shaving BEFORE showering?

I know this goes against conventional wisdom, but what person who uses a straight razor is really conventional anyway?!

The other night I needed a shave, but didn't necessarily need a shower, so I just splashed my face with plenty of hot water, and got to shaving... with great results. I am thinking there may be something to the fact (for my face at least) that stiffer whiskers cut more cleanly than saturated ones. I'm going to experiment with shaving before I shower in the morning. This way, any nicks or minor irritation from shaving should be soothed by the shower, and washing my face after the shave. Get out of the shower and apply some balm/moisturizer... this could work.

Andrew

*hrm ... glad it's him and not me*
I look forward to hearing the gory details!

X

I often do this as well, not sure about the value though. I think if you use a shave oil that would help, both before (just because) and after because your replacing the oil that you lost in the shower. I also have a small hot water heater, so it's either a shower and a shave with cool water or a shave with hot water. I still think after the shower is a little better though. From my experiments. Good thing about your approach is you have time to assess missing a spot and your face is hydrated after you get out. Lots of guys shave at night as well, which makes sense too.

I think it all depends on the kind of beard you have. I've found that for me it doesn't matter if I shave before or after showering but since I usually use a hot towel that probably is the equal of the heat in the shower. The only thing is, as I understand if you incurr any irritation in shaving the cold water and aftershave- witchhazel routine will help but if you first go in a hot shower it might make it worse. if you nick yourself the hot water in the shower will not help the bleeding.

I think it does depend upon your beard. I shave after I shower and I think it works better for me.

Well, the shave went just fine (no nicks or irritation) but it wasn't as close as after showering. I think there is definitely some truth when people say it helps to give your face/beard a little time to "wake up" before shaving. I think this is why my shave last week, when I shaved at night without showering before-hand worked so well. Waking up first thing in the morning, and not doing proper beard prep is just too much to ask. I do notice, though, that I don't have quite as much irritation this morning, as I sometimes have otherwise. Being in the shower after shaving provides all that extra moisture that just can't be captured by splashing your face with water after shaving. The other potential unknown in this equation is I was using a razor that I had just honed and was testing. There's a chance the razor itself isn't sharp enough yet, though I think it probably is. I'll have to shave with it again after showering to really see where it's at. On weekdays, I will continue to shower first, then shave. But on Saturdays, I may just shave at night.

One other thing. I wake up at 5:30 a.m. and was still pretty groggy when raising the blade to my face. Showering first certainly wakes me up and allows me to be more alert... which is a good thing. Yeah, I don't think I will be repeating this experiment.

Andrew

I've tried shaving before showering and using hot towels only. For me the quality of the shave was not as good. Even letting the lather sit on my face and using pre-shave oil it wasn't as good as a shave after the shower.

The point in shaving after showering is to remove skin oils, and allow the lather and water to penetrate the facial hair more easily later. To make the razor glide on the skin surface easily (now without it's natural oils) bentonite clay is added in almost all soaps and cremes, or something similar to that. Preshave oil is also used.

The point in two barbering towels is exactly the same. When you go to the barber, he doesen't make you to go and wash your face. Instead, he puts one hot towel, lather (this washes your face), puts another hot towel (to remove the the (dirty) soap residue) and then lathers finaly and shave. The reason why the towels are hot, is to stimulate sebaceous and sudoriferous glands in the skin to produce sweat and oils to come to the surface and provide aditional lubrication.

So, instead showering than shaving, you can also wash your face with hot water and soap well, and then procede to lathering and shaving. If you want some romance, then use the two hot towels.

I'm gona go out on a limb here and say I can't tell much difference if I shave befor or after my shower. In fact, I think I get a better shave if I do it befor my shower. I'm thinking hair is waterproof, but skin can become waterlogged. If so, with lots of hot water your skin will puff up leaving less wisker to cut off, giving you a shave thats not as close. Please dont flame me, its MHO. Mabe you can change my mind on theory, but I get a nice clean shave ether way.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by bones59

I'm thinking hair is waterproof, but skin can become waterlogged. If so, with lots of hot water your skin will puff up leaving less wisker to cut off, giving you a shave thats not as close.

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Isn't it that puffiness in the follicle cells which cause them to extend the root of the hair as far as it needs to so it has room for all the warm moisture inside the cell. I think that's what I'm experiencing by showering first.:confused:

X

I think this is turning into a logic problem of hasty generalization. I think we can agree that a good shave is possible without a shower. Most barbers would agree atleast on principle with this. What happens after that would depend on skin type and prep. Some skin would puff out from heat, some hair follicals would extend, depending on the person. I think that you could also mimic the shower characteristics with pre-sink prep if you wanted to. I read a blog about a guy who couldn't figure out for weeks why he gets great shaves at the gym....dohhhh its because of the sweat you've soaked your beard in for an hour. I lliked what Superfly said about prep...makes sense that a shave before a shower would work IF you mimic the characteristics of a shower in your prep.

Hey I found this on the internet. Its not the end all to be all, but I might be wrong, mabe.

"Water is made of hydrogen and oxygen—it's called H2O because every molecule of water has two hydrogen atoms (H2) and an oxygen atom (O). When you wet your hair, water molecules sneak in between the proteins of the cortex and join these hydrogen bonds. Your hair swells up, absorbing up to 30 percent of its weight in water.

In wet hair, one protein molecule doesn't bond directly to another protein molecule. Instead, a protein is stuck to a water molecule, which is sticking to another water molecule, which is sticking to another protein. That's much weaker than having one protein stuck directly to the other protein—which is why wet hair is much weaker and more likely to break than dry hair. "