Best method for heating towels?

[duotone]

These look good at 6 for $12.

I like this look but they seem a little thin for hot towel purposes. http://www.appletonbarbersupply.com/store/shopexd.asp?id=469

check this video at about the one minute mark. Here is what pro barber is using. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vY46z9I90p0

There used to be a great barbering manual on-line. I do not seem to be able to find it right now. it always seemed to have a very precise idea of exactly what one should have and do in any barbering activity. I bet it had an exact towel size. I have a slight recollection that it said to overlap the ends on the towel on the lower part of the face/chin, in order to preserver heat on that part of the face. Makes sense to me.

I think you want big enough to fold in half length-wise and long enough to wrap around the face maybe not as far as in the video but at least a bit, so that it is not falling off easily. I would love some ideas re keeping the towel warming longer on the face. Two towels I guess even if the one on top was dry.

Yeah the 1st towel looks too thin, dont think it would hold heat for very long.

Agreed about folding the towel, thats what I usually do.

Yeah I guess 2 towels would help the heat stay in longer.

Read a couple things on a beauty website, they said slowcookers work well as long as the towels are damp enough and not left in too long otherwise they burn (as attached link)
http://www.argos.co.uk/wcsstore/argos/images/58-4228479A70UC488516X.jpg

I can't see anything they do differently to a microwave although they look slightly smaller and maybe could be moved easily in the direction of the bathroom!

 

[The Knize]

Yeah the 1st towel looks too thin, dont think it would hold heat for very long.

Agreed about folding the towel, thats what I usually do.

Yeah I guess 2 towels would help the heat stay in longer.

Read a couple things on a beauty website, they said slowcookers work well as long as the towels are damp enough and not left in too long otherwise they burn (as attached link)
http://www.argos.co.uk/wcsstore/argos/images/58-4228479A70UC488516X.jpg

I can't see anything they do differently to a microwave although they look slightly smaller and maybe could be moved easily in the direction of the bathroom!

Sorry. I left a link off the prior post. These were the towels at 6 for $12 i thought were pretty good. http://www.rysbarbersupplies.com/andre-color-safe-towels.html

From what I can tell from from brief research I would say that terry cloth, about 15" by 27" or so is the what folks want for towels to use for hot towels for the face. How the heck can someone sell a towel like that for only $2!

I am not sure about the slow cookers. How fast to they heat the towels up, I wonder? I think I wrote earlier about using a rice cooker for hot towels. I do not know that that was very fast, but holy moly those were some hot towels. Way too hot. Also the rice cooker, and I would think the slow cooker are pretty small for this purpose.

I guess I never really figured out the advantage of a micro-wave either. Speed I guess. They do not seem to heat that evenly and like someone said I do not have one nearby my "shave den."

 

[duotone]

http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/4225173/Trail/searchtext>SLOW+COOKER.htm - This one looks good and is only £10.

Is a removeable pot necessary?
Is a ceramic pot best?

Something I found related to towels taken from this website -->http://uk.askmen.com/fashion/fashiontip_400/423_fashion_advice.html

As I placed my head back on the headrest of his chair, Reda applied a steaming towel to my face. He left it there for about 90 seconds, dabbing it against my skin from time to time before removing it as the steam gradually evaporated. The idea is to open the pores and loosen the hairs before you put the blade to them. You can achieve the same effect at home by dipping a thick facecloth in steaming hot water. A hot shower will also do the trick.

 

[duotone]

Sorry. I left a link off the prior post. These were the towels at 6 for $12 i thought were pretty good. http://www.rysbarbersupplies.com/andre-color-safe-towels.html

From what I can tell from from brief research I would say that terry cloth, about 15" by 27" or so is the what folks want for towels to use for hot towels for the face. How the heck can someone sell a towel like that for only $2!

I am not sure about the slow cookers. How fast to they heat the towels up, I wonder? I think I wrote earlier about using a rice cooker for hot towels. I do not know that that was very fast, but holy moly those were some hot towels. Way too hot. Also the rice cooker, and I would think the slow cooker are pretty small for this purpose.

I guess I never really figured out the advantage of a micro-wave either. Speed I guess. They do not seem to heat that evenly and like someone said I do not have one nearby my "shave den."

Are they using terry towels as they get through lots in a day and they are cheap? or because they hold heat better?

I like your idea about having 2 towels though! - That must retain heat for much longer, a lot of places I have read seem to use the towels for 3 minutes on the face, after 1 minute mine is cold, then I usually wipe off the cream before lathering again and shaving.

Next time I will try to leave it on longer though.

Do you think its best to lather 1st like in the 'Waldorf - Dublin' clip you posted or towel before lathering?

 

[FLTiger]

Let me see if I can be of a little more help on these electric hot water kettles.

<tons of useful info here>

Anyway, that is way more than you would ever want to know about electric kettles and shaving. Thanks for reading along. And let's look out for our kids and others kids as best we can.

Thanks so much for sharing your experiences and expectations regarding the various electric kettle models, I really appreciate it! I'll freely admit to being a bit overwhelmed when I went to see what all was available. Your post helped immensely!

 

[The Knize]

Are they using terry towels as they get through lots in a day and they are cheap? or because they hold heat better?

I like your idea about having 2 towels though! - That must retain heat for much longer, a lot of places I have read seem to use the towels for 3 minutes on the face, after 1 minute mine is cold, then I usually wipe off the cream before lathering again and shaving.

Next time I will try to leave it on longer though.

Do you think its best to lather 1st like in the 'Waldorf - Dublin' clip you posted or towel before lathering?

I do not know about why use terry cloth. What other kinds of towels are there? I assume that those flat cotton towels are not as good for this because they are too thin, so they do not hold enough water and cool down too quickly. I assume that more water means staying warm longer. That actually raises good point. In a barber shop where you are putting a hot wet towel on someone that is fully dressed under whatever those things they drape over you are called, maybe there is a limit as to how much water you want a towel to be able to hold, because you would never want a bunch of water running off and down on the guys clothes. Whereas sitting in basically a webbed lawn chair over a tiled floor undressed in my own bathroom, maybe they is no reason not to go a lot thicker, and even a lot drippier.

<hat must retain heat for much longer, a lot of places I have read seem to use the towels for 3 minutes on the face, after 1 minute mine is cold, then I usually wipe off the cream before lathering again and shaving.>

That is pretty much my experience, too. I do not see how they get 3 minutes of warm towel. Maybe there is some trick to this that you and I are missing.

<Do you think its best to lather 1st like in the 'Waldorf - Dublin' clip you posted or towel before lathering?>

Absolutely: lather, hot towel, wipe it all off, and re-lather. Actually, the way I was taught was this. Shower or whatever. Paster on Lucky Tiger menthol vanishing cream or the equivalent, all over your face, not just where you are going to shave, lather up, hot towel, wipe all of the lather and vanishing cream off your face, re-lather, shave half your face, while the lather sits on the other half, then wipe the lather off everywhere and re-lather, the part you have not shaved yet, shave that second part, then go back and do your second passes XTG,etc, however you want to do it, some say with just water--not me though, mon Ami, I do not see any reason to stop with the lather just as I am starting to go against the grain. When done, rinse off or whatever you want to do, apply alum bar--here is a good time to brush your teeth leaving the alum on for the couple of minutes or so--apply bay rum, witch hazel, or whatever, towel off, reapply Lucky Tiger, take another sit under a hot towel, wipe off all of the Lucky Tiger, throw or spray a bunch of witch hazel on a third hot towel, and wipe your face with it if that seems necessary, and them have another nice sit under the hot towel, in a variation of the traditional barber shop facial, wipe off, slap on some shaving balm or whatever you like, dry off with a dry towel, and dust your face and neck with talc using a good talc brush, put on some edt or whatever it is that you do--maybe run some Murray's through your hair or some Jervis hair tonic or both--thank God you are alive because you feel so good and so relaxed--and go get dressed.

Anyway, I am sure that is more than you wanted to know! I probably more often than not do not do the final hot towel and probably most days only get at best one of the Lucky Tiger treatments. But absolutely, lather up and use a hot towel before you start shaving, but just like in the clip, after the first hot towel wipe it all off, and then re-lather. Basically you are letting a good shaving soap or cream really do its work on your beard. If you are using some wonderful smelling shaving soap or cream, you are intensifying your experience of the scent the whole time, which folks around here should like!

Make sense. Do it seem crazy? Actually the full treatment does not take all that long, and it was the way I was talk by my shave guru, and most days I probably skip quite a few steps! But I will say it again, like sex, if you find shaving painful, you probably are not doing it right!

 

[The Knize]

Thanks so much for sharing your experiences and expectations regarding the various electric kettle models, I really appreciate it! I'll freely admit to being a bit overwhelmed when I went to see what all was available. Your post helped immensely!

Ah, I am touched, Man! Glad to help. The combination of my frustrating and kind of personally scary experiences with that plastic "hot pot" I had at first plus your reference to your kids, kind of got me rolling!

I really love those hot towels, too. Years ago, I used to go to this kind of old school--and old--barber, Otis, whom I really enjoyed. And I would get these witch hazel, rolling cream, and I think cocoa butter facials from him, which involved all of these hot towels, and I remember it being just so relaxing. I remember that he made his own bay rum and brought me some one day. Such a luxury! And now I can pretty much do the same thing every morning. It seems amazing to me.

[Otis, wherever you are, you were a wonderful soul, and I am reminded of you constantly with all of this barbershop stuff I am into lately. I miss you a lot!]

 

[duotone]

No your not crazy, just after a towel that never cools, like myself and I am sure many others!

I usually do lather up then, hot towel, shave.

Will try breaking it up into more relathering, that seems a good idea.

Btw, bayrum & witch hazel are used for soothing the skin?

 

[OldSaw]

I use a crucible to melt aluminum cans that I take from the recycling bin in my apartment building. Once they reach 1250 degrees F, I pour the molten aluminum over 52 towels. Using asbestos mitts, I apply each towel for about ten seconds. Just as it starts to solidify, I toss it and grab another. After working my way through the entire batch, I can usually skip the shave.

In the event that the crucible is down I just run them under hot tap water from my bathroom faucet.

 

[The Knize]

<Btw, bayrum & witch hazel are used for soothing the skin?>

Yep! Very old fashioned stuff, both of them, I guess. I really prefer the witch hazel which has alcohol in it, too. A lot of folks around here like the Thayers without alcohol, which does not have much a of smell and to me does not smell much like witch hazel at all. I happen to think that drugstore brands of witch hazel are almost invariably good. But a good brand name that to me smells like it should--sort of a weird organic smell, nothing you would ever want to wear as a scent-- has alcohol and is readily available is Dickenson's. But if you cannot stand the smell, Thayers is good.

One of my favorite bay rums is Superior 70 Alcholado. Something like that re the last word of the name. If you can find it, often in the Hispanic section of whatever store carries it, it is very inexpensive--about $3.99 for 750 ml. 70 &#37; alcohol though, which is kinds of high even for me. Smells great and, unlike witch hazel, people do use bay rums for their scents. The Superior 70 scent pretty much fades away completely and rather quickly. Pinaud (wherever Clubman products are sold, which is pretty much every drugstore in the nation) is more the traditional after shave and has a little more staying power. Pretty cheap, not so cheap as $4 for 3/4 of a liter. Ogallala--pretty much mail order only--fades quickly too, if you get the AS version. the cologne versions have some staying power. Dominica is more expensive, and comes on strong from the bottle, but I find it fades away quickly and I can wear whatever cologne I like. I love the smell of bay rum. Bay rums generally have a nice burn to them, which I like. Not everyone does.

Any way they are sort of mild or better antiseptics and skin toners (whatever that really means), of absolutely authentic old barbershop heritage. To me they sort of get rid of any shaving soap residue, too. And they are cooling.

Hope you have fun with stuff!

 

[duotone]

Thanks I will look out for them when I go to the chemist!

 

[The Knize]

I use a crucible to melt aluminum cans that I take from the recycling bin in my apartment building. Once they reach 1250 degrees F, I pour the molten aluminum over 52 towels. Using asbestos mitts, I apply each towel for about ten seconds. Just as it starts to solidify, I toss it and grab another. After working my way through the entire batch, I can usually skip the shave.

In the event that the crucible is down I just run them under hot tap water from my bathroom faucet.

Mock me if you will! That is fine by me. But I see a water kettle and cooler in your future! <g>

Just kidding.

I am sure at your house tap water is hot enough to do the job. At my house it just isn't even close, so I need something that gets me hotter water whether I am using the sink to wet a towel or not. (Unless you were suggesting that I just come by your house in-between passes!?)

Since I am at that step of needing supplemental hot water anyway it seems a lot easier and more relaxing to have set of towels all ready to go at exactly the right temperature and degree of wetness than to try to mix something up in the sink every time I want a towel. (If there is a downside to the kettle it is that there is no temperature control. It is either off or on and that water is friggin' hot. So it would be a matter of mixing up tap water and kettle water anyway.)

My beloved long passed away barber, Otis, who decades ago first turned me onto hot towels, certainly just did his up in the sink individually and they they were plenty hot. In fact, I wish I could remember what he did exactly as they seemed to stay hotter than what I have been doing without scalding my face or anything.

I guess doing them in the sink has one safety factor. One is not likely to burn ones hands, if one does it your way. My way takes some time to figure out how to get the towels just the way you want them when you want to use them. Pour enough of that kettle water in that cooler on those towels and I am telling you you could cook eggs in there. Easy enough adjustment to learn and it does not require asbestous gloves--Dude! <g>

Cheers,

Channing

 

[OldSaw]

Mock me if you will! That is fine by me. But I see a water kettle and cooler in your future! <g>

Just kidding.

I am sure at your house tap water is hot enough to do the job. At my house it just isn't even close, so I need something that gets me hotter water whether I am using the sink to wet a towel or not. (Unless you were suggesting that I just come by your house in-between passes!?)

Since I am at that step of needing supplemental hot water anyway it seems a lot easier and more relaxing to have set of towels all ready to go at exactly the right temperature and degree of wetness than to try to mix something up in the sink every time I want a towel. (If there is a downside to the kettle it is that there is no temperature control. It is either off or on and that water is friggin' hot. So it would be a matter of mixing up tap water and kettle water anyway.)

My beloved long passed away barber, Otis, who decades ago first turned me onto hot towels, certainly just did his up in the sink individually and they they were plenty hot. In fact, I wish I could remember what he did exactly as they seemed to stay hotter than what I have been doing without scalding my face or anything.

I guess doing them in the sink has one safety factor. One is not likely to burn ones hands, if one does it your way. My way takes some time to figure out how to get the towels just the way you want them when you want to use them. Pour enough of that kettle water in that cooler on those towels and I am telling you you could cook eggs in there. Easy enough adjustment to learn and it does not require asbestous gloves--Dude! <g>

Cheers,

Channing

I actually find the whole cooler thing rather ingenious. However, it's just more effort that I am not willing to put forth. I have no control over the hot water in my apartment, but it is hot enough most days. In my previous home I simply turned up the setting on the heater. I like water that is about 140 to 150 F at the faucet. I don't think it is that much more expensive as you use less of it for showering and such.

Some day I will probably have to resort to some other heating method. I will probably just put a damp towel in the microwave.

 

[sapito318]

Some day I will probably have to resort to some other heating method. I will probably just put a damp towel in the microwave.

That would work, but just make sure you have a clean microwave else you'll have movie popcorn towels... i liked to put a little bit of lime scented product such as aftershave or EO as it gives it a little zing and smells nice too.

 

[The Knize]

<I actually find the whole cooler thing rather ingenious. >

Well, like I have said before, I have never had an original idea re-shaving. I would give credit to someone but I seem to have neither memory nor originality/creativity!

I have heard of folks installing a microwave in their bathrooms/shave dens for just this purpose. Microwaves are so cheap these days they will "give you one with a fill-up at Exxon," right?

Actually I just had a quick look. Looks like you can get one for $50 bucks, which rounds to the same price as my electric kettle and small cooler as far as I am concerned! Assuming one has the counter space . . . . I am off to Best Buy.

 

[tsmba]

I like the feel of the hot towel, but wouldn't want it *too* hot for *too* long. It seems most folks who have talked to a barber hear the same recommendation, that's what my guy said, too.

I tried a larger towel folded in half and it did retain its heat much longer. I have a flannel sack filled with cherry pits that can be nuked and used as a heating pad. Draping that thing over the towel carries the whole process to extreme, but its a bit too much hassle. I've pretty much taken on the routine Lynn Abram's shows on his DVD: application of a hot towel prior to lathering up, another after the first lathering, then wiping that lather off with the towel. Then, I'm good to go.

 

[grumpy old codger]

I'll shower or scrub my face with hot water and Maja. Then i amble to the kitchen and touch off the microwave (preset for 5 minutes to heat a Pyrex container with 1.5 liters of water). I'll grab a smoke while it does its magic. Then I carry the Pyrex to the bathroom, pour our the hot tap water that has preheated my brush and my cream or soap (mug or small 3.5" bowl in a cereal bowl (6" dia.) and replace the tap water with the hot water from the microwave. While that is being done, I place a tap water hot towel on my face, followed by shave oil. Then, and only then, does the fun begin!

 

[duotone]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUjYT_KFl6c&feature=related

42 seconds in we see the chrome towel steamer with plain white thickish soft looking towels, notice how he doubles it up on the customers face?

When they put the towel on, why does it need to cover the eyes & forehead? These areas are not getting shaved.

 

[The Knize]

Great video. I do not fully understand how those old towel steamers/heatersworked, but that is sure what they looked like from the various photos and such that I have seen.

<why does it need to cover the eyes & forehead? These areas are not getting shaved. >

Because it feels good, because the ends of the towels have to go somewhere, and because it helps holds the part of the towel in place over the part that is going to be shaved, are my guesses. I am still looking for an old barbering manual that used to be on line that gave really detailed instructions on all of this stuff. Whether it made sense or not they really had specific ideas of how things should be done!

 

[duotone]

Ah I see,

http://www.workerseducation.org/crutch/shaving/moler.html Something similar to this?