Thread: Cold Water Shave

Are you cold guys using refrigerated cold water? I've used tap many times with results same as hot (or post showering). I guess cold would be a good wake up method too?

ex

I am using the water from my water cooler, which is at 50-52 degrees. It is quite invigorating !!!

Originally Posted by exarcher

Are you cold guys using refrigerated cold water? I've used tap many times with results same as hot (or post showering). I guess cold would be a good wake up method too?

ex

Just cold from the tap here. It's from an underground source though, so it's pretty cold, even during the Summer.

Originally Posted by Library Guy

Cold water prep will result in piloerection (the whisker stands up) and constriction of the lymphatic capillaries. This constriction will cause the tissue to recede from the base of the whisker (making the hair seem longer) as well as reduce fluid loss in the event of a nick or cut. Capillary constriction from cold water will be more evident first thing in the morning when our faces tend to be puffier from having been in bed for several hours. Evening shavers may not notice as much effect assuming they’ve been semi-vertical all day.

Cold water will also affect the way fats and oils lay on and/or are absorbed by the skin.

Hair is expanded (softened) by the absorption of water. The conventional wisdom is that soap allows more water to be absorbed- something about surface tension or its hygrophylic properties. I’m not sure if the temperature of the water makes a lick of difference.

Or maybe I just made all that up.

Semper circa,
LG Roy

Lots of big words in that post, but I especially appreciate "piloerection", I may look for ways to incorporate it into some of my own posts.

Just cold tap water for me. It can be really cold tho and quite invigorating!

Well, the rotten thing about this is that now that I've heard of it, I'll have to try it.

In a couple of ways it's good news. My WWII vet father told me how finishing a hot shower with a cold blast is a good way to not feel cold when you step out of a hot shower into a cool room (or the great outdoors, as in temporary army showers). It's got to do with heat of evaporation. Water near the evaporation point robs you of heat as it vaporises. Use colder water and you can towel it off before it evaporates, and you avoid this effect. It's counter-intuitive, but it works.

Currently, I don't shave right out of the shower. I do the whole hot towel and sink full of hot water routine. I'm sure my electrical bill will be higher because of all the hot water I've used in the last few weeks. If I can segue from cold blast right to shaving, I could save some time and money. And if the shave is easier, it'll be a win/win.

But I love warm lather on my chops. Maybe I'll have to find a clove and cinnamon soap or oil to chemically warm my face the way Proraso green cools it!

I'll give it a whirl tonight.

Cheers,
Ian

Originally Posted by JimmyHAD

Glad you liked it Mark. A word about prep. I followed the book and all I do for prep is lather with cold tap water on my unwashed dry face. Rub the lather in vigorously with my fingers and re-lather without rinsing. I run hot tap water over the blade and shave rinsing the lather off of the blade with the hot water. Sometimes I do one pass and others two passes. If I do two I don't rinse in between but re-lather and go for it. My final rinse is with hot water. The pamphlet said to do a hot towel but I'm not into it. I dry and do an AS splash.

If a person is softening their beard with hot water before the shave they are defeating the whole purpose by softening the whisker rather than stiffening it with the cold water/lather. Note that the latest shave book recently posted also recommended rubbing the first lather in with the fingers. I didn't see any mention of water temp in that book but I may have missed it. BTW,all this is as the 1906 pamphlet directed and not of my invention. It is working well for me but YMMV.

I wonder which pamphlet/book gave the advice?

Originally Posted by ferroburak

I wonder which pamphlet/book gave the advice?

The pamphlet was introduced in this thread here in the first post.

Originally Posted by exarcher

Are you cold guys using refrigerated cold water? I've used tap many times with results same as hot (or post showering). I guess cold would be a good wake up method too?

Being Canadian I'm luckier than most of you as I can open up my patio door and chip off a piece of ice berg (which rests in my back yard), or if I'm lazy just grab a chunk of ice from my igloo. While it melts I put my brush into a snow bank to cool off. Makes for a nice cool refreshing shave!

All kidding aside, usually cold tap water will suffice, at least for me. This is something I'll be resuming for the hot summer months, which (believe it or not) can get as warm as 36 degrees c, or about 97 degress for our American friends.

Some swear by cold water, but I cannot for the life of me figure out why. I have shaved with cold water when I had no other choice. I have also shaved using hand soap for lather when I had no other option. This does not mean that I liked it. I see no scientific basis for the use of cold water. Hot water, especially hot water mixed with the proper application of soap softens the beard and makes it easier shave. One might argue that the use of cold water makes the hair stand up more, but again, the proper application of lather produces the same effect.

Having said the, do what works for you, and I will do the same.