Cold Water Truck Stop Shave

I've been travelling, off and on, looking for homes, etc. This past week I chose not to use a motel but instead slept in truck stop parking lots and purchased showers for 5 dollars. I had a lot of ground to cover and wasn't sleeping more than a few hours at a time anyways so motels would have been wasted money.

I took along 4 razors in a real cigar box (thanks again Lynn for the boxes), alcohol, oil, q-tips, a surrey boars hair brush, and my first home made strop. I don't know if it was just my luck or what but every single truck stop I showered in did not have hot water working. For my shave I took extra care to wash my face well and wet it regularly while showering in cold water (talk about a wake up call). After the shower I stood in front of the mirror and took extra care to lather with my home made soap made with shea butter, aloe vera, vegetable lard and coconut oil, superfatted (thanks Colleen for the info on superfatting). I worked the lather into my face really well, going over my face and forcing the brush against the grain with every stroke, spending much more time lathering than I usually do.

Two things I noticed. 1, I shaved just as well as I normally do with a nice hot steam bath preceeding the shave. 2) the moisturizers really worked better on my face.

I'm wondering now if I've been using TOO hot a shave before. Generally with lather almost hot and using hot water to rinse the blade, even with moisturizing soaps my face wasn't as soft as it was after this shave. Plus there was zero irritation after the shave. When I first started using a straight I'd get a fair amount of irritation with a cold water shave, now none at all. Maybe my technique has improved.

With all the moving hysteria I've taken to shaving wherever I can, whenever I can and sometimes the water isn't steaming. But just maybe with proper prep and technique, hot water prep and shave isn't 100% necessary.

I could have just gotten lucky in an otherwise miserable situation too, though I think the moisturizers along with the extra time spent with the lather brush helped soften the beard in the absence of good hot water. Any thoughts?

Glen F

that is why when I was long hauling I didn't shave...

you will fing truck stops vary widely as far as "quality" of accomidations...

Petro is one of the better ones followed by Pilot. some of the independents are a crap shoot, when they are good the are VERY good, but when they are bad they are scarey...

Just think of it this way, in the old days many didn't even have hot water or where they did it was probably luke warm. So if they survived to shave another day I guess we're just a bunch of pampered spoiled guys. Many of the old timers will tell you they shaved with cold water and either no shaving cream or just used hand soap.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by MaduroMan_wcp

Petro is one of the better ones followed by Pilot. some of the independents are a crap shoot, when they are good the are VERY good, but when they are bad they are scarey...

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Aren't Pilot the ones with the eau de toilette dispensers? That chain tends to have very clean toilets. At least from my experience during our road trip two years ago.

Hot water is one of those things that in our modern world is taken for granted. Unfortunate, as hot water from the tap is actually a luxury. It was not so long ago, just the 1900s, that the stove had to be lit with kindling and wood split by hand, from wood that had come from trees from the wood lot, bucked, stacked and dried.

I wonder if the cold water would contract the
skin allowing for a closer shave?? :shrug:

Just a thought.



Terry

Dunno about the cold water causing the skin to draw tight. That sounds logical though, since that's the first thing to do after a shave is to rinse with cold water so it closes the pores back.

I do know the hot water towels, etc. cause any dirts and oils to loosen much faster than normal, and also promotes the absorption of moisture into the beard much faster. Unfortunately, just my experience, high heat causes the moisture to evaporate faster. It's almost a catch 22.

When I set up my bathroom like a steam room, keeping the room full of steam, after a good hot shower, I get great results. The room doesn't allow for evaporation because of the excessively high humidity. Unfortunately I can't do that on a regular basis. The answer, it seems, has been not to worry about the ultimate shave, or now perhaps spend extra time care on prep and use soaps with high moisturizer content.

RE: moisturizers and cold water. Using water that is too hot can really dry out your skin. I have a problem with oily skin, and it may sound paradoxical, but it helped when I started taking my showers just a bit cooler.

When I used to use the hottest water I could stand, it dried my skin very badly. And then my skin reacted by producing more oil to try to compensate, and I would break out in pimples even though my teen years were long past. Using hot-but-not-so-hot-as-before water, and following with a good moisturizer post-shave, my skin feels much better. It's not as oily and has fewer blemishes.

As far as the cold showers are concerned, try this. Fill a one gallon plastic jug and then use a stove (alcohol is most economical but propane/butane is faster) to bring about one quart of it to a boil and pour it back into the jug. Then use a collapsible wash basin that can be purchased from many camping/backpacking stores and pour in about a quart of warm water. Add a small amount of liquid soap or use bar soap to make some suds and go over yourself with a washcloth. Then use the rest of the warm water to rinse off. Not as good as a hot shower but not as bad as a cold one. :)

sounds like good camping advice :). I'll have to see if I can find a collapsible basin at one of the local camp gear stores to have around.