SMF

I thought that it might be interesting to hear about other SMFer's shaving procedures. What's in your daily shave routine?

As for me, my usual procedure:

1. Shower. I find that a good shower always softens the beard and opens the pores.

2. After the shower I soak a washcloth in hot water.

3. While that's soaking I make my lather.

4. I apply a quick coating of lather, then slightly wring out the hot washcloth, and then apply it to my face, soaking the lather off and warming and rewetting my beard.

5.I then lather up and start the shave. I do 3 passes- WTG, XTG and ATG, re-lathering in between passes. I dont rinse between passes.

6. after shaving I wet the washcloth with warm water and dab the lather off of my face. I don't rub so as to not irritate my freshly shaven face.

7. I apply an astringent, usually Thayers, and let it dry a bit.

8. I rinse with the coldest water that I can get out of my tap, then blot my face dry.

9. I apply an after shave moisturizer. I like Trumpers Skin Foods, T&H Aftershave Balms and AOS Aftershave Balms & Gels (balm in the cooler months and gels in the warmer ones).

10. Comb my hair, apply talc and a scent.

After that I'm ready to conquer the world! What do you do?

Craig, After decades of fooling around with all this, mine is simplicity itself.
Note: These days I shower after I shave and it is after the shower that the talc and cologne go on. Don't ask....it has to to with the availability of sufficently hot water.
1) Set out today's brush and cream or soap...razor is always the same.
2)Splash hot water on my beard
3) Throughly wet the brush in hot running water and commence to make a lather, either on the soap cake or in the bowl with a blob of cream.
4) Throughly apply lather and shave; first pass N/S, re-wet the face and relather and second pass also N/S
5) For the final pass, I re-wet the face again, relather as normal and then squeeze the extra lather from the brush by hand and dab it on. Third pass is mainly XTG.
Rinse with cold water, pat dry, and apply a generous helping of Harris's Pink A/S....and that's it.
Regards,
Gordon

Splash hot water on my beard
wet the brush in hot running water and commence to make a lather,
apply lather and shave....one pass only
re-lather face
rinse brush and basin
wipe off lather on face with paper towel
RWA to be kissed!

clive

sometimes i shower then shave,, sometimes shave than shower,, no real difference to me.

hot water into the scuttle,, wet my brush and flick out the excess water
load brush annd make lather

rewet my face and blot off excess water.. lather up ..3 passes with a hot water rince between passes.

after the third pass rinse face in cool water and lather again.. clean and dry scuttle and brush and razor since face ,,,dry off and apply aftershave

marc

I enjoy my routine and find it is time well spent, I don't linger when I shave but I also do not rush just a nice steady pace. I generally always shave after a shower.

1. Face wash with Cetaphil, keeping face as wet as possible.
2. Lather with cream or soap, palm lather the cream, face lather the soap.
3. With the Grain pass.
4. Re-lather.
5. Against the Grain pass.
6. Touch up with water.
7. Thorough warm water rinse, followed by cold water.
8. Splash on some witch hazel, Thayers with Aloe of course.
9. A light smear of balm or Bay Rum or other after shave if I feel like it.

My only change lately has been back to using a cartridge either the Mach 3 or Hydro 3 which I started to use on trips when I don't check the bags. Consistently getting above average shaves daily.

1) splash face with hot water
2) build lather with soap or cream
3) 1st pass with the growth pattern
4) 2nd and 3rd passes across the growth pattern
5) splash face with cold water

Something of a hybrid/mix of everyone else's routine.

My routine is pretty simple:

1) Hot shower
2) Soak brush, load from soap, build lather (in bowl or on face)
3) Shave (3 pass, WTG, XTG, ATG)
4) Apply AS
Done

Squire wrote:1) splash face with hot water
2) build lather with soap or cream
3) 1st pass with the growth pattern
4) 2nd and 3rd passes across the growth pattern
5) splash face with cold water

I'm with Squire on this one, for I do the same.

1 )take a nice warm shower
2) splash cold water on face
3) lather up brush
4) go down for first pass
5) go right/left (visa versa) directions for second pass
6) go up for a third pass
7) go up again for a 4th pass
finally get any "touchup" spots I may have missed (pass)
If I ma using my str8 razor so I only go 3 passes then a light touchup
Phew!..yep thats me

-Fill scuttle with hot water, soak brush.
-Shower.
-Empty scuttle, refill outer cup with hot water.
-Load brush, put back in scuttle.
-Wet face with hot water.
-Lather up the face, put brush back in scuttle.
-Shave WTG.
-Wet face before passes 2 (XTG) and 3 (XTG but biased a bit ATG). I don't rinse in the sense of washing; just applying water.
-Rinse face with warm then cold water.
-Apply after shave.
-Smile

Put hot water in the sink. As it's filling I decide on and get out my gear.

Summer, Load the brush with whatever, face lather, that takes 3-4 minutes and it's my prep. In the winter I have a kettle of boiling water to add to the sink, and I put a steaming hot towel (from the sink) on my slightly soapy face for a few minutes, reheating in the sink as required- about 3-4 times as it cools down, then face lather.

Depending on the razor, that determines how many passes and how much buffing. An aggressive razor needs fewer passes and less buffing, a less aggressive razor requires more.

But I always do a N/S 1st pass, relather than a hybrid pass of e/w under my jaw, and a w/e pass below that one and a S/N pass above the jawline and the rest of the face. wet the face with a tiny bit of water, Relather as required, then I blade buff and do the crazy hairs from my adams apple to my chin. Wet the face a tiny bit and feel for any non-BBS hairs, whack them, then rinse, dry and AS.

The routine takes about 13 minutes plus or minus if I remember correctly.

1)This last year I've skipped wetting my face and just lather up with soap or cream for a minute or more. I find this is enough to prepare my whiskers (In the beginning I would wash of the cream and lather up again, but found this didn't have any added affect), then:

2) 1st pass with the growth pattern
3) 2nd and 3rd passes across the growth pattern
4) splash face with cold water
5) aftershave splash/balm

After the shower

Soak brush in warm water in scuttle
Face-lather
Shave
Extract extra lather from brush and rub on face
Clean up
Rinse face
Apply post shave treatments

I shower first, too.
Fill sink with hot water, choose all but razor then. Razor is selected when I decide on blade (weekly).
Soak brush while I shower
Lather: Soaps I face lather, loading brush on puck. Creams I bowl lather
First pass N/S
Light rinse
Lather again
Second pass against grain
Light rinse
Water touchup
Warm rinse, then cold rinse
Pat face partly dry, then aftershave on damp face

My routine is pretty much the same every morning:

Soak Brush
Wet hard soap
Take shower
Pour water off of soap
Squeeze brush and give it a shake
Load brush on soap
Wet face with really warm water
Face lather for first pass
First pass is WTG
Splash of water on face with really warm water
Face lather for second pass
Second pass is XTG
Splash of water on face with really warm water
Face lather for third pass
Third pass is ATG
Splash of water on face with really warm water
Check for any spots that require touch up
Apply lather to spots for touch up and shave
Splash of water on face with really warm water
Splash of water on face with warm water
Splash of water on face with moderately cold water
Splash of water on face with cold water
Clean brush
Pat face dry with a face towel
Apply witch hazel to face

Most days this results in somewhere between DFS and BBS.

brothers wrote:After the shower

Soak brush in warm water in scuttle
Face-lather
Shave
Extract extra lather from brush and rub on face
Clean up
Rinse face
Apply post shave treatments

+1

After trying all sorts of pre and post shave preps early on out of necessity, I've gotten back to the basics in the past couple of years:

Shower
Rinse brush in hot running water
Splash face with hot water
Build lather
Shave WTG, ATG, touch up where necessary
Rinse excess lather off
Apply aftershave splash


It's gotten to the point these days where I keep a few shave sticks, a razor with blade, and my favorite brush in the medicine cabinet over my sink and ignore all the other stuff I accumulated the first three years of learning how to wet shave. The thing that has surprised me the most is that it doesn't matter how long I go between shaves, this same routine works every time - No extra passes needed, no four pass shave.

On most days -
No shower (I do that in the evening)
Nuke water in the scuttle for 99 seconds
While that's heating, I rinse my face with hot water and apply preshave oil
Soak brush in warm water for about a minute
Shake excess water from the brush and lather the cream or soap in the scuttle
Apply lather and shave with two or three passes, reapplying lather each time
Rinse face with cool water
Rinse out the brush with warm water and hang on drying stand, rinse the razor and blade and pat dry (flipping the blade over once before reinserting into the razor)
Apply aftershave and/or balm
Admire the results, then hit the road

After shower:

-Run hot water over brush about 10-15 secs
-Spin brush over the soap puck about 10 secs
-Face lather, scrub first then paint
-Single pass with touch ups
-Rinse, dry and A/S splash

Takes about 10-15 minutes max, DE or Str8