Thread: The use of hot and cold water, and the preparation of the beard, book excerpt 1869.

I'm back to cold water shaving every day and absolutely love it! It really helps wake me up after 5 hours of sleep and a full/hectic work week/year old son.

I use warm water and soap applied to the beard, wait 5-6 minutes and wash with cold water. Then I use cold running water with alum (I hold alum under cold water and then apply on the face) and mixing with leftover of the leather after shaving. This combination works very well for me, cold water, alum and leather. Then just last splash with pure witch-hazel ($3 for big bottle) some after shave and ready to go.

Yea, well into my second week of cold water face lather shaving with no plans to go back to using hot water or a scuttle. It works and I like the simplicity of it.

Bob

I go with a hot water prep and an R. Becker 004 medium scuttle with very hot water in the scuttle jacket, but before I apply the later and work it into the face I rinse with very cold water and then apply the lather and work it in very hard and rough with my Boar hair/or Badger Hair brush's.
It seems to tighten the skin and does a great job of standing the hairs up on my face to receive the edge of my blade.
My final rinse is always very cold water, then all my touch ups go quicker.

So. it's hot prep, cold rinse, lather up with hot lather, and after my 3 pass's a very cold rinse for final touch ups, that's me in a nut shell!!

Have a great shave on me blokes!!

tinkersd

Based on this and another thread I tried my first cold water shave this AM. Not at all unpleasant and about the same results in terms of results as with hot water, I think. I'll try it a few more times and keep it as part of my shaving options. Great tip. It certainly saves time in not waiting for the hot water to appear.

Originally Posted by JimmyHAD

Sure Martin. In that 1905 booklet the author recommends lathering (cold) and rubbing it into the beard vigorously. That is my total prep, and IIRC , is what the book recommends. I lather again and do a pass. Lather once more and a second pass. On rare occasions I may lather my neck a third time for a third pass on the neck only.

The booklet also recommends doing WTG on each pass. He says ATG causes irritation. I've tried that but decided I like WTG followed by ATG and as long as I only do two passes, which is all I really need, I don't get irritation.

Most times I could actually get by with the one pass. Especially on the cheeks. The neck and chin would be acceptable but not BBS. I normally do the two just because I like lathering and shaving.

I enjoyed the hot water, vigorous face washing before lathering, along with the warm lather from the Moss scuttle, but I save so much time, and get such good shaves with the cold water method that I couldn't see myself going back to hot.

BTW, I'm coming up on 3 years of cold water shaving now.

I have to try that

You guys keep doing that, and your poor razors are going to get Arthritus.

I use warm water to wash my face, and warm water for the lather, but rinse the blade in cold water. I just started two days ago, but I do like the feeling of it. The only problem I see is maybe a higher potential for rust, since a cold blade won't dry out as quick as a hot blade would. But I also don't think that matters, if you're doing good razor maintenance.

Originally Posted by regularjoe

I use warm water to wash my face, and warm water for the lather, but rinse the blade in cold water. I just started two days ago, but I do like the feeling of it. The only problem I see is maybe a higher potential for rust, since a cold blade won't dry out as quick as a hot blade would. But I also don't think that matters, if you're doing good razor maintenance.

You could always wash it with hot at the end of the shave?

Love this, It can be very helpful because I have sometimes little time to shave. I'll try it.