Thread: Turning it on or turning it off?

Interestingly enough, almost every video I've seen of folks shaving has had them turning off the sink/running water while shaving with a straight. I brought some pre-straight assumptions with me when I came to the straight razor world. When shaving with a Gillette, I would simply run the hot water, lather up and shave, rinse, shave, rinse, shave rinse. I brought the running faucet to the straight razor world.

Many of the videos I have seen have been of Europeans shaving - I thought initially that perhaps that was the difference between an American and a European - the American would just let the water run while the European would husband the natural resource. (Yes, I do tend to overthink a lot of things...)

Today I decided to approach my shave with a continental viewpoint. I turned off the water when I was ready to shave and had already lathered up. It was AMAZING. I was using a Solingen razor I picked up from Rasurpur.de recently. Razor sharp, an excellent shave. The best part? Hearing the shave. Actually listening to the razor remove my beard - it was singing to me. I heard all the noises the razor made without the distraction of the running water in the background and was able to focus on my shave. Honest? It makes a huge difference. For me anyway.

I use a sponge to wipe on and rinse at the end.

I fill the sink with a few inches of hot water and work with that. I use it to wet my brush at the beginning and rinse my SR as I go along. No reason to run the water except at the very end to wash out the sink

I totally fill my sink basin with hot water and don't run the faucet after that until after the shave.

+1

Originally Posted by HNSB

I totally fill my sink basin with hot water and don't run the faucet after that until after the shave.

Don't know why but this is all that makes sense to me. Plus you get to see all the hair that you are shaving away.

"husband the natural resource", possible. Water meters and being charged for water per litre, more likely.

Up until a week ago, water wasn't in great commodity here and as a rule I would turn the tap only when it was necessary to wet the face and rinse the blade. Four minute or less showers etc. Even now that everything is flooded around here, I will continue to minimise the use of water as we never know when it will go back to years of drought again.
Just hearing that people waste water gives me the horrors...But then again, everyone lives with different restrictions of natural resource. Anyone want some extra bush flies...Got a few million you can have .


Mick

I run the hot until, well hot, and then wet the brush and prewarm the Konk mug, I stop the sink and fill about 3 inches warm/hot water then shut it off.

Kinda my big skuttle, I shave and wipe on a wash cloth. when done I lather again and the lather is still nice and warm from setting in the water in the sink.

Then I rinse. If I did not take a shower this day, I use the left over cream to sponge bath myself.

Enjoy!!

No reason to waste natural resources here even if there were plenty enough to waste.
When shaving i fill my scuttle with hot water, rinse my face and turn the water off. I shave in less than 10 minutes usually, so the water in the scuttle doesn't really get cold in that time. If my lather gets cold, i simply dip the brush in the scuttle and here we go again.

I guess my understanding of how my sewer system operates prevents me from worrying about "wasting" water. I just do it the way I do for convenience.