Thread: simply unable to shave daily?

Originally Posted by pds

Are you shaving after a shower or washing your face, have you tried a hot towel/face cloth, afterwards are you using an astringent then some kind of after care/moisturiser?

Current shave prep is while I'm showering I'll fill up the bowl with hot water and soak the brush in it. After a hot shower I'll come out and coat the face in Barbasol canned stuff and massage it into the whiskers. I'll leave that on while I strop the razor and whip up a lather (unless I'm using a soap, which if I am, I'll just face lather). Depending on my mood, instead of using the Barbasol, I'll lather up with the cream I'll use to shave with and press a hot towel over my face for a few minutes, then wipe off the lather, relather and go about stropping. Once I'm finished stropping, it's a quick rinse, a few more swirls of the lather, and into the shave.

Originally Posted by bplaia

Current shave prep is while I'm showering I'll fill up the bowl with hot water and soak the brush in it. After a hot shower I'll come out and coat the face in Barbasol canned stuff and massage it into the whiskers. I'll leave that on while I strop the razor and whip up a lather (unless I'm using a soap, which if I am, I'll just face lather). Depending on my mood, instead of using the Barbasol, I'll lather up with the cream I'll use to shave with and press a hot towel over my face for a few minutes, then wipe off the lather, relather and go about stropping. Once I'm finished stropping, it's a quick rinse, a few more swirls of the lather, and into the shave.

Your prep sounds thorough (slightly more so than my own) so maybe your post-shave treatment is suspect? My 'day-to-day shave' process is a quick splash with warm water to remove any left-over soap, then a thorough rinse with cold water. A light dab dry with a towel, a good rub over with an alum block (several 'passes') followed by gently massaging in an after-shave moisturising cream (worth spending a minute or two on this).
Time also plays a part - I've been interrputed post shave a couple of time and if there's a lag in the post-shave treatment this can lead to discomfort on what otherwise should have been a good shave.

I think this comes down to human nature. We always want what we cant have. I myself have a really light and sporadic beard. With a Str8 I shave every other to every third day. To some this would be bliss. To my self I would love to shave every day, or be able to grow a beard or mustache. I guess we ultimately have to do with what we have.

Give it a solid go, experimenting by changing ONE factor at a time. If you feel daily shaving just isn't working for you, then stop. It isn't worth the irritation. It's true, some of us simply can not do it everyday; it can be a tough realization, but this probably affects more guys than you think.

Ok, I've got an update here... Above I wrote that I too had been having a hard time shaving daily, whether I needed it or not. Most times 'not', but regardless, I love shaving and wanted to do it every day.

I've discovered that on those 'second' day shaves, the pressure was even more important than the first day's shave.

I have been able to shave everyday for the last 3 days, with more success than ever before. I made an extra effort to be CERTAIN that my pressure was really light, and that the razor I used was sharp as the devil. I mean so sharp that it would split an atom given the chance.

I was able to do 2 to 3 passes every day, and I plan on shaving for the 4th night in a row tonite. This is a first in at least 8 months that I shaved 3 let alone 4 days in a row. !!!!



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I used my replaceable blade(uses half of a DE blade)this a.m..Some of it was feeling sorry for it just lying there,but most of it was just pure laziness.Wow!Those DE blades are sharp!!!I almost got BBS in ONE pass.Touched up a few spots and had BBS.Well,afterwards I immediately contacted Lynn Abrams for some hone work on my W&B str8t.I thought it was sharp last night!LOL.I may have to reconsider the role of my replaceable blade razor in my everyday shaves.

I did every other day for the first five months into this. I think a lot of factors fed into me going to that routine. One was certainly time, since it took me a lot longer to do a shave. Another was I only had one straight and I was horrible at stropping so I determined I was wearing out of shave ready status very quickly. Now I am onto daily shaving because I like to be clean shaven, but I definitely don't go for BBS, it is good, but not perfect. On the weekends I will usually take a day or two off and then get a BBS while I have time.

Not to rant, but I am amazed at the elaborate nature of some people's shave prep. Regardless of how good it is, I am not retired. I have a career and two kids. I cannot imagine a hot towel on top of lather for a few minutes and then re-doing that twice before actually shaving each morning. That sounds ridiculous other than perhaps once a week or something. My prep is shower, really wet face, mix lather, really wet face again, and then lather and shave. I do two WTG passes, and some XTG on the upper lip and very little clean up. This keeps the process quick and slick with generally no irritation or cuts.