Thread: glycerine as a pre shave option?

Some common, cheap preshave oils:

1. Baby oil.
2. Castor oil (about $3 for 4 oz at a pharmacy, and the key ingredient in most of the expensive shave oils).

Originally Posted by Alethephant

Some common, cheap preshave oils:

1. Baby oil.
2. Castor oil (about $3 for 4 oz at a pharmacy, and the key ingredient in most of the expensive shave oils).

Don;t use baby oil...this is mineral oil which is terrible for skin. yes, it'll provide you with glide and feel good initially, but would be a disaster on your skin...it's a petroleum distillate, which is not "fat" like biological fats and will stick to your skin and "plug" your pores, trapping dead skin adn natural oils from your skin to be secreted properly

No, no, no...absolutely not.

Mineral oil has a long history in cosmetics and medicine. It is generally regarded as safe. Oil is a product of the earth, so it is natural too!

Castor oil is best primarily because it is less rapidly absorbed by the skin. The idea in a preshave oil is to have the oil present as a lubricant, and it should be removed by the razor along with the hair. Having the oil absorbed quickly by the skin is counterproductive.

Fats are just triglycerides: Three fatty acids reacted with glycerin to form an ester. Oil is composed of fatty acids. Oils and fats are similar compounds, and have similar properties.

Originally Posted by Alethephant

Mineral oil has a long history in cosmetics and medicine. It is generally regarded as safe. Oil is a product of the earth, so it is natural too!

Castor oil is best primarily because it is less rapidly absorbed by the skin. The idea in a preshave oil is to have the oil present as a lubricant, and it should be removed by the razor along with the hair. Having the oil absorbed quickly by the skin is counterproductive.

Fats are just triglycerides: Three fatty acids reacted with glycerin to form an ester. Oil is composed of fatty acids. Oils and fats are similar compounds, and have similar properties.

So is Benzene...it is natural, but you are not going to drink it now, are you? Mineral oil is natural, but not safe...not long term.

Sorry, I do not agree with your logic or statements. Fats and oils are very different....well, at least if we are talking about "mineral oil type" oils. Not at all the same. Fats are attached to glycerin via an ester (carboxylic acid functional group at one end) linkage that's "biologically" active (i.e., can be released by Esterases)...Each of the fatty acids are used in cell membrane biogenesis and other functions of a cell. Oils like mineral oil, although some similar backbone to fats) are very different and do not have biological functionality in the human, except for lubrication. You put it on skin and via it's hydrophobic (oil loving) interaction, it will lodge itself and "clog" your pores...your skin will not be able to function properly.

Ok been doing some testing now.

I tested 3 pre shaves
1) was a mixture of glycerine and 8 parts water I found that with this it had to be applied very early like before I go to bed so my face would be ready for my morning shave.

2) Was Trumpers limes skin food applied straight after comming out of the bath.

3) Was using a hot towel while soaking in the bath and face lathering with a Boar hair brush.

OK how I shaved was after a hot bath with a 3 pass shave the first pass was always with a shavette loaded with a personna red pack blade and two passes with my flare tip rocket loaded with supermax blades. I used palmolive soap, alum block, proraso anti irritation cream and I used a Edwin Jagger Super badger brush for the first 2 but not for the last.

The Glycerine applied the night before the shave smooths out my skin making the razor glide more easily across my face but I felt it did not add anything to my shave.

The Trumpers skin food smells nice but again did not add anything to my shave.

The hot towel was nice and relaxing and with the face lathering working the boar hair brush well all over my beard giving a bit more attention to my chin and neck this was somthing I experanced in a Turkish barbers recently so I decided to include it in the test.

Now having tried these different methods 3x each just to make sure how did they compare well to be honest I would not be able to tell the end results apart. They were all good shaves but not one method stood out from the others.

My Conclusions from this little test is this

Pre shave products are not essential to a good shave.

I will use up my Trumpers Skin food safe in the knowledge I can live without it. The home made glyceine mix I will have to keep on making it now because my misses loves it. and for the hot towel when I have time to soak in the bath I will use it maybe with a few drops of olbas oil because it is good to relax every once in a while.

Use them if you want to but maybe less is more.

I soemtimes wash my face before shaving with Proraso Glycerine soap. I don't shower before but after shaving and this makes the beard a little softer.

Bye,

Eric