Nick's Prep and Technique:
Here is an summary of the prep and technique that is working so well for me these days:
PREP
POST SHAVE
Here is an summary of the prep and technique that is working so well for me these days:
PREP
- I shower at night, not before I shave. I found the shower didn't make any difference
- Skip the hot towels - they make my face puffy and increase irritation
- I begin my shave prep by making my lather until it is 90% ready to go
- Then I stop and wash my face in barely warm water (never hot) with Nancy Boy mild facial cleanser (nothing has ever been kinder to my face)
http://www.nancyboy.com/Mild-Facial-Cleanser-23p29.htm - After washing and rinsing my face, I paint on a thin coat of my almost finished lather, and leave it while I do the last minute or so of whisking the lather in my bowl. This helps to further hydrate my beard and to keep my skin moist
- I rinse my face with cold water, and then brush on a thicker coat of lather and begin shaving
- I shave each pass in this order: cheeks, neck, chin, upper lip
- I rinse with cold water between each pass, but squeegee off my face with my hand just a little so it's not dripping wet
- I'm very careful to use no pressure at all - just the weight of the razor. Some people have described it as stroking your face with a feather
- First pass is WTG, which is N-S for me just about everywhere, with some angled downward strokes on the sides of my chin
- For my neck, I divide it into two sections like in diagrams for Method Shaving - upper neck and lower neck
- I do the lower neck first, stretching the skin by pulling it down from my collar bone
- I do the upper neck by pulling up from just below my cheek bones
- My first pass on the upper lip is N-S
- If I want to do a 3-pass shave on my cheeks (which is rare) I do it by shaving from the center of my face toward my ears on each side
- If I'm only doing 2 passes on my cheeks, I do an ATG pass here
- Sometimes I try slightly puffing my cheeks to stretch the skin
- I've also begun to experiment with the Gillette Glide technique* on my cheeks this pass, so it's ATG at an angle (no cheek puffing)
- For my neck, I divide it into 2 sections again, stretching the skin the same way as I did on the first pass, but shaving ATG (S-N)
- For my chin on this pass, I blow air into my lower lip to puff up that whole area as much as possible
- I shave XTG / ATG on the chin this pass, since my beard grows in several different directions here
- The upper part of my chin is shaved ATG (S-N) and the lower part is XTG (W-E or E-W)
- For my upper lip on this pass, I stretch the skin by pulling sideways near my cheekbones. I also put my tongue under my upper lip to push it out a bit and stretch the skin even more
- I shave the upper lip XTG from the outside to the center on each side for this pass
- Very often, my neck and cheeks are done by now and don't need anything more
- I do a quick rub of my cheeks and neck just to be sure I didn't miss anything. If I did, I apply a little lather to those spots for the touch-ups
- For any touch-ups on my cheeks and neck on this pass, I'll use the J-Hooking technique*
- I also feel and visually inspect my chin to see where it needs more work. It does usually require the third pass, or at least a lot of touch-ups
- I lather my chin and upper lip, and then shave my chin first. This pass is usually ATG and/or XTG, depending on where I still have some stubble
- I almost always use Blade Buffing* on my chin and upper lip for this pass
- For my chin, I'll experiment with "shaving faces" (such as making a big fake smile) to stretch this skin in different ways
- For my upper lip on this last pass, I go ATG with my tongue under my lip again
- I'll usually do a full pass on my upper lip, rinse, check for anything I've missed, and then re-lather and use Blade Buffing to finish the last bits
POST SHAVE
- Rinse first in cold water
- Apply Thayer's alcohol free witch hazel with a cotton pad (I like the cucumber - it's extra cooling and does not burn like most scented products)
- I do not use alum
- Aftershave with alcohol dries out my skin
- Very rarely, I'll use an aftershave balm. The Proraso white balm was too heavy, and made my face break out. Nancy Boy Replenishing gel is nice if I've gone a little heavy with the blade buffing and have irritation on my upper lip (just about the only place I ever get irritation anymore)
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