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

Cvargo said:
I'm away from a few shaves and the first one I read about is a cart shave?! What is this sorcery???
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Oh no, now I'll have Nurse Dave and your specter looming over me every time I consider using a cart
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Spider said:
How wet it your brush when you load? If it’s too dry you won’t pick up as much soap. You can add a few drops of water to the soap to make it load faster. I do that when needed.

That sketch is awesome. That’s a real talent.
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I get the brush really soaking wet, give it a good squeeze, and that's it. I don't think that's too dry, but you experienced guys would know. I bloom my pucks and pour the bloom water in the lathering bowl then take the brush to the soap puck.
 
NurseDave said:
I was an art major for 4 years, and I can't draw or paint worth a darn. I of course was required to take several drawing classes and it was torture for me. I like those drawings. When you stare at them for a while I see waterfalls or waves in the patterns.
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It actually takes me way longer to draw an arrowhead like the ones in the picture than it does to make it out of flint from scratch.
 
GearNoir said:
Lol, was it everything you hoped for?
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Blade-meister said:
I'm afraid it exceeded expectations!

Most people knock it and don't try it
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If you have chest hair, it works with most really good shaving soaps. It's not as powerful as an AS or cologne, but it allows you to keep that soap scent all day. Plus you just wash the leftover lather down the sink drain so I say why not do something productive with it?
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If I rubbed lather onto my chest, I'd be tempted to take a razor to it!

Great drawing. You are very talented, sir!

I don't squeeze water out of my brush. I give it a couple of light shakes, just one or two, depending on the soap. I think it probably leaves more water in the brush.

Enjoy your shaves!
 
Winter finally arrived here with some blowing snow. I still got in a good shave.

Today's Shave: Shave #85

Razor: Parker Variant - Graphite handle
Blade: Gillette Rubie
Brush: Maggard Razors Synthetic larger brush knot from KJ's PIF
Soap: Mystic Water Bay Rum
Bowl: Black Salsa Bowl (plastic) w/ textured rings inside
Pre Shave: Wash with soap in the shower
Total Razor on Face Time: 19 minutes

Post Shave: Cold water rinse, Witch Hazel (Walmart Brand) face only, Cold rinse. Bootlegger's Bay Rum (Master + S-70 in 50/50 mix) AS on neck only. Every Man Jack Post Shave Balm to the face only. Mamm
oth Painting.

Of course today it the one day I have to travel a long ways and winter decides to show up and create some interesting driving with blowing snow and cold.

No problems with the lather and I did push my brush harder into the soap but I did load longer than yesterday. I must admit, my face was still sore in places from yesterday's shave. I think I just did too much clean-up. Like a dummy I tried a different blade today. I thought I'd give the Rubie a second try. I didn't like it very much the first time around and didn't really care for it this time either. WTG pass the Rubie felt aggressive to me compared Silver Blue, but then again my face was sore so it could be that. I really concentrated on no pressure today but even after XTG and ATG I just had a hard time getting smooth this morning. I finally had to do some blade buffing on a 1.0 setting on the razor just to feel like the invested time was worth it. I eventually got BBS everywhere, but that didn't help the sore spots. It didn't make them worse though. If I didn't need a really good shave this morning I would have done one of my DFS 2 pass shaves. Tomorrow for sure. It doesn't help having 2 crying kids come bursting into the bathroom and you are trying to ascertain who lost a limb in all the crying only to find out it's nothing worth all the drama
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Half shaved and face drying out while you are sorting out the drama all the while your two crying kids are looking at you like you are some kind of alien with your face half covered in lather.
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In the end I got it done and the shave wasn't horrible. I'm contemplating going to a shave schedule of every other day doing a DFS 2 pass shave. I read about guys using the #5 setting on the Variant and man, I tip my hat to you. I must be doing something wrong if I can only take 3.0 at a max setting.
 
Be safe out there Mike!

Chasing the BBS rarely helps sore trouble spots...but some days it’s worth the pain!
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Blade-meister said:
. It doesn't help having 2 crying kids come bursting into the bathroom and you are trying to ascertain who lost a limb in all the crying only to find out it's nothing worth all the drama
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But daaaaaaaad!!!

Kudos for not reverting to the cart on a busy day ?
 
NurseDave said:
But daaaaaaaad!!!

Kudos for not reverting to the cart on a busy day
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Yes, I didn't cave. I'm actually finding that I don't like the way the cart feels anymore during the shaves. I never thought I'd say that. And, I used to do a lot of clean-up with the cart but have stopped that altogether. Making myself figure it out have been a good discipline. Grabbing the cart was just pushing the easy button. Every day I should know that the only easy shave was yesterday's shave.
 
I woke up to 12 degrees this morning, a cold water shaver's kind of weather. I had an interesting trip yesterday on a windy and snow covered highway. Worst part of the trip (beyond the butt cheek clenching driving) was that my jacket liner was rubbing the heck out of my neck for some reason. I hate fleece liners for that reason.

Today's Shave: Shave #86

Razor: Parker Variant - Graphite handle
Blade: Gillette Silver Blue
Brush: Maggard Razors Synthetic smaller brush knot
Soap: Mystic Water Coconut Sandalwood
Bowl: Black Salsa Bowl (plastic) w/ textured rings inside
Pre Shave: Wash with soap in the shower
Total Razor on Face Time: 9 minutes

Post Shave: Cold water rinse, Witch Hazel (Walmart Brand) face only, Cold rinse. Every Man Jack Post Shave Balm to the face and neck. Mammoth Painting.

I didn't really want to get out of bed this morning, but knowing it was only a 2 pass shave morning I got out of bed and got going. That jacket really irritated my neck so on the return trip home I took it off, but it really caused some redness and irritation. This really solidified my keeping to 2 passes.

The lather was a bit of a challenge because the soap was a sample. I had trouble loading the brush well, but a little extra care and I got where I needed to go. WTG pass at 2.0 was really done with careful attention to pressure. I did some clean-up, but nothing too heavy. XTG pass on the face and ATG pass on the neck with the razor set at 2.5 is perfect for the 2 pass shave. I did further clean-up with some minor J hooking on the cheeks and jaw line. Overall, DFS+ with some areas BBS. Great shave for a 2 pass. I think I was only a few strokes of the razor away from a BBS but I didn't want the clean-up to count as a 3rd pass so I stopped. I also didn't want to irritate anywhere and didn't so that was very good. Next week I'm going to try to do a 2 pass shave every other day to see how my face likes it. Post shave I changed it up slightly and did the EMJ PS balm on my neck and face. It actually did well on the neck and I'm hoping it will help me recoup from the jacket attack from yesterday.
 
MilkCrate said:
Only if you help a brother out and keep that nasty weather up there
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Well, it's 9 degrees already at my house so I'll promise to keep the nasty weather up here if you promise to push some sunshine and warmth up my way
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This has been a bad year. We rarely saw sunshine in 2018 to the point where my girls said one day excitedly "Ohhhhh, there's the sun Mommy, it's the sun, there's the sun!!!" It's seriously like Mordor here.
 
I decided to take Saturday off from wet shaving to give my face a break which made Sunday's shave really nice.

Today's Shave: Shave #87

Razor: Parker Variant - Graphite handle
Blade: Gillette Silver Blue
Brush: Maggard Razors Synthetic larger brush knot
Soap: Mystic Water Bay Rum
Bowl: Black Salsa Bowl (plastic) w/ textured rings inside
Pre Shave: Wash with soap in the shower
Total Razor on Face Time: 15 minutes

Post Shave: Cold water rinse, Witch Hazel (Walmart Brand) face only, Cold rinse. Bootlegger's Bay Rum (50/50 mixture of S-70 & Master). Every Man Jack
Post Shave Balm to the face and neck. Mammoth Painting.

With Friday being a simple 2 pass shave and skipping shaving on Saturday I had quite a nice growth going on. This reminds me, I was talking to a good friend of mine the other night and he only shaves once a week with a cart. On Thursday his growth was what mine was this morning. I told him if he started wet shaving he'd be BBS Thursday
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At any rate, I took some time Saturday night to do more refined beard mapping and figured out some weird growth areas. My top lip has growth that actually points upward toward my nose about half way up my lip with the bottom growing downward - dang strange.

I lathered up a winner this morning and set the razor at 3.0 because of the growth. Man the Variant just knocked the stubble down like a hot knife through butter. I swear, the higher the razor setting the smoother the Variant seems to pass over my skin. I'm not sure I've figured out why yet, but if I had to guess I'd say its just that my razor angle is easier to maintain with the more aggressive gap. The lower the razor setting, the smaller the sweet spot becomes. I could be totally wrong on this.

WTG pass felt like the Variant was just laughing at my attempt to grow stubble and it came down nice and smooth. It was a very enjoyable pass. I left the razor set at 3.0 for the XTG/ATG second pass and it felt effortless as well. For my final ATG/XTG pass I jacked it down to 2.0 just in an effort to prevent starting the week with any problems. I took time to do some clean-up and got BBS+ everywhere accept around the adam's apple area with was a BBS to BBS-. Heck, I'm still DFS right now at 6:30 pm. That's why I got into wet shaving!

Incidentally, I ran into a guy today who I've known for a decade and we got talking about shaving. Turns out he's been wet shaving for years. He's a Williams / mug shaver and doesn't even know about all the other soaps out there. Granted, Williams is good soap but I think I will be giving him some soaps to try out because I think it's still just shaving to him and he's missing out on part of the experience. From what he described, I think he's shaving with a vintage TTO gold razor of some kind. I'll be letting him try out some of the PIF'd items I have to see if he wants to expand his shaving experience.

This week I start my new shaving schedule. Every other day will be a 2 pass shave. My goal is to see if this helps my face and cures me of the need to chase BBS every day. I think if I can do this that BBS will just happen on it's own without any risk of irritation.
 
This morning I woke up with a cold. Actually last night in the middle of the night I felt it coming on. I got up though and was excited about trying this 2 pass shave every other day plan.

Today's Shave: Shave #88

Razor: Parker Variant - Graphite handle
Blade: Gillette Silver Blue
Brush: Maggard Razors Synthetic larger brush knot
Soap: What The Puck Blue Barbershop
Bowl: Black Salsa Bowl (plastic) w/ textured rings inside
Pre Shave: Wash with soap in the shower
Total Razor on Face Time: 9 minutes

Post Shave: Cold water rinse, Witch Hazel (Walmart Brand) face only, Cold rinse. Bootlegger's B
ay Rum (50/50 mixture of S-70 & Master). Every Man Jack Post Shave Balm to the face and neck. Mammoth Painting.

I'm starting to pick my soap out at night and everything else I plan to use for the next morning's shave. I found I'd just stand there staring at the stuff in the morning not sure what I wanted to do and half asleep still, so it was wasting time and I think I was less open to mixing it up. The WTP soap lathered up nice but required more water than the Mystic Water soap. For a non-tallow soap, I'm always impressed with it.

I decided to keep my Variant razor set at 3.0 to see how it went with the 2 pass shave this morning. I thought it seemed much smoother than the 2.0 setting I often used. Weird enough, it's like there's less resistance and the razor glides across my face easier. Granted, it can also cut much more readily too, but I'm careful knowing it's set higher. WTG pass was great. For my second pass I did my XTG/ATG pass with some clean-up and that was it. I wanted to do more clean-up, but inevitably that will lead to more clean-up because you are this close to BBS so I quit. DFS / DFS+ in all areas. I'm really happy with this 2 pass shave. No irritation and no sting at all from the witch hazel. This tells me I did things mostly right. I was probably 4 ATG strokes on my neck / face from being DFS+ / BBS- all over. But, I'm trying hard to keep this at a 2 pass shave. I was done so quick that I surprised my wife by being out of the bathroom with my breakfast fixed before she got in there. I think eventually my 3 pass shave will be down to 9 minutes and the 2 pass will be more like 4 or 5 minutes.

On the personal side of things, I saw my orthopedist last week and the x-rays show my hip is now bone on bone which explains why I've been unable to tough-guy it out lately. I've been using the cane I made quite a bit. Surgery is coming in March so I think I can stick it out for a couple more months without taking the meds. The fronts moving in make the biggest problems for it. When we have a nicehigh pressure lingering it feels livable, but lately we've been getting weather front after weather front. I have a high tolerance for pain so I don't always know when I've done damage until something doesn't work right. To me it's mind over matter. If I don't mind, it don't matter
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and the cane helps too.
 
Glad the Variant continues to perform for you! Bummer about the hip news, I guess you knew it was coming eventually. Glad you have a surgery date!
 
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