SMF

Hello, is using soap necessary to wash your face before shaving?. Afterall im gonna be using a shaving soap to shave or is just hot water alone good enough?.

Thanks.

Hot water will do. If your face is already clean there's no point in washing it again.

Forgot to say I have dry/dehydrated skin too so id I was washing with soap then shaving with soap I guess that's a double do.

Especially since you added that you have dryish skin I would say definitely forgo any pre-shave wash with soap. Warm/hot water alone should suffice....that's all I ever use, or do before lathering.
Regards,
Gordon

+3 on the hot water. I usually shave after showering, and before I get out, stand and let the hot water just run directly on my face for a minute or so. Works for me, ymmv.

Agreed, with dryish skin I would limit face washing with soap. I don't think your shave will suffer as a result.

And do you guys "feel clean"? Isn't soap supposed to get rid of any impurities or oil on your face before shaving?.

Martin I don't think it's an issue of clean or not clean, we are talking about applying soap twice to the shaving area and that is a redundancy.

Squire wrote:Martin I don't think it's an issue of clean or not clean, we are talking about applying soap twice to the shaving area and that is a redundancy.

This is how I see it as well. To me shaving is the process I use to cleanse my face. Unless I have a particularly dirty face from some kind of physical activity, the only soap I take to my face is shaving soap. When I find myself with dirt on my face, then yes I would clean it --- using The Body Shop Face Wash -- but that's rare --- very rare for me.

I usually shave after a nice hot shower. And I do use soap to wash my face in the shower. Of course I do use a great soap that Wendell would highly recommend. I use Mitchell's Wool Fat bath soap. I get out of the shower, dry off except my face and then make the lather and shave away.

If for some reason I decide not to shave in the morning after a shower and find that for some reason I need to shave that afternoon I will simple soak a wash rag or a shaving towel in hot water and hold it to my face for about a minute. Then get on with the shaving.

I got the Michael Ham book on gourmet shaving. He recommends using a glycerin soap as a pre-shave wash and I've been doing that ever since. Any glycerin soap will work, according to him, but he likes Musgo Real lime. I bought the Musgo Real lavender, and I like it very much - not sure that it really makes a lot of difference. When it runs out I will try doing without it to see if I notice any change.

Several of the commonly voiced tips didn't pan out too well for me: the hot/moist towel as a pre-shave didn't seem to help my shave any. It feels good, but I'm not convinced it is truly beneficial. Another tip that didn't do it for me was the Proraso pre-shave. I tried it because I love almost everything Proraso makes, but the pre-shave cream just seemed expensive and pointless - some people rave about it - YMMV.

Two tips that DID help me were:
(1) Cold water shaves
(2) alum block to finish.

Biff I experimented with a good many pre shave applications over the years finally concluding that for me none worked better than ordinary soap and water. I really believe the only persons truly benefiting from such products are the folks who sell them.

Now the secret's out.
PS: I know cold works good, but I prefer warm, just because.

Hardly a secret as we've discussed it for years, however cold water shaving is a viable option.

I was making reference (with tongue in cheek) to the fact that the ones who benefit from pre-shave lotions, soaps and oils are the manufacturers of them.

Back in the days of yore when I was younger I would shave before a shower. When I did so I washed with whatever hand soap was at hand (usually the old formula, brown cake of Yardley's English Lavender, if I recall correctly). But back in those days most hand soaps and body soaps had the glycerin stripped out so that was why it worked for me. If I didn't do this I really felt it in the shave. I used Noxzema skin cream as my shaving cream in those days.

Now I shave after a shower and don't wash my beard area but let hot water wash over the area like others have mentioned. It works quite well. I think because it washes away any skin oils that jacket your whiskers.

One thing I've been doing lately though is pre-lathering with hot soapy water/thin lather from my shaving soap, stropping my blade then following with a full lathering. I may have the pre-lather on a minute or so but I perceive that it helps a tiny bit. I think it might because it helps re-soften the whiskers after drying off from a shower because it's mostly hot water and less soap (but you've got to get it right so it's not running down your face and throat - accomplished with practice). The intent is to mimic the lathering and hot towel of a barber shave. This may help others.

I may abandon this in the future and see if I notice a difference but for now it works quite well.

Chris

Chris I do much the same by cleaning my face with soap and hot water in the shower then starting to shave while my face is still wet. This has taught me a few things:

a) clean, oil free whiskers cut better,and,
b) water softened whiskers cut closer.

ThePossum wrote:I usually shave after a nice hot shower. And I do use soap to wash my face in the shower. Of course I do use a great soap that Wendell would highly recommend. I use Mitchell's Wool Fat bath soap. I get out of the shower, dry off except my face and then make the lather and shave away.

If for some reason I decide not to shave in the morning after a shower and find that for some reason I need to shave that afternoon I will simple soak a wash rag or a shaving towel in hot water and hold it to my face for about a minute. Then get on with the shaving.

This pretty much describes my daily shaving routine.

Everyone is different. I normally shower then shave. I have tried just washing my face and then shaving but it seems that I get more nicks and not as close a shave that way. I even tried washing with Mr. Glo but it didn't matter. Showering first where I scrub my face first and then leave it wet to shave works best for me.

Before shaving i use only warm water to relax skin