Thread: Cold water shaving...

I'm guessing this is fasicious, but in the summer I sometimes do a post shave ice rub on my face. Lovely.

I rinse my face with cold water before the shave and in between passes, but I'm finding it difficult to build lather with cold water. Maybe it's a technique thing, I don't know, but I have an easier time making lather with hot water.

I have found that using cold water on my face has drastically cut down on nicks and irritation.

I prep with warm water (not hot). Then I use cool water to rinse off my razor while shaving and for post shave clean up. I've had no reduction in the quality of shaves but a huge improvement in skin conditioning and overall comfort.

Originally Posted by billyc4362

..... but I'm finding it difficult to build lather with cold water.
......

I found cold water slower to lather and harder to pick up soap from the puck.
.
When I switch soap I tend to go with my boar brush as it gets
at the soap better than a soft brush. i guess I could splash
half a teaspoon on the top of the dry puck the night before.

So just practice.... too much water, too little, too much soap,
too little, Add all at once add in dribbles.... It is all good.

Originally Posted by TaipeiJake

I'm guessing this is fasicious, but in the summer I sometimes do a post shave ice rub on my face. Lovely.

I wasnt being, but I don't know about anyone else.
I think I have said this elsewhere so sorry if u am boring anyone but here is my shave:
Shower (hot),
Dry off,
Get my bowl which always has soap in it,
Add a little water (bottled), shaving cream and glycerin,
Use a dry brush to mix,
Apply to face,
Shave,
Use a damp cloth to wipe lather from razor,
Use same cloth to wipe face (after rinsing blade lather out),
Put excess lather from brush back into bowl,
Rinse brush,
Strop razor,
Aftershave.
I now simply store all my soapy stuff and bottled water in the fridge as an addition to this routine.

When I first started shaving with a DE at 16, I was taught by my Grand Father and Great-Grand Father, cold water was the way I learned. They learned from their Father and so on and so on, That was over 35 years ago. I stuck to that religiously only deviating for a few months when I first started straight razor shaving because hot water was all the rage. For me some of the worse shaves I've experienced have been with hot water. I have since returned to the way I was taught and shave with cold water.

I am not sure if hot water shaving is a recent development but a great deal of old time shaving literature discusses the benefits of cold water shaving be gentler on your face. And I don't recall any of the Patriarchs in my family shaving with hot water.

As a noob I expected irritation. After switching to cold water even at the first shave much of that irritation disappeared. And you save all that extra towel/prep time too

I don't claim to have invented this - it comes from "the wisdom"

For the harder soaps I flood the container with cool/cold water well in advance.
I them pour that soapy water off in an old mug, and use it to build up the lather.

I suspect that this "tunes" the water to the correct ph (the smart guys will chime in) but the results have been great not only at home but any location I travel to.

You can use this to face or bowl lather.

I do not do this with MdC, just soak the Boar brush in cool/cold water in advance.

Smooth Shaving

I am going to have to give this cold shaving a try... I just remember some really crappy shaves from back in the cartridge days when I tried shaving without a hot shower first! Hopefully this works out differently!

I tried the cold water shave. I prefer to strike myself on the thumb with a hammer.