What's new
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

Scott's Singing and Shaving Journal

pipingtenor2570

pipingtenor2570

Shave Member
I had a real breakthrough in my straight razor shaving journey tonight. If you have watched any of Barber Dave's most recent videos, you'll already know I have been struggling mightily with getting a BBS on my neck. I thought I had tried everything, and Barber Dave's tips and tricks have made things much better, but I was still getting raw and red and not at all smooth when feeling against the grain. Tonight I decided to try something totally out of my box. I washed my face and used a hot towel, as normal. I then took a handful of hyaluronic acid and vegetable glycerin mixed with a bit of warm water and massaged my beard stubble vigorously, also as normal. I then lathered up with CBL shaving soap over my entire shaving area, but I only shaved my face and left my neck alone. I rinsed with warm water and soapy bloom water in between passes. After 4 passes and rinses, my face was slick as a baby's rear and my beard hair was no longer prickly and stiff and awful. Passes 5-7 were just my neck area, and it was an incredibly pleasant experience. No redness, no bleeding, no raw feeling, and DFS was the reward. Apparently my neck hair is just difficult to hydrate and requires quite a long routine to be properly prepped for straight razor shaving.

Staight Razor 08.png
 
I can't speak to the idea that your beard was better hydrated, thus leading to a better result (that's a barber dave thing) but I would agree your skin was better prepared for the beating and that probably helped it tolerate the shaving. I think we all tend to underestimate how important it is to prepapre our skin for what is about to happen. This doesn't mean things like stretching, proper blade angl and presure aren't majorly important, I just think the more healthy and prepared our skin is the greater the potential for an exquisit experience.

Congrats on the stellar shave!
 
CBLindsay said:
I can't speak to the idea that your beard was better hydrated, thus leading to a better result (that's a barber dave thing) but I would agree your skin was better prepared for the beating and that probably helped it tolerate the shaving. I think we all tend to underestimate how important it is to prepapre our skin for what is about to happen. This doesn't mean things like stretching, proper blade angl and presure aren't majorly important, I just think the more healthy and prepared our skin is the greater the potential for an exquisit experience.

Congrats on the stellar shave!
Click to expand...
Chris, I totally agree. I think I vastly underestimated the value and difference of considerate and careful skin prep before putting razor to skin. I will now be far more thorough in preparation and less obsessed with the shave itself. I should have taken a lesson from my woodworking or photography studios. Prepping for a shot in studio takes significantly longer than actually focusing my lens and depressing the shutter button. It's all the work on background, atmosphere, strobe placement and modifier choices, hair, makeup, wardrobe styling, etc. that makes lens focusing and shutter clicking worth doing.
 
Spider said:
Sounds like 3 passes to me, with one additional on the face. ;)😜:ROFLMAO:

Glad you got it sorted out. Your face must have felt amazing the whole day with that prep!
Like Sam, I gave up on chasing the shave, I do two passes and I'm out.
Click to expand...
You bet! My skin tends to get a little dry, so the extra prep definitely did me a favor. I know there will be days when I will follow you in a 2 pass and done routine, KJ.
 
I don't chase BBS but with a typical 3 pass shave I usually end up pretty close to 100% BBS, add in a little spot clean up and BBS is totally a thing. My issue tends to be that a "better" shave will feel amazinginly close and stay that way well into the day/evening, while an "average" or less shave might feel BBS but my lunch time I can feel spots that were faking it...so maybe I don't achieve BBS as often as I think.

I do think there is value in strivinf for an occasionally achieving that amazing BBS result. The sense of accomplishment is worth it and that amazing feeling you have as you drive off to work is pretty awesome.

...and if you keep your eyes open you might run accross a WWSD braclet. My wife, daughter and I all have them (mine glows). Funny thing is, my wife has met @Spider so she has some additional context but my daughter only knows spider via th odd video (she has seen more of his Christmas gift opening vids than his shaving vids) and comments I make about him.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top