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How To Shave using only a Safety Razor and Water
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By default, safety razors are the best manual shaving tools every man should use, but don’t get tempted to dry shave with a manual razor because these tools are not good at dry shaving, if you do so, you will be exposing yourself to serious problems like razor burns / bumps and ingrown hairs. Back in the past, our grand fathers never had a chance to use shaving soaps and creams, so the only thing they had at hand was water and normal soap. In this article, I want us to learn how to shave using a safety razor and water only, these tips will help you just in case you run out of shaving cream.
RELATED:- HOW TO SHAVE WITH A SAFETY RAZOR
STEPS:
- Wet your face with warm water: Before shaving, you need to get prepared very well, your skin is dry and the beards / hair are stiff and difficult to cut. So, you have to wash your face with warm water, this will open skin pores and at the same time make your beards / hair soft. After boiling water, let its temperature cool down, but it should not become cold, it has to be Luke warm, not too hot / cold, this will make it easy to apply on the skin without causing any irritations / burns to the skin. Since our skins don’t do well with dirty things, you have to use a clean soft cotton face towel to apply the warm water on your skin. Rinse the towel in warm water and wash the area to be shaved, you can put the towel in that area for at least 2 minutes, this will help open all closed skin pores and it will also weaken the roots of your beards and hair to be shaved.
- Clean your Razor before shaving:- The first thing you need to do is to sterilize your razor, this will kill all germs found on the razor. If you don’t have a sterilizer solution, you can use vinegar to clean your razor, because when you shave with a dirty razor, germs will find their way to your skin and cause some serious infections. After that, you can remove vinegar / or sterilizer with cold water. Shaving experts say that cold water can make your razor blades shave / cut better and at the same time last longer, yet on the other hand, warm / hot water makes them weak.
RELATED: WHAT IS A SAFETY RAZOR?
- Check the sharpness of razor blades: – After cleaning your razor blades, you have to check their sharpness, do this by shaving a very small area and see how fast you can get a close shave, if it requires you to make more than one pass, then that razor blade needs to be sharpened / replace it with new blades. You can buy a full packet of 100 Double Edges Safety Razors at $24 and this packet can take you for like 4 – 6 months basing on how often you shave. Spending $24 after 4 – 6 months is economical yet at the same time you will get a clean close shave which most men & women just dream about.
- Start Shaving: – To shave with a safety razor / any other type of manual razor, you have to follow your grain (the direction to which your hair / beards grow too), when you have towards your grain, you will get a close shave yet at the same time your skin will not be irritated by any means and this will save you from common razor shaving problems like razor bumps. However, if you shave against the grain, the razor will pull the skin and hair to the opposite direction and the possibility of cutting your self will be high, you will also over irritate the skin which may result to more damages. When shaving with water and a razor only, you have to be very careful, avoid all childish mistakes because shaving with water is just Plan B, it’s another wet shaving option when you have no shaving cream / soap.
- Clean shaved area with cold water: – After getting that clean close shave, you can go ahead and clean your face or any shaved area with cold water. But make sure you use a very clean cloth / towel to clean a shaved area, if you’re not sure of the hygiene of the cloth / towel, wash it in hot water to kill all germs and then use cold water which was boiled before, this will ensure that the cold water has no germs too. Cleaning a shaved area with cold water will help in closing skin pores after shaving yet at the same time it will clean and clear shaved hair from your skin. If you use warm water to clean your face after shaving, skin pores will remain open and ready to take-in any germs / bacteria from your hands. If possible, you can apply an aftershave lotion / splash, this will calm down the shaved area and at the same time kill any germs around.
- Clean that area you have been shaving from: – I’m sure most of you shave via the skin or in the shower. When you shave with a manual razor, your beards / hair will spread all over the sink / floor / bathtub. If you forget to remove your beards / hair, that place will look messy and undesirable to other people. So make everyone’s life simple and clean your mess after shaving. If you shaved via the sink, use a brush and water to run remove that hair, if you shaved while in the shower, just switch on shower water and let it sweep the hair / beards down.
- Try shaving with normal soap and water: – If things don’t do well with shaving with water, you can try shaving with a normal soap. Actually, that is what I use; I get my normal bathing soap, mix it with water and make foam, apply it on my beards / pubes, and later wet my razor with cold water and start shaving towards the grain. I use the same method when shaving my balls, but after that, I wash myself with cold water, dry the area with a clean towel and apply after shave to kill germs and to prevent razor bumps.
- Don’t wear dirty under wears / pants after shaving pubes:- It’s not advisable to wear underpants more than two times in a row…you have to wear a clean fresh underwear / panty every day, because these small garments can harbor bacteria & germs, so once you wear one under ware for two days after shaving, all the bacteria & germs harbored on this pant will find their way to your skin. Sometimes bumps and infections we get down there are caused by poor hygiene.
THINGS YOU WILL NEED:
- Good Safety Razor
- After shave splash / lotion
- Cold water
- Warm water
- Sterilizer
- New Double Edge Razor Blades
- Clean face towel
- Mirror ( if your shaving your beards, you need a mirror so that you see what you’re doing)
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