Late last month David posted an article titled, “How to Shave Properly.” The overall message conveyed is correct, however, there are additional details that I personally believe cannot be overlooked. This second episode of the original post comes from my silky smooth shave experienced this morning.

Often, specifically meny, shave with hopes of achieving that perfect burn-free, bumpless and closer than imagineable shave that only seems to apply to celebrities. Every man can successfully have this shave, upon spending a little money and making sure they add a little more time to their morning preparation schedule.

Wet-shaving seems to primarily cover the topic of hair-removal for both men and women. Keeping the surface area of the skin wet before, during and after one shaves seems to be quite important. To clear up some questions, shave after showering, never before. If you’re unable to shower before you shave, simply wash your face for a few minutes with hot water. The hot water causes your pores to open up and relax the muscles of the face. Give your face and whiskers plenty of time to absorb the water, otherwise you’ll literally be playing a tug-of-war match with your facial hair.

Trust me I used to be a guy who used disposable razors and lathered up using his finger tips and some cheap knock-off shaving cream with Aloe. It was the best shaving cream option I could find in an aerosol can, yet unbelievably different from the real deal. If you’re looking for that perfect shave, one leaving your skin moisturized and lovely to touch. A shave so simple in process, yet so great that your partner will not pull away for fear of being scraped by your face carpet, once previously in existence.. follow these steps.

Get a brush to lather you up. A genuine badger-hair brush is the single most important change you can make in your shave. Shaving with a brush, made specifically of badger-hair is proven to increase the quality of your shave. Many imitations exist, ones made with boars hair, etc, however they are more prickly and rough than the traditional badger-hair brush.

Badger hair brushes can range from $50.00 to $600.00. However, unless you’re a face or neck model, I do not believe a premium quality, european hand made, neck of the badger brush is neccissary. A good brush will average around $70 to $100.00 and be all you need for your upcoming perfect shave. The purpose of a badger brush is the hair absorbs water better than anything else, combined with quality shaving cream and a tub the brush lifts the hair and allows for the whiskers of your face to be held up in the lather.

The brush removes dead skin and exfoliates removing other elements from your skin prior to shaving. Thus leaving nothing more than hair to be mowed down by your razor upon shaving.

The next thing you should considor is trash your disposable razors. Yeah yeah, they’re nifty because you get them in travel cases and free in hotels, however, they are cheap and the hair on your face is tougher than the blades of those razors. Do yourself a huge favor, at least switch to a non-disposable razor. Although the best option would be a double edge safety razor, one such as John Wayne or JFK used, however, not everyone is comfortable with attempting the DE to the neck routine. Check out classicshaving.com’s list of DE razors.
Once you have your new tools and ready to give a new shave routine a try, simply take a shower. A nice hot shower and you are already one step closer to a smoother and closer shave. Upon exiting the shower, begin to fill your sink up with hot water. Put your badger-hair brush in the sink as the water fills up. Splash some more hot water on your face to make sure your face stays wet to the max.

Remove the brush from the water, hold is upside down and allow the water to drain off. Begin to switch the tips of the brush in your tub of shaving cream until you begin to see a small amount of white lather. Using the right amount of lather comes with a few experiences of shaving with a brush. You’ll determine this perfect amount on your own once you have a few shaves under your belt.

Lather up your face using your brush in an up and down fashion. Repeat the process over your face and neck until there is a moderately thick layer of opaque white lather on your shaving surface. Next, you must decide if you’re going to go with a straight razor, a.k.a. the cut throat, or continue on with your traditional style razor. If you’re going to stick with a mach 3 style lazy mans razor, make sure you at least swap to a cartridge style. They are a few dollars more for a set of razors which isn’t much more per shave. You will definitely notice a huge difference if shaving with a brush. However, swapping razors helps too.

If you’re going to use a straight razor, you must unlearn all the lazy tricks you learned while shaving half asleep with your sensor fx, fusions and mach quad blade shaving razors. With a straight razor, you must never push down or push the razor against your face. Simply drag the blade with the grain of your whiskers gently and you will remove the hair. Do not push, repeat, do not push, once again DO NOT PUSH! Pushing the razor and you will regret it, you will learn why.

Once you’re done shaving its time to utilize some great after shave oitment to keep that skin moisturized! You do not want to put any type of ‘alcohol’ based substance on your face. Your face should not smell like your deodorant. A great resource for lotions, oitments and balms for your face is qedusa.com.

Valentines day for men is alot different than women. However, ladies, if you want to know the greatest gift you could get a man, outside of a new ferrari or porsche auto. Give him a gift certificate to an old school barbershop where he can get his shoes shined, hair cut, and face shaved the classic and tradiontal way. Hopefully one of these joints is available where you are — if not, make a drive!

Photos: Stocks (RF)

Tags: shaving, tips, shaving properly, shave howto