A post by David (Smedley) brought to light a very important concept of the wetshave, and probably one of the most important for me (besides angle, and other basics) First thing in the A.M., our facial skin is swollen, so its best to allow your skin to "wake up" a little before shaving. But a good prep-job is of paramount importance to the perfect wetshave. When you prep your beard, be it with a hot shower and/or a hot towel, you do this in order to make the whiskers (1) swell with water and (2) expose the whisker from the skin. This obviously allows for a more efficient and effective mow-down. Why is this important and why am I bringing this up? The fact that the whisker is swollen and exposed means that when you shave, its O.K. to have slight stubble immediately after shaving as the whiskers will retract back into your skin.. So it is completely un-necessary and actually deleterious to make the goal of your shave total elimination of the complete whisker. After the shave, you'll most likely follow with cold water splash, maybe some witch hazel and/or a aftershave splash and/or balm - whatever it may be. This begins the process of the "retraction" of the whisker back into face. Depending on your skin type/beard growth/etc, the amount of time in which the "retraction" phase will last may vary. But you should find that within an hour at the most your skin is BBS.
You are correct. For the past 2 months of shaving with a DE razor again, I have noticed after using witch hazel and an after shave conditioner, my face smooths out nice. And it does take about an hour. Still have a couple of trouble spots, my problem. For me a after shave conditioner makes a big difference. And the DE with 3 passes makes for a great shave. I also use a pre-shave wash, which to me also helps. Oh, for after shave conditioner it nice being married to an Avon Lady. Paul
Excellent info Joe. ....you really are full of it !! :rofl Info , that is !! Thanks for sharing that.
I did? I mean, I did! Yes! Me! Sure! Yeah, it was an interesting observation. I've figured out now when to call it a shave now and expect the whisker to vanish an hour or so post-shave.
Point taken! Great post Joe! All these years I never paid attention if I was getting a BBS shave or not.... until I started reading these forums.... So in my eagerness to get that perfect BBS shave, I've gone just a hair too far on a few occasions - trying to get every last whisker trimmed down to nil. Of course, I paid the price afterwards. The most memorable over-zealous shave was the time I went for that fifth (or was it sixth?) pass on my neck with a Merkur slant loaded with a fresh Feather blade Had to give myself a three day break after that one. Not something I'll be trying again, that's for sure! - Rob P.S. Nice forum you have here!