I generally like cold weather. But only when I'm curled up in front of the fireplace with a hot cup of coffee, Tea, or Hot Chocolate. Different story if I'm outside changing a flat tire on the side of the road! This week, it has been really, really cold down here in South East Texas dropping into the low 20s. In fact it has been colder than Reykjavik, Iceland! Don't believe me? Just look:
One thing I do not like about Winter is the dry skin that I am plagued with during this time. The dryness tends to make my skin very sensitive and the dryness makes shaving painful and many times leaving lots of weepers to deal with. This year has been exceptionally tough and painful!
If it didn't work last year......
You would have thought that I learned last year. I didn't. I just started doing the same thing over again this year to try and adjust for the change in my weathered skin condition. More aggressive razor, more milder razor. Sharper blade, milder blade. Scrambling to find the right soap. It was after I had done a lot of damage to my skin, did I realize, if it didn't work last year, take a whole different approach this year.
What has worked this year!
I think that the number one change that I made that has helped my skin was changing to new and the
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| The Shave Guy Pre-Shave Oil |
continued use of a shaving oil. Not just any oil, but a specific brand. I started using a pre-shave oil made by The Shave Guy that I bought on Amazon. This particular oil is thin and loaded down with 25 unique ingredients/oils. It is the best of the few oils that I have used. It had increased the quality of my shaves when I was using is a few months ago (I lost that bottle to Hurricane Harvey.) I reordered another bottle a couple of weeks ago and it has proven to be the answer to my dry skin. After wetting my beard stubble, I wet both hands and apply one squirt to the palm, rub my hands together and apply to the shave area and then the rest of my face and forehead. After just one application, the dryness went away. And the usual rough areas have smoothed out. Great stuff, this is! I will never shave again without it!
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| Rainbow Super Stianless Blades |
The second thing I changed was the blade. With my light beard that's tougher on the chin area, a sharp blade does more damage than good to my skin. The blade I was looking for had to be relatively sharp and needed to be extremely smooth. After trying two or three blades, I loaded a Rainbow Blade made by Lord into my Lord L6 razor head that is mounted on a Maggard MR-1 handle. This blade was exactly what I was looking for. The smoothness was incredible!
The last change that I made was in the soap that I was using. I purchased and started using the soap made by The Shaving Guy on Amazon. This is a really great soap! It loads easily and face lathers to really nice lather. It is slick when water is applied and used with a Rainbow blade, there is little to no tugging when shaving against the grain. This is another product I will not be without.
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| The Shaving Guy Soap |
It just continues to deliver the perfect shave and shaving conditions, wonderful smoothness, very little razor burn, lubrication, and the most important of all to me, the after shave feel. My skin is soft, little to no dryness and after 15hrs, the beard growth is soft and not harsh feeling. This means that tonight's shave is guaranteed to be comfortable. I have found very few soaps that actually seem to soften the beard, but this stuff seems to do it. The container is a little small, but a 22mm synthetic brush is easily loaded for a face lather. The small container size also makes it great for traveling.
Finishing up the shave with Witch Hazel, Clubman Pinaud original aftershave with Nivea Balm and I walk away feeling clean, refreshed, and above all happy with the smooth, non dry skin that I have been plagued with for so long.
My winter combination has been found!
