Hot Towel Technique by Fritz Whittington

I have copied the Fritz's text for reference purposes only. I will review this and make modifications to the routine for my own reference. I currently use a pre shave lather routine without hot towels during the week and with hot towels on the weekend. I am curious to see how this goes.

This is a referenced post created by Fritz Whittington on The Shave Den Shave Forum. The link is here.

My thoughts on hot towels, from trying them a lot...
If you have a really tough, wiry, and also dense beard, then hot towels (and other preps) can make an enormous difference in the quality of your shaves. If you've the kind of beard where you wash your face and shave one pass ATG, then replace your Dorco blade every Sunday whether it needs it or not, then you probably don't need this.

I find a washcloth is much too small, and use hand towels about 16x24 inches. If you use a thick, soft towel, and don't wring it out too dry, then it won't cool off so fast. Pass it under your nose, over your ears, and take the flap hanging down and pull it up close around the neck. Rub your hands over it to help transfer the heat.

Here's a prep that I have found to get my very tough beard almost down to peach fuzz. You might try the full thing, then subtract out parts of it to find the minimum things that YOU need to get YOUR beard as soft as it needs to be for a comfortable shave.

1. Wet face with warm water.
2. Smear on generous amount of Noxzema Deep Cleansing Cream (original). Include your forehead and nose if you wish. Massage into beard with fingers.
3. Shower, washing face last, scrubbing well with rough cloth and soap.
4. Onto wet face, apply about 1 teaspoon (5 ml) of the following mix: 2 parts extra virgin olive oil, 2 parts castor oil (USP) and one part glycerin (USP). Shake well before dispensing. Rub in well with hands.
5. Apply very damp hot towel for at least 2 minutes, refreshing with new hot water as needed.
6. Rinse face with fairly hot water, scrubbing with wet towel about 30-60 seconds or so.
7. Apply Proraso pre-shave.
8. Apply light coat of lather. Rub in with fingers or brush for 30-60 seconds. Let stand another 30 seconds.
9. Rinse with warm water, lather up and shave. Just before the ATG pass, rub a little of the oil mix on your face before applying the lather.

NOTES:

* Noxzema is dirt cheap and seems to work well.
* In step 3, the shower is optional if you wish to shower after shaving. But the Noxzema needs to sit for a few minutes, and be scrubbed off with soap.
* Steps 4-6 are the major softening parts. The scrubbing part is important, to wash away most of the applied oil, along with the oil/dirt it has removed from your face and beard.
* For step 7, some other pre-shaves can be substituted for the Proraso. It may be possible to eliminate it, or to use a little Noxzema instead. I just like Proraso.
* For step 8, It's handy to just stroke a little Arko shave stick over the Proraso, lather with a wet brush for about a minute, then let it sit while you build more lather in a bowl with cream or another soap.
* For step 9, for the ATG and/or touch-up passes, I usually squeeze the brush out and get all the leftover lather in my left hand, then apply with my fingers. Some have expressed concern that the oil will load up the brush-- this way, the brush never touches any of the oil. Even when I lathered on an oiled face with the brush, I didn't notice any problems. I think the glycerin is key here, as it emulsifies the oils so they rinse out easily with water. But, I've got hard water so I soak my brushes every 6 weeks or so anyway.