California Shavers - Drought changing your routine?

Good Morning gents,

For those of you outside of California and hadn't heard, we are in the midst of a major drought. Snowpack was around 20% of normal.

Has any of my fellow shavers in the golden state changed their routine? Has that impacted the quality of your shaves?

My showers are definitely shorter, and I am stopping the water while I lather up my shampoo or soap.

When I shave, I am filling my sink, as opposed to rinsing my razor under running water.

I haven't changed anything with my lather or how many passes, due to the drought. I haven't notic3ed any changes in the quality of my shaves.

I haven't changed much. I have always filled the sink with water when I shave opposed to having It running the whole time, but my showers are still the same length. I probably should take shorter ones :/

Not much has changed...still fill my sink. My showers have been short for most of my life due to military constraints

Most water savings will come from letting your lawn go brown, more efficient laundry, and shorter showers.

That said I am filling the sink, as usual. I have also taken to rinsing my brush in a cup instead of under the tap. Not sure if that saves any water, because it takes a few changes to rinse clean. But I think the brush ends up cleaner.

While camping recently I shaved using water from a solar shower. That was a low-water shave. I used about a cup to soak my Omega 10066, squeezed it into the same cup, used the damp brush to wet my beard, then face-lathered and added some of the soaking water back into the brush as I went. No rinse between passes. At the end I rinsed the brush in a fresh cup of water, used the wet brush to rinse my face, and repeated until I felt reasonably clean. Probably only used 3-4 cups of water total, and it felt great to have a clean shave. But it was less than luxurious, and the water savings was marginal compared to a shower or watering the lawn.

I feel sorry for people that have wells in California. we have wells here and most have become non productive. I am embarrassed but we use a lot of cologne. you can use 80 gallons a day here. luckily we are two people but there are animals. an average household hold uses 400 gallons a day in urban areas. not including lawn sprinklers.

Not in the drought (or California) but soaking your brush in a mug will take less water than a sink. Also, I only open and close the tap to rinse my razor.

The shower bit where I close it while I shampoo and everything is also an habit.

Mike is right, the lawn, laundry and showers are the ones pumping water the most.

400 gallons a a day! WOW, must be a bunch of teenage girls in that house.

My wife, myself and two young boys use on average 150 gallons a day in our suburban house. 10 months out of the year. (When running the irrigation system in the summer, we do average 400 gallons a day, but that is just July and August)

mblakele said:

Most water savings will come from letting your lawn go brown, more efficient laundry, and shorter showers.

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You are more than correct. Unfortunately, I live in an apartment, so we have no lawn.

Doing my part! Taking showers & shave while watering the lawn. Boy, people driving by act like they never seen someone shower before. Must be the DE shave...

rxonmymind said:

Doing my part! Taking showers & shave while watering the lawn. Boy, people driving by act like they never seen someone shower before. Must be the DE shave...

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In my community, we are restricted to a maximum of 50 gallons of water per day, per person. During the last two months the two of us have used an average of 75 gallons per day (37.5 gal each). Short showers, no outside watering, no car washing, wash only full loads of clothes and dishes, etc.

I just fill the sink half way to rinse wet my brush and my razor. That's the way I always have done it. Lately, I have been wondering if rinsing under the tap would use less water, but I have not actually checked. Maybe for my next shave, I will just stop the sink but rinse the razor under the tap and see how much water is in the sink when I am done.

rxonmymind said:

Doing my part! Taking showers & shave while watering the lawn. Boy, people driving by act like they never seen someone shower before. Must be the DE shave...

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Yep! It's the DE. Many people do not know that some of us still use one.

We have been in a major drought for 5 years here in Austin, Texas. The city has saved so much water by water restrictions that they had to raise the rates.

rxonmymind said:

Doing my part! Taking showers & shave while watering the lawn. Boy, people driving by act like they never seen someone shower before. Must be the DE shave...

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Owwww. My eyes! My eyes!

bassman314 said:

Good Morning gents,

For those of you outside of California and hadn't heard, we are in the midst of a major drought. Snowpack was around 20% of normal.

Has any of my fellow shavers in the golden state changed their routine? Has that impacted the quality of your shaves?

My showers are definitely shorter, and I am stopping the water while I lather up my shampoo or soap.

When I shave, I am filling my sink, as opposed to rinsing my razor under running water.

I haven't changed anything with my lather or how many passes, due to the drought. I haven't notic3ed any changes in the quality of my shaves.

Click to expand...

I do most of these things from habit. We don't have drought issues here, but I hope to instill conservation as a habit into my kids.

DoctorShavegood said:

We have been in a major drought for 5 years here in Austin, Texas. The city has saved so much water by water restrictions that they had to raise the rates.

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That's Eco-Friendly folks we have lording over us! Up here in southern Ontario we have city councils who hector us into alternate day water use (lawn watering, car washing, etc). Throughout Ontario we have "smart" meters to measure water consumption, and we're billed extra for off-hour use. To save money, it's suggested to run laundry and dishwashers from 7pm to 9am. Yeah, I do laundry and my dishes in the middle of the freakin' night. And the utilities then turn around and crank up the prices because they're not generating enough revenue.
Ya think?
Sorry for the rant...I'll go and lie down now.

As a drought-stricken southern Californian, I think we are overlooking two of the more wasteful uses of water: running the garbage disposal and flushing the toilet.

Consequently, I am in the process of changing my drill.

I have a private backyard, so most of my bathroom work is now done outside.

I am getting a small pail with a lid and will be placing kitchen garbage in it. Gardening is a hobby, so I will bury the garbage every 2 days and that will improve the soil.

Necessity is the mother of creation. And compost is the mother of a healthy gardening soil.

If some of you are shocked at this, may I remind you this was the way it was done for 99.9% of the time that humans have been on Earth.

Progress is not necessarily progress.

I soak my brush in a mug, in distilled water, which I also use to make my lather. It's much better than the hard tap water! I've been doing this for a while, so, while not in reaction to drought, it's better than running the sink!

gdgeorge said:

Owwww. My eyes! My eyes!

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Photo's to come soon! < That's me on the lawn. So cooooold!

there are these new-fangled toilets that do 1 gallon per flush. good for civilized Californians. us rednecks use the backyard. burn our trash too. you know urban folks think our ilk are swine but we are the ones saving the environment! just for the record I used to be an attorney in Chicago. we are much happier retired and up here. I am not saying everyone should live in the woods. I just feel in the last 500 years not everything has been an improvement. problems have gone along with what has been created. there really is not a drought if you look at a different way. people use a lot of water. a large municipality pumps millions of gallons a month. that adds up.