Many years back when I took up DE shaving, I used a brush and shaving soap. I really did not care for the ritual. Went on to using a cartridge razor.
After the lock down, I decided that I had enough with cartridges. All those years, I had grown a full (but short) beard, so I would have a minimal area to shave.
Returning to DE razors, I decided that I could forgo the traditional shaving ritual and use canned shaving gel.
I shaved off my beard and left a small goatee, along with a pencil thin mustache.
I am perfectly happy using canned gel. I use Edge or Gillette. I buy a half dozen cans or so when I find them on sale. It was a couple of years since I made my last purchases and I still have enough cans remaining to last through this year.
On TV, they show someone putting a pile of gel in their hands, rubbing it into lather and applying the lather to their face.
This seems like an unnecessary waste of gel. It also doesn't allow for the thick gel to be applied directly to the skin and spread, creating lather over the thick protective gel base.
I splash water on my face in the morning, reapplying a couple of times as I do other things.
With a wet face and hands, I apply a small amount of gel, to the tips of my first two fingers. Then I apply to my face and spread it all over.
This gives a thick lubricating barrier that canned foams like Barbasol do not. Then I shave until I have removed the foaming gel and the skin is drying.
I never bother with a three pass shave. After the main pass, the beauty of the gel is that it still remains on your face, even though it is not visible as lather.
I then re-wet my face, removing foam from the edges and spreading the now wet residual slickness around. This slickness is perfectly clear. It allows me to see clearly for cross the grain and touch up passes as needed.
Gel was invented to replace fat laden shaving soaps that contain around 45% fat. This clogs up cartridge razors. The water soluble gel can be easily rinsed from between the blades of cartridge razors.
It has the benefit of leaving residue that becomes slick after rinsing, so no additional gel is necessary for the touch-up passes.
For those who need extra protection during touch-up, Edge leaves more residual than Gillette. But Edge does require more rinsing to remove all of the residual.
A can seems to last me about 2-3 months. For me, using shave gel with DE razors is the ideal solution. I use gel with all of my razors and all of my blades.
After the lock down, I decided that I had enough with cartridges. All those years, I had grown a full (but short) beard, so I would have a minimal area to shave.
Returning to DE razors, I decided that I could forgo the traditional shaving ritual and use canned shaving gel.
I shaved off my beard and left a small goatee, along with a pencil thin mustache.
I am perfectly happy using canned gel. I use Edge or Gillette. I buy a half dozen cans or so when I find them on sale. It was a couple of years since I made my last purchases and I still have enough cans remaining to last through this year.
On TV, they show someone putting a pile of gel in their hands, rubbing it into lather and applying the lather to their face.
This seems like an unnecessary waste of gel. It also doesn't allow for the thick gel to be applied directly to the skin and spread, creating lather over the thick protective gel base.
I splash water on my face in the morning, reapplying a couple of times as I do other things.
With a wet face and hands, I apply a small amount of gel, to the tips of my first two fingers. Then I apply to my face and spread it all over.
This gives a thick lubricating barrier that canned foams like Barbasol do not. Then I shave until I have removed the foaming gel and the skin is drying.
I never bother with a three pass shave. After the main pass, the beauty of the gel is that it still remains on your face, even though it is not visible as lather.
I then re-wet my face, removing foam from the edges and spreading the now wet residual slickness around. This slickness is perfectly clear. It allows me to see clearly for cross the grain and touch up passes as needed.
Gel was invented to replace fat laden shaving soaps that contain around 45% fat. This clogs up cartridge razors. The water soluble gel can be easily rinsed from between the blades of cartridge razors.
It has the benefit of leaving residue that becomes slick after rinsing, so no additional gel is necessary for the touch-up passes.
For those who need extra protection during touch-up, Edge leaves more residual than Gillette. But Edge does require more rinsing to remove all of the residual.
A can seems to last me about 2-3 months. For me, using shave gel with DE razors is the ideal solution. I use gel with all of my razors and all of my blades.
