The Definitive Guide To Shaving

GET YOUR SHAVE ON IN THE SHOWER - PART 2

Dan Farago — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 03:00:11 GMT

Step 3 - Finishing With The Cryo'd Schick Xtreme3 Razor

In my last post I took you through the process of shaving your head with The Total Shaving Solution and Panasonic Linear shaver, which will remove about 99% of the stubble on your head. In many circumstances 99% is plenty good enough, but for those times that you want 100% smoothness you'll want to use a Cryogenically Treated Schick Xtreme3 disposable razor to remove that last 1%.

The Cryo'd Schick Xtreme3 disposable razor is my choice as the ultimate head shaving finishing tool. It is really perfectly designed for that particular task, even though I'm sure that wasn't Schick's intention when they developed it. For more details about why I like it please see my earlier post THE RIGHT TOOLS FOR THE JOB.

To finish off your shave with the Cryo'd Xtreme3 start by once again wetting your head and massaging in a bit more of The Total Shaving Solution, about 2 or 3 drops is really all you'll need. Like before make sure you get good coverage all over your head, being careful to not miss any spots.

You'll be shaving ONLY against the grain now. Wet your Xtreme3 and start shaving the top of your head from the front and center of your forehead back. Do the top right half first, then do the right side, starting just above the sideburn area, by shaving up against the grain. With each successive pass you'll be moving gradually toward the rear of your head. Once the right side is done you can then start on the right backside, again shaving against the grain from the base of the neck up and all the while feeling for stubble with your free hand.

Within a very short time you'll have the entire right half of your head done. Rinse out your blade and do the same to the left side, again starting with the top from the front to the rear, moving left as you go. Then do the left side same as you did the right, then the back left, and you're finished! Piece of cake. Lightly rinse off your head and again feel with your fingertips for any remaining stubble that might have eluded you, if you find any shave it off by once again shaving against the grain.

At this point your head will be as ridiculously soft and smooth as the proverbial baby's butt - and without a trace of stubble remaining. You're now ready for your date, your job interview, dinner at Mom's, or just another day with the most super smooth, clean shaven head imaginable!

And now my friends a few words about aftershave products. Aftershave is a perfect example of a product that is made to be sold rather than made to be used. Don't waste your money, you don't need it. In fact I'll take it one step further and state unequivocably for the record that not only are aftershave products unnecessary but most of them are truly crap. More often than not the ingredients consist mostly of synthetic chemical additives, dyes and some form of alcohol.

Be particularly suspicious of any company that makes a shaving lubricant and then tries to also sell you an aftershave. If their shaving lube was any good it wouldn't be necessary for you to use an aftershave, and they wouldn't be in a position to sell you a product you shouldn't need in the first place.

All you really need to use is The Total Shaving Solution. After shaving with The Total Shaving Solution your skin will feel terrific, not dried out, itchy or irritated like it will with foams, gels and shaving creams. At most the only post-shave step you might want to take is to massage an additional drop or two and some water into your skin. And that's only if you're shaving under some particularly harsh conditions, for most people when you're done shaving with The Total Shaving Solution you're simply done, PERIOD.

Step 4 - Cleaning Up

So now that you're done shaving and your head is as soft and smooth as it can possibly be you might think that you're all finished. Almost but not quite Ace, there's one more step - and it's an important one. That's right, it's cleanup time! Like my dad taught me when I was a kid, the job's not finished until you clean up your work area. But not to worry, this can be done quickly and easily right there in the shower before you dry off.

The first thing you need to do is clean your Panasonic Linear shaver and Cryo'd Schick Xtreme3 razor of any shaving slag that has no doubt built up during your shave. For both hygenic and performance reasons you're going to definitely want to start with clean blades the next time you shave, so don't be lazy and blow this off. A dirty shaver and razor can be a breeding ground for bacteria and they also won't shave very well when clogged up with slag from your last shave.

Depending on the model Panasonic shaver you own you may have one or two choices when cleaning your shaver. If you have an ES8077S Vortex that model comes with a cleaning and charging stand, so all you have to do is pop it into the stand and run the clean function. But if you just shaved off 2 or 3 days worth of growth it wouldn't be a bad idea to first flush it out a bit under running water.

Your other option is to clean the shaver without the cleaning stand by using what Panasonic calls "turbo mode." Wet the shaver and then apply some liquid soap to the foil. (Personally I like to use Dawn dishwashing liquid, I fill an empty Total Shaving Solution bottle with it and keep it in the shower.) Then hold the on/off button for 2 seconds to activate turbo mode and the blades will move at an astounding 17,000 RPM for about 20 seconds, sudsing up the soap and cleaning the foil and blades. You can hear the difference in pitch when the motor changes speed, for you musical types it goes up a perfect 4th.

After 20 seconds the shaver will automatically stop. Pop off the outer foil and rinse it out, then flush out the exposed blades as well. You can run the shaver in turbo mode again when you do that if you feel it's necessary but that's optional. Put the foil back on and your shaver is clean and ready for your next shave.

If you own an ES8043SC your shaver didn't come with the cleaning and charging stand so your only cleaning option is to run turbo mode.

For your Cryo'd Schick Xtreme3 razor simply rinse it out under the shower. If you don't have the greatest water pressure it's helpful to take an old toothbrush, which you can conveniently store in your Handy Cup, and use it to brush out the shaving slag from the blades under the running water. Again this takes very little time to do and is important to properly maintain the hygiene, edge and sharpness of your razor.

Now that your shaver and razor are clean you're also going to want to wipe down the shower area while the water is still running. I keep a scrub brush in the shower for just that purpose, it's got an open ended handle on it so rather than bend down and do it by hand I just slip my foot into it and do a quick pass over the floor before I shut off the water. Really easy, keeps the shower clean and just as importantly keeps you from getting into trouble with whoever else in your abode uses the shower.

There's more to come, so to be kept up-to-date on future posts to this or any other category on the Definitive Guide To Shaving blog please subscribe to our RSS feed.

GET YOUR SHAVE ON IN THE SHOWER - PART 1

Dan Farago — Sun, 23 Sep 2007 06:13:24 GMT

Now that you've chosen the right tools for the job you're just about ready to start shaving. All that's left is to decide where you're going to do it - in the shower or in front of the bathroom sink. As I stated in my last post I HIGHLY recommend doing your head shaving in the shower whenever possible. Unlike gels and foams The Total Shaving Solution is ideally suited for the steamy environment of the shower, plus as an added bonus you don't have to worry about making a mess. If you can't or won't shave your head in the shower it's not a deal-breaker, you can still use the same tools, minus the Fog Free Mirror & Handy Cup which obviously wouldn't be necessary, but be advised your shave will be messier and may possibly take longer to achieve optimum results.

I'll cover both scenarios, shaving your head in the shower or in front of the bathroom sink. I'm already assuming that you've got your hair trimmed down to a very low stubble, ideally one or two days growth and at most you shouldn't let it grow out for more than about a week. If you do you might need to use a pair of clippers to get it back down to a shaveable level.

Shaving Your Head In The Shower

OK, you've got everything in your shower that you'll need for the best ever head shaving experience - your bottle of The Total Shaving Solution, a Panasonic Linear Wet/Dry Shaver, a Cryo'd Schick Xtreme3 disposable razor and you've mounted your Fog Free Mirror & Handy Cup on the flat, smooth surface of the shower wall or door. It's best to mount them so either your back or non-shaving hand is facing the water flow while you shave, but you want to be close enough to easily wet your head, reach the valves, rinse your shaver etc. You don't want to mount them on the same wall that has the shower head, that will make your shave much more difficult. FYI the suction cups on your mirror and cup will easily adhere to any flat and smooth tile, glass and fiberglass but if the surface is rough or bumpy, like with some decorative tile, they won't stick at all and you'll have to do without.

Assuming that you're incorporating your shave into your morning shower rather than only using the shower as a place to shave you can either wash up first and then shave, or shave first and then wash up. Either way is fine, personally I prefer to wash up first and then shave because I like to give my skin and hair a chance to get a little saturated before I start shaving. Try it both ways, you'll figure out which you prefer soon enough.

Step 1 - Apply The Total Shaving Solution To Your Head

The first thing you want to do is make sure your head is good and wet, and once that's done it's time to apply The Total Shaving Solution to your stubbly bean. Squeeze an appropriate amount of The Total Shaving Solution into your wet palm, rub your hands together and massage the oil into your scalp. Make sure you get good coverage, massage it into the top, back, sides and especially don't miss right above your ears, that's a tender spot. The amount of oil you should use mainly depends on the hardness of your water and to a lesser extent on the amount and thickness of your stubble. Where I live the water is pretty hard, not the worst ever but hard enough. I use about 8 to 10 drops of The Total Shaving Solution, that seems to be the right amount for me under my particular water conditions. I might use a bit more on the very rare occasions that I don't shave for 3 or more days but for me that almost never happens. I tend to shave my head just about every day or on average at least five days out of every seven.

The softer the water the less shaving oil you'll need to use. I'll never forget one time shaving in New Haven, Connecticut - the water was just incredibly soft and I think I only used about 3 or 4 drops and got a rockin' shave. So let it be known far and wide - there's good shavin' in New Haven! And for what it's worth New Haven water is renowned as the key ingredient for making the best thin crust pizza on the planet, but that's a topic for somebody else's blog.

Optional but recommended: It's also a good idea to apply a single drop of The Total Shaving Solution to your finger and rub it into the foil of your Panasonic Linear Shaver (with the shaver off, obviously). This will help reduce drag and improve your shaver's performance.

Step 2 - Shaving Your Head With The Panasonic Linear Shaver

There's a switch on the right side of the Panasonic that toggles between Soft and Lock. Make sure the switch is in the Soft position, this allows the head assembly to pivot left and right so it will better hug the contours of your head while you shave. In the Lock position the head assembly remains rigid, it's definitely better to use the Soft mode when shaving your head.

Now you're ready to commence shaving! It's a good idea to follow the same pattern every time you shave, that way you'll develop good shaving habits around a consistent routine. I'm going to recommend the routine that I follow, you can copy me or do whatever feels right to you, but regardless you should always shave the same way every time. That's how you'll most easily get the hang of it and within a short time you'll be able to shave your head quickly and efficiently with the best possible results.

You should start on the right hand side at the top of where your sideburns are if you have them. With the shaver in your right hand and your left hand holding the top of your ear down and out of the way turn the shaver on with your thumb and begin shaving. Steadily move up and past where your head curves toward the top, then back down again, then repeat while simultaneously moving the shaver toward the back of your head.

Continue going up and down, all the while slowly but surely advancing further back until ultimately you'll find yourself working behind your ear. You'll take longer strokes as you reach that point and you're shaving the side of your neck, going back up to the top of your head and then down again. Occasionally you can let go of your ear and use your free hand to feel for stubble. Once you're past the ear you can let it go for good and exclusively use the fingertips of your free hand as your eyes - i.e. the Braille Method - all the while feeling for stubble and then shaving it off. Ultimately it's a lot like mowing your lawn but with less effort and far fewer obstacles in your way. No bushes, trees or fire hydrants, at least I hope not for your sake.

Once you get to the back of your head and neck you'll need to change your grip on the shaver to a more comfortable position. Grasp the shaver with your thumb in the front just above the on/off button and your four fingers in the rear, with your first two fingers below the trimmer section and last two right on it. In this position you'll have easy access to the right rear side of your head behind your ear all the way to the left rear area.

Continuing on with the up and down motion you'll now be making the longest strokes - from the base of your neck all the way up and over the top to the front edge of your forehead. The fingers of your free hand should be directly in front of the foil, leading it forward and then trailing behind it on the way back down, always feeling for stubble along the way. Like I said before, your fingertips are your eyes and for this purpose they can "see" stubble far better than your eyeballs can.

At this point you've done the right side, back and top of your head. Now you're going to do the left side, starting in the same spot where you began on the right side, just above the sideburns. You can do this in one of two ways - you can either keep the shaver in your right hand and reach across the front of your face, or you can switch hands so now you're wielding the shaver in your left hand and using your right hand to feel for stubble.

I prefer switching hands for two reasons. First of all I feel it's easier and more comfortable, and you can manuever the shaver at the same perfect angle on the left side as you did on the right. Secondly it's a good excercise for your brain! There's a phenomena called neuroplasticity, which is the lifelong ability of the brain to reorganize neural pathways based on new experiences. When you learn something new, in this case teaching your non-dominant hand to do something you normally do with your dominant hand, new synapses are created in your brain. As you learn new things throughout your life the wiring diagram of the brain continues to be reorganized, and it is believed that this helps keep the brain in good working order and can even help prevent brain diseases like Alzheimer's. So give that a try - it's a great shaving technique and is good for your brain as well.

After finishing off your left side there's one spot remaining that needs to be shaved - the area behind your left ear and curving back along the left rear side of your head. Chances are you didn't quite nail it when you were doing the back or the left side. The best way to reach this section is to wield the shaver once again in your right hand but upside down, gripping it with your index finger placed firmly on the bottom of the shaver, your thumb on the side of the Soft switch and your remaining three fingers on the other side.

Reach over the top of your head and start shaving behind and below your left ear, moving steadily up and down and using your free hand to feel for stubble, as always. It may also help to tilt your head a bit to the right while you're shaving. Continue on until you no longer feel any stubble in the area.

Now your entire head has been shaved and you're just about done using the shaver. Take a look in the mirror, looks pretty good doesn't it?! Stubble's all gone and you're nice and smooth. You can take a minute to feel around with your free hand and see if you've blatantly missed a spot, if you did it will feel very obvious under your fingertips. If you missed an area just go over it a bit more until it's smooth.

So now your head is completely shaved and for many guys in many cases that would be it. But let's say you've got a date tonight with a really hot babe and you want to look and feel your absolute best. In that case I highly recommend going over your entire head with my favorite head shaving finishing tool - our very own Cryogenically Treated Schick Xtreme3 disposable razor.

There's more to come, so to be kept up-to-date on future posts to this or any other category on the Definitive Guide To Shaving blog please subscribe to our RSS feed.

THE RIGHT TOOLS FOR THE JOB

Dan Farago — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 02:01:32 GMT

There's an old saying that goes something like "You're only as good as the tools you use," and that definitely applies when shaving your head. Use the right tools and you'll breeze through your shave with great results. Use poor quality tools and you can pretty much assure yourself of a bad time with really lousy results. And by lousy results I mean nicks, cuts, irritation and plenty of blood. Since I know you don't want any part of that scene keep reading and you'll find out exactly which products to use to achieve the smoothest and most problem free head shave ever.

FULL DISCLOSURE: I want to say right up front that the products I will be recommending are all sold here on AllAboutShaving.com. You might think to yourself, "He's only trying to sell stuff," which of course is true enough - BUT you need to think of it from the following perspective. I only sell products that I would use myself, and everything I recommend to you for shaving your head is what I use on a daily basis to shave my own head. If I were to find a better product than any of these items I'm currently using and recommending I would carry that and recommend it instead. These are by far the absolute best products I've found, and that's why I use them and offer them for sale on this site.

The Total Shaving Solution

The single most important variable for you to consider is your shaving lubricant, this is absolutely critical to getting the most out of the razor or shaver you might use and is your best protection against nicks, cuts and shaving irritation. Fortunately this is really a no brainer, you need to use the heavyweight champion of shaving lubricants, the world's original shaving oil - The Total Shaving Solution.

I have been using The Total Shaving Solution since the early 1990s and still to this day I have yet to find a better product. No other shaving lubricant of any kind has surpassed it - no other shaving oils can touch it, and certainly no foams, gels or lotions are even in the ballpark. Many of the shaving lubricants on the market today are really poor quality, some are decent, fewer still are very good. But none are better. So if you stop right here and take only this one bit of advice from me your shaving experience is going to be significantly improved over what it was before you started shaving with The Total Shaving Solution.

Click here to read more about The Total Shaving Solution.

Panasonic Linear Wet / Dry Shavers

Forget about shaving your head with a blade alone, this is a job for a wet / dry electric shaver. But not just any old shaver will do, in fact there is only one kind of shaver that is up to the task and that is the Panasonic Linear series. Here's why: these shavers blaze away at a CONSTANT 13,000 RPM. That's 13,000 RPM no matter how depleted the battery is - full charge, medium charge or 30 seconds away from dying - it just doesn't matter. This is KEY folks, not only are these the fastest shavers on the market, bar none, but even more importantly no other shavers of any brand are able to maintain a constant speed. They all slow down significantly as their batteries become depleted or when they have to shave thru thick stubble, resulting in poor shaving performance. The slower they go the worse the shaving experience. But the Panasonic Linears never waver, they are going full bore 13,000 RPM from start to finish, every time.

And they are a match made in shaving heaven with The Total Shaving Solution, you will get amazing results with no razor burn or irritation whatsoever. I've been shaving my own head with one version or another of the Panasonic Wet / Dry Linear and The Total Shaving Solution for years now and I'd never use anything else.

Currently I'm recommending the Panasonic ES8077S Vortex and the ES8043SC, you can read more about them here.

Cryogenically Treated Schick Xtreme3 Disposable Razors

Shaving your head with the Panasonic Linear Shaver will get about 99% of the stubble off your head. For many guys and under many circumstances that's good enough, what's left isn't even visible to the naked eye. Yet there are those of us (like me, for instance) who just have to have it completely smooth and stubble free to the touch, and that's where the Cryogenically Treated Schick Xtreme3 Disposable Razors come in.

The Cryo'd Xtreme3 is the perfect head shaving finishing tool. It's a 3-blade razor but unlike the Gillette Mach3s and Fusions it's ideally suited for maneuvering around the contours of your head. The blade has just enough give in it to hug the curves as you go, and the handle is perfectly designed for gripping the razor in different positions to facilitate shaving with or against the grain at any angle. The handle even has a designated spot scooped out where you put your thumb, very smart. And they're a great value, one Cryo'd Xtreme3 will last so long you'll finally end up throwing it away just because you're tired of looking at it. Seriously, when used as a finishing tool for head shaving a single razor will last months. An eight pack can easily last a year or more.

I currently carry Cryo'd Xtreme3 4 and 8 pack disposables and also 4 and 8 pack replacement cartridges, click here and use the pulldown menu to make your selection.

InterDesign Fog Free Mirror & Handy Cup

For the best head shaving results I recommend shaving in the shower, and the Fog Free Mirror and Handy Cup from InterDesign are perfect accessories for shower shaving. While it's not an absolute imperative for an experienced head shaver, it's always helpful to have a good Fog Free Mirror in your shower, especially if you're also shaving your face as well. And the Handy Cup is just that, really handy for storing your manual razors so they'll be conveniently available when you shave. I use different razors for different applications and often have 3 or 4 razors sitting in my Handy Cup. Can't beat it for convenience.

For more info click here.

THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO HEAD SHAVING - INTRODUCTION

Dan Farago — Mon, 03 Sep 2007 03:01:36 GMT

BALD IS BEAUTIFUL!!! You can hardly go anywhere these days without seeing a guy with a shaved head. What once was the domain of only a few Hollywood mavericks like Yul Brynner and Telly Savalas has now become a mainstream fashion statement for countless actors, athletes and regular guys like you and me. Blue collar, white collar and no collar - men of all ages and all walks of life are now shaving their heads in record numbers.

Unfortunately from my own casual observations it appears that most guys aren't doing a very good job of it. I'm seeing a lot of unkempt stubbly heads, which is not a great look in my opinion, and to a lesser but still prevalent extent some fairly nicked up ones as well. I know why this is, most of the mainstream products men are using to shave their heads simply aren't up to the task. So as a result these wannabee head shavers actually avoid shaving, only doing it a few times a week at best, or they gamely keep at it but wind up slicing and dicing their heads in the process.

Well not to brag, but pretty much every day when I walk out of the house I'm sporting a completely smooth, damage free head. Looks damn good too, if I do say so myself. No nicks, no cuts, no shaving irritation and definitely no stubble. I hate stubble.

So I think it's time I share my secrets for achieving a perfectly shaved head with my bald brothers of the world. There's no excuse for being stubbly guys and no need to hack yourself to pieces in the process of shaving your head, either. You can in fact shave your head smooth every day, and without nicks, cuts and irritation.

Whether you're planning on shaving your head for the very first time or you're an experienced head shaver looking for a better way to take it down to the bare wood you've come to the right place. I can confidently tell you that I am a head shaving expert - a guru, if you will, in the art of head shaving. I'm going to share with you the ultimate head shaving system I've devised and refined since I first took a blade to my head way back in 1992. In those days hardly anyone was sporting the clean shaven look and it took a few years of trial and error (not to mention plenty of painful nicks and cuts and more blood than a Michael Myers film festival) to figure out the best way to get the job done.

So if you're a first time head shaver and you follow my advice you'll quickly go from novice to expert without all the pain, suffering and expense you might have otherwise experienced. And even if you've already been shaving your head for some time already you'll be able to greatly improve upon your current head shaving experience.

This EXCLUSIVE head shaving system was created by me for my own personal use, and I'm going to share it with you here on the All About Shaving blog COMPLETELY FREE OF CHARGE (that's ok, you can thank me later). You can rest assured that my system is the safest and most effective way to shave your head, bar none, and here is what you can expect to experience if you wisely follow my advice:

• The ability to shave your head DAILY without nicks, cuts or irritation

• Perfectly smooth results - NO STUBBLE

• Ease of use - you want to get the job done quickly and easily without a lot of hassle

In future blog posts I'm going to tell you exactly which products you'll need to achieve these goals as well as share with you the optimum shaving techniques and insightful tips that I've learned over 15 years of shaving my own head. Follow my advice and I GUARANTEE you'll have the best head shaving experience possible with the smoothest ever results.

Welcome To The General Shaving Info Blog

Dan Farago — Sat, 27 May 2006 03:04:46 GMT

First post to the General Shaving Info blog coming soon!

Body Shaving Info Coming Soon

Dan Farago — Fri, 26 May 2006 20:49:07 GMT

Body Shaving Info Coming Soon

Welcome To The Shave Your Face Blog

Dan Farago — Sat, 22 Apr 2006 03:03:24 GMT

First post to the Shave Your Face blog coming soon!