Military Shave Routines?

Hey fellas, new to the site and stumbled upon this part of the forums.

First off, I am new to safety razors, brushes, lather etc. I have been using Mach 3s and Pro Glides my whole adult life. This is my first week shaving with the good stuff and I am still trying not to be bad at it.

With that being said, I am noticing a lot of "pre shave" posts out there recommending a hot towel wrap to help your beard absorb water and make the shave better. I am currently on my 3rd ship active duty and anyone else who has been on a ship knows a few things:

1. You have better things to do with your time than spend ~10 minutes setting up for your shave every morning
2. If you don't have better things to do with your time, you still don't have anywhere good to put these wet towels.
3. There are other people waiting to use the sink. You are going to get yourself hurt.

Other than taking a hot shower, using the pre shave oil/cream etc, does anyone have a good routine that helps prepare for a great shave in the morning?

Welcome to the B&B forums. If you are crushed on time (been there, done that), a mild razor will be a faster shave.

Sent via mobile - Chris

I definitely have 5 minutes to shave, but the towel isn't really practical for me. The only place I could possibly pull that off is at home. Even when I am on the ship, I still have my brush, lather, and safety razor. Just looking for an alternative to looking like a total Hollywood diva!

Hot shower?













Must be nice, Swabby.

Haha. You will have to forgive me for serving in a different era. I would say hot showers are available 71% of the time. Ridiculous I know.

Yeah, you won't be too well liked by your shipmates if you are a Hollywood. If you are on a small ship, or at least back in my day, neither showers nor sinks had actual running water. It was press the button when you needed water flow. Wet, later, rinse, get out of the way. Sinks didn't have stoppers in them, so there wasn't any running a nice hot bowl of water. Going through a nice shave routine wasn't practical aboard ship. There was always 2-3 guys deep waiting on every shower stall and sink.

No worries. More power to ya'!

Traveling Man said:

Yeah, you won't be too well liked by your shipmates if you are a Hollywood. If you are on a small ship, or at least back in my day, neither showers nor sinks had actual running water. It was press the button when you needed water flow. Wet, later, rinse, get out of the way. Sinks didn't have stoppers in them, so there wasn't any running a nice hot bowl of water. Going through a nice shave routine wasn't practical aboard ship. There was always 2-3 guys deep waiting on every shower stall and sink.

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Fortunately, I have the liberty of sharing 1 sink with 2 or 3 people in a stateroom these days. However, the towel wrap would still be pretty over the top. We also don't have somewhere to just throw wet towels all the time. Right now, I just go with the hot shower option. My beard is still pretty coarse though, so I am trying to get it softer somehow. I know I am not the first to go through this dilemma. How many people actually do a hot towel wrap every shave? I would venture to say very few.

kevmama said:

I definitely have 5 minutes to shave, but the towel isn't really practical for me. The only place I could possibly pull that off is at home. Even when I am on the ship, I still have my brush, lather, and safety razor. Just looking for an alternative to looking like a total Hollywood diva!

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Reminds me of Warrant Officer Candidate School. I would recommend a mild razor and shaving cream as opposed to soap as it will lather quite easily and quickly.

Sent via mobile - Chris

kevmama said:

How many people actually do a hot towel wrap every shave? I would venture to say very few.

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I would have to agree.

Lightcs1776 said:

Reminds me of Warrant Officer Candidate School. I would recommend a mild razor and shaving cream as opposed to soap as it will lather quite easily and quickly.

Sent via mobile - Chris

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Do you have any recommendations for the mild razor? Are you speaking to blades or the razor itself? Right now I am using Merkur 34C and Astra SPs.

August West said:

I would have to agree.

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I never have. Too much trouble.

Sent via mobile - Chris

kevmama said:

Do you have any recommendations for the mild razor? Are you speaking to blades or the razor itself? Right now I am using Merkur 34C and Astra SPs.

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LT. I used a Merkur 34C and found it to be very mild. An adjustable lets you decide what is mild to you. I also have a Gillette Milford, which is mild. If interested, I would be happy to send the Milford to you. Just pm me the address or APO.

Sent via mobile - Chris

I'm in the Army and unfortunately never been on a ship, but I'll tell a tale.

No S__ there I was, in the middle of the desert. (conus somewhere in NM). Shaving with a arko shave stick, a boar brush, a feather popular and persona blades. No running water, the only thing I had was the bumper of an LMTV and a canteen of water. Even though for the 28 days we didn't shower, I still took the 7 minutes to lather and shave cause at least my face was clean.

I had a boar brush to take the sand out of my hair, and enough cloths to rotate the undergarments every 3 days.

I forgot what imaginary country we were invading or defending.

thematthatter said:

I'm in the Army and unfortunately never been on a ship, but I'll tell a tale.

No S__ there I was, in the middle of the desert. (conus somewhere in NM). Shaving with a arko shave stick, a boar brush, a feather popular and persona blades. No running water, the only thing I had was the bumper of an LMTV and a canteen of water. Even though for the 28 days we didn't shower, I still took the 7 minutes to lather and shave cause at least my face was clean.

I had a boar brush to take the sand out of my hair, and enough cloths to rotate the undergarments every 3 days.

I forgot what imaginary country we were invading or defending.

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Sounds like my time in the Mohave desert. Grin. I really am glad I won't ever be back there.

Sent via mobile - Chris

No hot towels needed. A shower is all the prep necessary for many.

Hello and welcome. Great to have you here on B&B and thanks for your service.

As others have noted, the hot towel is really not needed, nor is any pre-shave cream. A shower or even 2-3 handfuls of warm water are all the prep that I use.

Heck, there are even quite a few cold water shavers here. Search that term if you want to read about that approach.

I typically don't use a hot towel. One of the things I do is use conditioner on my beard and that usually does the trick in softening my facial hair

Onboard a frigate way back when, if one of the evaporators went down, the first thing that happened was there was no fresh water for showering/shaving/etc. We couldn't take showers and were still expected to shave, but not daily. At sea is the only time in my life I've ever owned and used an electric razor. I still wouldn't use one if you gave it to me.

You've never lived until you have to brush your teeth with Crest and bug juice.

Have you tried shaving with cold water? It takes a little getting used at first, particularly in cold weather, and you have to be more careful of nicks since you skin is not a pliable. However, cold water keeps your whiskers rigid, leading to a closer shave with fewer passes required, even with a very mild razor.

I shave with cold water every day unless I am specifically trying to "treat myself" with a fancy shave.