What is your 'special technique' that you have come up with for shaving?

There is absolutely endless amounts of information on this Site but just wondering if people have their own new/weird/different way of doing this or that which really worked well for them that they'd like to share.
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I haven't been doing this long enough for a lot of "Aha!" moments but one that I've found is a time management thing where I lather my face prior to shaving my head then rinse, re-lather and finally shave my face.

Previously I was making lather, putting a towel on my head, towel on my face then lathering head, shaving head then re-toweling my now dried face, lathering face and finally shaving. Now, I do a quick wash then put the hot towel on my head as I'm making lather... Lather my head, re-hydrate and lather my face and then my beard is getting nice and soft as I'm working on my head.

It has saved me a ton of time and made my shave much more comfortable as I am taking about twice as long to shave my head as I previously used to prep my face before shaving as I was antsy to start.

i am not sure that i have one. Compared to your intricate one, mine is quite banal. How long does it take you to complete the whole routine?

I've seen videos where the barber would lather the face then wrap face in a hot towel with the lather still on the face. After a while they would remove towel and lather then lather face again then shave. I have never tried this technique but will soon as I have a tough beard to soften, that may do the trick.

mine is lather and shave, works great.

My special technique is founded on a well-worn aphorism: "haste makes waste". Or perhaps "speed kills", or maybe "you rush, you gush" :D

Develop a solid and safe technique first and reduction in shaving times will follow as you practice and refine that technique. One thing that worked for me was the realisation that I get most control from the wrist - so I mostly keep my arm still and shave from the wrist in brisk, shortish strokes...mostly.


James.

I definitely like the KISS approach for sure. I was initially WAY overcomplicating a lot of things and now I'm just going through my routine and paying more attention to how the shave goes and working it down to whether any detriment might have been a technique issue (most of the time) or a gear issue... I am changing razors every week to get as much exposure to different manufacturers as possible. I am just finishing with one blade I thought I'd really like but it shaved 'weird' on one side of the blade. It was my non-dominant side so I was leaning heavily to the 'technique' being an issue but I hadn't previously had trouble like that so I took it back on a Naniwa 12k, then through a stropping series and it improved slightly but the problem was still there. I'm going to read up/search a bit more on that but am guessing maybe need to go back and set the bevel/hone from scratch and see if that fixes it completely. I didn't do the original hone so not completely sure.

I am still using a Mach3 for my head as I'm just not good enough to get around the back... I've taken a few strokes up the front of my head without issue but the angle is weird and it just feels like a disaster waiting to happen. So, my routine is still about 20-30 minutes including all the setup/cleanup.

Interesting about the wrist... I will have to pay attention more to that my next shave. I know I do that a little more around/under the jaw but will be good to play with that on other areas.

I'm interested in all facets of people's individual techniques... I just watched a video unrelated to this site where a guy stated that if you are going to continue to use a cartridge razor then holding onto the 'end' of tha handle will help to improve your shave and decrease skin irritation tremendously. I'd never heard of that before but loved the simplicity of the advice.

For what it's worth, my contribution to your thread is not mind jogging, but I have noticed smoother first passes since I have been doing it . . .

I have an old Marvy boar brush that I leave in the shower, I use it to soap up my face when washing. It makes a quasi lather that I leave on, while washing the rest of my body. It seems to help soften my beard.

I actually strop before I shower that way I can go straight to shaving with no interuption. On my ATG strokes I don't lift the blade off my face; I just glide it backwards so my angles stay pretty constant w/ out having to fidget around too much.

Over the years I have come to absolute conclusion that beard prep is paramount. Before my shaves, my face gets cleaned like no one's business. Now I don't scrub it to the bone, but removing any and all dirt, sweat and oil always have laid the foundation to my best shaves. From there, I suggest using short buffering strokes. You'll get there.

Probably the best thing i have come up with (apart from the warm shower and washing my face first) is that stretching is important. The number one thing i cannot do without on my shave is a little bit of alum to rub my fingers on for grip. That way I'm not tense trying to hold a pose and don't have my fingers slipping as i make the stroke.

That is the second time I've heard someone mention Alum Blocks for Grip. I watched a video some time back and the person used the Alum to rub all over their face to see if it burned as a grading of sort for how well, technique wise, your shave went. I didn't quite see the point in that so have never picked up the Alum. But, Grip totally makes sense. I had my razor flip in my fingers as I was coming up under my chin/goatee and it kinda did this spin in my fingers and in catching it I brought it right up under my chin for a nice slice... One of those you couldn't see right away but could feel the burn THEN the blood started flowing. ;-) Had I used Alum I doubt that would have happened at all.

Definitely gonna try that! :D

Shower,head shave.I lather my head the rest go's on the face to be shaved when I get out of the shower,face lather with whatever I am using P160/euro palmolive/Cella,all I ever use.One with the grain pass,re-lather, one across the grain scything pass,done in 4 mins,BBS every time.