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Steve's Journal: The Saga Continues....

Great things happening for you! We'll allow wet shaving to take credit for giving you the appropriate mojo! LOL
 
Great shave. Keep working on your neck. You will get it eventually.

Congrats on your first sale.
 
Thanks everyone!!!

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Majorrich said:
Great things happening for you! We'll allow wet shaving to take credit for giving you the appropriate mojo! LOL
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I'll take all the mojo I can get!

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clyde72 said:
Usually this is cause by too much pressure and/or too steep of an angle. If the rest of the shave was good one of these is what I'm betting on.
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I think you're probably right on with this. Most likely the angle. I've been pretty good about paying close attention to not applying pressure.
 
Catching up. With two days of growth I think we all feel the same thing, but I wonder if it's just the smoothness being a bigger contrast with two days of growth vs one and being perceived as closer. I can get BBS either way, it does feel more satisfying with a longer growth though.
 
I have always felt that saving a two day beard left me closer with more longevity with the straight razor. I have less experience with the DE on subsequent days as I jumped into the straights soon after getting back into wet shaving.
 
Journal Entry # 10

Still on the same setup...with one exception. I took the alum out of the equation tonight. I've heard a few other people say that the alum has actually made their irritation worse, and when they cut it out they had noticeably better shaves.

I had what seemed like less irritation on my neck tonight. But that could be due to me paying more attention, and not the absence of alum. I'll keep the same setup the rest of the week and see how it goes by Friday.

Otherwise I walked away with a DFS so I'm happy. Also got a very generous PIF from @dkeester today. An almost unused bottle of WSP Gaelic Tweed Edp. Really can't wait to use this stuff. As I said in my post in the aquisitions thread, it smells very much like Sharp Dressed Man to me,which I hope the soap will too once bloomed. All I can smell in the soap is something like a clean linen smell but this is definitely closer to the Sharp Dressed Man scent, but more complex, for lack of a better word. Good stuff!
 
I am glad the bottle made it to you safely. I think I only used it 2-3 times. Something in it didn't agree with my skin. I hope that it works much better for you.
 
Good write up Steve. Gaelic Tweed is a pretty spot on interpretation of Green Irish Tweed by Creed, which is what inspired Stirling's SDM.
 
Good shave Steve!

Never heard of an alum block causing razor burn aka irritation to be worse. If I'm remembering correctly, everything that I read when I started wet shaving stated that preventing and lessening razor burn, is one of the reasons to use it. I guess maybe if you are sensitive to alum it could, but I would also think it would bother you all the time, not just when you have razor burn.
 
Yeah I don't think skipping the alum really made the difference. I think it was just better technique.

If I remember correctly, the person that had an issue with alum making things worse, was in fact allergic to it. Or at least they thought they were because it always caused issues for them.

But in my case, the alum has never helped prevent razor burn or lessened it as far as I know. I mainly use it to give the quality of my technique and to help seal any minor weepers.
 
Journal Entry #11

Back at it again tonight. Same setup. Same results. Still getting bad neck irritation but not much anywhere else.

Really starting to get frustrated again. Nothing seems to be working to get an irritation free shave on the neck area.

Taking at least a day off again.
 
The neck is an area that is difficult for me to get a close shave and not get irritation along with it. I really have to pay very close attention to angel, pressure, and be sure my lather hasn't dried out before I get there. Also not doing excessive buffing without reapplying lather. There is some wisdom in knowing when to say when and just settle for whatever shave I have be it DFS or BBS. I have a tendency to chase the BBS+ when I'm already DFS+ or better, which really is more than adequate.
 
clyde72 said:
The neck is an area that is difficult for me to get a close shave and not get irritation along with it. I really have to pay very close attention to angel, pressure, and be sure my lather hasn't dried out before I get there. Also not doing excessive buffing without reapplying lather. There is some wisdom in knowing when to say when and just settle for whatever shave I have be it DFS or BBS. I have a tendency to chase the BBS+ when I'm already DFS+ or better, which really is more than adequate.
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Not knowing when to say when is definitely a problem I suffer from haha!
 
Also, an update on the K Shave sample:

It has one more shave left in it. Maybe 2. That puts it at about 10 I think.

I'm not sure what people usually average on a 1oz. sample, but I'd say that's pretty good.
 
Keep working at it. Take it slow on the neck. I still get lots of neck irritation if I am not careful. In fact I get some neck irritation with every shave after two years. I am still thinking about how I can do things better in that area.

When I was recording my shaves and weighing the soap every night before bed, I was using around 2 grams of soap per shave. So, a 1 ounce sample should be around 14 shaves for me, give or take.
 
My humble suggestion would be to alter your angle a little bit and ride the cap. If that doesn’t do it, change everything. I say everything because you are frustrated and it may be jacking with your groove.
 
dkeester said:
Keep working at it. Take it slow on the neck. I still get lots of neck irritation if I am not careful. In fact I get some neck irritation with every shave after two years. I am still thinking about how I can do things better in that area.

When I was recording my shaves and weighing the soap every night before bed, I was using around 2 grams of soap per shave. So, a 1 ounce sample should be around 14 shaves for me, give or take.
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Yeah you're right Doug. I just need to slow it down and try to get it right. I just get frustrated sometimes haha.

I'm sure the K Shave sample would last at least 14 shaves, but I've been trying to get rid of it for the last 3 or so. I want to use the mug for another sample. So I've been over loading my brush on purpose!
 
MilkCrate said:
My humble suggestion would be to alter your angle a little bit and ride the cap. If that doesn’t do it, change everything. I say everything because you are frustrated and it may be jacking with your groove.
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I thought the same thing last night Tim. I'm going to switch it up and go back to riding the cap.

I just felt like I wasn't getting close enough that way. Better than all the irritation though.
 
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