IGrooming Dept’s proprietor told me of a new technique for the third pass, the against-the-grain pass. The rationale for the method is that shaving is by nature exfoliating. That’s why in the Guide I recommend against using an exfoliating scrub as a preshave: a double exfoliation — scrubbing + shaving — is too hard on the skin. Instead, I suggest using a good soap (such as MR GLO, which I used for years) or a preshave product (such as Grooming Dept Moisturizing Pre-Shave, which I now use).
This morning I used his new technique.
I began the shave with Grooming Dept Moisturizing Pre-Shave, as usual, and then made an excellent lather from Ariana & Evans’s Tobacco Road, a soap in their Ultima formula (presumably their final (ultimate) formula), with the able assistance of my RazoRock Amici brush, a very nice little guy.
The razor today is the same as yesterday’s: the Yaqi Slope head, a stainless-steel slant, on the RazoRock Super Knurl stainless-steel handle. Yesterday’s shaving-oil shave left a fair amount of residue on the razor, and I figured the lather today would wash it off, and it did.
The first and second passes went well, and then for the third pass, I used the new technique:
- Rinse as usual after the second (across-the-grain) pass.
- Squeeze the brush knot to expel the rich lather from the knot’s core.
- Use your hands to spread the lather over the shaving area of your face.
- Leaving the lather in place, clean the brush, rinsing the knot under hot water until the water runs clear, then under cold water. Shake brush well, then stand the damp brush on its base to dry.
- Shave the final pass, against the grain except for any areas in which you tend to get in-growns. For those, shave across the grain in the direction opposite to the direction used in the second pass.
By using your hands to spread the lather for the final pass, you avoid irritation from the brush’s bristles on your freshly shaved face — and if the brush runs short of lather in that final pass, more brushing (to eke out the lather) means more irritation of your skin.
Moreover, by squeezing out the rich core lather and patting it onto your face, you get the use of it instead of rinsing it down the drain when you clean your brush after the shave.
I found this idea works wonderfully well, and it now will be my regular routine.
The tea this morning is Baltimore Coffee and Tea Company’s Brassica® Green Tea with Orange and TrueBroc®: “Brassica® Tea with TrueBroc® is a delicious, gourmet tea with 15 milligrams of TrueBroc® from broccoli added to each tea bag. The natural antioxidant found in broccoli and broccoli sprouts has been shown to last longer than Vitamin C, E and A in removing free radicals from our bodies. TrueBroc® activates the body’s own natural antioxidant defense system, including Phase 2 detoxification enzymes.”