Hair conditioner? Brilliant!
My neck has some issues, whiskers change directions all willy-nilly, and unless I use a fairly fresh blade and something to soften them up, I get bumps and nicks. Usually leave the stuff on while I wash my hair to give it a chance to work.
Jeez–am I the only person who can dry-shave with no problem? It’s taken me about 6 years to go through the can of Edge I got (and that includes repeated head-shaving – full and mohawk – chest, arms, nads…)
All I seem to need is a good, sharp razor. Sometimes a bit of water, but mostly to rinse the hairs out from between the blades.
Maybe I’m just a freak.
I’m a chick who has been using Barbasol for years (to shave my legs and underarms, not my face :p), and I’ve never had a problem with nicks/cuts that wasn’t directly related to the condition of my razor blade. I will admit that these days I use the kind with aloe instead of the plain Barbasol, but I can’t imagine using anything more expensive.
Though someday I might – might – have to try Shagnasty’s hair conditioner idea. 
Mom uses Barbasol, as the sensitive skin formula is the only shaving cream she can find that doesn’t make her all rashy. I don’t like it, though, because it makes me smell like a guy has been rubbing his face on my legs. I prefer not to smell like that unless that actually has been happening.
I wax my face.
Musings on Barbasol…? OK.
I wish they’d keep the contents of each can under 10x more pressure than they currently do now. If they did, it might serve a useful household purpose putting out kitchen fires (while still keeping the countertops ‘minty-fresh’). Beyond that, its pretty useless. In my experience as far as shaving goes, a bar of Dial soap in a hot shower does a better job at prepping your hair follicles than Barbasol.
My husband gets it at Wild Oats right now… Currently he is in the market for a new shave soap… I guess he is bored with the BB Bay Rum.
I’m a sucker for the shaving-istas and their marketing genius. Five blades, that vibrate? Oooh…I need that. Advanced action gel? Yep, I take that, too (of course, I do get confused when it comes to aftershave…do I want the one that soothes, or do I want the one that cools? I always freak out when I have to decide).
Other than that, I shave in the shower, replace my blade once a week, and store that blade (during the week) in a cup of rubbing alcohol (to keep the blade fresh).
And yet there is always this one part, below my chin, that is never smooth. Which is why I hate shaving, and never do so on the weekends.
Do you use a strigil?
I’m with you. I’ve used the super fu-fu stuff, and yet, I still use the $1.50 sale price can of Colgate shave foam as often as any of the other stuff, and it does just as well as long as the blade’s sharp.
The more expensive stuff does seem to work better as the blade dulls, so maybe half of the shaving problems people experience are due to dull blades…
Yeah, I should have pointed out that my shaving method is, by trial and error, the only method that allows me to 1) get a reasonable shave without 2) scraping hell out of my face and getting razor burn that makes me look like I’ve got rosacea.
In the shower with facial scrub it is.