Matthew Fitzsimmons

Cold Shaving

I've written about shaving techniques several times since discovering that classic shaving techniques (involving a double-edged safety razor and using a badger-hair brush with soap or proper cream) produced a much better result than shaving with a cartridge razor and cream out of a can, or an electric razor.

The only problem was that I would get inconsistent results. Part of this was probably due to being inconsistent in my shaving habits, but some of it was due to issues with consistency in the temperature of the water and the shaving cream.

To do it right, it was necessary to get the water and the cream as hot as possible, and then keep them that way. Turns out this was not an easy task, especially if I tried to shave when traveling When shaving in unfamiliar conditions, I would frequently end up with quite a few cuts because I couldn't get the conditions right.

Enter cold shaving. It's been a couple of years now since I first heard about cold shaving. I think the first place I heard about it was on The Art of Manliness blog. It turns out that there is a long history of shaving with cold water, and not just because of necessity. You can read this article) (from The Art of Manliness, of course for a little more of the background, including quotes from a variety of resources and a distilled list of reasons why cold shaving is better than hot shaving.

Since all that has already been written, I'll just give you my results. Since switching to cold shaving, my shaving experience has become:

  1. More comfortable
  2. Faster
  3. Easier
  4. Less damaging to my face

After using this method for a couple of years, I highly recommend it. Now I just need to stop being to lazy to shave more than once a week.

June 4, 2012