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

Saturday was a no-shave day. Ist one of those in a long time. I forged all morning and in the afternoon so the scruff just made for the whole look
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Being Sunday I'm usually not taking time to wet shave due to us all having to get out of the house early, but being shave #50, I decided to get up early and do a fine shave.

Today's Shave: Shave #50

Razor: QShave (Merkur Futur Clone) DE
Blade: Gillette Silver Blue
Brush: Maggard Razors Synthetic
Soap: Mystic Water Bay Rum
Bowl: Walmart Salsa Bowl (plastic)
Pre Shave: Shower / wash with soap
Total Razor on Face Time: 17 minutes

Post Shave: Cold water rinse, Witch Hazel (Walmart Brand) face only, Cold rinse. Dry face, then immediately applied Nivea AS Balm to the face only. Mammoth Painting, rubbing left over soap on the neck then rinsing.

Now that I've got my Mystic Water lathers much improved I really nailed a good bowl of lather this morning. I only loaded the brush for about 35 seconds and that seemed to be the sweet spot. Cold water added in small amounts as needed of course. Today I had quite the scruff going on so I decided to put some pre-shave oil on to soften those whiskers a bit in the 2-day growth. I also swapped out the Personna blade for a Gillette Silver Blue. The SB is my favorite razor thus far and I wanted #50 to be special and comfortable. I didn't change anything much because I wanted predictable results.

WTG pass saw the SB blade having no problem mowing down the 2 day growth while set on 1.5 on the razor. Mmmmm, nice and smooth. I did feel that the gaps weren't quite even again but there was no discomfort so I just used the tiny difference to my advantage by flipping the razor around when I needed a tiny bit more aggression or a bit more mild. Wow, with a cart I would have felt all that uncomfortable pulling, so I was so thankful to feel the SB doing it's job efficiently. XTG pass was very nice, but I needed to shift the razor up to 1.7 due to already being so smooth after the WTG pass. My ATG pass went so well that I forgot to go ATG on my cheeks. I was already that smooth. BBS all over and felt really nice. I noticed the forgotten ATG only after mid morning when the BBS went away and to detected some sandpaper feel only in that area. What a nice shave though and I'm glad #50 went so well.

What I Changed: Really the only change was the pre-shave oil. I like it and it seemed to do a great job even after lightly washing my face in the shower. The slickness was still there but without the slippery mess you get while shaving. I may do this more often and see how it goes.

On the personal side, I forged my first knife yesterday. I must give Shawn some credit here for giving me great pointers and tips. I forged it out of a coil spring from a car. It's going to be a simple kitchen knife, but hopefully will be one of many and live a long life in service to many after us. I really liked the process. I'm not posting any pictures until it's done.
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Overall it was a great morning of forging. I made some much needed punches out of the same coil spring and a decorative bracket for the wood screen door I picked out of the trash and fixed up to go on my back door. All the steel I used came out of either the scrap yard or was free. Looking at those finished pieces gives me a lot of satisfaction even though I'm no master blacksmith at this point. I made my own tools and a knife yesterday - useful stuff that will be put right into service. I guess you can say that I turned a lot of trash into treasure yesterday. I love that screen door. It needed a lot of fixing and a new screen, but it was all there. I forged a nice handle for it to replace the cheapy hardware store special someone put on there. It had some age to it so I left that look in the door and it fits in perfect with our old home. Blacksmithing is a very handy skill to have and a fulfilling hobby for sure.
 
Can’t wait to see the knife results! Good 50th; you’ll be at 100 and a pro in no time!
 
Thanks Chris and Steve. It might be a while on the knife because I'm such a slow craftsman and like things to turn out nice even if they are firsts. I'll for sure post a picture on my journal.
 
Back in the swing of a new week. What better way to start the week than with a great shave. I've said it many times, but a great shave sets the tone of my day. I think this was the first time I've had a great shave and enjoyed the process completely. I felt like I was in control of my results and could confidently get there. I haven't completely figured it all out but I think the first pieces are falling into place.

Today's Shave: Shave #51

Razor: QShave (Merkur Futur Clone) DE
Blade: Gillette Silver Blue
Brush: Maggard Razors Synthetic
Soap: Mystic Water Bay Rum
Bowl: Walmart Salsa Bowl (plastic)
Pre Shave: Shower / wash with soap
Total Razor on Face Time: 15 minutes

Post Shave: Cold water rinse, Witch Hazel (Wal
mart Brand) face only, Cold rinse. Dry face, then immediately applied Nivea AS Balm to the face only. Mammoth Painting, rubbing left over soap on the neck then rinsing.

Great and properly thickened lather was whipped up. I also decided to try the pre-shave oil again on only a 24 hour growth to see if it made much of a difference. I think it is and although it gets washed off in the shower, it's still there so long as you don't really scrub your face so there's some benefit to using it before the shower. I may continue to do this all week to see how it goes.

WTG pass was great set at about 1.3 on the razor. Something I'm noticing with the QShave is that when you snap the cap on you can't put pressure on both sides but pressure on the sides and middle equally. I popped the cap off and carefully snapped it back on this way and the SB blade seemed to be properly gapped. I also turn the razor down below 1 as far as it will go when putting a new blade in. I think this all helps. The SB blade effortlessly and smoothly takes off the stubble for me. I paid extra attention to no pressure. I think with all my focus on other things I subconsciously may have been apply a tiny bit of pressure. I also figured out that on this first pass I was going north to south even down my neck. This morning I tried a new stroke: north to south until I hit the jaw-line and then I went north to about the direction 4 o'clock. I think this is my true WTG pass for my neck. I could feel the difference and it felt great. I think my old north to south was approaching an ATG'ish direction once it hit mid-neck. This could be why my neck was experiencing the irritation at times. XTG pass was great and I had to adjust the razor to 1.5 to get some. ATG was still really great and felt great. I turned the razor setting down to about 1.1 or 1.2 around the chin and lips. This works our really well. Now that my soap is slick enough, I'm able to do some clean-up as I go along with my passes by feeling around and doing some skin stretching to get it down. I'm finding that clean-up as I go along doesn't irritate as much as trying to do it at the end. I actually tried some J hooking in some areas and that seemed to work well. Got a BBS everywhere and it felt really great post shave. Very enjoyable time this morning.

What I Changed: WTG pass stroke to a 4 o'clock direction at the jaw-line, clean-up & blade buffing during my passes, some J hooking strokes.
 
Yep, that 4 o'clock stroke sounds like what I use. The true N-S on my neck ends up being more of at ATG-XTG combo.
 
Dave in KY said:
My neck hair swirls so much I go every direction to cover all bases....
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I've never grown a beard so I'm not sure what direction my neck hair grows. I've only had a goatee. I kinda have to go with 2 passes and an ATG with a cart if I want to really get my neck BBS. I may try an ATG with the razor set really mild at 1 or something and see if my neck can tolerate it. ATG for my neck is east to west. Some day I'll figure it out. My face I've pretty much got figured out.
 
Blade-meister said:
I've never grown a beard so I'm not sure what direction my neck hair grows. I've only had a goatee. I kinda have to go with 2 passes and an ATG with a cart if I want to really get my neck BBS. I may try an ATG with the razor set really mild at 1 or something and see if my neck can tolerate it. ATG for my neck is east to west. Some day I'll figure it out. My face I've pretty much got figured out.
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You don’t need a beard to tell. Actually too much growth with hide your pattern. You can feel the direction of growth with only one day of growing after a fresh shave.
 
Blade-meister said:
I've never grown a beard so I'm not sure what direction my neck hair grows. I've only had a goatee. I kinda have to go with 2 passes and an ATG with a cart if I want to really get my neck BBS. I may try an ATG with the razor set really mild at 1 or something and see if my neck can tolerate it. ATG for my neck is east to west. Some day I'll figure it out. My face I've pretty much got figured out.
Click to expand...

Necks challenge us all. Mine requires passes from every direction. Enjoy your shaves!
 
Dave in KY said:
My neck hair swirls so much I go every direction to cover all bases....
Click to expand...

Im the same way. I typically don’t ever do a WTG pass on my neck (which I don’t suggest) because it would be a different direction depending on where I’m at. I usually end up doing 2 one north/south with a bit of a slide, one south/north with some j-hooking about mid neck, and one ear to nose with j-hooking in the opposite direction if needed.
 
Spider said:
You don’t need a beard to tell. Actually too much growth with hide your pattern. You can feel the direction of growth with only one day of growing after a fresh shave.
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Yup, you are right KJ. When I've felt my one day growth though it's not really clear on growth direction in the problem areas on my neck. It feels like all directions are ATG so that's why I was thinking if I did grow a beard, maybe day 3 or 4 growth would allow me to see it better. I think what I'd find is hair growing in all directions in those areas. Right now the 4 o'clock stroke is feeling really good and has eliminated any irritation on the neck so I think that's got to be my WTG pass. I'll probably experiment more with the J hooking.
 
I thought about changing up my shaving soap today, but, I really wanted to just keep using the MW Bay Rum. I'm loving it so why mess with it this morning. I had another enjoyable shave today. It felt great and I enjoyed the process again.

Today's Shave: Shave #52

Razor: QShave (Merkur Futur Clone) DE
Blade: Gillette Silver Blue
Brush: Maggard Razors Synthetic
Soap: Mystic Water Bay Rum
Bowl: Walmart Salsa Bowl (plastic)
Pre Shave: PS Oil / Shower / wash with soap
Total Razor on Face Time: 16 minutes

Post Shave: Cold water rinse, Witch Hazel (Walmart Brand) face only, Cold rinse. Dry face,
then immediately applied Nivea AS Balm to the face only. Mammoth Painting, rubbing left over soap on the neck then rinsing.

Pre-shave, I went with the PS oil again. I really like it and there's just enough retained slickness after the shower but not really sloppy and messy at all.

With the lathering, I think I'm getting the MW lather down. One thing I've done the last couple of days is squeeze the soap out of my brush about midway through the lather. I find my brush is trying to hog the lather which makes me want to add more water when I don't need to. I find my brush reloads fine but isn't hiding the lion's share of the good stuff. MW soap really likes the painting so I find myself painting the lather on more and more the longer I use it.

WTG, XTG, and ATG passes were all very comfortable and nice. I did a little too much work on the upper lip causing some very slight irritation and redness on the vertical ridges that go from the lip to the nose. I did a fair amount of blade buffing with the razor set on 1.0 and that seems to work great. Today I again focused on slowing down and applying no pressure. If it makes any sense, I think the less pressure you apply the smoother and faster things go. I did clean-up before my last pass and in between some and I think my face really likes that. Overall, BBS everywhere. Great shave. Loving the results of the mammoth painting as well.

The only frustrating thing for me is that I still have to use my cart for the ATG pass on my neck and upper lip. I'm not understanding why my cart would be less irritating than the DE at this point. Now that I've had 3 enjoyable shaves, tomorrow I may just dial the razor down low to 1.0 and try the ATG pass on the neck.

I had a guy at work picking on me telling me I've got this baby face and probably can't grow a beard. I thought that was a pretty good compliment and told him I could have a good beard going in less than a week and that I wet shave. I'm not sure he really believed me, but I thought that was interesting.
 
No worries, the ATG will come along at some point, or you’ll at least find a comfortable place to land with your shaves. Even if you continue using the cart last pass, no shame man!
 
Nice shave! The ATG will come around sooner or later. Could it be you change your blade angle on the ATG stroke?
 
MilkCrate said:
Nice shave! The ATG will come around sooner or later. Could it be you change your blade angle on the ATG stroke?
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That's a possibility I hadn't considered. Normally when I'm in doubt of my angle I ride the cap. I'll have to pay attention to that tomorrow morning. Thanks for the suggestion.

It's funny, I went back and read some of my first journal entries and it was encouraging to see that I've learned so much between shave #1 and shave #52. Seems like I've been wet shaving forever, but it's not really been that long. I'd not be this far along with the help of my TSC family......The Brotherhood of the Soap & Blade
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Not the best shave today. I normally don't wet shave on Wednesdays due to time constraints, but today I decided it's time to keep that goodness going all week.

Today's Shave: Shave #53

Razor: QShave (Merkur Futur Clone) DE
Blade: Gillette Silver Blue
Brush: Maggard Razors Synthetic
Soap: Mystic Water Bay Rum
Bowl: Walmart Salsa Bowl (plastic)
Pre Shave: PS Oil / Shower / wash with soap
Total Razor on Face Time: 13 minutes

Post Shave: Cold water rinse, Witch Hazel (Walmart Brand) face only, Cold rinse. Dry face, then immediately applied Nivea AS Balm to the face only. Mammoth Painting, rubbing left over soap on the neck then rinsing.

Continued the PS oil, and I got a really nice and proper lather this morning. WTG went well, but I think this was shave #4 on the SB blade which is probably pushing it for me. I seem to only get 3 good shaves from a blade for some reason. XTG felt pretty good. If I'd stopped there I'd a had a CCS......but of course you know I didn't. ATG pass I could feel some areas of discomfort so I used care and backed off the razor setting a bit. I tried a setting of 1.0 for the ATG pass on the neck. It didn't really get things smooth for the risk so I ended up using the cart anyways so this extra attention did cause some redness. My top lip especially just can't take a lot of attention without redness. I did get BBS with areas of irritation only BBS- or so. Tomorrow may just be a 2 pass shave. I enjoyed the shave up until the ATG pass so not a bad experience, I just should have put in a fresh blade.

What I Changed: ATG pass on the neck with the DE instead of the cart

On the personal side of things, I ran into an old friend and he said he has some old razors he's going to round up and give me from his old days of wet shaving back in 50's and 60's. You never know with these things what's coming your way but it could be interesting to try. He mentioned a Remington as being one of the razors and that it had a white handle of some kind that turned a nice yellow over time. I've not heard of that razor so I'm thinking it's probably not a very good one. It'll be interesting to see what he comes up with.
 
Blade-meister said:
....On the personal side of things, I ran into an old friend and he said he has some old razors he's going to round up and give me from his old days of wet shaving back in 50's and 60's. You never know with these things what's coming your way but it could be interesting to try....
Click to expand...
Very cool!
 
Let's hope that you don't get one of those unless it is just for display. Keep experimenting on what works well for ya. If you like experimenting, try gripping the handle without using your index finger. It may take some adjusting but this helps with a lighter grip (I took tip from playing golf). It is amazing how many pressure we use unintentionally.
 
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