Shaving and Face Wash

This post might be a little disappointing to you all. It's a bit less conclusive than I'd like it to be. But, it leads to more experiments, so thats exciting. :)

Shaving:
I thought I had this one solved for a while there.
At the beginning of the experiment when I was still using my bar soap, I used the bar soap for shaving as well. After I decided to try totally soap-free I started using straight coconut oil to shave.
Shaving with coconut oil is fabulous, but ultimately not the solution.

PROS:
1) Great shave, gets really close without any bumps or razor burn.
2) Moisturizing - legs feel amazing after shaving.
3) Doesn't rinse off so you don't have to worry about staying out of the water while shaving. I thought there would be an issue because it's clear and therefore might be hard to see where you've already shaved, but that wasn't the case. I very quickly learned to see the difference in the shininess and in how water beads on the pre vs post shaved areas using coconut oil.

CONS:
1) Not water soluble so it can leave a residue behind that makes the tub/shower quite slippery. Also, the tiny hairs get trapped in this residue making it dark in color which leads towards a dirty-looking shower rather quickly.
2) Gunks up the razor a bit, but washes off in warm water fairly easily.
3) Suspected (though not confirmed) to mix with hair and plug up the shower drain. We've had problems with our shower drain since we moved in. Our handyman has had to snake it 4 or so times in the past year. Usually we get a few months in between issues. This last time (while using the coconut oil) it clogged up again only a few weeks after the last snake.

So, due to the slippery tub and possible drain clogging I stopped using coconut oil to shave.

A reader suggested using just water to shave so I decided to try it. I was hesitant at first, but in the name of science I risked it.

Results:
For armpits and pubic line this actually seems to work just fine. It's a little more challenging and I'd prefer to have some sort of lubricant present, but just water does work.

For my legs it was less successful. It left them feeling dry and itchy almost immediately after getting out of the shower. I solved this by using coconut oil as a post-shave moisturizer, but it's not as nice as using the coconut oil as a shaving lubricant. I also tend to miss hairs as it's hard to keep track of exactly where I've shaved and haven't shaved.* And in general, I think it just doesn't shave as closely. I miss the soft and totally smooth results I had when using coconut oil.

*Note: My leg hair is a bit lighter than my head hair and therefore pretty hard to see. This is great when I go long stretches of time without shaving in the winter because I don't look hairy. This creates the challenge of needing to somehow keep track of exactly where I have already shaved when shaving. Using soap or shaving cream or even coconut oil solves this problem nicely. Using water alone made this a challenge.

Next steps:
I'm hoping to implement a different oil or combination of oils. My thought is that an oil that is liquid at room temp might be less likely to leave a residue and/or clog the drain. There is actually quite a bit out there about shaving with oils. Much of it is men, but there are some out there about women shaving their legs, like this one.

Here is a link to a good discussion/experiment.
I like the idea of using only food oils so that excess can be used in cooking rather than just going bad before I can use it up. I'm also wondering why everyone thinks they need a mixture of oils for shaving. The guy in this article makes it seem like any one of the oils alone does a pretty good job so why mix them together? In order to better understand, I'm going to do my own experiment.

I plan to shave at least a few times with different oils and then try a few mixtures of oils and see if the mixtures are truly better or not. If straight olive oil works, then why spend the extra money on almond and avocado oil? Results coming soon, though this will take a few weeks.

Face Wash:
This is not my best experiment. I wasn't super consistent in what I did for my face. It's pretty bad science. At first I was using bar soap and that seemed to be OK. After I ditched the soap, I tried using coconut oil on my face and that just left me super duper greasy. I tried using no products for a while, but not really long enough. I tried a mixture of coconut oil and baking soda which wasn't much different than straight coconut oil. I spent a week tap dancing all day long in a small non-air-conditioned studio (yes, it was rather sweaty!) and used nothing but water and an exfoliating pad that was probably too abrasive for my face. Finally, I did go for about a month with nothing but water and washcloth. Ultimately, what I've learned is that I DO need to use something other than water to clean my face. I didn't break out with lots of acne, but the few giant red painful zits demand treatment of some sort.

There are lots of sites out there for making your own face wash. Yogurt, cucumber, milk, avocado, honey etc etc etc are all suggested. I decided that I want to avoid anything with a shelf life. I don't want to have to be mixing up new face soap every few days and I don't want to have to be sure to keep special produce on hand just for my face. So, what I am trying right now is baking soda and water. My concern is that it will be too harsh, but so far so good. I put a small amount of baking soda in my hand. Not even an eighth of a teaspoon, a VERY small amount. Then I get some water in the other hand, rub them together, scrub my face with my hands, and then rinse it off quickly and thoroughly. I do this once a day and use water only if I wash my face more than once in a day. I've only been doing this for a few days now so I don't have any results to share yet.

Do you have suggestions for face wash or shaving oil? Share in the comments!