The Shaving Cadre

Welcome to The Shaving Cadre, a forum dedicated to gentlemanly discourse about wet shaving and other topics of common interests. Membership is always free so register today and join in the fun

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

Dude, rub some lather on it. You'll be fine
1f609.png

Just nothing with menthol in it down in that area or it'd go something like this:
1f601.png
1f62c.png
1f610.png
1f626.png
1f61f.png
1f632.png
1f629.png
 
Woke up this morning with flu-like symptoms so I stayed home. After sleeping quite a while I got up and almost skipped shaving entirely but decided to give a shower shave a try with the Variant. Closing in quickly on shave #100!

Today's Shave: Shave #89

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

Feeling so miserable, I decided upon another 2 pass shave. I wasn't sure how it'd go in the shower, but after lathering up and being in the hot water I got a really close shave. I left the razor set at 3.0 and accomplished my two passes with ease. It felt a lot more comfortable than cold water shaving which has me rethinking and maybe going back to hot water shaves. You may not remember, but I switched to cold water shaving early on to combat redness and irritation. I'm not sure the cold water shaving really did much in that department. The shower shave today got me to DFS+ / BBS- everywhere and there was no hint at all of redness or irritation. Here's the kicker too, this was the 4th shave on this blade. I usually get only 3 shaves on a new blade so I should have experienced some problems but I did not. Feeling horrible, this great shave helped brighten my spirits a bit. Perhaps my 2 pass shaves will be in the shower from now on?
 
Don’t forget, it’s likely your technique has improved dramatically as well! Hope you get the rest you need today! Feel better!
 
Don’t forget, it’s likely your technique has improved dramatically as well! Hope you get the rest you need today! Feel better!

?This?

I did the same thing early on too. I was getting a ton of irritation (even up until recently) and I had switched to cold water for a bit. I didn't really notice a difference and switched back to hot water. Once I really started to pay attention to technique, things started improving drastically!
 
Don’t forget, it’s likely your technique has improved dramatically as well! Hope you get the rest you need today! Feel better!
1f446.png
This
1f446.png


I did the same thing early on too. I was getting a ton of irritation (even up until recently) and I had switched to cold water for a bit. I didn't really notice a difference and switched back to hot water. Once I really started to pay attention to technique, things started improving drastically!

Good points guys. I definitely believe this is a factor. I also think the shower environment is a moist as you can get and allows for constant prep conditions. It's not the Zen experience, but it works in a pinch.
 
Last night I was feeling pretty poor with chills galore, but during the night my fever broke and I'm feeling a little better. The rest and lots of water yesterday helped. With that said, I set the alarm for more sleep and decided another shower shave was in store.

Today's Shave: Shave #90

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: 10 minutes

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

Still feeling on the yuck side but better than yesterday I decided to experiment with a 3 pass shave in the shower. I prepped the lather before the shower and left it sitting outside the shower as Mystic Water soap is a little sensitive to heat and moisture I've found. I slipped a new blade in my Variant and left it set at 3.0. WTG pass was ultra smooth, almost like there was no blade in the razor at all. Technically I was about 3 1/2 hours early from being 24 hours between shaves. That's usually not good for me and causes issues, but it really didn't feel that way this morning. XTG & ATG passes were just as nice. The MW soap is not the best performer in the shower. I've witnessed this in the past. One big difference I noticed was that I can clean-up for as long as I want without irritation. I'm not sure if this is the hot water / moist environment or that my technique is better - probably all of the above. The results are super though. BBS everywhere with some BBS- areas on one cheek. Trouble areas around the adam's apple are a breeze in the shower as is the neck.

The only complaint I have is that it's hard to hear audio feedback from the razor with the shower going. I depend a lot on that in clean-up so I think the BBS- spots are attributable to me thinking they were good to go. The top lip is still giving me issues but I think I'm figuring it out. Somehow, shaving in the shower saves me 30 minutes of time in the morning. I think the rinsing is quicker as is everything else. Next I think I will try hot water shaving at the sink to see how it goes and if I like it.
 
This morning I woke feeling a bit worse than yesterday, but life goes on and it was a 2 pass shave day.

Today's Shave: Shave #91

Razor: Parker Variant - Graphite handle
Blade: Gillette Silver Blue
Brush: Maggard Razors Synthetic smaller brush knot
Soap: What The Puck Barbershop Blue
Bowl: Black Salsa Bowl (plastic) w/ textured rings inside
Pre Shave: Wash with soap in the shower
Total Razor on Face Time: 10 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 decided to stay away from the Mystic Water soap for shower shaves for now. I got a nice thick lather from RR WTP soap and was ready to roll. I kept the razor set at 3.0 and the WTG pass was very nice as was the second pass that was XTG/ATG. Clean-up I sacrificed some J-hooking for a few shaving strokes ATG on the cheeks. This got me DFS+ / BBS- everywhere. A great 2 pass shave. I think once I dial in the clean-up I'll be able to get a BBS / BBS- shave consistently. No complaints on this shave and I'm enjoying no irritation whatsoever.

So the question in my mind is how do I duplicate the conditions I'm getting with the shower shave and adapt them to sink shaving? Sure, the obvious is subbing hot water for the cold but other than that I don't see a way of getting the same shave outside of the shower.

A bit of a word on mammoth painting with the shower shave. Part of why mammoth painting works at the sink is the inability to completely rinse all the soap squeaky clean out of the chest hair. If you over-rinse, you'll not experience the all-day scent of your soap. With that said, you can't leave a ton of soap in there or you could have itching issues. So with the shower shave, there's always the temptation to jump back in the shower stream to rinse off the soap from the chest, don't do it. Just rinse like you would at the sink. I just sort of cup the water in my hands and splash it on the soap until it looks mostly gone. Then dry with a towel and mammoth painting is complete. Just when you thought you'd heard it all on the subject of mammoth painting
1f606.png
 
So some cpmes off and some stays on. Mammoth painting is similar to some faux painting then.

Well, when I rinse I can feel some residual soap but I can't really see any if that makes sense. Kinda like when you rinse the soap off your face. If you really do a good job your face is squeaky clean, but just a splash and some of the soap goodness is still there. Gotta try it if you haven't
1f601.png
I wouldn't be trumpeting about it if it didn't work (sorry I couldn't resist
1f606.png
&nbsp?
 
Woke up this morning feeling much worse so off to the walk-in I went. Here we are getting a big snow storm and my area is getting 18-24 inches so wanted to get right to the clinic before it filled up with people trying to beat the storm. I attempted a good shave this morning.

Today's Shave: Shave #92

Razor: Parker Variant - Graphite handle
Blade: Gillette Silver Blue
Brush: Maggard Razors Synthetic smaller brush knot
Soap: What The Puck Barbershop Blue
Bowl: Black Salsa Bowl (plastic) w/ textured rings inside
Pre Shave: Wash with soap in the shower
Total Razor on Face Time: 10 minutes

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

I put together a great lather and shower shaved again. This will be almost a solid week of shower shaves. At first I was loving it, but today my face just felt sore. Perhaps I'll be returning back to cold shaving and save the shower shave as something I do in a pinch. I really think today I just wasn't paying attention to pressure and I was hurrying through the shave. 3 pass shave today. BBS on the face and most parts of the neck DFS+ on the rest. I had a lot of redness glowing after the PR AS was applied....yikes. There wasn't much of a sting when I applied the witch hazel so I thought I was green lighted to jump on the PR. Nope, big mistake causing tons of redness that wasn't there before application. It was the last use of this blade, but I really don't know what happened this morning - probably a combination of all the things I mentioned.

I hope all my northeastern TSC brethren in the path of the snow stay safe and I hope their power stays on when the wind chills are reaching in the -30's.
 
^^^ This guy owns stock in the mammoth painting business ^^^

I think I'm the only one, but I suspect I have a few silent investors out there who've tried it and like it
1f61d.png
but are afraid to come out of the cave and admit it.

I'm glad we can all have fun with it. A TSC member will be talking with a nonmember and casually mention mammoth painting some day and get the strangest look back
1f606.png
 
All that mammoth painting they may have just left him in the waiting area as a room freshener
1f61d.png

1f602.png
Could be! If waiting rooms don’t have the “sterilized” smell, all I imagine when waiting is that I’m just breathing in a thick fog of illnesses.
1f637.png
 
Back
Top