What are you using for a pre-shave?

[redrako]

Shower immediately before shaving? Hot towel face soak? Pre-Shave oil? Soap? or just jumping in with a nice lather on your face what's the best preparation for shaving?

Usually I shave right out of the shower. Sometimes if I have a little more time, I'll wash my face with whole foods 365 vegetable glycerin soap, massaging the soap into my beard and leaving it as a brush my teeth. If I have even more time, I'll occasionally wrap a hot towel around my soaped up face (otherwise known as Kyle's Method)for a few minutes giving me a wonderful spa-like super softening of my beard.

What's your pre-shave prep like?

 

[joeunc]

I am a cold water shaver so:

Brush is soaking in cold water while showering.

- Hot Shower
- Cold water to face before exiting
- Leave face wet
- More splashes of cold water before applying pre-shave
- Apply either Proraso white or grapeseed oil - depends on how I am feeling
- Mix lather in bowl with cold water
- Lather up and enjoy- blade is rinsed in cold sink water as well

 

[heybatter]

shower before shave
wash face

 

[mikelz777]

I've been DE shaving for about 6 months now and I've been going back and forth on the pre-shave product thing. At first I did nothing so I didn't know anything different. I was then given pre-shave oil and gave that a go for a while. I didn't really care for it and didn't notice anything different in my shave so I went back to nothing. Then for a while I started using a thin layer of Noxema as a pre-shave and in between passes. I liked the feel and the effect of the Noxema and stuck with that for a while. Feeling a need to simplify things, I quit the Noxema and went with just putting on shaving cream, letting it sit on my face for a couple of minutes, running the brush over my face again and then shaving. That was drying my face out so I'm back to using the Noxema and I think I'm going to stick with that as a pre-shave. If I'm not coming out of the shower and shaving, I'll either wash my face with Noxema or I'll wet my face, apply a thin layer of Noxema to my beard and let it sit on my face while I whip up my lather then re-wet before applying the lather.

 

[Graybeard57]

I shower and night, and shave in the morning. I do a thorough warm/hot face wash in the morning, fill the sink with hot water, place razor and brush in water, sprinkle a few drop of water on my soap, and let my whiskers stay damp while the brush soaks for 5-10 minutes. Re-rinse face, then whip up lather and shave. That's a lengthy description saying I wash my face.

 

[JerYnkFan]

I've been wet shaving for a whopping 2 weeks, but this is what I am doing so far: 1) Shower and wash face/head with Whole Food glycerin soap. 2) Re-wet face face and slap some shave secret on 3) Lather and shave!

 

[rearviewmirror]

Wash my face with Dial Gold while in the shower. I find preshave products just gunk up my razor

 

[musicman1951]

I shave after the shower. Lots of water and some time with shampoo on the face. I've tried oil and Proraso pre/post - neither seemed to make any improvement in the shave. Last week I was using Kiss MY Face bar soap in the shower as a pre-shave and it seemed to help, but the one day I didn't use it I had the best shave of the month. Obviously that had nothing to do with the KMF. Sometimes your technique just falls into the zone. So I guess I'm still experimenting.

 

[redrako]

I've been DE shaving for about 6 months now and I've been going back and forth on the pre-shave thing. At first I did nothing so I didn't know anything different. I was then given pre-shave oil and gave that a go for a while. I didn't really care for it and didn't notice anything different in my shave so I went back to nothing. Then for a while I started using a thin layer of Noxema as a pre-shave and in between passes. I liked the feel and the effect of the Noxema and stuck with that for a while. Feeling a need to simplify things, I quit the Noxema and went with just putting on shaving cream, letting it sit on my face for a couple of minutes, running the brush over my face again and then shaving. That was drying my face out so I'm back to using the Noxema and I think I'm going to stick with that as a pre-shave. If I'm not coming out of the shower and shaving, I'll either wash my face with Noxema or I'll wet my face, apply a thin layer of Noxema to my beard and let it sit on my face while I whip up my lather then re-wet before applying the lather.

Mike, I couldn't find the thread, but someone about a year ago posted an old shaving guide which recommended simply leaving a partially lathered shave cream lather sit on your face for a few minutes. There were participants who had great results with this approach. I would imagine that if I was using that approach, I would simply dip my brush tips in sink water and re-hydrate the lather.

Regarding Noxzema, going back even further in my recollection of past B&B threads, during discussion of Prorasso pre-post prep, there were a number of folks who felt that it was similar enough to Noxzema that they just went with Noxzema, with good results.

JerYnkFan, congratulations on your first two weeks! Wishing you many more weeks of excellent shaves!

 

[JRL]

shower and immediately after, make lather*
splash some cool water on the beard and lather up
brush teeth (2 min -- the electric brush has a timer)
refresh lather
go

* Some soaps do well if I make the lather before the shower. The lather seems to get a little thicker after sitting for a couple of minutes. When I get out of the shower, I just add a few drops of water and it's good to go.

 

[Omp]

I am rotating between Proraso White pre-shave cream and eShave inscented oil. I've not yet come to a conclusion about which I prefer but I like doing the extra step of applying something before I add the lather.

 

[kcenorez]

Just switched from proraso white pre to shave secret. Not sure preshave does anything for me, tho.

edit - hot shower, wash face with nivea energy face soap, cold water splash, shave secret, then cold water shave.

 

[indytechnerd]

1. fill bowl with hot tap water, about as hot as I can stand, and start brush soaking
2. start shower
3. wash face with moisturizing conditioner (same stuff my wife puts on her hair, whatever Walgreens has on sale)
4. rinse face, apply Shave Secret or AOS PSO
5 thru n. lather in the bowl, enjoy nice shave

 

[LMAN007]

Shower immediately before shaving? Hot towel face soak? Pre-Shave oil? Soap? or just jumping in with a nice lather on your face what's the best preparation for shaving?

Usually I shave right out of the shower. Sometimes if I have a little more time, I'll wash my face with whole foods 365 vegetable glycerin soap, massaging the soap into my beard and leaving it as a brush my teeth. If I have even more time, I'll occasionally wrap a hot towel around my soaped up face (otherwise known as Kyle's Method)for a few minutes giving me a wonderful spa-like super softening of my beard.

What's your pre-shave prep like?

Dampen my face then apply NOXZEMA. Works great, no cunk build-up on the razor and its good for the skin.

 

[Coler]

Pre-shave I shower and after that I apply either a Proraso pre-shave (menthol or green tea & oat - the menthol is imo too strong unless you really, really want or like menthol) or Dermalogica for men pre-shave guard. The latter is very good, but not so much better than the cheaper proraso as to warrant buying it in preference to the proraso.

 

[acamera]

Shower first, then as my brush is soaking I use a home made mix of EVOO olive oil, almond oil, castor oil and a few drops of fragrant essential oils. 3 drops and rub into my face and beard well. I leave that sit while I am prepping my lather and that seems to work well for me.

 

[blzrfn]

I have tried lots of different preparations from oils to soaps to hair conditioner... you name it.

What I have found that works for ME is to wash face with Noxzema, rinse thoroughly with hot water, face lather for a few minutes with soap/cream of choice. This method has given me the closest shaves in the shortest amount of time being a night showerer and morning shaver. On the rare occasion that I do shave following a shower I find that the first step can be skipped and face lathering for a couple of minutes is all it takes to get my whiskers ready. I have kept my oils and other pre-shaves handy for further experimentation but that won't be until farther down the road.

 

[penn1313]

I change it up quite a bit. Sometimes I shave with cold water, sometimes hot. Sometimes I shave before I shower, sometimes after. As far as preshave rituals, my favorite is the oil cleanse method. I won't describe it as there are a few detailed posts about it. Other than that, I either clean my face with Noxema before a shave or rinse with water then rub Shea butter on my face. All of these methods work well for me.

Penn

 

[Saltwater Cowboy]

I like to shave immediately out of the shower. Towel dry my body, leave my face wet. Then a quick splash of hot water on my face when I am ready, lather and off to the races.

 

[k4dm0nky]

straight up 100% Grapeseed Oil