Calling all Cold Water Shavers - What hardware & software do you use?

[milesandcoltrane]

Seeing as how the cold water shaving thread has taken off (I think it's in the newbie forum), and it seems like quite a number of us are out there I'm curious as to what hardware and software you guys use.

Are certain soaps/creams, brushes, razors and ASB/Ls particularly suited to cold water shaving - or do you just use what you've always been using when you were a warm/hot water shaver?

Personally I've had little experience with many soaps brushes or razors. I've only found the sudden 'need' to Acquire all these things when I discovered the forums online :w00t:

But on a intuitive/guesstimating level I think one needs a very sharp blade (cold water renders whiskers mighty tough) and a very protective and slick lather producer.

Somehow I also think boars are more suited to cold water shaving because they're scrubbier (generally) and it seems counter intuitive to use a nice badger for cold water shaving at least to me. However I've never owned a badger so it might be too early to tell!

Cold water shavers please do list down the gear you use =)

[gull]

I use whatever I have laying around. I don't think the type of gear matters, but I'll post what I have.

Creams:

Proraso cream
Body Shop Maca Root

Soaps:

Mama Bear
Col. Conk

DE:

Gillette Tech

and I use a straight primarily now.

[vern]

When I started reading these forms, I thought I had it all wrong. I have shaved with tap water since seeing the movie Good Morning Vietnam with Robin Williams when it first came out. He had arrived in NAM and was being briefed about his living quarters. He was directed to use cold water in the heat of the tropics to reduce irritation, at the time it made sense to me living in the desert SW, and been doing it that way since. I tried using hot water to condition my face, and to whip up my lather. Well, nothing really changed except I spent a lot of extra time waiting for the water to get hot, and I experienced irritation and ingrown's, that I hadn't with cold water. So I went back to using tap water after about 5 or 6 week doing the hot water trip. For me, my goto razor is a EJ89L, however I rotate in everything from a New, Tech, Red Tip, Korona, and various Super Speeds. My goto blade in the EJ is a Feather, but I have many blades from the new Walmart Wilkinson's, to Crystals, Derby's, Bic's and just recently acquired some Astra SPs that I really like. Doesn't seem to make a difference to me. My goto soaps, currently are Tabac, and VDH. My creams are Proraso, and The Real Shaving Company, and KMF Mint. I have both boar and badger brushes, and switch between them randomly. In the morning I just fill up my sink with tap water, wet the brush, use the wet brush to wet my face, then face lather whatever soap or cream that ends up on the brush. 2 passes, and I'm set.

[noahpictures]

I started cold water shaving this week. I'll be going back and forth between cold and warm water depending on the weather and mood.
I use my favorite software: Tabac shaving soap, Proraso shaving cream and for hardware I use: Futur, Slants, Slim and Red Tip with a Personna (Red Pack) or Astra SP.

[Dennard]

I alternate my shave gear depending on what I feel like regardless of the temperature of the water.

razor- late 40s super speed, merkur hd 34c
soap- mwf, vdh deluxe
cream- co bigelow, art of shaving sandalwood
blades- gillette 7 o'clock yellow