Since I've taken up learning the straights I've been watching alot of videos and have noticed that in all of them no one rinses and wets their faces between passes. They just lather up after each one while I like to get my face nice and wet each time. I'm curious as to what my fellow brothers and sisters here do.
I rinse, but only because that is how I learned to do it when I started. If I did not rinse, the counter would be a whole lot drier at the end of my shave! I look like an octopus having a seizure when I am shaving and rinsing. The clean-up post shave takes almost as long as the shave!
Sometimes yes, sometimes no, but always before my last pass. If I have my lather perfect or just slightly too wet, then no, I don't rinse between passes. If my lather is just a touch on the dry side, then I rinse between passes leaving my face wet, and incorporate the extra water into my lather bringing it up to the moisture level I seek. But in either of the above situations I will do a rinse before what may be the last pass, if my lather is too wet I will pat my face dry, that way I can feel for any rough spots that I may have missed.
When I first started with multiple passes, I would wet my face before each lather. Then, for some reason, I stopped. I went like that for about a year or so, then one day I wet my face before each pass. That's when I realized why it's called WET shaving. Just made the shave a bit smoother. Now I wet my face before every pass.
Hmmm, I never wet my face in between. I think Steve's post made me think I am going to try. Nothing wrong with some extra smooth. Now if I can only remember to do so.
I thought the proper way to wetshave is to wet your face between passes. I learned on the forums that water is one of the most important parts of the shave , the more of it on the skin the better. For me if I don't wet my face between passe my skin doesn't feel as slick and moist and the lather seems drier. I think in the straight videos they are just avoiding wetting their face for the sake of making a video that has continuity as opposed to stopping to wet the face, getting their shirt wet, and trying to demonstrate something without worrying about all the water running down their face.
I could've just stopped because I found it to be an extra step that I could live without. I remember back in the "OMG I'm shaving ol'skool, what do I do to do this without cutting off my head?" phase, I did it but somewhere in between I stopped. Kinda like my XTG passes. I'm going to give it a shot today and see....I know its been at least a year, maybe more.
I wouldn't really call it rinsing, but I do introduce a little more water. It helps keep the lather at the correct consistency and also lets me size up the first pass.
I rinse between each pass. I definitely feel like it helps the razor glide, but I also hear what Bill was saying about how moist your lather already is and if it is on the wet side then you rinse and leave your face wet, you could end up with your lather on your face being too wet.
I always wet my face between passes, and always have. Not sure why and never really thought about it. It seems to work, though.
Generally yes a rinse between each pass, mainly because it's my head, and I need to see if I nicked the one lump on my head I get every now and then. Thank god for a styptic pen
