My Wet Shave Method
I thought I would document my method of wet shaving, everyone's seems to be different. It's probably worth saying that I only wet shave every other day (although I've started on Saturdays as well), with an electric razor shave in between.
So here's how I shave:
- Fill sink with warm water
- Soak brush in sink while filling (and shaving soap if I'm using a soap)
- Wet face with warm water
- Build lather (if on face, if in mug, do before wetting face)
- Shave with the grain (straight down my face, WTG)
- Re-lather from quantity generated previously
- Shave against the grain (ATG)
- Run my hand over my face and touch up any rough areas
- Rinse with cold water
- Have a shower
- (A while later I apply some aftershave balm)
The general approach I've seen/heard others discuss (and this is far from extensively researched) goes something like this:
- Soak brush
- Take shower
- Lather
- Shave with the grain (WTG)
- Re-lather
- Shave across the grain (XTG)
- Re-lather
- Shave against the grain (ATG)
- Rinse with cold water
- Apply aftershave balm/cologne
Perhaps the biggest departure is I shave before I shower. I do this because I've found that having a shower is the best way to seal any cuts or nicks. Alun bars and stypic pencils are, in my experience, useless. You're better off putting a small patch of toilet roll on any bleeding areas, but the shower works better (and is cleaner, and doesn't make you look so stupid).
I only do two passes -- mainly for time reasons -- one with the grain, and one against. This seems to provide a good, close shave, without the need for an extra pass. It's the method I used with my Mach 3 (without the re-lather in between) and seems to do the job pretty well.
I have an Alun block, and Geofatboy recommended rubbing it all over after a shave, rather than just applying to nicks. Personally, I found all it did was dry my face out, so I stopped (I only did this a couple of times).
So there you go, unconvential perhaps, but that's my method.