Help me get quicker shaves without too much irritation / bumps

[drandall]

you mention you have a tough beard....

i find that in terms of softening my beard quickly, it's very hard to get anything faster and more effective than the combination of a hot towel and proraso pre/post shave.

a minute or two with a hot towel compress and a minute or two massaging the proraso into my beard prior to lathering up not only saves my skin, but lets me get a great shave in 2 passes.

my routine: wash face, set brush to soak, hot towel, proraso pre/post, lather & shave x2 passes, alum if necessary, balm, (get dressed) then after shave. the whole process takes me around 15 minutes.

best of luck.

 

[OldSaw]

Have you tried blade buffing? I do this WTG when I am in a hurry. It's like getting two shave passes for the price of one.

 

[rafikz]

Thanks for the tips, everybody

Much appreciated.

Now back to your regular program

 

[Colphax]

Check out the local hospital or nursing home, and get inspired by whatever products and systems they have for bathing patients in bed. Then rig up the necessary paraphernalia so you can shave without having to get out of the sack. Best of both worlds. And if you happen to splash your sleeping partner, well that's their cue to get up and make you some coffee and toast.

Cheers

Jeremy

Dunno about DownUnder, but here in the States, at least at the hospital I work at, there is nothing special stocked for shaving patients in bed or otherwise. All we have is No-name Foam in a tiny can, and either a plastic single blade Bic-type disposable, or a dangerous cheapo plastic disposable "surgical razor" that's a double edge blade with no safety bar. Seriously, it has the half-barrel shaped head and no safety bar!

To shave a patient in bed basically just involves a lot of towels and a linen change after the shave and bedbath is done.

 

[redoak]

I’m definitely not a morning person, so I thought I would never be able to enjoy a traditional wet shave in the morning.

However, things changed when I read the following B&B thread in July 2007… It changed my life for the better. And, given that my face and neck get a rest (6 to 8 hours) before I wack on a collared shirt and tie, no more ingrown hairs either.

Night shaving rocks! There’s no rush. It affords you the time to relax and enjoy the shave.


Shaving At Night
http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showthread.php?t=23284

 

[Black Adder]

Can we talk you into changing razors?

If you have a tough beard, and you are using cartridges, I think you are overloading those narrow blade gaps with foam and whiskers, preventing a good shave.

You need a slant bar. Nothing stands after a slant bar pass. No narrow blade gap to overload, either. You'll have to learn some new techniques, but nothing beyond your capabilities. I wish I would have started on the slant; it has shaved much better than the Vision I purchased when starting out.

Don

 

[New2DEShaving_Montreal]

I posted a thread like this and almost got bashed once. I was told to get up early, shave at night, blah blah. I have to get up at 5:00am every morning. So no, Not getting up early. Shaving at night means, when I'm at work, I'll have a 10am shadow, don't want that. I have figured out how to get a 2 pass shave (close to BBS) in less than 10 minutes.
You don't need anything other than Nivea gel that you already have. Just some more water.

1) Lather Nivea gel, work it in for 2 minutes, add drops of water and make it ultra slick so your razor won't stick to your face when moving. Just make sure that it is atleast 1mm in thickness so your razor can 'roll' over skin easier.

2) Shave at a slow speed, starting with XTG, from corner of the mouth to side burns going up. Then do it again for the lower part (jaw bone area), feel it with your hand, 1 pass should have made it really smooth.

3) Go XTG on chin, upper lip area, first inwards, then outwards, light buffing if needed.

4) XTG on the neck, first going south to north, then north to south, forming an X shape.

This takes me less than 10 minutes with an acceptable shave.

Weekends I don't know what I do but I take my sweet time. 30 minutes or so.

I'm a noob, so the hardest thing I find is to maintain the angle of the DE razor. I think once you can lock in that angle, you're BBS to go.