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An Unexpected Journey: A Newbie's Walk In Wet Shaving
- Thread starter Blade-meister
- Start date
Dave, I made the knife. I'm a flintknapper. When I made my last batch of knives for a show I fell in love with this one so it stayed with me. Us crazy flintknappers take flint and make sharp things out of them from arrowheads to knives and spears.
Chad - yes someday I'll join as a hobbyist for sure. I like that you provide a place for that.
Anxiously waiting!
nice read
To keep things simple and see if all my breakthroughs yesterday were legit, I did the same shave as yesterday with a few minor tweaks.
Today's Shave:
Razor: Gillette Super Speed (1956) DE
Blade: Gillette SB
Brush: Maggard Razors Synthetic
Soap: Mystic Water Sandalwood Coconut
Bowl: Walmart Salsa Bowl (plastic)
Pre Shave: Shower / wash with soap
Post Shave: Hot water rinse in the shower, cold water rinse, Witch Hazel (Walmart Brand), Cold rinse, leave face wet to dry on it's own, Nivea AS balm on face only.
Last night I was thinking about my shave plan for this morning and decided that my face has never had any redness or irritation issues so why not try a 3rd pass ATG? So today I did my WTG and XTG passes followed by an ATG pass on the face only. It felt nice. I also did a very light ATG pass along the bottom edge of my beard along the collar line of my neck. I wear collared shirts to work so the constant scratching of that area was getting a little annoying. DFS+ on the face and CCS on the neck. It was probably only DFS+ because I was very cautious. Some redness still remains in the neck areas I'm having issues with, but I do think it is lessening each day. I'd say the redness is no more or no less than when I use a cart. I expect it to get better until the redness is gone completely. Once the redness is gone on a consistent basis, I'll try ATG with the neck.
I am still getting phenomenal lathers with the synthetic brush. Painting has given me the thick lathers I've been chasing since day one. I think this is a significant thing that can be under analyzed as a newbie. As I thought back through my saving experience since day one, the fading lathers always made me have to hurry with my shaving passes. When you are in a hurry, you pay less attention to applying no pressure and blade angle. With a good and perfect lather painted nicely, I can take my time knowing that all that good lather is not going anywhere. A poor lather just trickles down into the rest of your shave. The only thing that's slightly a con with my synthetic is that it takes longer for the lather to explode in my lathering bowl. Once it does, I'm there.
The thing that most strikes me about this shave and yesterday's shave is that I walk away saying to myself just how great the shave felt. Even right now it just feels good. Another newbie observation is that when my beard does grow it seems like a softer feel than when the cart is used. Because I switched razors and improved my XTG pass, I can't say which factor has made the biggest difference or if it is a combination of both.
What I Changed: Added a 3rd ATG pass on the face only.
Today's Shave:
Razor: Gillette Super Speed (1956) DE
Blade: Gillette SB
Brush: Maggard Razors Synthetic
Soap: Mystic Water Sandalwood Coconut
Bowl: Walmart Salsa Bowl (plastic)
Pre Shave: Shower / wash with soap
Post Shave: Hot water rinse in the shower, cold water rinse, Witch Hazel (Walmart Brand), Cold rinse, leave face wet to dry on it's own, Nivea AS balm on face only.
Last night I was thinking about my shave plan for this morning and decided that my face has never had any redness or irritation issues so why not try a 3rd pass ATG? So today I did my WTG and XTG passes followed by an ATG pass on the face only. It felt nice. I also did a very light ATG pass along the bottom edge of my beard along the collar line of my neck. I wear collared shirts to work so the constant scratching of that area was getting a little annoying. DFS+ on the face and CCS on the neck. It was probably only DFS+ because I was very cautious. Some redness still remains in the neck areas I'm having issues with, but I do think it is lessening each day. I'd say the redness is no more or no less than when I use a cart. I expect it to get better until the redness is gone completely. Once the redness is gone on a consistent basis, I'll try ATG with the neck.
I am still getting phenomenal lathers with the synthetic brush. Painting has given me the thick lathers I've been chasing since day one. I think this is a significant thing that can be under analyzed as a newbie. As I thought back through my saving experience since day one, the fading lathers always made me have to hurry with my shaving passes. When you are in a hurry, you pay less attention to applying no pressure and blade angle. With a good and perfect lather painted nicely, I can take my time knowing that all that good lather is not going anywhere. A poor lather just trickles down into the rest of your shave. The only thing that's slightly a con with my synthetic is that it takes longer for the lather to explode in my lathering bowl. Once it does, I'm there.
The thing that most strikes me about this shave and yesterday's shave is that I walk away saying to myself just how great the shave felt. Even right now it just feels good. Another newbie observation is that when my beard does grow it seems like a softer feel than when the cart is used. Because I switched razors and improved my XTG pass, I can't say which factor has made the biggest difference or if it is a combination of both.
What I Changed: Added a 3rd ATG pass on the face only.
I just have to get my quality postings up so I meet the qualifications and then I'll be ready to pay and join the hobbyist group.
I agree on all accounts Chris. My hunch is that the razor is 50% of the reason I'm feeling good after my shaves. I'm thinking it's a step up from the Micro Touch. As I was shaving today I thought about how many guys have gotten good shaves with the SS I'm using. That got me to thinking about the era it was being used in and how much tougher the times were. Makes you wonder if the user was in the Army or was he working on the docks or some factory or maybe even a guy in business for himself. I'll never know, but sometimes thinking about it has value as I'm just the latest caretaker of the SS after Dave from KY passed it on to me.
Very cool! Funny thing about all this, the only one that really care about all the little nuances of a shave is yourself.
Question, are you using the alcohol free Nivea balm? If not, that would be a change that might help the irritation a touch too.
Dave, I only use the Nivea on my face, but I looked tonight and it is alcohol free and for sensitive skin. One of the things that irritates my neck to no end is having scratchy beard growth as the day goes on. It's not too bad in the morning, but by the afternoon its pretty sandpaper scratchy. I'm not used to that, but I think my face is getting used to the DE shaving and soon I'll be adding a 3rd pass to the shaving routine and then eventually some clean-up that will get me where I want to be.
Still a great shave today and my face felt great all day.
Excellent gear. ?
Good progression so far, keep it up
I took the weekend off from the journal but am ready to go for the week. Today's shave felt excellent. It was a 2 1/2 pass shave with a tiny bit of blade buffing and more clean-up on the face.
Today's Shave:
Razor: Gillette Super Speed (1956) DE
Blade: Gillette SB
Brush: Maggard Razors Synthetic
Soap: Mystic Waters Sandlewood Coconut
Bowl: Walmart Salsa Bowl (plastic)
Pre Shave: Shower / wash with soap
Post Shave: Hot water rinse in the shower, cold water rinse, Witch Hazel (Walmart Brand), Cold rinse, leave face wet to dry on it's own, Nivea AS balm on face only.
Today I did my usual WTG, XTG, and ATG on the face only (half pass). Something I did differently was to put less water on my face and neck during my rinses in between passes. I'd splash and then lightly rub the outer remnants of the shaving soap into the face and neck before I put the brush to my face again. This worked well and the synthetic brush painted and performed very well still but in less time. Spider would be proud of the fact that while painting I sent a piece of soap lather halfway across the bathroom
I spent more time doing clean-up on my face around my mouth and nose. I used to occasionally reach for a cart to do that, but have been forcing myself to use the DE. I did blade buffing around the jaw line and Adam's Apple areas with success. The only redness I'm encountering now is at the corner of my jaw / neck. I suspect I need to look at my growth there and see if I'm accidentally going ATG there. I can see that a good portion of wet shaving is knowing your face. I think once I fully understand the direction of my beard growth that I'll be on my way to better shaves (Duh right!) Overall, BBS on the face, with DFS- on most of the neck. The total shave time for me these days is about 20 minutes.
One observation I made this morning is that I need to pay attention to my blade angle when transitioning between my face and my jaw. When I round the jaw line I have the tendency to ride the guard which is too steep of an angle. This could very well be why the corner of my jaw/neck area is a redness problem area. To correct this I'm adjusting the angle back toward the cap as I head south of the jaw line. I'm noticing that riding the guard feels much different and even sounds much different than when I'm at the 30 degree sweet spot.
One thing I'm tempted.....very tempted to do is reach for the cart for an ATG pass to get that BBS on the neck. It's only a reach away
The only thing that stops me is my need to get this right. The cart seems like a crutch that gets in the way of learning the proper techniques.
What I Changed: Less water on the face & neck in between passes. I felt perhaps I'm still too wet on the face and I think I was right. I didn't have to do as much painting and the slickness seemed still very good. Minor blade buffing on the jaw line and Adam's Apple. I spent more time cleaning-up on the face only.
Today's Shave:
Razor: Gillette Super Speed (1956) DE
Blade: Gillette SB
Brush: Maggard Razors Synthetic
Soap: Mystic Waters Sandlewood Coconut
Bowl: Walmart Salsa Bowl (plastic)
Pre Shave: Shower / wash with soap
Post Shave: Hot water rinse in the shower, cold water rinse, Witch Hazel (Walmart Brand), Cold rinse, leave face wet to dry on it's own, Nivea AS balm on face only.
Today I did my usual WTG, XTG, and ATG on the face only (half pass). Something I did differently was to put less water on my face and neck during my rinses in between passes. I'd splash and then lightly rub the outer remnants of the shaving soap into the face and neck before I put the brush to my face again. This worked well and the synthetic brush painted and performed very well still but in less time. Spider would be proud of the fact that while painting I sent a piece of soap lather halfway across the bathroom
One observation I made this morning is that I need to pay attention to my blade angle when transitioning between my face and my jaw. When I round the jaw line I have the tendency to ride the guard which is too steep of an angle. This could very well be why the corner of my jaw/neck area is a redness problem area. To correct this I'm adjusting the angle back toward the cap as I head south of the jaw line. I'm noticing that riding the guard feels much different and even sounds much different than when I'm at the 30 degree sweet spot.
One thing I'm tempted.....very tempted to do is reach for the cart for an ATG pass to get that BBS on the neck. It's only a reach away
What I Changed: Less water on the face & neck in between passes. I felt perhaps I'm still too wet on the face and I think I was right. I didn't have to do as much painting and the slickness seemed still very good. Minor blade buffing on the jaw line and Adam's Apple. I spent more time cleaning-up on the face only.
