Shaving

slanning on 2006-07-15T18:43:55

I read an article on "how to get that perfect shave" a couple weeks ago, when it was linked to from digg. The article starts out bad; for example, the subtitle is "Latest trends and products to avoid those nicks and cuts". Normally I'd skip on to the next advertisement posing as news, but I kept reading it.

He explains how you need a badger hair shaving brush. Mkay... And a certain kind of shaving cream. A high quality double-edge razor. A lot of the stuff sounds like, yeah maybe in theory that sounds good, but I'm not sure if I'd actually do that. But I did take his advice on putting hot water on your face for a couple minutes (like at the end of my shower), and instead of using a badger hair brush I at least make sure to rub the shaving lather into my face very well.

It actually works. I used to shave my face really quickly, taking a lot of little quick strokes, and my face was always cut up afterward. It doesn't matter how many blades your razor has (I saw one advertised as having five blades the other day - hahah). But now I get my face really hot with wet water, lather it well (not just slap it on), and run the razor (still just a cheap disposable one, though I'm thinking of getting a double-edge razor now) really slowly across your skin. You can almost hear each individual hair getting cut off, but at the same time the hairs aren't as stiff. My face is really smooth now, like a supermodel will want to caress it I'm sure; and no nicks, and my complexion is a lot better.

Blogs are supposed to be inane and banal, so there you go. :)

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Brushes

Dom2 on 2006-07-15T19:19:50

I always use a brush, even though it's not badger hair. I can't stand the ordinary tins of shaving foam (or gel) however. I go for Body ShopShave Cream which works really, really well. Until my wife nicks it to do her legs. ;-)

-Dom

Re:Brushes

grinder on 2006-07-18T09:33:14

I used to use Bodyshop cream, but switched over about 15 years ago to Crabtree & EVelyne shaving soap. It lathers up nicely and lasts forever. I'm on something like my seventh cake of soap after all that time.

They used to make a heavenly sandalwood soap. They used to make all sorts of soap, in fact, but in the past couple of years the bean-counters gained control and cut back the product lines :( Sandalwood got the axe, so I use another one now.

"Some say that's progress. I say that's cruel."

5 blades, or more..

bart on 2006-07-15T20:28:36

I saw this funny little article on Reddit, some months ago... good thing they have a "search site" facility: Moore's Law for razor blades. It's on how, if they keep up the rate for adding more blades, they'll end up with 14 in 2100. A fun read.

advertournalism

gizmo_mathboy on 2006-07-17T12:54:10

I think I read that article as well (in one of my many magazines).

As some that shaves their skull I laughed at it, too.

I using shaving gel and double bladed razor and about the only bits I think are my ears when I don't pay close enough attention to how I'm moving the razor.

Once I'm through my megalow mart quantity of gel I'm thinking of just using soap becuase that's what the foams and gels basically are. I'll probably do a good job of rubbing it in like I typically do.

However, I do sometimes get annoyed with articles that seem to be intended to get one to purchase overpriced stuff and not very informative on technique and information.