Cold Water Shaving

I have been CWS for over a year now, having tried and found i like it. Yes, the cold water here in Singapore is not as cold as cold water back home in Europe but, unless it is deepest winter in the North of Finland, I do shave with cold water there as well. I just like the (very) refreshing feel. Exception being during deepest winter in afore-mentioned destination or similar, which is when I might choose to shave in the Sauna...

 

Just so it's not warm, probably. I'm new at this, but the colder the better for me. I haven't tried Wisconsin cold water though. I saw some YouTube video where a guy puts ice cubes in water and puts in a liquid soap and lathers from that, I think. I read someone's thread on some forum where they used cold water and rubbed their face with ice cubes as well.

 

Lindy are you sure your not part Klingon?.

 

I am a Southerner who lived through two Wisconsin winters with a girlfriend and had a moustache at the time, that froze when walking outside. I didn't try the cold water shaving then. It's just my lastest craze. It feels great, like extra menthol.

 

I read that on the OG CWS thread over at B&B. Seems like people like to go to extremes over there.

"Cold water works well? I bet liquid nitrogen would be even better" he said without even trying the cold water first.

 

Yup, liquid nitrogen works great! just blast your face with it, then run the edge of your credit card, or some similar object, across your face... whiskers, skin, etc. just fall away. No need to even shave.

 

I use those cans of compressed air, turned upside down instead of preshave oil.

 

Cools any razor burn instantly...

 

Warm water softens the skin which then pushes the stubble out so that it can be cut more thorougly whereas cold water makes the skin taut and the stubble contract. I doubt anybody can get a closer shave with cold water. You might get a comfortable shave but not a closer shave. I tried it once and it didn't work for me. Looks like one of those urban myths just like people claiming to get great shaves without any lubricants. There is a reason why people prefer warm water shaving: It's been working for centuries. Besides, with cold water the stubble is too stiff and hard for any blade. How come longer stubble is easier to shave? Because it is softer and less stiff than short stubble. So this disproves the theory that cold water and stiff stubble shaves more effortlessly. Stubble has to be soft and not stiff because the stiffness also gives it a hard surface that is harder to cut. What makes people believe a hard surface cuts more easily? That's absurd. A banana cuts more easily than a coconut. Human skin cuts more easily than an elephant's. And the warmer the stubble is the softer it is and the softer it is the more easily it cuts. Quite simple, really. Hope that helped.

 

I have read plenty of old books about shaving that use cold water shaving. I've read posts from many people in forums in the USA and England who do cold water shaving and get good results. And I can say from my month of cold water shaving is that it works better for me than the hot water method. I get BBS with 2 passes and no irritation every time now with the cold water method.

I know the theory about warm water softening and making the hairs rise and such and can't give you a theory back about why cold water would work. All I can say is that it does. I'm not stopping you from doing it your way. But it is not the only way. I have my own personal results that prove to me cold water shaving works.

 

Go to http://www.theshavingroom.co.uk and search on cold water shaving in titles. You will find an archived PDF of an old book about cold water shaving. I tried to copy it for here and couldn't get it to upload properly. Also, you can see for yourself, posts of many people who have use the cold water method and swear by it.

To me, saying you can do only warm water methods to get the best results or correct results is like saying there is only one razor or one brush, etc. that is the proper one for the proper shave. The motto at TSD and other forums is YMMV (Your Mileage May Vary) and I say this IMHO (In My Humble Opinion).

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No matter what the norm is, there are always gonna be some people going against it. Sure, there may be some people going on about the virtues of CWS but that doesn't change the fact that for 90% it doesn't work. Just like there are people claiming to get better shaves out of an e-shaver.

 

You can't say that it doesn't work for 90% of the people. 90% or more people probably haven't tried it. You could do a scientific experiment and have people try both ways and have them fill out a subjective form and then have someone else feel their faces to get some "facts". Take some closeup facial photos and such. That's the kind of thing Gillette and Schick still do in their research. I saw a video showing how they research their next razor. There, too, everyone tends to shave a bit differently.

You have to try it first. It's not claims. It's people's direct experiences, as with anything else we talk about in these forums from splashes to soaps and brushes, etc.. I don't understand why that should bother you. Whatever you may say about norms and what doesn't work for others (if they've even tried it), doesn't mean that it doesn't work for some people. What's wrong with that?

Please do not discount other people who differ with your experience or opinion.

 

I've read the whole thread, and I have found it to be interesting. First, comparing our whiskers to spaghetti is much more accurate than a wet lawn and lawn mower. Spaghetti noodles become much limper and easier to sever with a keen edge, but if you were to try to "cut" it with a relatively blunt object, like the handle of a fork, you would find a hard piece of pasta easier to accomplish this than a limp piece. You see, mowing a lawn is brutal compared to cutting something with a sharp knife or razor. It relies on relatively dull blades going at a very high rate of speed to cut the grass. If you've ever noticed the ends of cut grass, they are relatively rough compared to the very fine cuts made by razors. Standing up verses laying over is not really evaluating the ability to sever something easier, as reasonable as that seems. With the mower discussed, the height is preset. When the lawn is wet, the grass lays over, so it's not cut as easily, but that isn't a good comparison because with shaving we're not cutting hair at some arbitrary level above the skin. We have the razor on the skin. I would venture a guess that if you were tasked with completely clearing a lawn of all grass, you would likely prefer the ground/grass be moist to make it easier.

According to Gillette's research lab, the human whisker is comparable in strength to copper wire. When wet, it softens, becoming much easier to cut. However, there is grease (or sebum) on the skin that prevents the hair from absorbing water easily. Heat melts that, making it easier to absorb the water. When it absorbs water, the cells expand, and reduce the force needed to cut each one. Cold water gets in, but not as easily as hot water. Additionally, hot water opens the pores and pushes the whiskers out. If you get the water hot enough (which isn't that hot, by the way), it will be able to kill bacteria that can cause irritation.

Interestingly enough, I shave with cold water primarily because when I shave with hot water, I enjoy it more, I do get irritation more frequently than when I do with cold water. I hypothesize that it is because when I shave with hot water, I shave more closely than I ought to. You see, I habitually pursue BBS, and what I have found is that when I shave with hot water, I can not be BBS when I stop, but I will be after the cold water splash closes pores and retracts the whiskers. When I aggressively chase that BBS to the touch (in a hot shave), I frequently end up with hair cut below the surface and end up with irritation and ingrown hairs. When I shave with cold/room temperature water, I can aggressively chase BBS shaves and not have those nagging problems. Thus, I end up enjoying my shaves more.

A trade off is that I may potentially have to hone more than those who consistently enjoy a hot water shave.... I haven't done a thorough evaluation of that to track it. But, if I'm not absorbing as much water preshave as those who use hot water, and I suspect I'm not, it is reasonable to assume that shaving my beard is harder on a blade than it otherwise could be. Both ways work, and there are good arguments for both. One thing I will say, though, is that old barber books are not always as authoritative as we sometimes want them to be. We learn new things all the time. Soaps are more about lubrication than anything else. I have started using a product called Old Post Road #4, and my shaves have been excellent. This has convinced me more than anything else that hair standing and cushion are far less important for me than lubrication is. Whether the whiskers are standing up or not is not really at issue here unless you are sporting very long whiskers. The shortness of the the whiskers we typically cut will not allow for the laying over effect illustrated earlier in the lawn mower example.

These are my observations: both ways work, and they have considerations to take into account. At the end of the day, it is best to enjoy your shave your way and not let anyone bug you about it

 

"Besides, with cold water the stubble is too stiff and hard for any blade."

I guess that gentleman by the name of Benjamin Franklin must not have received that piece of information it is too hard for any blade.

http://sharpologist.com/2012/03/cold-water-shaving-2.html

You seem to be a fountain of one liners of scatter shot information on shaving. You will find that blades work just fine with hair under hot or cold water.

I do not shave with cold water, because I prefer warm water nothing more.

I tried cold water shaving and it had no effect on blades or their live spans since any variation would be too insignificant for the user to notice.

We are not speaking of temperature tolerances to throw the blade out of specification and many people shave just fine with cold water.

A little side note, most people did not have the luxury of easily accessible warm water in the turn of the last century (1900s), so King Gillette when he started his little venture of making DE razors, had to prove to people that they could shave themselves with cold water in order to sell the razors and blades.

 

I whole-heartedly agree with your post, Richmondesi. I think it's about the lubrication. I still use Prep pre-shave or The Art of Shaving Pre-shave oil along with the cold water. I do wash my face with Musgo Real Lime Glyce soap first. I was having lots of razor burn due to technique and doing too many passes with aggressive razors, when I first started this adventure 3 or 4 months ago, starting with warm water. I read several posts on various forums that really got me interested in trying the cold water way.

I really got less irritation with cold water from the start and a much better and closer shave that lasted longer, in my opinion, than I was getting with the warm/hot water with more passes. I can even get good lather with cold water, except for with tallow-based soft soaps.

Talking about people doing things differently, I saw a video of a guy shaving with shards of obsidian and his lather was getting pretty dried out as he was talking. I'm not suggesting that anyone try that method.

 

G.D., thanks for the Sharpogolist article. Old Ben was on the money with that one. Also, the writer mentions blades lasting longer with cold water. Indeed, they have for me, as well.

That article also refers to this article:
http://artofmanliness.com/2010/03/24/cold-water-shaving/ .

 

Thanks, Gary. Saved me the typing. I can't understand why folks can't wrap their heads around the simple fact that stiff, brittle objects are easier to cut. Shave how you want, but science is science.

 

Seriously, I tried CWS and it doesn't yield the same close shave. It seems to me that there are always gonna be some odd ones out going against the mainstream. Yes, you can shave with cold water, but it does not yield the same results as WWS. If it works for you, fine. But don't pretend that 90% of people are too dumb to figure it out. And no, hard stiff stubble do not cut as easily. Does cold butter cut more easily than warm butter? How anybody can say that stiff surfaces cut more easily is beyond me. Long, soft stubble cuts more easily than short and stiff stubble. THIS is science. End of the story.

 

Randy, the reason they cannot get their minds around it is because it's simply not true under every circumstance.

Get an uncooked piece of pasta, and compare the ease of cutting it with a cooked piece (cut using a sharp knife). There's no comparison. However, if you hold the pasta upright and swing something more blunt, like a butter knife at it at a relatively high speed, you will find that the stiff brittle piece is easier to cut (actually, you will find that it breaks rather than making a nice smooth cut) than the soft, limp piece. So, which is more analogous to shaving? If you use an electric, then the stiff, high rate of speed example is better fitting. If you use a slow moving, very sharp razor, you will find that soft piece of pasta a better example of what is going on. I actually explained, briefly, the actual science of what is going on earlier.

Seriously, try my little experiment, and report back. In fact, I just did it, and the results are very clear.

To Gary's post. The guy posting that article made a lot of statements without citations, which is fine, obviously. However, when a guy is going to be writing a piece on "authority" the way he did, he simply cannot be getting things so wrong as to make people think he's a complete idiot (eg, the youtube video of a guy in "England" shaving with ice water when the guy in the video said he was in the southern hemisphere...hmmm. This is especially egregious considering a cursory glance at the gent's website, www.shavingsaving.com, clearly states he is in South Africa). Not to mention the fact that the guy in the video made the point that it would have been easier with warm water. He was demonstrating his product superiority, not cold water benefits...

Also, if you do a google search on the quote attributed to Benjamin Franklin (in quotes), you will find exactly 3 results, all of which go to the same article or teaser for the article on Sharpologist. I have looked in various other forms, but have not been able to find the same quote. I have seen statements about how you can shave with cold as easily as warm water, but not anything remotely purporting to tout the virtues of cold water shaving in the way suggested in that piece. I'm not saying it cannot be found, and that Benjamin Franklin did not say that, definitively, but I am saying the research done on that piece was undocumented and lazy.

I'm not sure about the sharpness angle on the piece either. I suspect that the temperatures reached on the molecular level of the razor are not enough to make a marked difference. I would also say that the science behind the verifiable fact that softer whiskers are easier to cut should be considered in thinking about the edge retention here. Besides, I do not run my razor under hot water, never have. In fact, the only time my razor gets wet is when rinsing it. So, yeah, I'm going to call bollocks on his claim there, too.