The Importance of Cold Water Shaving.

Being a bearded man myself, I can't say that I have overly large shaves, that is to say, I don't shave a large portion of my face (just my cheeks and neck). Of course I did when I was younger but that has long since died out.

I have however until very recently been shaving with hot water as my dad taught me and his dad before him. But I always found afterwards, especially more recently, that I would get oily skin leading to some spots and the shave might not always be one hundred percent close or that I would get razor burn.

Now it is all very well spending lots of money on spot cream and expensive moisturisers to reduce the levels of oil or keeping your skin at the level of softness. But the simple answer is this. 

SHAVE WITH COLD WATER.

Now hear me out on this, the idea of using cold water while you are doing the manly activity of applying a very shave blade to your face might seem daunting but....

When using hot water the pores on your face open up, I was told that this would mean that I could shave more easily because the hairs would come out better. 

WRONG.

By doing this you will be, firstly ripping the hairs out of your pores which, lets be honest isn't very nice. Two it means dirt and oil can clog up your pores leading to spots.

When using cold water for shaving the pores stay closed and the blade of the razor can cut easily through without tugging or irritating the skin resulting in less razor burn and less oil being produced leading to less spots. 

The other problem with hot water shaving is your bristles absorb the hot water much more easily than cold. Now we were all told that this meant the hairs would be softer and this is true, HOWEVER, this also means the hairs move around more and will go under the razor leading to a much, much further shave. 

When using cold water the bristles won't absorb as much water and will stay harder, they won't move around and you will be able to cut through them much more cleanly with, again, no tugging or irritation and you will end up with a supremely close shave compared to hot water. 

Once you get over the initial shock of the cold water you will definitely notice big improvements I swear by cold water shaving and once you have tried it for a week or so you will too.

Image taken from artofmanliness.com 

-Have a Great Shave-

-Louis-