Thread: Water shave

Bigspendur,

You ain't a sissy. Just think of yourself as a refined
man of luxary.


Terry

i'm definitely the type of person who would rather say he shaves with water only, but after trying it, i have to say i think even a little bar soap applied with the hand to lubricate the skin makes a world of difference regarding comfort. really, the five dollars i spent on a boar brush and the four dollars i spent on a cake of soap seem like a small price to pay given how long they last. also, i don't spend a lot of time on the lather; i just wet the brush before i get in the shower to let it soak up water, wet the soap to let it soften, then when i get out of the shower i spend 15 or 20 seconds lathering up. no worries.

Shaving is an experience. It doesn't matter if you use a straight razor, DE, or a disposable. What matters are the components. A brush, a quality shaving cream or soap, and the razor. With all the available items, why shave with just water? However, the lather is important. It provides the "slick" you need to keep your razor from "biting" you. Regardless of the razor that you use, with shaving, the individual parts equal the sum. Why take shortcuts?

RT

Well, in theory, the razor glides over the oil and sweat from your glands. The soap serves the purpose of degreasing the hair and allow the water to saturate them up to 40% of their original size. So, if you wash the face really good in the shower, and rince it again with hot water later (to get the oil and sweat going) you should be able to shave yourself just as good as with soap or creme. Have to try that sometime... However, the other day, I left the soap for too long, stropping my razor with lather on my face (I usually do this before showering). My face felt like it was, uhm, dissolving. Like the "protection" was gone. Needles to say, the shave was realy lousy. So, don't overdoit with the soap thing...

Nenad

What type of soap were you using, hard or glycerine? Did you re-wet the lather on your face before starting to shave? I use hard soaps and definitely prefer lathering up before I strop.

That's why I lather, strop, rinse, re-lather.

I was running late before going to work last night, and thought I'd just skip shaving; but when I got out of the shower, I decided to do the "just water" thing w/ my Merkur HD Slant Bar. It worked fine. Close shave, no burn or nicks. But it just wasn't as much fun!

What he says may be true about the usual canned crap, but there's really an advantage to using a good lather. And I don't mean expensive. There are some good canned products out there like Noxema and some good gels. Some gys have used water, but it's not for most of us. You don't know what kind of skin or beard those guys had.

With great prep you soften the beard and achieve much of what the lather does, but it has more body and helps stand up the hairs. Also, a good lather is quite slippery. Plain water can't come close, especially if you've just prepped your face and removed natural oils.

I woulldn't even try it unless you have very tough skin and/or a light beard. You might get away with it on your cheeks, but watch out for the neck and some of the trouble spots. Why invite trouble? barbers have been using lather for ages. They don't make money on it. If anything it's an expense to them. Why would they use it and suffer the extra expense. Sometimes it even meant getting a lather machine, which is not cheap.

I do a 2 pass shave with my Feather AC, and then a pretty thorough cleanup pass. The last pass is without lather. I just rewet my face without rinsing it off. Sometimes, there's some residual slickness there from my previous pass, sometimes not.

There's nothing like seeing the very last vestiges of whisker being lopped off and running off the blade with the water.

Originally Posted by ScottS

I do a 2 pass shave with my Feather AC, and then a pretty thorough cleanup pass. The last pass is without lather. I just rewet my face without rinsing it off. Sometimes, there's some residual slickness there from my previous pass, sometimes not.

There's nothing like seeing the very last vestiges of whisker being lopped off and running off the blade with the water.

It's the residual slickness that makes that work. If you washed your face clean and just used water, it wouldn't be as smooth. But the Feather AC is the razor that could do it, if any razor could.