Cold Water Shaves: The Group Weighs In

David asked a simple question in the group: does anybody actually shave in cold water? Thirty seven replies later, the tally isn’t close. Beau said lots of folks love them, and the replies backed him up. Most of the thread comes down on the side of cold, whether that means every shave or just the last splash.

Count it up and full converts outnumber the holdouts by a wide margin. Eugene said flatly, “I love them.” Lawrence called himself a big fan. Todd’s answer was one word: always. Matthew said he doesn’t use hot water anymore, period. Cory said it’s the only way he shaves with a safety razor. Fredrik said cold water is the only thing he does, year round. Rod put it simply, in Spanish: cold water just works better for him than hot.

The Full Converts

Justin gave the most detail on why he made the switch.

Frank made a narrower claim: cold water gets him a closer shave and helps with small nicks. Rich takes it further than most, keeping the water as cold as he can stand it even in winter, and going full ice bath in summer.

Not everyone stays a convert forever. Daniel tried cold water for a while and drifted back to lukewarm because he wanted the water a little warmer. Matt said something close to the same thing in different words. It helped a lot when he was new to wet shaving. He doesn’t bother with it as often now.

The Half and Half Crowd

A good chunk of the thread isn’t full cold or full hot. Steve washes and lathers with warm water, then switches to cold for every rinse between passes, razor and face both. He says it cuts down on irritation. Ethan goes the other direction. He skips cold water for the shave itself but splashes cold right after, to tighten up the pores. That’s the classic explanation people give for a cold finish, though skin doesn’t actually have a mechanism to open and close pores on demand the way that implies. Whatever the reason, plenty of guys here treat cold water as a finishing move rather than the whole routine. Matthew and David both mentioned closing out a warm-weather shave with a splash of Osage Rub.

Later in the thread, David circled back with his own report. He’d always finished hot shaves with a cold splash before, but this time went cold water start to finish. He came away surprised. Close shave, no irritation.

Who’s Not Buying It

The holdouts don’t put up much of an argument. Neville and Donald both said it’s not for them, and neither one explained why. Bastin tried a full cold water shave, didn’t like it, and went back to shaving hot with a cold rinse instead, which puts him closer to the half and half camp than the flat no’s. Jesse does it occasionally in Texas summers but wouldn’t call it a favorite. Adam’s answer had nothing to do with preference. He’s in Arizona, and cold water shaving is only realistic there from January to March, if he’s lucky.

Line up the actual objections and there’s barely a real argument against it. A few guys tried it and didn’t take to the feeling. One guy is fighting his local climate.

Worth a Try

If you’ve never done it, the thread is a decent case for testing a cold rinse between passes before writing off the whole idea. You don’t have to go full ice water on day one. Lather warm, rinse cold, see how your skin reacts. Steve’s version of that split is probably the easiest way in.

Smooth shaves out there.