Shaving Secret Weapon

Hey all,

Just wanting to see what shaving secrets you all used to achieve 'your best shaves'. It doesn't have to be a true secret, I.E. something only a select few know, just name whatever you deem your secret weapon to be. I will list some of mine below.

1. I like using CeraVe Hydrating Cleanser as a shaving gel for my pre-shave treatment. It cleans my face much like pre-shave soaps without stripping everything away. It is high in glycerin so it adds lots of slickness to my shave. And the ceramides helps to toughen the skin so I get less weepers on a monthly average.

2. I always hot towel my face with some emu oil before the CeraVe cleanser. This opens my pores all the way up and the emu oil, being a penetrating oil, helps my skin to stretch. I don't have to worry about the cleanser washing everything away because the emu oil will sink into the deeper layers of my skin. The stretch-ability of my skin is insane at this point and continues to help against irritations and weepers. These two methods alone reduce any irritation/weepers to maybe one every 3 or so months.

3.I recently got a Dirty Bird 1.5 shave scuttle and I immediately notice my shaves have been that much closer. I believe this is due to the warm lather keeping my pores open during the entire shave.

Let's hear some of your secret weapons!!!

Buffing my third pass, which is ATG. Whether with a DE, SE, or straight, using a buffing motion for the ebtirety of my third pass gets me clean as a whistke and leaves very minimal touchups.

For those few touchups that do remain after buffing out the third pass, I use J-hooking to get it clean. Again, DE, SE, or straight, this works best to get really clean and smooth.

I dont always use these techniques, though. Only when I am looking for that really close, BBS shave. Most days I am perfectly content with a DFS or even a CCS, which can be achieved without buffing or j-hooking.

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Shaving after a shower.... And also washing my face during said showered properly with what ever face wash my wife is using at the time.

Never underestimate proper prep.

This is something concerning washing my face.

I heat about one quart of water in a pan on a hot plate.

Then I put in a cloth in that water and then to my face. I leave it there until the count of 20. Then I do that again.

This cleanses the face and prepares it for the shave.

Unrefined Shea Butter

A dab of benzoyl peroxide post shave in areas where I'm prone to razor burn/bumps/ingrown hairs.

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Another secret of mine is for feather blades. Most people complain about feather mainly in one of two area. Consistency of a fresh blade and that it only last two shaves. I cannot solved the latter of the issue but for the former I find that hand stropping the blade makes for a smoother more consistent shave. This leads to the feather being one of my utmost favorite blade.

Liquid witch hazel for me. I have been using that since the end of November, and while my face isn't perfect the imperfections are in the area that my short collar rubs. Everywhere else is much smoother than it used to be and I don't break out any more

Doing a diagonal XTG pass seems to work better than a perpendicular one.

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I am a big believer in liquid Witch Hazel, i tend to use Thayers but also enjoy Stirling. It has done wonders for my skin ever since I started using it. I also enjoy aftershaves with WH in it.

I also swear by Mickey Lee's Pre Shave Butter and Maggards Pre Shave Shave Oil