The Steps Of Shaving

Why shave after showering?

That's the ABC of shaving. That is what I would call the most important part of shaving. The reason for that is because when you are in your shower, you are usually showering with hot water. Hot water is the most important product to use to get a close shave. And what that does is very interesting. To get a close shave, we say that preparation is half the shave. What you want to do in able to get a close shave without razor burn, with no bumps, no ingrown, all those things that men complain about, is to shave with the grain. Shave with the grain, but you also need to prepare your skin properly. You need to have your pores very loose, your hair as soft as possible and your hair as raised away from the skin as possible. What the hot water does is basically starts the preparation process. What the hot water does is, while you are in the shower, is just like naturally loosening up the pores and it's starting to soften the hair. It's basically doing the work for you, and you don't have to really suffer and add two or three minutes to do it yourself with a hot towel or something like that. I always recommend to shave in the shower, particularly if you don't have time.

How long should I shower before shaving?

For the hair to start absorbing water, so while you're under the shower there's lots of steam that's working for you and then there's the hot water that's falling onto your skin. And it's really kind of like wetting your hair, and it takes like two minutes for the hair to absorb water. So in those two minutes it's just doing that work for you. So if you're doing it, for example before the shower alright and then you're splashing on water it's not enough. And then we would recommend using a hot towel, but who's got the time right? And if you go to the barber you'll notice that's what they do. They put a hot towel and then just let you sit there. It's not just a romantic thing; it's basically what the shower does for you at home.

Why should I use pre-shave oil?

Well what pre-shave oil does is coats your skin and coats your hair. So what that does is by coating your skin, it's creating a little shield and a layer of protection over your skin so there's never a direct contact between your skin and your razor. That right there cuts off half of the irritation you could have in shaving, because you have that protection right there and that's really important. The other thing that the pre-shave oil does, it coats every single hair, so it allows the razor to glide on easily, so you have less friction and therefore a much better cut of the hair.

Why use shaving cream?

If you try to shave with nothing, and I know some guys do it, right? They'll tell you, well they go to the steam room and then they shave using their sweat, and I'm like, "You know what, fine with you, not fine with me." It's quite an abuse on the skin and what the shaving cream does, the shaving cream protects your skin but also it's all inside of preparing your skin for a close shave. I always recommend using lathering shaving cream, preferably with a brush but even if it's with your fingers it can still work. And the idea there is that lathering shaving cream is a cream when you use a very small amount so when you're lathering it on your skin and it gets in contact with your fingers or with your brush the cream warms us, and then you have a warm cream that's going onto your warm skin, it keeps everything in good condition. And what the cream does, really like it's got an emollient in it usually that will soften your beard and in lathering, really protect your skin and prepare the hair to be shaved easier.

Why use a razor with multiple blades?

The single blade is a very good razor, and it's also an old-fashioned razor. But it's quite difficult to handle, so I don't recommend this type of razor to be used by everybody. You have to know how to use it. The same way that a straight razor could give you a very good, close shave, but that's very dangerous. You know, it's called a “cut throat razor” for a reason. So, when you go into having the more modern razors, it was a way to introduce razors that would be high-performance, extremely sharp, but at the same time, very easy to manoeuvre and to handle, so that you don't need to go to a three-month class to use it. It takes one or two tries, and you're able to pretty much use it and not cut yourself. I will say, ten years ago, in the ‘90's, the Mach 3 razor came about, with the three blades, and that was quite a revolution, because it really changed the way to manoeuvre the razor. And recently, the Fusion came out, which has five blades, and that's really great, because it has blades that are really sharp, and they also flex, so that they follow your contour. But what's interesting with that razor is that they added one single blade on the other side of the razor, and that is great for shaving the sideburns, which is always a little tricky. Because, when you have two, three, four, five blades, it's like those sideburns can never be straight. But with that one blade, it's perfect.

Why rinse the blade?

While you are shaving you see there's like those three or five little blades, and the hair gets caught in between the blades, as well as there is a little bit of the shaving cream. So, when you are using a good shaving cream that is a lathering shaving cream it's not going to clog up your razor; it will wash off easily. But, what you do is you run your blade once or twice across your face, and it just cannot pick up some of the cream, it gets some of the hair stuck into it. So when you rinse it and you tap it very lightly on to the sink, you are clearing out anything and the blade is back to being totally clean to go for another run.