Rant: I ditched hot lather for a $12 gel and my clients stopped complaining about razor burn
Switched cold turkey 4 months ago at my shop in Boise after a regular said the hot towel felt nice but his neck still looked like raw hamburger, and now my rebook rate for shaves is up 30%.
I read somewhere that hot lather actually opens up the pores and makes the skin more sensitive to the blade, which sounds backwards but kinda makes sense. Cold or room temp gel just lays flat and lets the razor glide without all that extra swelling. Wild that it took a client's raw neck to figure that out.