Quote Originally Posted by mischievous View Post
Yes, I've used that and it works well but I'm going to try this one next:
1. In the shower, Wet face with warm water.
2. Smear on generous amount of Proraso preshave
3. Shower, washing face last, gently rinsing only non-bearded area
4. Apply Preshave oil
5. Soak hot towel, DO NOT wring it out. Apply to face fully soaked with hot water.(do this for a couple minutes) repeat of you like.
6. Before exiting shower, rub face gently with hot/soaked towel to remove any excess preshave. Face is very slippery at this point.
7. Apply Proraso Prep presahve cream again.
(Exit shower)
8. Apply lather to face, with brush.....then rub in with fingertips. Rinse with hot water
9. Re-apply and fully lather face. Then shave.
Stay Tuned...
I'm here to tell you that the overall technique you describe ought to do wonders for softening a really tough beard. It's very similar to the "800-pound gorilla" technique posted here (see post #10 and following, especially the updates at the end, post #48).

I use Noxzema instead of Proraso in step 2, and there are several different mixes for the oil cleanser, most of which are probably cheaper than the premium shave oils.