Thread: Righty Tighty; Lefty Loosey

Shave #75 - Buffing for the Win

I'm on the road again, this time I'm in Kaohsiung for a wedding. But, since I stayed in the country I was able to bring one of my straight razors with me.

C&E West Indian Lime Shave Cream
TOBS Badger Brush
WISS 9/16" Ugly Duckling (15)
Alum
C&E West Indian Lime Balm

I showered in the hotel before the wedding. We got upgraded to a lovely suite, so I was enjoying all the very nice amenities. After the shower I lathered up for a shave with my WISS, which I had stropped on the pages of an open book that I was traveling with.

I did a slightly altered 3-pass shave. First pass N-S on the face and then using crazy facial gymnastics, strong stretching, and a touch of scything, I went from my left ear to my right ear (parallel to the ground) on my neck, giving me a WTG pass. Second pass was nose-to-ears on the face and N-S on the neck for a XTG pass. For the third pass, I tried something new. I watched a video someone else posted of a guy who used a light buffing stroke on his ATG pass. So I decided to try that. My third pass saw me buffing from the right ear to the left ear, and a bit upwards, on the neck, and from S-N on the face, for an ATG pass.

The results were nice. I'm BBS everywhere except for my mustache (where I opted to avoid the Fool's Pass) and a small patch to the right of my adam's apple. A BBS/DFS++ 3-pass shave is good for me. It usually takes me 4 passes and possibly some touch up to get here. So, I'm going to explore razor buffing on the ATG pass a bit more. Also, I did a better than normal job with the skin stretching this shave. The bathroom in this suite is luxuriously spacious, so I could really put some English on it this shave. Getting my elbows up and pulling the skin here and there while throwing my head this way and that. My shaving cubbyhole at home doesn't really have space for such gymnastics. I kinda wear the bathroom like a belt.

Shave #76 - Now That's Annoying!

Wrote a shave journal entry, and the website ate it, because "my token expired", whatever that means. So here is an abbreviated version of the post.

C&E West Indian Lime Shave Cream
TOBS Badger Brush
WISS 9/16" Ugly Duckling (16)
Alum
C&E West Indian Lime Balm

A quick 2-passer (N-S, S-N) before checking out of the hotel finds me BBS on the face and DFS on the neck. I did a light buffing stroke on the S-N pass. I can get my face BBS pretty easily now, the neck is still a bit of work.

Shave #76.3 - Post-American Hustle Shave

Went to see American Hustle, wanted a quick shave before bed

Castle Forbes Pre-Shave
T&H 1805 Shave Cream
TOBS Badger Brush
Edwin Jagger DE89L + Astra (Green) Platinum (1)
Alum
Gentlemen's Tonic AS Balm

Three passes and I'm basically DFS, except I missed a spot on my jawline, just in front of my right ear.

Shave #76.6 - Inside Llewelyn Davis

Finished work, jogged, showered and wanted to grab a quick shave before date night with the wife. We're going to see another movie, use the journal entry title to guess which one. Experience has taught me that straight razor shaving after a jog is bad practice. My incessant sweating sweeps away the lather or causes it to float on my sweat. So I went with the DE...

Castle Forbes Pre-Shave
T&H 1805 Shave Cream
TOBS Badger Brush
Edwin Jagger DE89L + Astra (Green) Platinum Blades (2)
Alum/Styptic
Gentlemen's Tonic AS Balm

Maybe I shouldn't just avoid straight razor shaving immediately after a work out. This was a pretty rough affair, my skin is still feeling a bit chewed up. I did 3 passes and I am DFS++/BBS, but I have a touch of burn, likely from my sweat making adequate lather maintenance impossible. Also, I gave my chin a fairly good ding on the upwards ATG pass.

Shave #76.7 - Drunken Shave

A quick shave between bars. Tomorrow's a holiday, so we're feeling celebratory. This is exactly why I keep the cartridge razor around.

Castle Forbes Pre-Shave Lotion
T&H 1805 Shave Cream
TOBS Badger Brush
Mach III
Alum
Gentlemen's Tonic AS Balm

Four drunken passes to a BBS shave.

Yeah man I had the same thing......it's simple practice makes perfect. I have been at it for about a month and am still getting used to it!

Shave #76.8 -

I have been so low energy for the last few days, being back to work, or the weather, not sure what the problem is. But, I'm not in the mood to do anything, including shave, if I owned one, I'd have used an electric razor.

T&H 1805 Shave Cream
TOBS Badger Brush
Mach III

Shave #77 - Now That Was an Unfortunate Shave!

Gave myself some vitamen D to try to combat this bout of Seasonal Affective Disorder. It seemed to help a bit and I felt with it enough to reach for a straight after work.

T&H 1805 Shave Cream
TOBS Badger Brush
J. A. Henkels 64 - 9/16" (13)/Edwin Jagger DE89L + Astra (Green) Platinum Blades (3)
Alum
Nivea AS Balm

Well, the Henkels is dull. I know this for certain because as I was shaving the mustache using the toe of the razor it wasn't cutting well. I thought possibly it was just technique, but then I had the bright idea to try the heel of the razor and it cut like a charm. This is not totally surprising, as I have had some problems stropping this razor with it's swayback and smiling edge. So, I may have rolled the edge, or simply not managed to maintain the edge through stropping. What to do? What to do? I did pick up a stone in Canada, but this really isn't the razor I was planning to begin my honing on. I might want to send it out, since I find it awkward to deal with that smiley blade - can't imagine trying to hone it.

In case you can't guess, the shave sucked. I had to pull out the DE to rescue me, but not before I gave myself a rather nasty amount of skin scrapes.

Shave #78 - Ugly Duckling or Beautiful Swan?

Well, just sprayed one of the hard felt pads that came with my modular paddle strop with the 0.5 micron diamond spray. I'm letting it dry, and tomorrow I'll give the J. A. Henkels a few laps on it to see if that helps. This seems to be the least invasive thing I can do, so we'll see if it helps. (It all depends on what I did to the edge). If it doesn't help, I still haven't decided if I want to try honing it myself or not. I might prefer to get some non-smiling blades under my belt first.

T&H 1805 Shave Cream
TOBS Badger Brush
WISS 9/16" Ugly Duckling (17)
Alum
Nivea AS Balm

First time I used the Ugly Duckling I wasn't so taken with it, but I'm coming to really like it. It's a workhorse that I can count on to deliver a good shave. And, it is so ugly that I can be a bit relaxed towards its maintenance. No new waterspots are going to show through its preexisting patina.

Anyway, the WISS gave me a nice 3-pass shave (WTG, XTG, buffing ATG). I'm BBS, with a DFS patch on the right side of my neck. After yesterday's rough shave, I'm wishing I'd skipped the buffing motion on my ATG pass. I'm feeling the burn a bit.

Shave #78.5 - Twice in One Day?

Well, I basically never do this, but I decided to shave again today. No, I didn't need it. But, it has been pouring out all day (again), and I'm stuck inside with not too much to do. So I decided to give my summer shave regimen a practice run. So, I splashed cold water on my face, soaked my face with a cold wet towel, and we were off...

Proraso (Green) Pre/Post Shave
Proraso (Green Tubed) Shave Cream
TOBS Badger Brush
Edwin Jagger DE89L + Astra (Green) Platinum Blades (4)
Thayers Extra Cool Witch Hazel
Osage Rub AS Splash
Proraso (Green) Pre/Post Shave
Baxter of California AS Balm

Mentholated was the theme of this shave. From the cold water to every product used, everything was cooling. My face is still very cool - I think these products will be much loved in the coming Taipei heat. But, today it was a bit too cold in the house to have done such a mentholated shave.

I did a full 4-pass shave. My first time doing more than 3 passes with the DE. I did it mostly because I was shaving for entertainment. Of course I'm BBS. Surprisingly, considering the amount I've shaved today, my skin feels pretty okay. I attribute that to the products I used which are really soothing.

I tossed the blade at the end of the shave. I'm sure it was about done. Next up - Feather. I'm excited.