How To Get The Perfect Shave, According To The 'Butterball Talk-Line' For Your Face

Gentlemen, there is a Butterball Turkey Talk-Line for your face.

Well, to be more specific, it’s similar to the Butterball Turkey Talk-Line, but instead of teaching you how to make Thanksgiving dinner, this helpdesk is dedicated to answering your gnarliest grooming questions.

It’s run by the folks at Dollar Shave Club, the subscription-based razor and grooming company, which employs 85 people to field about 3,000 questions every day. You can submit questions through Twitter, Facebook, their “Contact Us” form, or by emailing members@dollarshaveclub.com. Live chat is also available 9 a.m. through 6 p.m. PST every day.

The company recently launched a campaign to preemptively answer some of those questions, but we were curious: Out of the 2 million questions they’ve been asked since the help-line launched in 2011, what are the most frequently asked questions? And, what are their answers?

In addition to how to achieve the perfect shave, it seems that guys are curious about how to best moisturize and cleanse their faces, too.

Here are the questions the DSC gets asked the most, with answers provided by their help desk:

1. What’s the best way to moisturize my face?

It’s best to moisturize your face after a warm wash, when your skin is completely dry, in a room where the air is also dry. You want to avoid using a body lotion on your face. They tend to clog your pores.

2. How do I get the perfect shave?

There’s no short answer when it comes to getting the perfect shave, but we’ll try to keep it as simple as possible to follow.

1. First things first, wash your face with warm water to get rid of any dirt, oil or dead skin cells that could clog up your blade.
2. After washing your face, apply a hot, moist towel to your face to soften up your whiskers and open your pores.
3. Use a high quality shave cream, one that will lubricate your skin and soften the hairs without drying out your face.
4. Make sure you use a fresh blade and run your razor under hot water before you shave.
5. Shave “with the grain” to prevent razor burn, skin irritation and ingrown hairs.
6. Rinse the front and back of your razor with hot running water after each stroke to remove hair and excess lather.
7. Rinse your face with cool water to remove residual shave lather and help close your pores.
8. Pat dry your face with a clean towel and apply a post-shave cream to your face to replenish your skin after shaving.

3. What’s the proper way to shave my sideburns?

You should start by trimming or thinning out your sideburns. You can thin your sideburns by using electric clippers with a guard. Start trimming with the bigger guard first, then try smaller guards until you reach the desired length of sideburn hair. Next, take the guard off and use the clippers to line the bottom of your ‘burns. Look in the mirror and line your index fingers up to each sideburn to make sure they’re even.

4. What’s the best way to tame my crazy eyebrows?

1. Use a small comb to comb your brows upward, trimming the excess ends with scissors.
2. Comb your brows downward, again trimming the excess ends.
3. Never use a razor to tame your unibrow ― always use tweezers.
4. Make sure your brows’ inner edges line up with the bridge of your nose.

5. What’s the best way to shave my upper lip?

The best way to shave your upper lip is to begin by curling your lip inward, like a trumpet player, to tighten the skin. Shave downward from your nose to your lip, then shave horizontally between your nose and your lip like you’re cleaning a windshield. Repeat the previous step, this time going from the outsides of your lip, inward. Clean up any excess hair with the precision trimmer blade on the back of the razor.

6. What’s the right way to line up my neck scruff?

1. Start at one earlobe, draw an imaginary curved line down your neck with your finger from one earlobe to the other.
2. The bottom of your neckline should be 1 to 1-1/2 inches above your Adam’s apple.
3. Use a fresh blade and shave everything below your Adam’s apple.

7. How often should I change my blade out?

That depends on how often you shave. We recommend changing your blade once a week, or every three shaves. Shaving with a fresh blade is healthier for your skin and it makes for a more comfortable shave.

8. Why do I need a separate cleanser for my face?

Your face produces more oils than other parts of your body. They’re there to protect your face from dirt and pollution, but oils that have been left on the skin for too long can be trapped by facial hair and combine with dirt and gunk, which can lead to inflammation and clogged pores. This is why you need a face wash that cleanses and hydrates without stripping your skin of its natural oils.