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An Unexpected Journey: A Newbie's Walk In Wet Shaving

Blade-meister

Blade-meister

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I decided to move my experiences over to a journal instead of continuing a long thread elsewhere. Only being at this for one month, my hope is that other newbies or even those just stopping by as guests can learn from my mistakes and that as I figure things out it can be a benefit to wet shaving newbies who may struggle with the same issues.

Some issues I am having:
  • Disappearing Lather While On My Face
  • Neck Irritation & Redness
For today's shave I needed to focus on two things: Settling down the neck irritation and getting a lather that sticks to my face instead of gradually disappearing. Spider, Nurse Dave, Dave in KY, Cvargo, DocHoliday and many others provided much appreciated wisdom with these problem areas.

Today's Shave:

Razor: Micro Touch DE
Blade: Gillette Super Blue
Brush: Simpson Super Badger
Soap: Mystic Waters Sandlewood Coconut
Bowl: Walmart Plastic Salsa Bowl

Pre Shave: Shower and leaving face wet afterwards

Post Shave: Hot water rinse, Witch Hazel (Walmart Brand 14% alcohol), Cold rinse, leave face wet to dry on it's own, Nivea AS balm on face only.

Following the advice given earlier in this thread https://www.theshavingcadre.com/post/newbie-questions-9872538?pid=1305714754 I loaded my brush counting literally for 40 seconds, and used cold water to begin my lather in the bowl. I bloomed my soap and started the lather with the bloom water poured off from the soap puck. I worked the lather until I got nice shiny peaks on the bursh. When I wet my face pre-lather, I took my wet hands and lightly squeegeed the excess water droplets off and applied my lather. Finally, a proper lather that didn't disappear! This was my first shave with the Gillette SB blade and I found that it felt more aggressive than the Astra I've been using.

Following further advice I paid more attention to my shaver angle doing a WTG and ATG shave only this morning. Doing a 2 pass shave was an effort to correct the redness and irritation I've been getting while getting my BBS shaves. Spider suggested this and it felt much better after today's shave even though I only achieved a CCS+. I did no clean-up pass. Without the XTG pass I'm often not going to do better than a CCS+ at this point. I'll continue the 2 pass shave until the redness and irritation are gone and I can get consistent irritation free 2 pass shaves.

What I Changed: Lathered with cold water, loaded the brush longer, bloomed the soap puck and used the bloom water to start the lather, Gillette SB blade, paid strict attention to blade angle and and maintaining no pressure, 2 pass shave in place of the 4 pass shave & clean-up.
 
Welcome to the Journals! Congrats on getting a good lather. Glad our tips helped!
 
Nice start to a journal Mike. Glad the tips helped you out. This is where the majority of my learning came from reading others journals and starting my own. Looking forward to learning a bit more about you.
 
Wow! What a beginning! I love your very analytic approach to the journal. I think by taking this type of an approach you should be able to get a perfect shave in no time. I really don't have much in the way of suggestion as you have taken what others have said to heart. I love Mystic Water soaps. I have never had a problem lathering it. But I know of some who have. I think you are doing about as well as you can at this point with this soap. Basically, if you can get a really good lather out of MW...then you likely won't have an issue with any soap! Keep adjusting your methods and you will be rewarded!
 
I know your issues were discussed and answered in your newbie thread but I thought I would add my 2 cents here in your journal.

First, I would not stop rinsing and leaving your face wet between passes. Sure, the amount of water you are introducing into the lather can/will thin it but a thin and wet lather wont hurt as much as a dry and fluffy lather. If the lather in the bowl is very stable but the lather on your face is fading i could be that you have broken the lather with that small amount of water but that is pretty rare for a new guy.

I always agree with the recommendation to use more product, it's hard to go wrong loading more product. Most soaps will end up performing well if you load/overload with a little less water in the brush then build from there. Try floating a thin layer of water on the surface of the soap while you shower or prep. Squeeze the brush so no water drips from it and start loading on the wet surface of the puck. Keep loading until there is a thick and sticky lather in the brush and on the surface (this is referred to as proto-lather). If you are bowl lathering, wet the inside of the bowl but don't leave a puddle, and start building the lather. Add a drop or two at a time and watch as the volume increases between water drop additions. Over time you will learn which soaps you can tolerate more water in the beginning and which can not.

When you apply the lather to the face (wet face) do a little scrubby scrubby then "paint" it on like you are spreading paint on your face. This usually makes a fluffy lather more dense and really sets it up so it won't fade. If you still get fading lather, do more painting and be pretty aggressive about it. The paint brush strokes help to release lather and water from the brush. If watch KJ lather up you will see a great example of paint brush strokes and how they change the appearance of the lather on the face.

For the neck. Stretching the skin with one hand while shaving with the other is good practice for any area of the face but it becomes particularly important on the neck. The catch is, you may need to stretch more or less aggressively depending on area you are shaving. This is something you need to experiment with because its never the same from person to person or razor to razor. You hear it all the time "NO PRESSURE", the neck is a place where no pressure is always a good idea but harder to achieve than you think. Because the surface angle is always changing it is easy to start with good angle and pressure but by the time you reach the lower neck you are very steep with the angle and pushing hard to keep the razor in contact.

Watch the video Xenostr8shaver (dave) did on blade buffing and Gillette Slide. These techniques could help a lot.

There you go...two pennies worth of advice from a guy who doesn't regularly use MW soap and hasn't used a DE razor in a year or more.
 
CBLindsay said:
I know your issues were discussed and answered in your newbie thread but I thought I would add my 2 cents here in your journal.

First, I would not stop rinsing and leaving your face wet between passes. Sure, the amount of water you are introducing into the lather can/will thin it but a thin and wet lather wont hurt as much as a dry and fluffy lather. If the lather in the bowl is very stable but the lather on your face is fading i could be that you have broken the lather with that small amount of water but that is pretty rare for a new guy.

I always agree with the recommendation to use more product, it's hard to go wrong loading more product. Most soaps will end up performing well if you load/overload with a little less water in the brush then build from there. Try floating a thin layer of water on the surface of the soap while you shower or prep. Squeeze the brush so no water drips from it and start loading on the wet surface of the puck. Keep loading until there is a thick and sticky lather in the brush and on the surface (this is referred to as proto-lather). If you are bowl lathering, wet the inside of the bowl but don't leave a puddle, and start building the lather. Add a drop or two at a time and watch as the volume increases between water drop additions. Over time you will learn which soaps you can tolerate more water in the beginning and which can not.

When you apply the lather to the face (wet face) do a little scrubby scrubby then "paint" it on like you are spreading paint on your face. This usually makes a fluffy lather more dense and really sets it up so it won't fade. If you still get fading lather, do more painting and be pretty aggressive about it. The paint brush strokes help to release lather and water from the brush. If watch KJ lather up you will see a great example of paint brush strokes and how they change the appearance of the lather on the face.

For the neck. Stretching the skin with one hand while shaving with the other is good practice for any area of the face but it becomes particularly important on the neck. The catch is, you may need to stretch more or less aggressively depending on area you are shaving. This is something you need to experiment with because its never the same from person to person or razor to razor. You hear it all the time "NO PRESSURE", the neck is a place where no pressure is always a good idea but harder to achieve than you think. Because the surface angle is always changing it is easy to start with good angle and pressure but by the time you reach the lower neck you are very steep with the angle and pushing hard to keep the razor in contact.

Watch the video Xenostr8shaver (dave) did on blade buffing and Gillette Slide. These techniques could help a lot.

There you go...two pennies worth of advice from a guy who doesn't regularly use MW soap and hasn't used a DE razor in a year or more.
Click to expand...

Holy Cow! I just felt like I sat through a college lecture on how to lather and shave! Great post Chris!
 
CBLindsay - I actually started Bull Frogging back when I used the cart. It's how I got BBS with the cart. I'd do a 3 pass shave with a cart with no irritation, but the cart only lasted 7 days (with my wife & I both using it). Bull Frogging with the DE works better than tight skin. I just have to be careful not to do too much right under the chin. There I have to stretch it a bit. Great write up! I tried the painting and it works really, really well. That nugget of wisdom is going to pay dividends for me in the lathering dept.

Today's Shave:

Razor: Micro Touch DE
Blade: Gillette Super Blue
Brush: Simpson Super Badger
Soap: Mystic Waters Sandlewood Coconut
Bowl: Walmart Plastic Salsa Bowl

Pre Shave: Shower and leaving face wet afterwards

Post Shave: Hot water rinse, Witch Hazel (Walmart Brand 14% alcohol), Cold rinse, leave face wet to dry on it's own, Nivea AS balm on face only.

So today I tried cold water shaving as was suggested by someone here. I felt like the beard growth was standing up straighter and it felt really nice. I stuck to my 2 pass shave except this time my 2nd pass was XTG. This made for a smoother shave and it felt really nice afterwards. I think I got CCS if not DFS- . I tried the WTG/ATG to see how that went yesterday figuring I'd get the most closeness but today the XTG really did a better job. The cold water shaving really seemed to keep the redness away and it just felt really, really clean and nice.

I'm sharing a technique that I've been using to help the shaving soap smell last the whole day. I'm calling it "Painting the Mammoth". When I'm done shaving, I take the rest of the shaving soap lather on my brush and paint the heck out of my thick chest hair. If anyone here has "mammoth" thick chest hair like I do, this works really well. I let it sit on there while the WH is sitting on my face and I'm cleaning up my brush, bowl, and razor. Then I just cold water rinse the mammoth fur, pat dry, and have that awesome scent all day. When I'm moving around and my body heat raises a bit, the smell just wafts right up through the neck of my shirt. It's pretty awesome. I figured why waste all that good smelling lather by rinsing it down the drain!
1f601.png
Maybe I'm not the first to think of this, but I'll share it anyways.

What I changed:

Cold water on the shaving brush, cold water rinses only, XTG on 2nd pass, still kept watch to make sure I wasn't applying pressure, and spent more time painting the lather on my face (so much so I sent a nice piece of lather flying past the sink!)
 
Sounds like things are improving.

I can't do the mammoth thing because I don't have any hair on my chest, but it's a great idea.
 
I am really liking your approach to your journal. Almost scientific and very analytic. A lot of people really like cold water shaving. I probably would too, but living in southern Louisiana doesn't afford a lot of cold water out of the faucet, tepid at the coldest for nine months and slightly chilled for three More. And I'm not willing to get a basin of ice. But it looks like you will enjoy it. You are right...paint strokes was a revelation for me also. Watch a couple of the guys' videos...some of them whip that lather all over the place with paint strokes. If the lather was actual paint...they would be painting a Jackson Pollock masterpiece!

Now as to "Painting the Mammoth," DO NOT MAKE A VIDEO OF THAT!!! I am a hairy beast myself, so I understand that NO ONE wants to see that!
1f60b.png
But seriously....I think you have discovered that all by yourself. A very interesting approach to making that scent last longer.
 
Great reads, and welcome to the journals section.

That Mystic Water Coconut Sandalwood is dynamite! If you have a synthetic brush, you might find that it lathers even easier/better than with your badger brush. I'm not knocking badger brushes by any means, as I have many, but with the water at my house, Mystic Water seems to really shine when I use one of my synths.
 
Now as to "Painting the Mammoth," DO NOT MAKE A VIDEO OF THAT!!! I am a hairy beast myself, so I understand that NO ONE wants to see that!
1f60b.png
But seriously....I think you have discovered that all by yourself. A very interesting approach to making that scent last longer.[/QUOTE]

Don't worry, I don't plan on doing any videos soon
1f601.png
Here in NY my cold water comes out of the well at about 52 degrees so we don't even hardly need ice for a cool drink of water. I'm liking the scientific approach and am hoping others can benefit from it.

Today's Shave was a repeat on yesterday's so not much to report. I had the last day of my last show of the year so I needed to get a shave in and go. 3rd shave on the Gillette SB. So far, not feeling like it's dulling yet which is good. I almost feel like the Gillette SB's 2nd shave is the best, it's almost like it needs one shave to break it in. I'm hoping that's a good sign that I'll get more than 4 shaves out of it. Still having redness, but greatly lessened and seems to be less and less every day. Not going for BBS has helped. I'm always so tempted to add that extra pass in when I look at all that nice lather still sitting in the bowl. Extra lather for mammoth painting.
 
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