Remember that moisture is the essence of wetness and is vital to any good wet-shave. I have been preaching building lather directly upon the face to let your skin soak up as much moisture as possible, but I wasn't thinking enough when I actually went through with my shave. One thing I highly recommend is to re-wet your face after every pass to apply a layer of moisture (water) that the lather will mix-with/sit on top of. This will help with lubrication and irritation.
The other super important thing is that it is winter time dummy and that means that it is cold outside. In an old house like mine, the bathroom isn't modernly hyper-insulated and it is cold in there. As a result, the sink is super cold. After I filled the sink with hot water, it got cold quickly and when I started my shave, it was already cold. I shaved with the cool water because I didn't want to waste H2O. When you shave with cold water, your skin is tighter and your razor tends to grip it more. This coupled with a lack of moisture will make for a bad shave. When I went to shave a again yesterday I boiled a pot of water on stove and poured that into the sink. Now this was way to hot, and I mixed it with some water from the faucet to bring it down a little. The hot water totally helped my shave experience and I stress now the importance of hot water. The general rule of thumb is to get it as hot as you can stand and no hotter.
I also got around to using some new shaving products for this last shave. They are staples of traditional wetshavers: Proraso's Pre/Post Shave Cream and Bloc Osam alum. Take a look at them below.
The Proraso is a preshave balm from Italy that moisturizes and is methylated and makes your beard "stand up". It is said to open up the pores on your face. A little bit goes a long way here so don't use much. I would say use about a pea-sized amount. It is kind of like a thicker, more luxurious Noxzema that is way more menthylated. It is cool. The other is an alum bar from France. Alum is a natural astringent that you use after a shave to help close up your pores and has antiseptic properties to help prevent infection. You use it after you finish your shave and have rinsed your face with clean water. Simply hold the bar under the faucet for a second and glide it down your face along the grain. If it stings you, then you have tiny cuts in your face. My face stung alot after the shave, but it went away and felt really good a few seconds later. You will get a lot of feedback from using the alum bar and hopefully will improve your technique.
Both products can be found here
Next time: Face maps!
