Quote Originally Posted by carlmaloschneider View Post
Everybody's hair is different, so it's hard to say, but I'd advise that you shouldn't even be thinking about references the edge yet, not unless you've dulled the edge a little by poor stropping. You should be able to go for a month to six weeks before the first honing. I myself would recommend a nice Shapton 16k rather than CrOx. ten laps on the Shapton will bring the edge right back, and it's hard to mess up while doing only 10 laps on a nice flat hard hone. Bearing in mind that I've never actually used CrOx, I feel it may be easier to dull the edge more using CrOx (esp if not using a paddle strop) than with a nice hard flat hone.

What you probably need, is another truly shave ready razor. I know that sounds like I'm an enabler of RAD, but you can't go past a comparison blade. If you have only one razor, you'll be standing there in the bathroom scratching your head and thinking "Now, is it just ME or did this thing used to be sharper than this???"

I've read the thing about soap having the purpose of stiffening the hairs and I disagree with that. They also used to say putting a razor away for a few days allowed the edge to rest. They also used to sell heroin for common headaches. I feel cream or soap DOES soften the hair. Also, remember that a major use of cream or soap is to provide both GLIDE and CUSHION regardless of what it actually does to the hair strands. GLIDE and CUSHION are in my opinion of equal importance to each other.

have you tried a pre-shave cream? Proraso pre-shave is REALLY good for beginners, I used to use it ALL the time. It really provides a very slick amount of glide; you lather straight over it. I'd very highly recommend that beginners use this pre-shave cream with a good cream (Musgo Real and Body Shop Macca Root for instance). In all seriousness, if one used Proraso Pre-shave cream, and Musgo real cream or Body Shop Macca Root cream, then in my opinion and experience you really have the prep part pegged. You really can't go wrong with that combo as far as prep is concerned. Added to that, shower before the shave, maybe apply hair conditioner to the beard whilst in the shower (and leave it in while showering; wash it off at the end of the shower), apply hot water to face, apply the Proraso pre-shave, make the lather, apply it over the pre-shave cream, strop and then shave I think you'll have a really nice prep sorted...


Carl
+1 on the comparison blade. I got an inexpensive shave ready blade from the Classifieds section as my second razor, basically to convince myself that my other one was shave ready.

Honestly I get about the same results either at cold (ambient) or hot water temperature. I think the book's recommendation means that for people with certain types of hair and/or skin the results with cold water are significantly better. I stick with it because my "hot" tap water was lukewarm at best so I had an electric kettle and it was a pain to wait for it to heat up.

Another thing to note is that some soaps don't lather well in cold water. When I switched I had to grate the puck I was using in a cheese grater and that solved the problem.

But I am enthusiastic about cold water shaving and if someone is having trouble with either poor shaves or irritation I don't hesitate to recommend it.