Have a nice cup of tea and have a shave

**flippantfig** · 09-25-2006, 01:19 PM

Makes all the difference!

Seriously though water temperature makes ALL the difference as I discovered tonight.

Saturday is a shaving rest day, which means that Sundays shave is usually pretty good. However the Monday shave doesn't have that much to go on so its a really 'softly softly' affair after the previous days work. Tonight I made a cup of tea, grabbed an empty mug that had been topped up with some freshly boiled water and I made my way to the bathroom.

I Soaked the brush in the mug (actually transfered to my makeshift bowl), and went through the hot towel prep while filling the sink.

Then I soaped up the brush and started whipping up a foamy mess! Best shaving foam mix yet and its all down to the hot HOT water. And inbetween passes I get a slurp of tea to wash it all down with.

However, those Tesco blades only go for about 2 sessions on my face which meant it felt a little bumpy in places after 2 passes (N-S and after reading here an E-W -actually ear to nose- which works quite well for me). Sticking with the one brand of blade to see how they work out.

Actually found that while the breakfast bowl I'm using to mix the soap in is not great at holding heat, its large enough to sit in the sink and be kept warm by the water in there... a bit of improvising.

I'm all excited (can you tell!), but I thought I'd just share that.

**Queen of Blades** · 09-25-2006, 01:27 PM

Good job! Sounds like you enjoyed your shave.

**Leisureguy** · 09-25-2006, 02:30 PM

That's great. Enjoying the shave was such a novelty for me---I had never thought it could be fun.

You might want to try LetterK's razor blade sampler packet and see if you can find a blade that you like better than those you're using.

And welcome.

**LtBrugman70** · 09-25-2006, 05:29 PM

Remember that when using soaps to let the water cool down quite a bit from boiling. Hot water makes great lather, but really hot water evaporates into the ambient air faster, which can dry out a soap based lather very fast. Creams don't have as much of a problem with this due the larger amounts of oil which better trap pockets of water and prevent evaporation.

I find that the hotest stuff out of the tap tends to work just find. Remember, the water / lipid (aka, fat) ratio in shaving cream is more important that the water temp. Of course, a nice temperature makes creams and soaps more pliable and comfy on the face.

**flippantfig** · 09-26-2006, 01:14 AM

Thanks for the tips guys. Luckily it wasn't 'freshly' boiled. If it was I might've skinned my hands and face like a tomato

**htownmmm** · 09-26-2006, 05:02 AM

My tap doesn't provide the optimum temperature so I use the Obi-Ron tip of microwaving the water until right b4 boiling( if it does boil, wait a minute b4 placing brush in it).

Works like a charm every time! (Tyx Ron!)

Marty

**icecow** · 09-27-2006, 01:25 PM

..or just give the boiling water a spike of cold water.

Hey, I just got one of these African self-watering pots from walmart for $4.99 last night. It works ggrreeaatt! <does tony the tiger pose> Put hot water in the bottom chamber, keeps lather hot.

this link has a picture:
http://www.badgerandblade.com/vb/sho...ican#post74446

**Queen of Blades** · 09-27-2006, 01:35 PM

Yeah. Chefchris really likes his violet pot, and has no interest in buying a moss scuttle. Though he would like it if someone did a comparison of the two.