back in later. Happy shaving!

Congratulations on your success!

My prep is a lot less extensive than that. Basically I just put the oil mixture on at the beginning of my shower (massaged liberally into my face and beard), then I rinse it off at the end of my shower spending a good minute or two massaging my beard under warm running water.

I had thought about getting the Lucky Tiger Face Cleanser and using it (as described as a variant to Fritz's method), too, but didn't want to pay just as much in shipping as it cost (essentially doubling the price) and I have yet to find it locally. I guess I could get some Noxema...

I've also tried the hot towels both in and out of the shower, and also used to steam my face with some lather on it. It was taking so long, and really I haven't noticed too much of a difference. Maybe I need to revisit some of those methods to compare again....

I use an 80% EVOO (actually currently Jojoba oil) 20% Castor oil mixture. I tried a mixture with glycerin in it, but I think it actually worsened my results by softening my skin too much making it susceptible to razor burn easier.

You may want to adjust your mixture to get a higher percentage of the EVOO, or a lower percentage of the Castor oil. I find when I move closer to 50/50 it becomes very drying and I might as well use soap. Once winter ends and the humidity returns, I'll adjust my mixture accordingly.

Thanks for the update. Keep us posted.

Hello Folks,

Following Truckman's fine advice I've upped the EVOO in the mix. The mixture is now more like 4 parts EVOO, 2 parts Castor, 1 part Glycerin.

After about 3 days of use, my skin is recoverd from dry and tight to clean and hydrated. My blackheads, stubborn entrenched enemies that they are, are also clearing up slowly. Some of those pores have been clogged for so long that they are cleared out, I have small indentations....I'm hoping that will heal and close up if I keep up with the method.

Will post again after a good week's usage to update on results now that the balance seams correct.

Awesome! :happy088

Well, it's been a good week of this mix. I missed a few days due to emergency travel, so I gave it a few days more to make sure of the effect of the mix.

The result....time to tinker again.

I developed whiteheads; one or two big ones. That only happens to be if I'm out summer camping in hot weather without access to a proper water source to wash up.

Assumption: Now I have to little Castor and Glycerin in the mix.

Notes: when I fixed the mix last time I did so by adding more oil to the remaining batch. In retrospect, a very unscientific thing to do.

New Mix: 3 parts EVOO, 2 parts Castor, 1/2 measure Glycerin.

Methodology: Oil cleansing whilst in the shower, using hot towel to open pores and cleaning oil of with Noxema as a last step before shaving.

Using Pre-shave oil to replace facial oils in beard area before shave.

Notes again after about a week!

Cheers Gents!

not to discourage you, but my understanding, and in fact what I've been doing, is moved completely away from facial cleaners altogether...plain soap, face scrubs, etc, no more touch my face (shave soap/cream excepted). It kinda defeats the purpose. Immediately after doing OCM your face will and should still feel a little oily, most of which will absorb and go away to being natural in a short while.
Again, not trying to discourage or change your mind, just found that curious and contrary to my understanding of how OCM works.

I'm currently toying with the idea of making a CO and OO mix with added lavender or orange EO for pre-shave and OCM, and then making a shaving soap out of the same oils with added coconut butter. Should be interesting.

I've got to +1 Jim on this...

Especially with this...

However, I think he's trying to combine the OCM with the "Super Prep" that Mottern Man linked in the 2nd post...

Personally, I've tried different preps, and found what I like the best is also the easiest:
1. apply OCM oil early in the shower, let soak in, rinsing face off last.
2. allow warm water to run over face while massaging water into beard with fingers/hand for about a minute or two.
3. do not dry face when toweling off, go to sink, re-wet face, start making lather, apply a little "pre-lather", finish making lather, get everything else set, rinse "pre-lather" off, lather for shave, shave.

I've tried the hot towels in various forms, I've even tried steaming. And while they all helped some, I didn't feel the result was worth the effort.

IMO, YMMV, burnWood, Yada yada, etc...

I'd like to know how the soap turns out. I've toyed with the idea of trying to make my own....

I haven't tried OCM yet, but I'm really thinking about it.
From my perspective, the genius behind OCM is the use of pure, clean oils to replace dirty oils in the skin. I really must take my hat off to whoever it was that figured this out, because the more I think about it the more it seems to make sense.

In the science community we have a saying, "Like dissolves like." What this means is that you can dissolve an oil in an oil - remember that old Tide commercial... "protein fights protein!" When you use OCM you are basically diluting the dirty oils that cause blemishes in clean oil that is free of toxins. The idea is not to eliminate the oils from the skin, but to replace dirty oil with clean oil. Oils protect the skin from environmental toxins that we encounter every day. In my office we took readings on environmental particles (measured in microns) and we came up with 4000 particles per cubic meter. Outdoors that figure should be about 3 times higher. Our skin comes in contact with particles like that every day, and the oils in our skin trap those particles and protect our skin from them and help the skin retain its moisture and elasticity.

So, OCM isn't about removing the oil, its literally about giving your skin an oil change. I'm going to try this too. I think its brilliant.

Well put. The "Zen of OCM."

It really does make sense. Good luck with it and keep us informed...

:happy088 you got it!

Hi Folks,

Well I didn't do what I said I was going to do and it looks like that was the correct thought. Now I did do this: Shower, noxema, oil, shave.

I think what scares me is there is no assurance I am moving the "dirty" oil off my face so much as moving it from place to place, even with rinseing and/or using a clean face cloth to remove the excess. Now my fears are to tested or even remotely "Scienticious", but that's the thought in my head.

Am I barking up the wrong tree?

Remember the Zen of the Oil...

Seriously though, and I don't have any proof except my own face, but I have not seen anything but improvement not using any cleanser to remove the oil. All I do is rinse my face under the shower head while lightly rubbing my face with my fingers until I feel like the bulk of the oil is gone. I don't even use a cloth to wipe away or otherwise "soak" up the remaining oil.

The cool thing is, you can try it for a few days or a week, and if you don't like it or decided it isn't for you, so be it.

Release your fears. Plus, with the scrubbing of the brush and the shaving soap or cream, and the exfolitation that occurs from actually shaving, I think all the other bases are covered. As far as my nose and forehead, the so-called "T-zone," I have not had any problems, and only improvement.

HTH

:sihns011

made a new batch of OCM oil last night...

about 8 drops of tea tree oil
about 10 drops lemon EO
about 5 drops peppermint EO
~60-70% castor oil
~30-25% jojoba oil
topped off with almond oil

showered last night, did my method:
hot water towel on face while getting hair wet
1st oil application
wash & rinse hair (no repeat )
2nd oil app
wash body
hot towel to face til cool, 2X

got out, prepped to shave face still felt a little oily (good thing)
by time finished shave, face felt dry (oh noez!)
tempted to use some CHL, but wanted wanted to wait it out and see if I had too much castor oil in mix
by the time I hit the sack, face felt back to normal...maybe hot environment from shaving mucked it up temporarily
anyway, just felt face and thought about it, feels pretty darn good.
wish I had done exact measurement with the oils, just basically eye-balled it. I still think after a couple more uses, if it still seems too drying I'll add some more almond, jojoba, grapeseed, or olive oil, or maybe glycerin (oops, I forgot to mention about 10 drops of that in this mix).
my last batch I added liquid lanolin...didn't like it, but I did think of another use for it last night, and I'll post the idea with results later

as for this batch, the peppermint added a nice, subtle cooling effect, but not overpowering; very pleasant lemon scent, one of my best batches yet, I think, except for that overdry feeling that I hope was a fluke moment.

the exact same thing happend to me this morning!
Are you in the North East U.S?*Edit, Nevermind I just peeked at your profile. Have I ever told you I love Texans? They are amazingly good luck to have at a craps table!*

I wonder if the change in weather could have had an effect. In other news, I am back to the Zen of OCM, using Truckman's application-then-shower method.

Results:
- overall good experience
- pores on my nose have remained clean, but have not closed up very well. Thinking of slight bump in the amount of castor next batch.
- Researching EO supplies (Smelling like good itallian food is confusing first thing in the a.m. )

Notes:
- Due to a 19 hour scedule missed showering/shaving one day and developed whiteheads over night. Might have had more to do with stress.

Keep up the posts gents! Your experiment reports are very helpful!