Style Theory: You’re Shaving Your Face WRONG!

This is MatPat’s most sane video this month

As a follow-up to this episode, you should do shaving cream vs shaving gel vs shaving foam vs dry shave. Also aftershave vs aftershave lotion vs nothing.

Funny fact! I showed my mother this video for the funsies, and what I didn't expect was for her to call out the safety razor. As I had also noticed, it was the razor my grandfather used when he was alive, and I remember it specifically because it felt so heavy and intimidating to me.

My mother was shocked that those razors were still around even in modern day. I guess we all just got really used to seeing him with his metallic ikea razor.

I always hated shaving and I used a five-bladed razor for most of my early life but I recently switched to a safety razor and it has completely changed my shaving experience for the better. I haven't gotten a single ingrown hair or nicked any bumps since the switch.

I’d love a follow up video to see what kind of razor is best for legs. My mom taught me and my sister to use the disposable and never said if there were other ways to shave sensitive skin

This video helped explain why my skin always gets so red and bumpy afterwards!

I hope you guys eventually do a follow up focusing on different types of shaving cream and after shave. I swear after shave doesn't actually do anything at all

Hey Matpat, speaking of shaving, there’s an idea that shaving your armpits makes them less smelly, but is that actually true and does it even matter if you use deodorant?

I remember when I was a kid, my youngest sister would see our dad shave and think "I want to do that." She was too young to realize it was a bad idea, so she would occasionally go get our dad's razor (don't know if it was disposable or safety) and try to use it to shave her nonexistent facial hair. She would then come downstairs holding the razor with a bloody face.

As a dude who’s face is so sensitive I’ll get razor burn from anything. I learned how to do the straight razor shave to myself for my cheek and chin lines and a single blade shaver for my neck. I have not had bad razor burn in years!

For a compromise between the ease of use of the gillette with the economy of the safety razor, I'd recommend looking at the leaf razor. It has a pivoting head and multi blade design similar to the gillette but uses standard safety razor blades (though you either have to get single edged which are widely available or snap the double edged ones in half, which is easy because they're designed to do so). Only issue is that its a bit bulky so getting close to the nose can be more difficult. They have a separate detailing razor for those areas if that is a concern.

I've shaved my face nearly everyday due to being in the military. The best shave I've found is using lady razors in the shower. Lady razors tend to have blades that are spaced further apart so I can do more strokes before rinsing. Plus lady razors have the little lotion strips that kinda do the job of shaving cream when you just use water. It's mostly the fastest way I can get a clean shave.

When I was still shaving, I quickly learned how to use the safety razor as well. Disposable razors would just clog up so quickly and I'd feel the need to toss them after little use. But another thing I'm surprised MatPat didn't include was any alternatives to typical shaving cream.
The grand majority of what's in shaving cream is soap. It provides lubrication, but it also dries out the skin and created the market for aftershave. I would have liked to see them try out typical moisturizer or oil like jojoba and see how it compares. Yeah, it's not as easy to clean off, but at least you don't feel like you set yourself on fire.

I would love a version of this episode for women because I desperatly want to know how to make shaving myself more efficent, so it doesn't take an hour or more to shave because I'm not shaving every day or every other day. Also I would love the episode to anwser how often should you shave and should you shave in the shower or bath or somewhere else. I know that this would be a lot of ground to cover, but I(and I belive many others) would find it extremely helpful and eye opening.

DE shaver here (Safety Razor).
It looked like you used the Personna blades (based on the paper). They are higher end on the sharp scale, and will give you more weepers/nicks. Better to use a more forgiving blade like the Astra Green.
The actual razor also contributes to the aggressiveness (gap/angle etc), so you need to find a beginners razor.
From the very short sequences, I can see a lot of pressure being applied to your skin. This is a bad thing. You only want to use the weight of the razor to lean against your skin. It's better to have 2x super light passes, than a single pass with a little extra pressure.
And the last thing is the soap. Don't use the canned/aerosolised foam. The propellants/chemicals do react to some peoples skin.
Try find an old fashioned soap stick and use a brush. It also makes a better lather.

Hey Matpat, you should look into the Supply Safety Razor. It’s a safety razor, but it’s more engineered. Definitely top-tier of the safety razors

I just have to say that the bit with the straight razor at the beginning is hilarious to me because I’ve gone into black barbershops my entire life and every single Barber in the shop knows how to use a straight razor because our hair is so coarse lol

I just love seeing little cultural differences like that sometimes lol

It's interesting to me that you felt irritation with the safety razor. I have a skin condition and literally the only reason I use a safety razor is that it's the thing that irritates my skin the least, because having just one very sharp blade go over my skin is obviously less irritation than 3 or 5 or a gazillion electrically driven ones. Especially if I only have to go over the area once.

Like I have exactly that Gilette and it was a horrible experience using it.

Doooood I’ve been so invested in learning more about shaving and getting my style up… so glad you’re bringing an objective perspective instead of other vids either not going into much detail and just shaving their face or advertising and biased

As a woman with PCOS that causes me to grow facial hair I very much appreciate this episode lol I’m always looking for that close shave 🪒

I end up using a combo of both because I get lazy and have long periods between each shave.
I find electric WAY easier to deal with long growth but it doesn't get as close as I like so I sometimes use manual to finish it off