Thread: 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.

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