Oh No! Another hidden danger of wetshaving!

[birchhook]

My father has been wetshaving for the past few years. I'm really looking forward to his visit in September as we will be buying brushes together. (I was thinking the C&E BB, but now I'm leaning toward a SR)

He sent me this email today:

When I was about 10 or 11, my favorite TV show was "The Untouchables" w/ Robert Stack as Elliot Ness. Every episode would include a scene w/ someone in a barber chair, a hot towel wrapped around his face. This guy would be a judge, or a police chief, or some other enemy of Al "Scarface" Capone. While he is in the chair w/ his face completely covered, the barber slips out a back door, & a mean looking guy carrying a sub-machine gun enters & lets him have it. This would happen on every show, w/ only one exception . . . the manner of the execution. Sometime he would use a switchblade (a stiletto), a .45, or a straight-razor. But in every episode there would be a killing in a barber chair while the victim was blinded by the hot towel. So I ask my dad: Why would anyone cover his face, only to get shot or knifed or stabbed?? And my dad would say to me:
But son, everyone knows that a hot towel is the secret to a great shave!! It was dangerous, the best way to get killed in Chicago in 1930, but it was the risk one took to get the perfect shave.

So if you haven't tried it yet, heat a cup of water in the microwave, pour it over a wash cloth, lay it on your face for 3-5 minutes; but only after you are sure that no one is lurking around carrying a violin case. Let me know what you think.

So, watch your back guys, and enjoy your SCAD, SBAD, and RAD as much as you can before you get gunned down!

[Jim]

Great story! Thanks for sharing it with us!

[Ashe]

Ah well, unless I shoot myself, I won't have this problem at home. Before I shave I soak a hot towel for a few minutes in a sink full of very hot water. After I shower I put the towel over my face (particularly where my beard is) and let it damp for 1 or 2 minutes. At the same time I have already another towel being soaked in hot water. After 1 or 2 minutes I remove the first towel and then take the second of which I drip a few drops of water over my beard and then put it on my face again for 1 or 2 minutes. This is in my opinion one of the more relaxing parts of the shave: sit back, relax, close your eyes and enjoy the warm feeling of that soaked towel on your face.

I obviously make sure my lather is already created before that and it's kept warm by placing the bowl in a second (bigger) bowl with very hot water, keeping the bottom of the latering bowl warm.

[mantic]

...This is in my opinion one of the more relaxing parts of the shave: sit back, relax, close your eyes and enjoy the warm feeling of that soaked towel on your face.

Just out of curiosity, where do you sit? Do you have a recliner in the bathroom?

--Mark

[Ashe]

Just out of curiosity, where do you sit? Do you have a recliner in the bathroom?

--Mark

Hmz, maybe it's just me but I prefer to have a comfy chair (not a recliner but a very comfy chair) in my bathroom just in case I want to sit back and relax.

It's also very handy to hang some stuff over but I do admit, each time I shave, I enjoy a few minutes on that comfy chair with a hot towel over my head.

Ah well, go ahead and say I'm crazy: your words can't touch me and my chair!

[mantic]

Hmz, maybe it's just me but I prefer to have a comfy chair (not a recliner but a very comfy chair) in my bathroom just in case I want to sit back and relax.

It's also very handy to hang some stuff over but I do admit, each time I shave, I enjoy a few minutes on that comfy chair with a hot towel over my head.

Ah well, go ahead and say I'm crazy: your words can't touch me and my chair!

Not crazy at all. In fact I wish my bathroom was large enough to accomodate a nice chair!!

--Mark

[AJS]

If this really does worry anyone, I think your first concern should be getting your tranquiliser dosage upped by a competent professional, if that doesn't help, couldn't you just lock the bathroom door?

[mrob]

Birch,

Great story about your Dad--he sounds like a character!

Ashe,

I envy the spaciousness of your washroom--there's only 1 place to sit in my bathroom, if you catch my drift.

[bigDee]

That is a good ol time story. I'll remember that.

[Ashe]

Mitch, I understand what you're talking about.

Here's an idea: Let's make it a B&B habit that if you don't have the space for a comfy chair in your bathroom, you close the top of your toilet, you put a towel on it to make it "softer" and you enjoy the few minutes of soaking a steamingly hot towel on your face before you start shaving.

[joelmaners]

Instead of using a cup of water, I just microwave a damp hand towel for 30 seconds. I heats up much faster. Try it with your microwave.You will haveto experement with the amount of time. Re-heating only takes about 10 to 15 seconds.

[varpula]

Is it safe to put a microwave in the bathroom?

[kasabian]

So if you haven't tried it yet, heat a cup of water in the microwave....

Gentlemen, please DO NOT put cups of water in the microwave. It is severely dangerous and can have devastating effects. I'm not a science expert and I don't know the technical ins and outs, but the microwaves does something to the water which leads the compressed boiled water to suddenly explode in people's faces when it is taken out of the microwave. I have read and heard numerous stories about this. Please trust me on this one. NEVER PUT A MUG OF WATER IN THE MICROWAVE. WHETHER IT'S FOR SHAVING, COOKING, MAKING TEA/COFFEE..WHATEVER

I often put a damp flannel in the microwave, heat it up and then cover my face with it. Works a treat...

[fuerein]

Gentlemen, please DO NOT put cups of water in the microwave. It is severely dangerous and can have devastating effects. I'm not a science expert and I don't know the technical ins and outs, but the microwaves does something to the water which leads the compressed boiled water to suddenly explode in people's faces when it is taken out of the microwave. I have read and heard numerous stories about this. Please trust me on this one. NEVER PUT A MUG OF WATER IN THE MICROWAVE. WHETHER IT'S FOR SHAVING, COOKING, MAKING TEA/COFFEE..WHATEVER

I often put a damp flannel in the microwave, heat it up and then cover my face with it. Works a treat...

Actually it is perfectly safe if, and this is the major key, you provide some reasonably porous surface that will allow the water to form the bubbles as it reaches the boiling point, thus avoiding the risk of superheating the water. The risk of supoerheating the water is greatest in non-porous, especially smooth, contains, particularly glass contains. Thus placing something such a a wooden dowel rod into the water as it is microwaved will eliminate the risk.

See this for a more detailed explanation:
http://www.snopes.com/science/microwave.asp

[kasabian]

Actually it is perfectly safe if, and this is the major key, you provide some reasonably porous surface that will allow the water to form the bubbles as it reaches the boiling point, thus avoiding the risk of superheating the water. The risk of supoerheating the water is greatest in non-porous, especially smooth, contains, particularly glass contains. Thus placing something such a a wooden dowel rod into the water as it is microwaved will eliminate the risk.

See this for a more detailed explanation:
http://www.snopes.com/science/microwave.asp

In other words, it's not perfectly safe, and it is pretty risky. But I guess wet shavers like to live on the "Edge".

[guenron]

Gentlemen, please DO NOT put cups of water in the microwave. It is severely dangerous and can have devastating effects. I'm not a science expert and I don't know the technical ins and outs, but the microwaves does something to the water which leads the compressed boiled water to suddenly explode in people's faces when it is taken out of the microwave. I have read and heard numerous stories about this. Please trust me on this one. NEVER PUT A MUG OF WATER IN THE MICROWAVE. WHETHER IT'S FOR SHAVING, COOKING, MAKING TEA/COFFEE..WHATEVER

I often put a damp flannel in the microwave, heat it up and then cover my face with it. Works a treat...

Dear Keegan,
Was this insight published by the Flat Earth Society or in a tabloid heralding "Woman Gives Birth to Siamese Quintuplets in Microwave?" The danger you are referring to deals with the absence of nucleating "agents" in the microwave's environment so that instead of the water bubbling and rolling when reaching the boiling point, it sits there and becomes superheated (perhaps the term you were looking for?). When someone grabs the vessel containing the superheated water the shock brings about a center of nucleation and the water releases the energy that would have gradually been released in an instant causing boiling-hot water to splatter about.
What can a man do? Carefully stir the water before removing the vessel from the microwave. Oh and wrap aluninum around your head to keep the aliens from rotting your brain.(Saw that in the same supermarket tabloid)

[kasabian]

lol....ok, I see a few members of this forum suffer from smart-arse syndrome.

That's fine, whatever. Just thought I'd pass on the dangers of heating water in the microwave. If I wanted a lecture, I'd go and enroll in summer college.

cheers

[guenron]

Actually it is perfectly safe if, and this is the major key, you provide some reasonably porous surface that will allow the water to form the bubbles as it reaches the boiling point, thus avoiding the risk of superheating the water. The risk of supoerheating the water is greatest in non-porous, especially smooth, contains, particularly glass contains. Thus placing something such a a wooden dowel rod into the water as it is microwaved will eliminate the risk.

See this for a more detailed explanation:
http://www.snopes.com/science/microwave.asp

Hi Adam,
I wish I had seen your post before I had typed my repsonse. The Mikleson's cut through the urban legend manure preety quickly. I guess most folks never had a high school chemistry class where they learned why it is wise to put a glass boiling bead in a beaker..

[guenron]

lol....ok, I see a few members of this forum suffer from smart-arse syndrome.

That's fine, whatever. Just thought I'd pass on the dangers of heating water in the microwave. If I wanted a lecture, I'd go and enroll in summer college.

cheers

While I am sure your intentions were good, you've set shaving back a hundred years. There are lads building fires in the kitchen now!

[NMMB]

While I am sure your intentions were good, you've set shaving back a hundred years. There are lads building fires in the kitchen now!

Setting shaving back 100 years - Ron, isn't that what we are trying to do here?