Thread: Just say NO to pre shave prep.

Originally Posted by wayne394

Hot water for me. The thought of cold water puts me off shaving completely. That might be different if I lived in a hot climate, then I can see how the cold water could be very refreshing. Anyway, I live in cold and wet Wales, so hot water it is! I had to use cold water quite often when I was in the Army and out on exercise, and I remember how much I hated it.

Yes, I have been on winter schemes here and can see how having hot water to shave with would be preferable to cold. Oth even when it is 30c-40c below in winter my house is still nice and warm inside so using cold water then is no bother for me.

Bob

I guess since leaving the Army I've turned into a wimp and gotten a bit soft! If we actually get what could be considered a summer this year (Although proper hot summers are a bit rare here, the rain just gets slightly warmer) I may try a cold water shave - it will be a trip down old memory lane!

Originally Posted by wayne394

I guess since leaving the Army I've turned into a wimp and gotten a bit soft! If we actually get what could be considered a summer this year (Although proper hot summers are a bit rare here, the rain just gets slightly warmer) I may try a cold water shave - it will be a trip down old memory lane!

Wasn't trying to push you into trying it, just saying there is a difference between being inside or outside during winter. Mind you I find if it is damp with a wind when it is cold you really do feel that in your bones. Humidity makes a big difference in the cold and in the heat. If you do try it I hope it is not too shocking an experience.

Bob

As for the soap stiffening your whiskers, I don't buy it. Run your hand over your face and feel how stiff your whiskers are. Now lather up, and leave the lather on your face for a few minutes, then (without shaving) rinse it off. Run your hand over your face again, and I guarantee you will feel a significant softening of your whiskers.

Originally Posted by thebigspendur

What you all don't realize is that book contains material stolen from a guy locked away in an insane asylum ever since he was arrested for murder. They called him the Bay Slasher as he used an oversized W&B to slit the throats of his victims. He'd break into their homes and tie them up and apply liberal amounts of shave soap to their throats before doing them in.

He actually had a huge beard and never shaved in his life period.

Writing that book was his therapy. it was a work of fiction.

Yeah, I heard about him, he used to dull his razor on a glass before he cut the throat .......

Originally Posted by Frederickdav

... According to the book a good shaving soap has alkali, potash or soda which when applied to the beard in the form of lather unites with the hair oil removing it and leaving the hair stiff and brittle...

Usually soaps have some rate of superfat that can range from 1% to 10% with 5% being the most common superfat rate.
Superfat means that you add an excess percentage of oils more than the certain amount of lye you used can saponify. In this way, the excess oils will give to the soap some conditional properties that go together with the cleansing properties of soap.

Most shaving soaps have a small rate of superfat and some others no superfat at all. The shaving soaps that I make my own range from 0 to 3% superfat.

In this way there is no lye at all in the soap. In order to make it contain some lye, NaOH or KOH that is, you need to make it lye-heavy, which means add less oils that the certain amount of lye you used can saponify.
I am afraid that a lye-heavy shaving soap will irritate the skin leaving a non-pleasant feeling and increasing the post shave razor burn.

Moreover, the soap has been invented and used for the purpose of removing oily and greasy dirt. A soap molecule has a hydrophobic part and a hydrophilic part. The hydrophobic ends of soap molecule attach to the oil and the hydrophilic ends stick out into the water. In this way the running water removes the oil and the dirt.
I am telling all this because if you want to remove the oils from the whispers you just need soap to do that, you don’t need lye molecules that must saponify the oils of the whispers (which takes time in cold process!) in order to remove them. We clean our dirty hands with soap and not with lye.

Originally Posted by onimaru55

I've never had a hairdresser put oil in my hair to make it easy to cut but plenty have washed it pre cutting.

I believe pre shave oils are about the skin, not the stubble.

Absolutely. Oils and gels have everything to do with the skin.

Gentlemen,

I promised myself in the Vietnam jungle, shaving with cool water out of a steel helmet, with a nasty plastic disposable razor scraping my Hollywood face and even nastier can of shave cream poisoning my skin with chemicals, I promised myself that if I ever got out of that armpit alive and returned to The World, I would never, ever, shave with cold water using those sinful Army-issue shaving tools.

And I have not. Nor have I ventured into the damn jungle so that a starving tiger can make an Assyrian into its Sunday brunch. And furthermore, what's the morning shave ritual without hot water, a sweet shave brush, a quality shave soap or cream and a silky sharp razor?

Come, gentlemen, some things in life are sacred.

I have read that book, which is quite interesting, except for the noted segment, which must have been written in some jungle while the author was fleeing a hungry tiger.

Cold water shaving and no preparation. OY!

Originally Posted by Obie

Gentlemen,

I promised myself in the Vietnam jungle, shaving with cool water out of a steel helmet, with a nasty plastic disposable razor scraping my Hollywood face and even nastier can of shave cream poisoning my skin with chemicals, I promised myself that if I ever got out of that armpit alive and returned to The World, I would never, ever, shave with cold water using those sinful Army-issue shaving tools.

And I have not. Nor have I ventured into the damn jungle so that a starving tiger can make an Assyrian into its Sunday brunch. And furthermore, what's the morning shave ritual without hot water, a sweet shave brush, a quality shave soap or cream and a silky sharp razor?

Come, gentlemen, some things in life are sacred.

I have read that book, which is quite interesting, except for the noted segment, which must have been written in some jungle while the author was fleeing a hungry tiger.

Cold water shaving and no preparation. OY!

Obie, with all that Agent orange on your skin it's a miracle you haven't morphed into the Hideous Sun Demon by now.

Originally Posted by thebigspendur

Obie, with all that Agent orange on your skin it's a miracle you haven't morphed into the Hideous Sun Demon by now.

Nah, spendur, my friend, not when I have my Nana's Assyrian chicken soup and hot tea, the cure for any disease, from the "Hideous Sun Demon" to the Gold Dollar.