One of the things you have to ask yourself is "why do we recommend and use hot water then"?

It is always recommended that we pay particular attention to preparation when shaving. That prep consists of very hot towels laid on the beard and then again with soap applied we lay the hot towel on again. So why do we do this?

The hair folicles are covered with a protective outer shell called Kerotin. If you were to look at a hair under a microscope you would see this. It looks somewhat like the skin of an Armidillo, running the length of the hair folicle. When we apply the hot towel to the beard, we essentially cause these to open up and allow the inner core of the hair to absorb the warm water. Thus softening up the hair itself. When we do it again with lather applied, we create a situation where the inner part of the hair can absorb the oils and softeners and thus make the hair folicle soft and more easy to cut with a razor.

Can we shave with cold water? Sure we can. In fact if we rinse with cold water, you will almost never have razor burn. But shavig with cold water will most likely never allow you to get that BBS shave you are looking for.

Ray