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novicewetshaver's shave journal

A slightly rough shave today. i used stirlings hipster today with my gillette fatboy. i forgot to change it from setting 9 to setting 7 so i did three passes on setting 9 before realizing that it was set a bit to high for 3 passes. i had slight nick around the chin and neck area today unfortneatly, but skin did seem well hydrated. i think i may to start changing the blade out at 3 uses tho, at about the 3rd shave with the blade it seems to get rough and hard to cut the hair around the chin area. my head shaves never seem to give me a problem, its only the chin area. i may take a break from shaving tomrrow let the face heal up some.

todays gear
gillette fatboy setting 9 (oops)
wizemet blade 3rd shave
stirlings hipster 1/2 teaspoon of product to 4 tsp of water
thayers witch hazel lavender flavor
stirlings hipster aftershave and aftershave balm
captains choice shaving bowl.
 
It does get better! It literally took me a few years to get my technique down well enough to be able to stretch blades past 7 shaves. Now I can usually get 30 shaves with just about any blade, and much longer with some. For now, just take it one shave at a time!
 
for today's shave i went with declaration grooming's Darkfall. its been pretty cold and rainy around here lately so i wanted a warmer scent. i started out with 1/2 tsp of product to about 4 tsp of water, the soap was a bit thin and it didnt seem like it made enough lather for my face and 2 pass head shave. maybe i'm thinking maybe i needed to go with 3 and 1/2 tsp of water and see how that faired, but it just didnt seem like there was enough lather there to complete my normal 3 shave pass and my 2 pass head shave. i used my PAA cube to boost the lather and ended up adding about 3 tsp extra of water between going from my face to my head. by the time i got done with my face shave there wasnt much good lather left for my head shave so i used the cube on my head as well. i tried using the old wizemet blade but i think im only gonna get 3 good shaves out of those for know, i switched to a persona lab blue for the last pass but it just didnt feel like it was cutting the stubble, maybe i didnt have the razor on the right aggression for that particular blade, i switched out from that one to a feather blade and that seemed to do the trick. all and all a decent if not slightly rough shave for today.

Todays gear
gillette fatboy 7 and 9
wizemet, persona lab blue blade, and a feather
dg darkfall
paa cube
captains choice shave bowl.
thayer's witch hazel rose flavor
DG darkfall aftershave balm
 
novicewetshaver said:
for today's shave i went with declaration grooming's Darkfall. its been pretty cold and rainy around here lately so i wanted a warmer scent. i started out with 1/2 tsp of product to about 4 tsp of water, the soap was a bit thin and it didnt seem like it made enough lather for my face and 2 pass head shave. maybe i'm thinking maybe i needed to go with 3 and 1/2 tsp of water and see how that faired, but it just didnt seem like there was enough lather there to complete my normal 3 shave pass and my 2 pass head shave. i used my PAA cube to boost the lather and ended up adding about 3 tsp extra of water between going from my face to my head. by the time i got done with my face shave there wasnt much good lather left for my head shave so i used the cube on my head as well. i tried using the old wizemet blade but i think im only gonna get 3 good shaves out of those for know, i switched to a persona lab blue for the last pass but it just didnt feel like it was cutting the stubble, maybe i didnt have the razor on the right aggression for that particular blade, i switched out from that one to a feather blade and that seemed to do the trick. all and all a decent if not slightly rough shave for today.

Todays gear
gillette fatboy 7 and 9
wizemet, persona lab blue blade, and a feather
dg darkfall
paa cube
captains choice shave bowl.
thayer's witch hazel rose flavor
DG darkfall aftershave balm
Click to expand...
Great shave! Sounds like a winner for scents on a cold day.

This is just a thought - have you tried different angles for the razor head against your face? The angle of a fatboy should be about 30-35 degrees. The reason Insay this is that the blades you mention using should be giving you much more durability - unless you have very wire-like whiskers.
 
Scuttlesoap said:
Great shave! Sounds like a winner for scents on a cold day.

This is just a thought - have you tried different angles for the razor head against your face? The angle of a fatboy should be about 30-35 degrees. The reason Insay this is that the blades you mention using should be giving you much more durability - unless you have very wire-like whiskers.
Click to expand...
no i havent tried any diff angles. try to stay at about 30 degrees as much as possible
 
first straight shave with seaforth spice.

i did my first straight shave today with seaforth spice, or i should i shaved my cheeks and about 1/2 of underneath my neck area. chin area and underneath the nose where a bit too hard. i dont think i hydrated the water good enough because the straight really didnt glide and it felt like the lather on my face was drying out too quickly. i also noticed it was hard to judge the angles while doing my side burns its a bit hard to see what im doing. i started out with 1/2 a tsp of product to about 3 tsp of water, i felt like i prbly should have went to about 4 or maybe even 4 and a half. i really enjoyed the scent of the soap and it felt pretty protective and slick against the 7 days of growth i had on my face, it just felt like it was drying out a bit too quickly. i procdedded to do another 2 passes with my gillette fatboy and a clean up pass. i didnt gett a bbs shave but i got a decent enough shave for today. post shave feel skin did feel hydrated with only a slight bit of tightness. the way i see barberdave start his straight shaves on a little of his videos where he starts with the opposite side of the face with the opposite hand seems like that would be easier, but i think he said somewhere that was an advanced technique. Seeing as how i only did a partial shave with the straight razor do i need to strop in tomorrw or can i just got into a nother straight shave without stropping?
 
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Awesome on trying the straights! Be patient - it will take some time - but great job! I think most straight razor shavers will tell you that you want your lather to be a little more hydrated with straight shaves than with DEs.
 
Sometimes posting a picture of the lather on your can help with advice. Too much water can make it thin and cause the same issues too.
 
novicewetshaver said:
Seeing as how i only did a partial shave with the straight razor do i need to strop in tomorrw or can i just got into a nother straight shave without stropping?
Click to expand...
Short answer…always strop, even if you only used the SR for a partial pass. The more practice you get in stropping anyway, the better your edges will keep over time (though they will have to be touched up still eventually).

For open blade shaves, lather should be more slick than anything else. Your lather game really needs to be on point…or the SR may do some damage, irritation being the very least of that. Once I figured out how to make a proper open blade lather, I pretty much never went back to the way I used to make my thick DE/SE lather. The slicker the better!
 
I'm not a straight shaver, just shavettes. I do know most guys strop before and after each shave. And sometimes in the middle. As far as I know, keeping it sharp will delay the need to hone the edge.

Every soap is a little different and takes different amounts of water. I would suggest using a bit more product. It's cheap and you don't want to battle with too little. The best would be to use the same soap for some time as you tweak it and learn from each shave.
 
GearNoir said:
Short answer…always strop, even if you only used the SR for a partial pass. The more practice you get in stropping anyway, the better your edges will keep over time (though they will have to be touched up still eventually).

For open blade shaves, lather should be more slick than anything else. Your lather game really needs to be on point…or the SR may do some damage, irritation being the very least of that. Once I figured out how to make a proper open blade lather, I pretty much never went back to the way I used to make my thick DE/SE lather. The slicker the better!
Click to expand...

All of this + ALWAYS STROP AFTER THE SHAVE!1642119486155.gif
 
Congrats on your first try. It takes time and practice. As said, slicker lather is needed. Take your lather right to the point where is almost too much water then work it and work it. Or add a touch more soap. Always strop but slowly as that will hurt an edge if not done right.
One tip i can tell ya about is to look at the scales of the razor. You can judge the angle that way when you cant see the blade. (y)
 
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