The Perfect Shave, According to Daddy

Every product below is pulled from The Perfect Shave. Daddy has vouched for all of it.

The perfect shave is not fast. It is not a cartridge dragged across a dry face at a red light. It is fifteen minutes, warm water, a brush, a blade, and the understanding that you are removing hair from an organ, not stripping paint.

Open the follicle

Shave after the shower, never before. Hot water softens the hair shaft and relaxes the follicle so the blade cuts the hair instead of tugging it. If there is no shower, a towel soaked in hot water held over the beard for two minutes does the same work. This step alone eliminates half of all folliculitis.

And drink something. Daddy taught you the pinch. A dehydrated dermis does not shave clean. Liquid I.V.$22.29 is in the collection for exactly this reason, and yes, Daddy is serious.

Pre-shave

A pre-shave lays a slip layer between the blade and the epidermis. Pick by skin, not by scent.

Sensitive or prone to redness: Proraso White pre-shave, green tea and oatmeal. Anti-irritation is the whole point of it.
$13.00
Coarse beard, dry skin: Proraso Red pre-shave, sandalwood and shea. Shea softens the hair. Sandalwood makes you smell like a decision.
$13.00
Everyone else: Proraso Blue pre-shave, aloe and vitamin E. Protective, plain, correct.
$13.00

Rub it in. Leave it on. Lather goes over the top.

The brush

A brush, always. It lifts every hair, exfoliates the corneocytes around it, and builds a lather no hand can.

Starting out: the Classic 26mm synthetic. Holds heat, does not shed, dries fast, twenty-five dollars.
$25.00
Badger, honestly priced: Il Ceppo pure badger, black handle or silver-and-black, whichever you would rather look at. A little scrubbier. Some men like that.
$14.99
Badger, refined: Baxter of California best badger. Softer tips, better backbone.
$40.00
Badger, for the man who has decided: Semogue Owners Club, finest two-band, Taj resin. Daddy's. It will outlive you.
$167.00

The lather

Build it on your face, not in your hand, in slow circles. Thick, warm, glossy. If it is airy and dry, add water.

Proraso creams, in a tube, foolproof, ten dollars, and Daddy will never pretend otherwise:

Green, eucalyptus and menthol. Cold, bracing, the classic. Vasoconstricting, so redness behaves.
$10.00
White, sensitive formula. No menthol. For the men who feel the air on their face.
$10.00
Red, sandalwood and shea. The richest of the four. Coarse beards, dry cheeks.
$10.00
Blue, aloe and vitamin E. Cushion without the chill.
$10.00

Noble Otter soaps, when you are ready to spend twenty dollars and mean it. Made in Texas by people who take this as seriously as Daddy does. The lather is dense, slick, and stays wet through three passes. Pick by mood.

BarrBarr. The good bar in a better city.
$20.00
Lonestar. Leather, tobacco, a horse somewhere.
$20.00
Orbit. Clean, cold, slightly extraterrestrial.
$20.00
Hamam. Steam and soap and marble. The bathhouse.
$20.00
Monoi de Tahiti$20.00. Coconut, tiare, a shave on a beach.
Italian Summer$20.00. Citrus. Daddy's June through September.
Neon Sun$20.00. Bright, loud, before a night out.
Queen$20.00. Regal and floral and not sorry.
Eros' Ambrosia$20.00. The date-night shave.
Jasmine Green Tea, 茉莉綠茶$20.00. Quiet, green, for the mornings you want to think.
Lorekeeper$20.00. Old books, old wood. A library shave.
Toons & Spoons$20.00. Saturday morning cereal. Daddy is not above joy.

The razor

A double-edge safety razor. No pressure. The weight of the razor is the pressure.

Learn on: Parker 96R, graphite. Butterfly-open, long handle, forgiving, under thirty-five dollars. The 99R is the same razor in chrome if you want the weight.
$29.00
Coarse beard, several days of growth: Merkur 25C open comb. The comb feeds heavy stubble to the blade instead of pushing it flat.
$34.99
Adjustable, so one razor does everything: Merkur Futur, polished, with blades. Dial it down for the neck, up for the chin. There is a gold one, if that is who you are.
$119.99
For the suitcase: Merkur 985CL travel razor. Breaks down, fits in a dopp kit, still a real razor.
$41.99
The last razor you will buy: Feather AS-D2, all stainless. Mild, precise, Japanese, and it will be in your estate.
$239.00

Blades. Fresh every three or four shaves. A dull blade is what tugs, and tugging is what leaves the bumps.

To learn: Shark Super Stainless. A dollar and change for five, so a bad one costs you nothing.
$1.19
Or Shark Super Chrome. The same idea with a little more bite. Faces differ; buy both and find out.
$1.49
Once you have settled in: Merkur Super Platinum, hundred pack. A year and a half of shaving for the price of two cartridge refills.
$77.95

The strokes. Short. With the grain. One pass. Rinse, re-lather, a second pass across the grain if you want closer. Never against. Against the grain is how the hair ends up under the skin, which is pseudofolliculitis barbae, which is the whole thing Daddy is trying to spare you.

Close it

Cold water first. Then:

Osma alum block, wet, pressed against the face, not rubbed. Tightens the follicle, seals the nicks, tells you exactly where you were careless. The sting is information.
$8.99
Or the Proraso soothing stone, the same idea in a gentler hand, made for irritation and ingrowns specifically.
$21.51

Then the aftershave, and here you choose.

Balm, for sensitive skin or anyone who dislikes a splash: Proraso Green balm, menthol and eucalyptus$16.00, cold and calming, or Proraso Blue balm, aloe and vitamin E$16.00, plain and moisturizing. No alcohol. Your father did alcohol. We know how his neck looked.

Splash, if you want the scent to carry into the day: Noble Otter's aftershaves match the soaps, so the shave and the finish tell one story. BarrBarr has no splash in the edit yet, but Lonestar$20.00, Orbit$20.00, Hamam$20.00, Monoi de Tahiti$20.00, Italian Summer$20.00, Queen$20.00, Eros' Ambrosia$20.00, Jasmine Green Tea$20.00 and Toons & Spoons$20.00 all pair with their soap. The splashes that stand alone: Thé Noir et Vanille$20.00, black tea and vanilla, the evening shave before dinner. Firefighter$20.00, smoke and leather. Northern Elixir$20.00, cold pine. Logbook$20.00, salt air and old paper. Rawr$20.00, for the loud ones. Jack$20.00, Joker$20.00, King$20.00, the deck of cards, one for each kind of man. And Bare$18.00, unscented, for the men who wear a real fragrance and do not want a fight on their neck.

Then the skin

The shave is done. The skin is not. While the face is still damp:

PHOENIX$39.00, the exosome and niacinamide serum. Niacinamide is anti-inflammatory and sebum-regulating, and it goes exactly where the follicles are angriest. If you bump, this is the fix. Then HELIOS$39.00, the day cream, over the top, and out the door.

The beard, if you keep one

Once or twice a week, Proraso beard exfoliating paste, mint and rosemary$18.00, worked into the skin beneath the hair, where the dead cells and the ingrowns collect and nobody looks. Then PELT$29.00, the softening beard oil, into the skin first, then the hair, so the follicles stay conditioned and the hairs grow out instead of in. If the beard needs shaping, Proraso beard balm, wood and spice$8.00, a little, warmed between the palms.