Thread: Hot or Cold water?

Cold water.
Less irretetion for me.... and I just love the cool sensetion on my skin... especially in the summer

I have a hot water heater for a reason. Hot shower and hot water shave. Cold water rinse to close the pores.

I always rinse the razor with hot water, prep my face with hot water, and final rinse my face with cold water.

Originally Posted by tim85a

That is a good point! I think I'll give cold ago and see what I like best!

What have you decided?

I became a cold water convert a couple years ago and haven't shaved with hot water since. In the summer I really dig ice water shaves. Here in Florida the cold tap water isn't really cold and when the weather is really hot the ice water is very nice, not to mention a great eye opener.

Though certainly not the "end all" as any expert opinion, I have indeed had to use cold water when there was no hot water to be had here in the sandbox. Here's my take...hot water seems to work better for face prep and soaking the brush getting it ready to lather up...cold water seems to rinse the soap off better. I initially thought that the cold water prep would cause the whiskers to come up similar to when you get goosebumps but honestly couldn't tell a difference.

Originally Posted by tim85a

Hi Guys,

I got my first razor last week and have had a few shaves with it now and am slowly learning.

I was talking to someone at work the other day and he said he remembers reading somewhere that you should use cold water to rinse the razor and warm water to prep your face. Is this right?

Thanks for the help.
Tim

I used to love the idea of hot water and warm (e.g. scuttle) lather for a shave. But one day I decided to give slightly cool water a try -- and could not believe how much more comfortable my skin felt.

I should premise by saying that below my jawline, to each side of my adam's apple, the grain of my course hair not only comes together from multiple directions (making it almost impossible to go purely WTG in a half-dollar size area of skin), but the skin there is also a bit sensitive.

My suspicion is that heat of the hot water prep was creating a tiny bit of irritation, giving the mild irritation from the razor that much more of a head start... and that using slightly cool water prevents it.

I tried a cold water face shave earlier this week. Can't say I enjoyed it. I found it irritating. The irritation was confirmed when I splashed on some aftershave. I went back to a hot wash cloth, hot lather and cold rinse. I am going to try tuning the edge for better results with cold water. I think first I will try to finish on Coticule instead of JNat and see what result that brings. I did not try cold on my head which demands optimal prep.

Switched to cold shaving and really prefer it.

It's nice once in a while to break out the scuttle and have a nice hot shave with some hot lather, but day to day, cold shave gives me less irritation in far less time.

Seems like this is a preference issue. My only cold shaves were in the mirror of a Jeep in the Army. It wasn't a good experience, but nothing else there was either.

I think I'll give it a fair try again, since Phrank is so enthusiastic, and I generally benefit from paying attention to his posts.