How To Shave Without Shaving Cream?. Did you wake up and find you were all out of shaving cream? Maybe you can risk going to work with a little scruff showing. But it isn’t always a wise choice, especially since presentability is critical in virtually every job profile.
Getting a new can of shaving cream might not make for ideal fast-paced mornings. Luckily, it is just as easy to shave your beard with everyday stuff in your house. Shaving foam serves to reduce the friction between your skin and the razor and protect you from razor burns, cuts and nicks. Turns out, in emergencies, you can manage with some commonly available materials. In this post, I’ll tell you about shaving with two of these, ie soap and oil.
A Preface To Soap And Oil; Why They Can Work As Shaving Foams :
Soap is something you can find anywhere for cheap. It is slippery when dissolved into water, and you can find a lot of soaps doped with antiseptics, scents and moisturizer too! To be sure, shaving cream and soap lather are not the same things; shaving foams are designed to stay in the emulsion state for long periods, which affords you plenty of time to dawdle with the razor and get every hair taking your own sweet time. Soap lather, on the other hand, doesn’t stay bubbled up for as long, since it is supposed to be washed off after a minute or two. Additionally, with hard water, many soaps tend to lose lather quickly and form suds, which can increase friction instead of lowering it.
Oil is the perfect shaving cream substitute. It clings to your skin and doesn’t lose its slipperiness in days. Since it repels water, it is easier to clean. Oils naturally protect skin moisture as well, which should be helpful. There are scores of oils one can use, and they’re available for pretty cheap too. Coconut oil has anti-bacterial and anti-fungal properties. Commonly available baby oil protects against inflammations, and is therefore helpful against razor burns. And if you like a little fanciness, you can use Olive oil, which has been shown to have several health benefits.
How To Shave Without A Shaving Cream?
It’s easy! Just follow the steps below. Let’s start with shaving with Soap…
1. Wash your face and pat dry excess moisture. You can use a hot towel and exfoliate your skin as well to get a smoother shave.
2. Pick up your favorite soap and work up some lather. Cover your beard with it. Many prefer to start lathering up 15-20 minutes after washing, so the pores are open and the follicles more exposed.
3. Massage your face lightly with the lather so the soap covers the hair as closely as possible.
4. Use your razor to remove hair lightly, taking short sweeps in the direction of hair growth, NOT against it.
5. Once you have completed, wash your face with water. You may soap up a little once more and wash your face, to get rid of any hair that’s sticking to your face.
6. Complete with the application of a moisturizer or a mild, non-abrasive antiseptic.
Wasn’t that simple? If you have hard water and a soap that is incompatible with it, you can substitute soap with shampoo. The conditioner works even better.
Things get simpler by using oil to shave. Here’s what you need to do to shave using your everyday oil.
1. Wash your face with some soap and water. Pat dry. You may want to wait for a few minutes so your pores are open.
2. Dab a little oil on your face and rub it in. Use a judicious amount of oil; ideally, your jaw should have a shine to it, but don’t let oil drip from your chin either.
3. Wash your razor in water (skip if you have an electric razor and it isn’t safe). Shave as usual. The hair will come right off. Like before, use light pressure, short strokes in the direction of hair growth.
4. Once you are done, you can just rub the excess oil out on a paper towel or baby wipe. Let the remaining trace of oil stay as a moisturizer.
5. If you’re worried about hair sticking , or just need to wash after you shave, as many do, go ahead and use some soap to lather up your jaw and wash the oil right out. Moisturise either with more oil, or just some regular body lotion.
How To Get A Closer Shave Without Shaving Cream?
If your concern is not getting a clean look after shaving, here’s what you can do.
1. First of all, don’t go over the same region over and over, or shave multiple times. It won’t remove any more hair, and might just cause you more trouble with razor burn.
2. Use only gentle pressure. Contrary to what might seem obvious, digging into your cheek will give you a poorer shave, since your skin bending concavely will distance hair at the center from the flat blades. Digging in at the jawline is just an invitation to cuts and nicks.
3. Short strokes might seem time-consuming, but they produce much better results in roughly the same time consumed. Wash your razor frequently under the tap to get rid of hair and prevent it from being trapped within the razor’s crevices.
4. Many recommend using J-stroke. Pull the razor downward and then bend in direction of your chin. This might not be ideal if your cheek hair grows in the opposite direction, but you may experiment with bending the direction of the stroke keeping in line with your hair growth.
There is no substitute for a good quality shaving cream. But there sure are some creative and capable alternatives you can use. The thing to take care of while selecting one is to be mindful of friction, moisturization and any possible allergic reactions one may have. Even shaving creams should be tested first on a hidden patch of your skin before being rubbed on the jaw.
