1906 Book Shaving Made Easy and a Couple ?s

armykunin · Jun 18, 2010

While looking around online I found this book on shaving published in 1906 and also noticed some interesting things in here. I could still be called a newbie when it comes to DE shavingabout 2 months now but just wonder if anyone had some feedback on this. I found the book a quick and easy read myself.

http://www.archive.org/details/shavingmadeeasyw0020th

Page 51-The soap is used not to soften the beard but to produce the exact opposite effect-namely to make the hair stiff and brittle, so that they will present a firm and resistant surface to the razor. This makes me wonder about "beard softeners."
-recommends using cold water rather than hotanyone tried this? I plan on trying it out tomorrow morning. I have read about this on other websites as well.

55-after lathering with brush-rub lather with fingers into beard to allow lather to stiffen it. I have not tried this either...tomorrow I'll test it out.

58-59 shaving against the growth pulls the hairs and thus irritates the skinI have noticed this myself as well (but later in the pic it says some people prefer an ATG). I always do a WTG, XTG pass myself

60-proper shave techniques with pics

78 irritation of skin-cause and preventionseen a lil on this before..does anyone else use witch hazel? I do a hot rinse after my shave with cold water, use an alum block, rinse with cold again water, and apply an A/S myself.

Just wondering if anyone else found this useful...had any helpful tips on this, etc.

luvmysuper · Jun 18, 2010

There is some very interesting and useful information in there.
Bear in mind it is from 1905. Not everything old school is better.

This was a year before the washing machine was invented, 2 years or so before there was a test to see if you had TB or Syphilis, and 4 years before the discovery that vitamins could prevent diseases like scurvy.

There is a slight chance that they may be wrong about a few things.

They also talk in that book about how safety razors will never succeed.

Texts written a thousand years ago talk about the earth being flat with a steadfast certainty.

armykunin · Jun 18, 2010

I did notice that in the book as well but it still did have some useful info. I've found some people have tried cold shaving on other sites but hadn't really seen anything here yet.

http://www.straightrazorplace.com/f...390-traditional-hot-prep-vs-cold-shaving.html

kingfisher · Jun 18, 2010

1) This has been posted and discussed here before at least once, probably twice.

2) I find it interesting that people who think a straight razor is the pinnacle of shaving and that everything thereafter was a step in the wrong direction nevertheless immediately denounce something that was written about shaving back in the day when their tool of choice was the main shaving tool.

3) We have discussed cold water shaving extensively. During the warm months I use cool-ish water (but not cold water) and I find it works wonderfully.

armykunin · Jun 18, 2010

Awesome, thanks for the reply. I'm excited to try it. I do use a DE by the way

luvmysuper · Jun 18, 2010

1) Or 12 or 15 times :lol:

2) I think anyone who arbitrarily accepts the written word on it's face without checking and making comparisons against other documents are probably doing themselves a disservice.

3) YMMV means if it works for you, it works

armykunin · Jun 21, 2010

Thanks for the posts on this. I went ahead and checked it out on Sunday morning. I showered first and instead of soaking my brush in hot water, I used cold. I gave my face a nice cold rinse, lathered up with some omega and, then really massaged the lather into my face. I rinsed off and lathered up again with the cold water. I don't know if it was just a combination of the lathering up before hand and the cold water but it was the best shave I've ever had. I thought I was getting a BBS but there was no comparison to how close of I shave I got. I could tell on the first stroke that I was on to something. I have always had problem with my chin area here and it could have something to do with my shave angle or something but this time the hair on my face was all gone with 2 passes. After the 2 passes, I used an alum block and then my Nivea A/S. My skin felt clean and refreshed. I'm going with cold shaving from now on.

I noticed from some of the answers to my post that this has been discussed previously. I tried finding it with a search earlier but did not see anything. I looked up cold shaving, shaving with cold water but there were a lot of links to it that did not really discuss it. Hopefully this will be helpful to some others in the future. Thanks to those who posted and Happy Monday!

Parker 96r safety razor w/ Shark Super Stainless Blades

Pre-shaves-Omega,Prorosa, KMF Key Lime

A/S Nivea Extra Soothing Balm/Sensitive Skin

luvmysuper · Jun 21, 2010

armykunin said:
Thanks for the posts on this. I went ahead and checked it out on Sunday morning. I showered first and instead of soaking my brush in hot water, I used cold. I gave my face a nice cold rinse, lathered up with some omega and, then really massaged the lather into my face. I rinsed off and lathered up again with the cold water. I don't know if it was just a combination of the lathering up before hand and the cold water but it was the best shave I've ever had. I thought I was getting a BBS but there was no comparison to how close of I shave I got. I could tell on the first stroke that I was on to something. I have always had problem with my chin area here and it could have something to do with my shave angle or something but this time the hair on my face was all gone with 2 passes. After the 2 passes, I used an alum block and then my Nivea A/S. My skin felt clean and refreshed. I'm going with cold shaving from now on.

I noticed from some of the answers to my post that this has been discussed previously. I tried finding it with a search earlier but did not see anything. I looked up cold shaving, shaving with cold water but there were a lot of links to it that did not really discuss it. Hopefully this will be helpful to some others in the future. Thanks to those who posted and Happy Monday!

Parker 96r safety razor w/ Shark Super Stainless Blades

Pre-shaves-Omega,Prorosa, KMF Key Lime

A/S Nivea Extra Soothing Balm/Sensitive Skin

What works best for you is the best method.

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