Thread: Water shave

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.

I think the residual lather helps, but I don't think its necessary. This AM, for example, I did a pretty thorough rinse before the cleanup. I think you're right that the Feather would be the go-to razor on this. Perhaps this is why I don't get as many shave off of a Pro Super blade as some others.

In any case, there are some places where I can do this and get excellent results. My neck can jawline, to be sure. I've had a tad more trouble doing this with my cheeks. Also, I find that the shave needs to be really close, and the beard reduced quite a bit before I can get away with this. While I say its my third pass, I confess I've done quite a few with the grain and across the grain passes on my chin area, sort of during the first pass, and with the blade at an obscenely big angle, to reduce the beard enough for the razor not to pull or hang up on the water-only clean up. For some reason, on my chin, this just doesn't lead to irritation or ingrowns.

http://www.en.nassrasur.com/razorcentral/secpass.html specifically mentions using a water-only second pass for a plain old straight razor shave. I don't know that I'd want to try that with a conventional straight, though.

Originally Posted by ScottS

Also, I find that the shave needs to be really close, and the beard reduced quite a bit before I can get away with this.

THis is certainly the key to any irritation-fre shave.

I've done quite a few with the grain and across the grain passes on my chin area, sort of during the first pass, and with the blade at an obscenely big angle, to reduce the beard enough

This kind of angle control was the last thing that came for me, and it made a big difference. Usually, I'll reduce with a fairly flat blade and increase the angle on the last pass, usually if I go over a spot a second time. I suspect this is one of the things that experienced shavers don't mention, because a newbie can do a lot of damage with a steep razor angle.

Talking about steep angles, Razor Central shows this traditional move under the nose where the blade comes in perpendicular to the skin and is rotated away from the skin while moving down. It's scary, but it works when you learn how to do it. I don't know of any other way to shave under the nose without shaving towards it.

I used water only for a very long time when I was shaving with the Mach3 and Sensor Excels. Mostly because I couldn't stand the canned gels or foams.

Now I can't go back. The whole process of proper wetshaving beats the water only method hands down.

I should have commented that I do shave around my goatee area every other day with water only. I do this quicly and just to make me look a little less scruffy. The closeness of the shave is nothing special, but that's the way I like it. Gives me a little more whiskers on my cheeks and neck for the "two days growth" shave I do on the even numbered days. The full shave with water only was what I was refering to before.

X

Originally Posted by SharkHat

I used water only for a very long time when I was shaving with the Mach3 and Sensor Excels. Mostly because I couldn't stand the canned gels or foams.

Now I can't go back. The whole process of proper wetshaving beats the water only method hands down.

I was quite surprized when I heard this the first time, but the shaving strips allow that. They add some slippriness.

If you've got soft water then it's pretty slippery all by itself. I shaved with water and a disposable for years when I was in college.