Shaves · May 2, 2026 · 6 min read
The Case for the Hot Towel Shave
It isn't nostalgia. A straight razor shave done properly is the closest, calmest shave a face can get — here's what actually happens in the chair.
The hot towel shave survives for the same reason the wristwatch survives: the modern replacement is faster, and it isn't better.
Here's what the forty-five minutes actually buys you. The first towel — steamed, wrapped from chin to cheekbone — spends three minutes doing what your morning splash of warm water pretends to do: fully softening the hair shaft, which cuts the razor's required force in half. Then pre-shave oil, then lather worked in with a brush, which lifts each hair off the skin instead of matting it down the way a hand does.
The straight razor itself is the least important part, honestly. What matters is that a person who does this thirty times a week is reading your grain direction and adjusting the blade angle stroke by stroke — something a multi-blade cartridge, dragged in straight lines by feel, structurally cannot do.
Two passes, a cold towel to close the pores, a balm without alcohol. No razor burn, because nothing scraped. No ingrowns, because nothing cut below the skin line. If you have sensitive skin and you've accepted irritation as the price of being clean-shaven, you've been overpaying. Book one. You'll understand within ten minutes, right around the time you stop thinking about your inbox.
