What's Your Shave Routine
What's your shaving routine today, from unshaven to clean shaven. SR or DR. Very simple process, or it might be fairly involved. It could be full of pampering, or fairly spartan. I'm curious to know the specifics of your routine. Not just the what you do, but why you do it. Is it a necessity, a luxury, or just habit.
Here's mine
Preshave:
I usually wash my face with a mint soap by C.O. Bigellow that I like a lot. It has a mild scent and feel of mint that I really enjoy. After the face wash I apply Noxema to my entire face. I've had an on again off again relationship with Noxema. For now it's on again. Just like the mint soap, I like the menthol feel of Noxema. Additionally over the past month of me using it, I have seen a definite change in the complexion of my skin, which surprised me a bit.
I leave the Noxema on while I get everything else ready. I place my G20 scuttle under running hot water running in the bowl, with my Best Badger brush, and the scuttle stopper off. Once the water is as hot as it can get, I fill up the reservoir with hot water and replace the stopper, allowing the brush to soak in the bowl. I also put a few drops of hot water on the soap puck I'll be using, to prep the soap.
Sitting that to the side, I strop my Dovo Best Quality razor. 60 passes on leather. The strop I have has a secondary webbing strop that I previously did 20 passes on prior to the 60 passes on leather, but I have since coated one side of the webbing with Chromium Oxide paste, and the other side with Iron Oxide paste, for refreshing and polishing. After the leather stropping, I use a piece of toilet paper to wipe away any residue from the strop.
I sit the razor to the side and finish prepping my face with a hot towel over the Noxema. I do this two or three times, leaving the towel over my face until it has cooled noticeably. On the last hot towel, I wipe the remaining Noxema off and put the towel up. The hot towel sort of wakes up the menthol, and leaves my face feeling very cool and nice.
Next is the lather prep. I'm currently using Ogalala Bay Rum Cedar & Sage. Ogalala soap was my number two soap, but it holds up better in a heated scuttle, so it has become my number one soap in the winter months, when a warm brush and lather is important to me. Not sure If I'll keep a warm scuttle in the summer months. I wring all the water out of my brush an pour out any water left on top of the soap, then load my brush for about 20-30 seconds. At this point, I previously built the lather in my scuttle, but this takes too long for me. I was stuck on bowl lathering for a while because I believed that this was the only way I could obtain a warm lather, but have since switched to a face lather. After loading the brush, I pour out the water in the bowl of the scuttle and sit the loaded brush in the bowl. The heated water in the reservoir of the scuttle thoroughly warms the lather in the brush, so building the lather in the bowl is not necessary any longer. While the brush is in the bowl I rinse my face in hot water and leave it wet. I then start the face lather. The warm brush and lather always feels awesome! I usually need to apply a few drops of hot water to the top of the brush before the lather on my face is ready. At that point I put the brush back in the scuttle to rewarm, and grab my razor.
The Shave:
For pass one I start with the grain (WTG) on my cheeks, from side burn, about mid ear, down to the edge of my jaw, making several small, overlapping downward swipes. I don't stretch my face during this section, only because I do a three pass shave, and by the middle of pass 2, my cheeks are always very smooth. Then there's the mustache lineup, and I finish pass one going straight down on my neck.
Pass two is an across the grain (XTG) starting with holding the razor in a diagonal line from where my mustache ends, down to where my goatee ends at my chin, and swiping up and across my cheek towards my ear. I do both cheeks and then start my neck. Up to now I use my right hand for my right side and my left hand for my left side, but for my neck XTG I use my right had for the left side of my neck and swipe diagonally down from under my jaw to the center of my neck below the a adams apple, making several small, SLOW, overlapping swipes. I've recently started doing this and it gets me an extremely close shave on my neck with no irritation, but it's a bit awkward. I'm sure I'll get more comfortable with it after a few tries.
Pass three is against the grain (ATG) also using my left hand to do the right side. Starting at the neck and moving up. This also serves as a cleanup pass for my cheeks, which are mostly as close as possible already. The portion of my goatee under my chin ends in a point above my adams apple. I use pass three to line that up as well.
I sometimes do a cleanup, but usually it's just to line up my goatee and mustache. I rarely need to touch up missed spots, but if I do I take care of it by applying a bit of lather using my finger tips to the spot, and getting whatever I missed.
Post Shave:
My post shave is pretty much like my preshave with the Noxema and 3 hot towels. I let my face air dry, and then apply whatever aftershave I'm using that day. Pinaud Clubman is a scent that I avoided in the beginning, but am now very fond of. I also like Masters Blue a lot, which has the menthol feel that I like.
Summary:
I think I have a fairly high mix of pampering in my routine, which from looking over this post, takes a majority of the time it takes me to shave. The mint soap, heated scuttle, the Noxema, hot towel, even a scented oil burner that I occasionally light, just to enhance the experience (hey, it's the only pampering that I get, so I guess I take it as far as I can). The Dovo is a great razor for me. I'm at the point where a shave takes about 40 minutes, and I mostly get an extremely smooth comfortable shave every time, with no nicks or weepers. Ogalala shaving soap creates an awesome slick, dense lather, and smells great. If you are accustomed to stretching your skin with your hand, Ogalala may be too slick for you though. I currently have a puck of Ogalala Bay Rum & Orange and a puck of Bay Rum Limes & Peppercorns in the mail as I write. The G20 scuttle is amazing. I struggled a bit with the best way to use it, but switching to face lathering has helped that greatly. I'm mostly proficient with the actual shave with the exception of the XTG on the neck which is still a bit awkward, but effective. The post shave is mostly more pampering, although it seems to lessen any irritation that might occurre, and the Noxema seems to have some positive benefits as well.
Please let me know what your routine is. Be as detailed as you like.
Thanks
