I enjoy the prep; hot shower, hot water and massage with pso, and thick lather. I’m in my sixties, and it’s about high time I start pampering myself and enjoying all aspects of my shave experience. Especially since I missed out for the majority of my life
I like a hot tap water beard soak with washcloth for a minute or two, even after my shower. A nice lather and my beard is well hydrated.
Yeee Hah, Whew Boy... Set em straight thar 'old fella'. Just because we're older n' dirt, don't mean we gotta be dirtier n' dirt too.
I shower first, hydrate, and add a thin coating of Noxema, then I lather over the top of it all. Great comfortable shaves. I've been shaving for 54 years. Started with a Gillette slim adjustable. Sensitive skin and tough beard. Went to from mug and brush to canned shave creams and disposables and then a Fusion. Back into DEs and using a Gillette New or an Aristocrat that I found in a junk store.
I'm right there with you, I make my shower. and then the hot towel, fixing the soap and brush nice a warm and enjoy the shave. It's like a Ritual.
I think prep is certainly an important element to many things. For instance, in cooking, you have to prep properly or else your dish will be a mess. Same with shaving. I always shave after a hot shower where I wash my face well. And while I don't know for sure if it does anything, I still apply some pre-shave oil before moving on to lathering. But the hot shower is the key for me. And then during the shave it's all about those cold water rinses between passes. Water, water, water.
This is my routine and seems to work very well for me ! Preshave is a grey area for some and I believe it can help the person shaving get a even better shave and the skin feeling great. It has taken me a while to find the right products and procedure to attain the desired results. This little procedure will give you excellent results and tweek it to your liking or don't use it at all! Aloe Vera Gel is one of the best natural moisturizes for hair and skin know to man, moistened whiskers means easier slicing for razor blade edge & there by reducing irritation and other undesirables . This will improve your shave to a more closer one in a Low humidity winter place especially or any environment if you are not having daily showers. 1- wet the face with water and let it stay on wet. 2- brush the teeth (2 minutes) 2.5- Shave Brush wash my face with CeraVe hand bar soap to prep the face seems also to hydrate the face. I find it works well for my face skin in the eye area.(prevents dry eye?) 3-wet face-put a hot or warm wet face cloth on the beard for 30-40 seconds and do it again for 30-40 seconds.(That is relaxing) update -this is my optional step now. 4- wet the face with water again. 5- put some clear Aloe vera Gel ($ quarter Size)on the balm of your hands and rube it on the beard area.(this hydrates the beard to maximum)>(I bought this Aloe Vera Gel at Walmart) 6- leave the aloe on the beard while mixing up the lather to let the hair follicles soak it up for optimum results. 7- Put the Shave lather(Tabac-Arko....) right over the Aloe and shave with a rinsed warm wet razor! (I was applying the Aloe Gel on 1st stepand its not as effective-apply on the 5th step for better results IMO) NOTE: if you just had a shower just apply the aloe vera gel over beard area and then mix lather and brush right over the beard and you should have one of your best shaves with good post shave results. This sequence of steps have given me excellent results in a cold dry climate like Northern Canada, it will work in any climate. Worth trying if you are not getting the good results with same shaving equipment in the summer months when humidity is higher-adds a few minutes to the shave if time is available. Check your humidity gauge if you have one Aloe has been a known for centuries as a healing agent for burns, minor cuts and moisturizer of skin and hair, heck even the cartridge manufactures have a Aloe moisturizer wear strips on their latest generation of blades. Its my new pre-shave holy grail, you can add a little oil to this to do trials and I have used Nivea natural Argan & joba oils body lotion. The skin just loves it with just a straight application of Aloe vera gel and I'm getting excellent close shaves with good skin tone. This clear Aloe Vera gel was hard to find, the Pharmacist asked me what I was searching for , he found it in the essential natural oils area not in the maze of body lotions at our local Walmart. Ask if you can not find it there, just a great product. I have been using different brands of Aloe Vera gel for my hair(dry hair problems) also over the last 20 years and it moisturizes my hair my greatly. Lots of folks are not sold on Pre-shave products because they shower every day and hydrate the beard whiskers some what and when they apply the pre-shave they do not notice much change IMO. For people who do not shower daily it will help soften the beard whiskers for the razor edge to slice them if a pre-shave product are used-law of physics "softer is easier to slice". Have some great shaves!
Shaving After Shower! would make it easier! anyways I also experience less hydrated shaving it is awful!
I take a hot shower before shaving. During my shower I rub some Head & Shoulders shampoo/conditioner into my stubble vigorously; then let the shampoo sit on my face during my shower. Then rinse it off before I’m finished in the shower. Next I re-wet my face with warm/hot water; then proceed to get started with my lather and shave. After each pass, I reapply warm/hot water on my face before re-lathering. This method seems to serve me well.
For Me-I splash water, hot or cold depending on the season , lather up and go for it; with consistently excellent results. I shave before a shower (cause that’s what I want to do) . I shave at night 95% of the time. And the natural oils on my face do more for me than a shower( from experience). The biggest thing related to prep that lends something to my result is face lathering. If I face lather...excellent result, if I don’t...it’s a coin toss. I do prefer a wet lather.
33+ years of uncomfortable cart shaving. almost 3 using vintage gillettes..and cold shaves, hot towels , preshaves .great soaps croaps and creams..and brushes... enjoyed it all so far..try different things ...technique trumps tools , the rest is fun...
We each have our own method of shaving. Once a technique is perfected, there is not too many ways of shaving that is wrong. there are too many variables to distinguish what is really the wrong way to shave. My method is, first make my lather, by first soaking brush in warm water, if hard soap I'll add water to it. Shake off brush, start building my lather on my soap that's in my bowl, add water as needed. A pre-shave of a hot tap water face soak with washcloth for at least a minute (similar to a barbershop hot towel wrap) Start lathering on face finishing to a density that I like. Then start shaving ATG, mostly short strokes, hot water rinse, relather shave ATG, with wet fingers do touch up. Rinse face, dry, Aftershave. Usually a BBS. I've been shaving this way for nearly 60 years, many find shaving ATG start to finish is irritating but I feel great after my shave. Is my way of shaving wrong? For me it's definitely not, my face feels great after my shave. For others it might be the wrong way. Shaving is personal, weather you shave with a bathroom full of all kinds of soaps, razors, blades etc. for that 1 hour shave or just 1 of each in the Med. cabinet for that 10 min. shave, it's all personal
I read a post recently about trying cold water and this has actually worked better for my. I have much less irritation with cold water that with warm or hot water. I usually shave after showering and that still gives me the best results, but I can get a reasonable shave with cold water, oil and shave cream alone.
Those hot towel shaves were great when I lived in NYC years ago, but the ones that the barber wrapped around my face were steamed towels, I'd think hot damp or wet towels hydrate very well too. I use a hot tap water washcloth beard soak for about a 1/2 min. to hydrate.
Prep is very important. No argument there. But when I started down this path, after decades of cart shaving, the hardest thing for me to do was to... Take my time! Oh I prepared just fine, I did an great job of that. But I always fell back into the cart shaving way. Once I broke myself of that, things got going much better. Unlearning the bad habits was what I had the most difficulty with. Technique trumps tools. tp
I'm still a devout tub shaver. I soak my beard underwater, then lather up with a vigorous circular motion hitherto unknown to all but the initiates of the UMRK.
I always shave after a long hot shower. Doesn't get any better than that. Sent from my LM-Q720 using Tapatalk