Shaving? Straight razor or safety razor?

Dear Gents
                 How many of us wake up  and feel that irritating morning gruff (unless your growing a manly beard of course)?And how many of us have the time or can actually be bothered?Maybe your rushing to get to work for an important meeting or even just rushed off your feet to reach that all important dinner date?Who knows!!But as a barber myself i feel these all important moments are overlooked and should be addressed post haste!!as only a true gentleman will find the time!!

            There are many important steps to that all important shave, wether you using straight razors or even normal blades like a gillette razor or so on.These steps i feel personally will make a massive difference in your shaving experience:

• Exfoliate the skin - This is a must!!you can buy a good pre shave oil from a local chemist and pretty much every supermarket chain, Think king of shaves or l'oreal all depends on how much you want to spend.Simply massage the oil into the area of skin to be shaved to for a deep clean in prep for your shave.
• Hot Towels -  Now you don't need any kind of swanky towel steamer device or anything like that  you can simply just run a clean hand towel under a hot tap and ring out when you have the right temperature and simply apply that lovely hot folded towel to your desired area and hold it on for approximately 60 secs this will really give the pre have oil you have used time to really get into those open pores and soften the skin ready for your blade to just glide across.
• Lather Up - Now with this step you can use either your hands to lather the skin with your favourite shaving gel product or for the gentleman enthusiast like myself i would use an old pewter mug with a real badger hair brush you can buy these quite cheap online for around £10 or less, Having left the brush in hot water for at least a minute will give the shaving gel a nice thick lather which you can apply to your required area of skin and repeat if necessary for larger areas (shaving heads).
• Start Your Shave - Now the fun part!!use your new razor (or freshly sharpened straight razor)and just glide over the lather (a truly sharpened blade will need the least amount of pressure applied, If you find you are pressing down your blade isn't sharp enough) you can keep lathering areas again to to use as a guide and i'd recommend lathering again any other areas you wish to go over again.
• Hot Towels - Again apply another clean hot towel for the same amount of time as above, this will help cleanse the area you have just shaved and help when closing the pores to ensure there is no dirt in there.
• Post Shave Balm - Apply a nice generous helping of your favourite post shave balm, I personally recommend balms which contain eucalyptus as it will make the skin feel nice and refreshed afterwards.

          Now my fellow Gentleman enthusiasts you are ready to roll and tackle the world!!!I'd recommend anybody who loves their moustache like a brother apply a fine pomade to your moustache to really accentuate that hard and manly work you have just partaken in.And for the more modern gent apply your favourite eau de toilette and GO GET EM!!!

          Thank you for your time and i hope this helps you as you endeavour to achieve that quest for the perfect shave!!

        Kindest Regards,

        

         Gentlemansparlouruk.