Thread: My Best Shave Ever!! Less is more

I can honestly say I have had my best shave ever. My face is smooth and soft as baby skin with absolutely no irritation..

For a little history, i've been shaving with a straight razor for 6 months now. I've had a problem area in the hollow of my neck on each side of my adams apple. From my jawbone down, with a smooth shave came plenty of irritation or razor rash. This had been minimalized to an almost tolerable level by using an alum block post shave.

I had tried cold water shave with similar results to the post shower, hot water pre shave treatment so explicitly suggested.

today what i did was splash cold water on my face, then lather with cream built with cold (not refrigerated) tap water. I then shaved 2 passes and have a face so smooth momma would be proud to have it.

The difference on this shave is i didn't "wash" my face with soap before lathering, just splashed on cold water. This has obviously allowed my problem area hairs to stand up and be removed without fuss. I had read the cold water shave book written long ago,, he is right on in my case. Getting my beard soft, makes it very difficult to cut without heavy, irritating pressure. for me at least for now,,, Less is more!

Finally i have had my Eureka moment!! Today's shave didn't involve the self pampering prep (that has not given satisfactory results anyway), Just a good close no irritation shave!!

If it don't work tomorrow, I promise to post.

Kirk

Gratz! Glad you found something that works for you...!

It just keeps getting better from here.

Sounds like you may have found what works for you!
Congrats on the smooth shave

- Scott

Nice to hear! A straight gives much more degrees of freedom. That is what is so great about them. It could be that a preperation or shaving process for one isn't suitable for the other. Always keep experimenting!

I also have a nalternation in my process. Washing my face after the shave with cold wather, to close my pores, doesn't work for me. My face tends to get red in some places. Instead I wash off my face with lukewarm wather. Much better for my face, kinda strange!

Great Job! I have had good results with cold water also, it's nice in hot weather, which is coming here very soon. I usually switch between hot and cold because I feel what works the best is changing it up a little bit from time to time for your skin.

The shave i started the thread with was with an e-bay razor i was testing for sale. To make sure it was not the razor, i used my Joseph Rodgers 8/8 wedge today. I had never got really smooth shaves with it on the hollow of my neck. This changed today. The cold water closes the pores and makes these thin hairs stand tall to be cut. Ie. great! I like the feel of the wedges best. Now, the shave is as good as the feel/heft of the blade!.

As an added note: I was bragging to my buddy whom had given me his grandfathers old straight razor. Finally I am getting shaves to write home about. I told him what i had changed. He don't use a str8, but he could have told me that!

Jerry said when he was a kid (in the 50's) he had watched his grandpa shave many times with the str8. He asked grandpa, why do you always use cold water when you shave? Grandpaw says you use cold water because your "posed" to. When grandpaw said that is how you are supposed to do something, thats the way it is to be done! (No matter the reason which was not important).

I wish he had told me this grandpaw story when he gave me the razor a few months ago... Now we are the grandpaws...

Kirk

What ever floats your boat; personally, I would never use cold water unless there was no other option.