In this case the remove actually helps -- he's shaved his own face an infinite number of times, and he knows it so well he's fairly sure he could do it with his eyes closed, or blind drunk (he may even have done, once or twice), but it's a different thing to shave Laertes. He takes out the straight razor from its case, holds Laertes' chin with his fingertips, and begins.

He works slowly, listening to the scrape of the blade on skin, alert to every movement or sound Laertes might make.