Thread: Cold water shave

Originally Posted by MickR

Yeah true, but I carry a gun for the more vicious fighty bitey's usually! Although the industrial strength whipper snipper did in the last fighty bitey, by sheer luck...Pun intended.


Mick

one thing about pa only a few visious things to worrie about, 1 A cyote in your trap line at 5am, 2 a black bear with cubs and 3 groundhogs, i dropp kicked a hog last year it came right at me, must have been to close to its hole lol, 9.5s work boots do a number on them,

Well being cold days here now, the next time I shave I will put that to my own personal test i.e it will only be specific to my personal enterpretation. I will forego my usual manly cold water shave, and give myself the full namby pamby hot water shave...Well short of wrapping my head in a steamed towel like some mad arab taking a bad trip on LSD anyway. . I'll let you know how it goes in a day or two.


Mick

Originally Posted by Deerhunter1995

one thing about pa only a few visious things to worrie about, 1 A cyote in your trap line at 5am, 2 a black bear with cubs and 3 groundhogs, i dropp kicked a hog last year it came right at me, must have been to close to its hole lol, 9.5s work boots do a number on them,

Our critters take on a more sinister approach in the form of snakes (and plenty of variety there too), scorpions, centipedes and highly toxic spiders, so my size 12 steel cap boots are only good for anything that fits in closely to the last three mentioned, and only if I see them first. Other things like Goanna's will either clear out, or use you like a tree, which though unpleasant, is not really dangerous even if they do decide to take a bite out of you. Though those bites do take a long time to heal. And size 12 boots or not, I'd still hate to get into a kicking contest with a pi$$ed off skippy. You know those buggers can retract their testicles so that they can kick bejesus out of each other without harming their masculinity. I can't do that, and I'm quite fond of my masculinity, so I stay on skippy's good side or keep him covered and downrange .
Ok, back to the manly art of the cold shave... Sorry for getting off topic.


Mick

After several months of feeling that I could/should be getting closer/smoother shaves and then reading a similar thread somewhere on SRP, I made the switch to cold water shaving last August and was instantly hooked. I shower in warm or hot water, washing my face and then applying conditioner to my whiskers and leaving it until I rinse off at the end of the shower. I hold my soap bowl under the tap and just wet the soap with cold water and leave it while I get a cup of coffee, turn on the radio and wet my brush with cold water. I load up, wet my face with cold water and lather on my face. I usually rinse the first lather off and re-lather. I do rinse with cold water and re-lather between passes. When I finish, I do wet a washcloth with warm water, wring it out and wipe off my face, then rinse several times with cold water. I did this right through the winter, too. What I found was that my hands felt the cold of the water a lot more than my face did.

Originally Posted by PaddyX21

Although the statement that metal expands when hot and contracts when cool is true the amounts of expansion / contraction are tiny.

Taken from internet as I don't have any reference books handy:
"0.00000645in/in/deg F is the coefficient of thermal expansion for steel
Therefore one inch of steel will expand 0.00000645 inches for every degree Fahrenheit increase in temperature"

I doubt this is enough to notice with the difference between hot and cold tap water
I know the edge is microscopic, but imho you would need to be supercooling the blade to notice a physical change

Does that make sense?

Sorry, science bore signing off....
P

I too am a man of science,and if you remember the ball and ring experiment from grade shcool you will remember that it dosent take that much heat to make something expand or retract,like putting a stuck jar lid under hot water it will uasally come off,try running your razor under cold water and see what happens,no matter how you prepare your face,it should get smoother IMHO

Originally Posted by Grizzley1

try running your razor under cold water and see what happens,no matter how you prepare your face,it should get smoother IMHO

I'm yet to be convinced, but the proof of the pudding is in the eating, so I will try it

Cant ask for anything more than than that-but be honest

Originally Posted by MickR

Well being cold days here now, the next time I shave I will put that to my own personal test i.e it will only be specific to my personal enterpretation. I will forego my usual manly cold water shave, and give myself the full namby pamby hot water shave...Well short of wrapping my head in a steamed towel like some mad arab taking a bad trip on LSD anyway. . I'll let you know how it goes in a day or two.


Mick

Well I gave myself a hot water shave yesterday, last night to be precise, and yes it is nice and comfortable during these colder days, but it left me with a more noticable to the touch roughness in the areas which give me the most problem, under the jaw bone and two small spots on the adams apple. Having said that, one hot water shave, is not a definative study to base anything on. I still prefer the cold water shave nevertheless. For no other reason than it is less hassle trying to adjust the water temp to just right when trying a hot water shave.


Mick

I just can't bring myself to do a hot water shave anymore.I like Mick get the same results when doing hot water.Cold feels more soothing to me now and along with Mitchells wool fat and some Ogallala with the witch hazel in it,my results are smooove !

Thank You!!!!!! I am very thankful for you starting this thread. I have tried it now as well and have also found the book (thanks for that CaliforniaCajun) and read it. My shaves have greatly improved. I can almost get by with one pass now. Shaving with a straight just gets better and better thanks to this forum.