Cold water shaving...

About once a year someone brings up the topic of
cold water lathering and shaving.

For the last two months I have lathered and shaved with cold tap water
and have found it to be just fine.

I am not saying ice water but just common cool tap water.

The brush I used most was an Omega boar bristle
brush (Omega 10098 Professional Boar ....Brush).
I also used a darn fine Dovo badger brush.

I used three hard soaps: MWF, Cella and Speick....

What I learned is cool tap water lets me
lather and shave equal to my hottest tap
water shaves.

So for the most part I will be saving hot water
in the future.... (I do like hot showers in the winter).

The basics still apply.
Wash and clean the face, rinse, lather, shave....
rinse, inspect, touch up as needed. Rinse and
then dry with a clean dry towel.

I tried cold water shaving after reading one of JimmyHad's threads.
And I have never gone back...

The only thing I do hot/warm is the final rinse, followed by an ice water washcloth to finish.
It works well with every soap & cream that I have tried with the added benefit that the lather stays wet longer, something that is helpful when I was starting out.

In fact I changed my shower habit a bit. I had been using "Navy Showers" (15-30 seconds to wet down, water off for soaping and 60-90 seconds of rinse water) I now start with warm and finish with "all cold". I've noticed that my skin does not get as dry in the winter...

Try putting all your soap things in the fridge, including a bottle of water to make your superlather with, it is Devine.

Freeze your bowl halfway and ice face rub after!

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.

Quote:

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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.

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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

Try the fridge eddy it's good.
I got sent some provence de something (the writing went a bit unreadable) and using a good few capfuls of water I produced this with a dry brush:
Attachment 145808
And it want even that much work, using water and soap out of the fridge, this was the first time I used this soap too so it wasn't even hydrated from previous shaves.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by billyc4362

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

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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.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by edhewitt

Try putting all your soap things in the fridge, including a bottle of water to make your superlather with, it is Devine.

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Once again Ed, thanks!

Going to put my Proraso Red and MWF in the fridge, have some bottled water, and give that a go.

Have to post in, "Show and Tell" in a moment, the Revisor 8/8 razor I received from the Classifieds that I just got back from Glen, now freshly honed.

Tomorrow's shave will be, "The Revisor - the Path of Ed".

Thanks!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Phrank

Once again Ed, thanks!

Going to put my Proraso Red and MWF in the fridge, have some bottled water, and give that a go.

Have to post in, "Show and Tell" in a moment, the Revisor 8/8 razor I received from the Classifieds that I just got back from Glen, now freshly honed.

Tomorrow's shave will be, "The Revisor - the Path of Ed".

Thanks!

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I hope you like it as much as I do. I have done the same with a superlather mix, and just a soap from razorfeld that he got from pinklather, both have been good. The soap was only in a plastic tub though as I don't have any more ceramic containers at hand, still turned out well. Enjoy.

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.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by bobbybirds

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!

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You are allowed a hot shower first, just use cold for the shave.

Is there a trick to cold shaving. I take hot water showers, even gave it about 15 minutes before shaving. Did the cold water lather, and had some of the worst razor burn.
Not sure if I did something wrong, I use a sensitive cream to shave with, and today I shaved hot water, razor is still fine as frog hairs, so I don't know what I did wrong. Not sure if I want to try it again lol.:needcoffee:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by jmac123

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

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Well put. I remember shaving out of my steel pot in the Army. As long as I can afford a hot water heater, that's what I'm using.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Sirtexan

Is there a trick to cold shaving. I take hot water showers, even gave it about 15 minutes before shaving. Did the cold water lather, and had some of the worst razor burn.
Not sure if I did something wrong, I use a sensitive cream to shave with, and today I shaved hot water, razor is still fine as frog hairs, so I don't know what I did wrong. Not sure if I want to try it again lol.:needcoffee:

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I don't think there is a trick, but I don't know that it suits everyone, maybe try some different products. I don't use any pre shave, or even double lather anymore, but I also only do one or maybe two passes.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by MJC

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

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Afraid I'm not the 'smart guy' you mentioned, but I think that using the soapy water that was soaking the puck, caused the water to lose any 'hardness' that it may have had.
I've heard of people softening water like that for soaps like MWF - soaps that don't respond well to hard water.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by edhewitt

I don't think there is a trick, but I don't know that it suits everyone, maybe try some different products. I don't use any pre shave, or even double lather anymore, but I also only do one or maybe two passes.

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I think Ed has a point there in that it may not suit everyone. Peoples skins are different and respond differently to the same things. Personally, I do no prep, no double lather too but 4 passes with little to no irritation, that is unless my technique is off or I really fudged the edge up honing. The 4th pass is in lieu of touch ups. For me it is just as easy to lather up and do a quick light XTG pass as fiddle around touching up here and there. You just have to find out what works for you and what does not by elimination.

Bob

+1 to BobH and Ed

I've been trying to shave every day this week, no point yesterday, just nothing there.

But I've found if I shave more frequently, I just splash the cold water, no prep, and 1.5 passes.

With shaving more frequently, I just do one WTG pass, and one mini-pass ATG under my jaw line and end up with a DFS.

Today will be the same, only trying Ed's idea of leaving my Proraso Red soap in the fridge over night....but yes, the cold shave isn't for everyone, but for me, it's a superior shave.

So last night I went home and tried a cold water shave. Didn't really do any prep (ie shower etc). Just filled the sink with cold tap water, rubbed my face down with the cold water, lathered up with my DR Harris Arlington soap, and hit it. It went surprisingly well. I didn't notice anything really much difference except maybe the tiniest bit more effort on the razor to start but really that may have been in my head. The shaving soap seemed to dry quite quickly compared to when I am shaving out of the shower but again that didn't seem to pose a problem. If anything I found it easier to get BBS smooth on those hairs that grow in a weird swirl on both sides of the adams apple...

I didn't really notice much of a difference in the hours after in that my skin was still quite comfortable and not irritated, although I never had any problem before while shaving with hot water. All in all, I think I will try this for a bit and see how it goes long term!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by bruseth

Afraid I'm not the 'smart guy' you mentioned, but I think that using the soapy water that was soaking the puck, caused the water to lose any 'hardness' that it may have had.
I've heard of people softening water like that for soaps like MWF - soaps that don't respond well to hard water.

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Ding Ding Ding - MWF is the first soap that i tried this on, with great results.
Thanks for the reminder, I'm going to move the Fat to the front of the rotation when I get home.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by MJC

Ding Ding Ding - MWF is the first soap that i tried this on, with great results.
Thanks for the reminder, I'm going to move the Fat to the front of the rotation when I get home.

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And try putting it in the fridge...Ed shared this tip the other day, tried it a couple of hours ago.

Seem's putting the soap in the fridge allows the brush to load very well, and the cold helps the lather stick to the face.

Worked extremely well for me!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Phrank

And try putting it in the fridge...Ed shared this tip the other day, tried it a couple of hours ago.

Seem's putting the soap in the fridge allows the brush to load very well, and the cold helps the lather stick to the face.

Worked extremely well for me!

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It is good, but I don't know how enjoyable it would be if you live in colder climes. As I said I don't even use much water for the entire shave. But what I do use is cold.
About 2 capfulls for lathering, and run the tap for a minute or so at the end to rinse brush and wiping cloth. I dampen the cloth in the shower before I shave.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Sirtexan

Is there a trick to cold shaving.
......

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Perhaps... the most important goal for me is to scrub my whiskers clean
so water can penetrate and soften them. For me in the gummy days
of summer this means a boar brush and face lather. I often let a second
lather rest on my face long enough that I need to freshen it to shave. It is
possible that the razor scratched

We all have different skin and tap water but for me Kirks soap in the shower
to wash my face goes a long way. I can get the same result with multiple
passes and face lathering with a quality old school hard soap.

I do have some of the emollient rich skin care body wash stuff in the shower
and have been known to take a quick warm shower after shaving and use
that fu-fu stuff when I have not had my regular bacon/ other rich food resulting
in dry skin lifestyle.

The one thing I like to avoid is an over soak. As any swimmer or bath taker
knows the skin will take up water and get thick and wrinkled (pruned fingers)
with too much soak time. The thickening makes it hard to get a close shave
and it also results in skin that a razor can get into giving ya a rash. So quick
but clean is key for me.

All of us are different so "the trick" is to find what works. Try things......

My skin seems to react badly to water that is too hot. So I try to keep my shower luke warm at its hottest, and I always shave cold. I'll have to try putting my soap in the fridge. For me, a nice cold shave feels great, and doesn't produce any irritation.

I hestitate to revive an old thread, but yesterday was hot here, and I couldn't stand the thought of hot towels, etc for my shave. So I use cold tap water, used a Cella soap and Semogue boar brush and went at it cold, after washing my face first with warm water. I got a DFS with no drag or pull, and some of my usual "problem areas" like my chin and neck went much better. All in all a good shave. I'm going to try it again.