Any time the topic of shave prep comes up, you tend to hear the same points coming up: shower, wash or exfoliate face, dab dry, hot towel, etc. Any time that I have followed this process, my shave has been mildly aggravating. I simply can't wash my face before shaving and not have at least mild irritation after the shave. My suspicion has been that I've been washing away too much of my face's natural, lubricating oils (sebum, acid mantle or whatever you want to call it).
I was reading in an old barber's manual the other day, thought about what I had read, and then went back and read it again. The following is an excerpt from the manual:
If you read everything past the underlined part, you might begin to think that washing or exfoliating before the shave may not be a good thing. I did not see anywhere in the manual (sure it could be there, but I didn't see it) where it said to wash the customer's face before a shave. Arguably, you could claim that the hot-towel, lather, hot-towel procedure is similar to washing the face, but I'm not sure I would wholeheartedly agree with that.
From what I can tell, it is desirable to have natural facial oils present and in a greater abundance than normal.
What are your thoughts?
I was reading in an old barber's manual the other day, thought about what I had read, and then went back and read it again. The following is an excerpt from the manual:
If you read everything past the underlined part, you might begin to think that washing or exfoliating before the shave may not be a good thing. I did not see anywhere in the manual (sure it could be there, but I didn't see it) where it said to wash the customer's face before a shave. Arguably, you could claim that the hot-towel, lather, hot-towel procedure is similar to washing the face, but I'm not sure I would wholeheartedly agree with that.
From what I can tell, it is desirable to have natural facial oils present and in a greater abundance than normal.
What are your thoughts?
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