Cold water or hor water?
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Cold water or hor water?
Ok so I know that you want HOT HOT water to open your pores before you shave....but then I keep hearing you splash on cold water close them when you're finished...but if you're applying moisturizer wouldn't you want to use hot water to keep your pores open???
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I actually shave before I shower, so I don't even use the cold water splash. Showering takes care of all the left over shave cream and bits of whisker and gives everything time to settle, so it works just as well that way. The cold water trick is great for giving your face a really fresh, clean sorta shine, though. When it comes to moisturizer or balm, it doesn't make that much of a difference.
Back before I discovered "real" shaving, when I was using a Mach3 and Edge gel from the can and getting razor burn and pimple-rash every time I shaved, I used the following cold water trick to ameliorate the problems a bit:
I brought a few ice cubes in to the bathroom when shaving, and I dunked them into a larger bowl of cold tap water. That bowl was strictly for rinsing the razor. Thus, a warm face with warm(ish) lather would encounter what I (perhaps wrongly) thought of as "hard steel" because the blades were cold. Rinsing the blades in cold water, my theory was, could harden the metal slightly and thus allow less "warp" in any dimension along the blade, thus reducing the likelihood of a minor geometric deviation and improving the chance of getting an un-irritating shave.
It did work, to some small extent, this ice-cube trick. It also added yet another step to the horrible regimen of a million steps necessary to prevent the Mach3-plus-Edge combination from destroying my face.
Now that I am wise to the solution, I only use a decent foaming shave cream or soap or two or three, fluffed with a brush, and a single-edge blade (usually a safety razor). This prevents from arising the problems which the ice cube had been designed to solve. So, I am free to shun the cold water.
I prefer hot water throughout the shave for all facets of the act now.
I brought a few ice cubes in to the bathroom when shaving, and I dunked them into a larger bowl of cold tap water. That bowl was strictly for rinsing the razor. Thus, a warm face with warm(ish) lather would encounter what I (perhaps wrongly) thought of as "hard steel" because the blades were cold. Rinsing the blades in cold water, my theory was, could harden the metal slightly and thus allow less "warp" in any dimension along the blade, thus reducing the likelihood of a minor geometric deviation and improving the chance of getting an un-irritating shave.
It did work, to some small extent, this ice-cube trick. It also added yet another step to the horrible regimen of a million steps necessary to prevent the Mach3-plus-Edge combination from destroying my face.
Now that I am wise to the solution, I only use a decent foaming shave cream or soap or two or three, fluffed with a brush, and a single-edge blade (usually a safety razor). This prevents from arising the problems which the ice cube had been designed to solve. So, I am free to shun the cold water.
I prefer hot water throughout the shave for all facets of the act now.
I use the same handtowel I used for the hot towel pre-shave to do the WWR and soap cleanup, then soak it in cold water, apply to face and wipe/scrub briskly. Now I'm ready for the alum block and Thayer's WH.
Der Fritzer
"There are nine and sixty ways of constructing tribal lays, and every single one of them is right!" R. Kipling
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"There are nine and sixty ways of constructing tribal lays, and every single one of them is right!" R. Kipling
My Working Stuff
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Ditto what Chris Moss wrote above. Just a word of caution; very warm water to soften the beard, but not hot, HOT ( as in uncomfortable or scalding ). And yes, Michael, as a experiantially 'senior' member here, you need to tighten up your act a little ( chuckle ). No room for such sloppy pragmatism when it comes to shavegeekery you know.
Regards,
Gordon
Regards,
Gordon
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- fallingwickets
- Clive the Thumb
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