Shaving fundamentals part 2: Beard prep

New straight razor shavers often overlook the importance of properly softening the beard. This is called beard preparation, or just beard prep.

Good beard prep is fundamental to traditional wet shaving. Shaving without good prep is like jumping into an intense pickup basketball game without warming up: Sure, maybe you can do it, but you’ll probably hurt yourself. Then you’re out on the sidelines until your body heals.

Even if you’re an experienced shaver, skimping on prep means you’ll probably end up with a poor shave.

When I was shaving with a Mach 3 and Edge shaving-gel-in-a-can, my prep consisted of wetting my face with hot water for 10 or 15 seconds—just enough to help me spread the gel around. Then I slathered on the cold gel and did my one-pass, against the grain shave. It was miserable and excruciating.

When I switched to traditional wet shaving, I spent more time wetting my beard, maybe a total of 60 seconds. It’s more than I did before, so I should be good, right?

I couldn’t figure out why my razor was skipping over my skin and just plain getting stuck in the stubble around my chin.

The culprit was bad prep.

What does good prep do?
When you prep your beard, you’re saturating the hairs with water. This softens and expands them. A dry beard hair is about as tough as a copper wire of the same diameter. By wetting it, you’re allowing water molecules to get in between the hair molecules, so the razor encounters fewer hair molecules as it slices your stubble. That translates to less resistance and an easier shave.

The goal is to fully saturate your beard, which requires from three to five minutes of soaking.

To get a better idea of what you’re shooting for, try this: When you have at least a full-day’s growth, run your hand over your face against the grain of your beard, especially under your chin. Feel how spikey the hair is? Now take a longish shower. Run the water over your beard. Let the water and steam soak it for about five minutes. Run your hand over your beard again. It should feel noticeably softer. Mine almost feels silky at this point. That’s what you’re shooting for.

Different approaches to prep
The simplest way to prep your beard is to take a shower. Run the hot water over your face as much as possible. One caution: You can try washing your face with soap, as removing the oil can allow the beard to absorb water more quickly. I ran into trouble, though, as the soap was drying out my skin and causing the razor to stick and skip. You don’t really need to wash your beard at this point, because shaving later will clean and exfoliate your skin. Don’t towel dry your face when you get out.

Many guys prefer to shave before showering. If that’s you, there are several strategies you can use for prep. One is splashing hot water on your face for the required three to five minutes.

Another is soaking a towel in the hot water and holding it on your face for the necessary time. That’s how the old-time barbers did it, and it works well. You’ll probably need to rewet the towel a couple of times to keep it hot.

I usually use another approach—building the shaving lather on my face instead of in a mug. I typically splash water on my face for a couple of minutes, swirl my brush on a cake of soap for 20 swirls or so, and then start working the brush on my face in circular motions. Doing this for two minutes or so will build a nice lather, stand your beard hairs upright for easy shaving, and give the lather time to fully soften the beard. (You can also lather up and apply another hot towel like barbers used to do.)

My advice would be to spend more time on beard prep then you think is necessary. Once you get better at shaving, you can start to simplify your routine until you’re doing the minimum needed to get a good shave. Unlike many other aspects of straight razor shaving, it’s hard to do too much prep.

A lot of guys have asked if there’s a “window” of time before your beard hardens up again. There is; for me it’s about 10 minutes. If I were to get out of the shower and not shave within that time, I’d need to rewet my beard somewhat.

Quick tips
Some other ideas you might try:

• Use regular hair conditioner to soften the beard, either in the shower or after splashing your face or using hot towels. (I like to use conditioner and apply a towel over it.)
• Try preshave creams or oils. Proraso preshave has a bracing shot of menthol that feels nice and cool. Lather right over it.
• You can let the lather sit on your face while you strop. Then relather and shave.

One closing thought: Since it still takes me a few minutes to do a pass, I sometimes find that the beard on the first areas to get shaved tends to dry out. Doing some quick mid-shave “prep” can help. Sometimes I’ll grab a little more conditioner and splash my face for a minute after the second pass.

Sorry this is so long—since it’s my 300th post I wanted to make it worthwhile. :)

Good luck,
Josh

Thanks for all the prep info, I do all or most of what you said, so much so that I only shave at night. My prep takes a lot of time. I have 2 dogs to walk and 4 parrots to feed every morning, no time for a good shave (I'm not a morning person). The good thing is even though I'm still a novice my shaves are so close that I get though to entire day with no 5:00 shadow. Someday I'll stop nicking my chin and everything will be great. Actually I almost made it tonight, didn't nick my chin until the 2nd pass. :nj

I may have to invest in a towel to soak, as after reading this I am thinking to myself...I wonder if prep is the culprit of my shaving woes? Hmm. My biggest problem is that I don't have a lot of hot water to play with, even in the shower. Maybe soaking with a towel will help, or perhaps some conditioner.

I have been building lather on my face and I have to say it is really nice. Makes my face feel tingly clean after shaving, and the brush on your face is almost like a massage, perks you right up in the morning (or in the early evening when I get up, heh)

T,

I don't always have a lot of hot water, either, since we have a small water heater and my wife and I both shower before work. If I run the hot water while I'm shaving and she's showering, then it's all gone by the time I go to shower.

I always fill the sink with hot water and use that while I shave. It's probably a good thing for the environment, too.

A towel doesn't have to be fancy; even a simple washcloth will work fine.

If you're having to rush your shower and conserve hot water while shaving, I'd venture to guess that you'd benefit from a little more prep. :shrug:

Later,
Josh

I actually will do a hot towel treatment to my face while in the shower as well. I find it is helping alot. Other than a keen edge, beard prep is absolutely critical. Thanks for the tips and reminder Josh.

I get out of the shower, lather up my face, and then strop the razor. The lather sits on my face while I strop, softening things up.

I used to relather before shaving if the lather thinned out while I was stropping. Now I find that it really doesn't make much difference, so I just start my shave even if the lather has become a bit thin. I relather with thick lather for subsequent passes.