A week of shaves

Good morning all. I've just finished a week of shaving with a straight razor, and today's shave was the first I would call close to being close. I thought I'd share my initial perceptions as well as my technique for beard prep.

I initially became interested in straight shaving as a means to slow down. I've always just ground down my beard as fast as possible with an electric, which is functional, but not very enjoyable. While I'm not yet seeing results typical of my electric, I am having a lot more fun. I started out just shaving the flat parts and now am up to shaving the full face in two passes, one with and one across the grain. I'm still leaving just a bit of stubble on the chin and under the jowls.

I found the biggest hurdle for me so far has been learning not to be afraid of the razor. (Mindful, but not afraid.) My first shave was with very tentative, choppy strokes. I now have much better control of the razor, though it still pulls a bit. It has been honed by yours truly, and after reading on here the importance of proper honing, I've decided to get one of Tony's shave-readys. (So, hurry up Tony. ;-) )

I shower in the morning before work, but shave in the evenings so that I can see straight and learn without chopping off my head, so beard prep is a little more difficult. Initially, I just soaked a towel in the hot tap and then held it to my face, followed by a bit of splashing with hot water. I have a stiff beard (don't we all) and found this didn't really work too well for me. I had read (can't remember if it was here or not) that the face will stand much hotter water than the hands. So I rigged up a better way. I stole my wife's electric water heater that she uses for tea. I suppose a kettle would work as well, but I don't shave in the kitchen. I boil up some water and pour the boiling water over a towel in the sink. I have a second, dry towel laid flat on the counter. I pick up the hot towel with tongs, hold it long enough to drain the excess water and allow it to cool a bit, then lay it down on top of the dry towel. Now I can pick it up with my hands by touching only the towel on the bottom. I lay down and put both towels on my face. I find the water in the sink stays hot enough that I can do this routine twice and I still have to cool the water down to be able to touch it with my hands when I start shaving.

Thanks for the great site Lynn. Thanks to everyone for the great advice.

Now that's ingenuity. I wonder if there is a point where the water is too hot for the health of your face. You say it's helping you get better shaves?

The other thing you can do is lather then repeat the process. The lather removes oils from the hair which alows the next hot towel to soften and permeate your beard even better. For pure luxury lather again and give yourself a third hot towel. mmmmmmmm

X

I find that using normally hot water and just washing my face first does wonders. Then I lather up, then strop, then refresh the lather and shave. I find that just washing my face is about as effective as putting on hair conditioner. If I wash my face first then hair conditioner doesn't seem to do much good, but if I don't wash my face then the hair conditioner does wonders.