Thread: What's Your Prep and Process?

My shave ritual these days. What's yours?

1. Typically I shave in the morning... Coffee in the french press. Decaf more often than not (so I can have several cups without overcaffeinating), with milk, stevia sweetener, cinnamon, cardomom, fennel, ginger & nutmeg. Or herbal or black tea with with honey, milk or lemon.
2. Breakfast.
3. Read email.
4. First the shave strategy: select brush, razor, soap/cream, pre-shave, whether I'm bowl or face lathering
5. Strop
6. Floss and brush my teeth. Clean sink.
7. Fill sink with hot water
8. Soak my brush (boar, badger, or horse) in the hot water, and apothecary mug (if mug lathering). Many soaps I'll soak with a 1/4 cup of water on top of the puck (depending on the hardness of the soap and if I'm using a badger or horse hair. Boar brushes don't need the soap to be soaked).
9. Shower. Wash my face lightly with exfoliating cloth.
10. Towel Dry.
11. Apply pre-shave to my beard (eBarbershop, Proraso, jojoba, Shave Secret, Musgo Real Lime Glyce soap)
12. Moisturize my face from eyes up. Massage a dab of Burt's Bees Hand Salve to my hair and scalp, followed by Moroccan Argan Oil hair cream. Comb. Qtip ears. Deodorant with alum bar.
13. Apply soap or cream directly to face. Or, remove brush from water, shake, load brush (30 seconds).
14. If mug lathering, do that for a minute or two, then lather face for 30 seconds or so.
15. If face lathering, do that for at least 90 seconds.
16. 2 passes, rinsing in between. Refreshing the lather with extra lathering in the mug, if using one. Lather 20 seconds before second and third pass.
17. Rinse face, brush (then shake), then blade.
18. Throughly dry razor, strop, then wipe blade and tangue with an almost not there film of oil.
19. Apply alum if I feel at all irritated or sensitive, give it 30 seconds to set while I clean the sink, then rinse. On occasion, when necessary, stop weepers or nicks with styptic pencil.
20. Apply DIY ASB (AS mixed with scentless Olay moisturizer) to my entire face and neck. Splash on more AS if desired.
21. Apply a dab of Burt's Bees Hand Salve to any irritations, weepers/nicks, and rub on my lips.
22. Clean up and stowe kit.
23. Shave evaluation, review and mental notes. Evaluate my shave in the mirror and with my hands. How was the shave? How did my strategy play out? How did various products and techniques and combinations work? What's next?
24. Increasingly, I leave out any product(s) I'm already strategizing about using for my next shave.

1. Wet face.
2. Swish brush in soap bowl until lather is made.
3. Swish brush on face until Santa Clause impersonation is complete.
4. Shave with grain.
5. Shave across/against grain if needed.
6. Wipe face.
7. Dry razor thoroughly.
8. Strop ready for next day.
9. Light coat of oil on blade.
10. Wipe oil off.
11. Store.

I feel this lacks panaché when compared to your routine, perhaps I'm too primitive!

Panache at 5:30am? Ho ho ho.

Get up and SS&S, pretty much, including some kind of preshave, rubbing in some lather; scraping it off, doing it again, rinsing with a lukewarm washcloth and again with cold water. A third pass with a straight or a Rolls on glam days. Rinse the brush, wipe blades clean/dry and strop. Dry face lintfree, apply witch hazel and hunt up the coffeepot. A little faceturbation going down the stairs and pffffssst. Finito la musica.

On Saturday this stretches to 40-minutes.

Well, we are all different, thank God, or what ever you believe in these days.
1. Rise, set coffee, load toaster, get paper, copy crossword for my kids next door, check SRP.
2. PB&J on wholewheat toast, black coffee w/monks fruit sweetener, glucose test,do crossword.
3. Reading session while performing on the trinity S's (only tie of day to read a book), hot shower reduced to cool final rinse.
4. Towel dry, scratch demanding half Siamese cat who thinks she's always being denied attention, cold water soak brush.
5. Comb what's left of hair, lather up uber formula, cold water face wash with olive oil soap as pre-shave, lather face.
6. Open razor (stropped night before or re-freshened night before, have a Zen moment before shave to quiet nerves, as many passes as needed for the day.
7. Wash off razor, light oil, wash out lather bowl and brush, soak facecloth with cold water and wipe down face, apply Nivea.
8. Look in the mirror and say, "Damn, if only I were 20 years younger and still dating."
9. Exit bathroom and tackle a full day of retirement activity (bookkeeping for son, SRP updating, grocery shopping, personal creative work, etc.)

And so the story goes......

1. Fill my scuttle with piping hot water & put my brush inside to soak.
2. Get out my flavour of the day (soap), and choose my razor. Wash the oil off of the blade from the previous shave.
3. Have a shower.
4. Empty my scuttle & refresh the hot water.
5. Strop my razor, 30 laps on linen, 60 on leather.
6. Soak my sponge for razor wiping purposes, and set in sink.
7. Empty the scuttle, fill the inside bottom with hot water, shake out brush.
8. Load brush with soap, lather up face with loaded brush, set brush in scuttle.
9. Shave first pass with the grain, rinse off face, re-lather face with brush from scuttle.
10. Shave second pass with combination of against the grain & across the grain.
11. Rinse off face, touch up with the water from the rinse.
12. When satisfied, rinse face with cold water, pat dry & apply witch hazel.
13. Rinse blade with hot water, dry with cloth, apply mineral oil to the blade & put razor back in the case.
14. Rinse out sponge with hot water, put in storage.
15. Dump out scuttle, rinse inside with hot water.
16. Rinse out brush, squeeze out water, shake a couple of times after, hang in brush stand.
17. Wipe off counter & sink.
18. Apply aftershave.

Originally Posted by JollyPames

It sounds interesting, but i've never even heard of it.




--------------------------
The sexy corsets should be easy and stylish instead of being big and swollen.

My morning prep....

Get out of bed.
Rinse face, brush teeth
Select straight razor and shaving soap
Select my corset, which should be easy and stylish, instead of making me feel big and swollen.
Shower
Shave
Coffee

.....and done!

Morning shave routine:

Upon waking stumble to the bathroom and partially fill sink with cold water.
Wet face, swirl brush in cold water, shake brush, load soap and face lather.
4 passes later, wipe and dry blade after a quick rinse under the tap.
Wet face apply Alum block, empty sink and rinse brush, shake it, the brush silly, and hang to dry.
Rinse and dry face, apply aftershave and good to go.

Bob

Originally Posted by Phrank

My morning prep....

Get out of bed.
Rinse face, brush teeth
Select straight razor and shaving soap
Select my corset, which should be easy and stylish, instead of making me feel big and swollen.
Shower
Shave
Coffee

.....and done!

I'm even simpler:

Shizit
Shower
Shave

put on some britches and boots, don hat, let's rock!

Fill scuttle with hot water.
Pick brush d'jour and soak in scuttle.
Pick soap/cream d'jour
Pick razor d'jour
Set out AS and alum block.
Lay out towel.
Go get a Dr Pepper
Take hot shower.
Dump scuttle and refill inner vessel.
Load brush and lather in scuttle.
Wet face again.
Apply lather to face.
Shave WTG
Re-apply lather
Shave ATG
Rinse face
Pat dry face.
Apply AS
Rinse and dry scuttle and razor. Apply mineral oil to razor and put away. Rinse and ring out brush and hang to dry. Put away Soap/cream, AS, alum block. Hang up towel.
Comb hair
Get dressed and go to work. (Almost the same routine on the weekends, only I don't go to work).

1. Shower
2. Pre-Shave oil (Jojoba, coconut and grape seed oil mix) 4 drops for the chrome dome, 4 drops for the beard
3. Fill the sink with hot water and throw the brush in (and watch it spin under the facet........weeeeeeeee)
4. Shake brush out , swirl it on the soap
5. Apply some water to my nugget, then lather
6. ATG, Rinse & lather, XTG rinse & lather, WTG rinse, feel for stubborn stubble, then wipe the nugget off with a towel
7. Beard, splash some water, and lather
8. WTG rinse & lather, XTG Rinse & lather, Neck area every which way passes
9. rinse, and wipe face dry while making weird relaxing noises, ah................
10. Apply WH, or some balm or smelly splash
11. Clean up the mess I made - lots of rinsing and drying, stropping
Dam no wonder I'm always leaving the house for work 5 minutes later then I want - this is a 45 minute routine 5 of it is in the shower........