Thread: Post Shave #1

At first All I can say is Wow! How can something feel so foreign yet sort of familiar at the same time.

I suppose for me, my biggest hurdles seem to be all occurring during the shave phase at least 4 of them anyway that I can say I observed in hindsight. Finding the right position in my wrist before I took a stroke was probably the one that stood out the most followed by a close second with the use of my offhand on my weak side. Next, remembering to consciously check/correct my blade angle paired with remembering to always stretch especially on the awkward spots would have to be the ties for honorable mentions. In the end this resulted in having 1 cut, 4 nicks and some weepers right around the dimple on my chin. As for the quality of the shave, I would have to say that it feels overall about the equivalent to a shave with my Gillette fusion cartridge razor +6 hours post shave. I do have one area on my weakside and another right under my jaw line that's really bad, like I should probably shave it again in the morning with my cartridge gently while the rest heals. I also have two really good BBS areas, right in the vicinity (both sides) where one would typically have chops probably as a result of that being what felt like the most comfortable wrist position/easiest area to shave. One area that wasn't nearly as easy as I thought it would have been was my neck. I chalk that one up to I always in the past have shaved it against the grain and tonight was all attempted WTG.

As for my pre-shave/prep, I feel really very very pleased with. I took my time but it all just seem to flow and go by quickly. I also really appreciated all the finer aromas and quality feeling that came out of the products I used. I doubled up on trying to help get my wiskers all good and ready by taking a long hot shower plus making myself a hot steam towel wrap. In truth i think the steam towel felt like it did alot more and I could probably get away with just that if needed. Coming out of the shower my scruff was only slightly relaxed and still very coarse feeling when I rubbed it against the grain. After the steam shower it felt a little more like if I had used hair conditioner on it in the shower like bristles on a soft tooth brush as opposed to a Firm moments before. Side thought as I type this, the hair conditioner in the shower on the face doesn't sound like a half bad idea to try out :P. Getting back to the steam towel, I used 4 drops of spearmint essential oil on a hand towel sized piece of cloth, I thought that sure doesn't seam like much... Boy was I ever wrong that stuff goes a hella long way. I probably could have easily got by with just 2 or probably even just one. As for my first Lather creation, I did have one little odd clump that would never dissolve I finally picked it up out of the mug with my fingers and smushed it. It was sort of stiff, I think it was where the container was filled and was slightly over spilled exposed to air making it not so fresh. Either way I still had a lot that made up and it went on nicely. I do need to find a shallower mug and possibly slightly smaller diameter it just didn't really whip around like I would have liked it to in my wrist, I know I can do better than that behemoth coffee mug I'm using.

Getting back to the shave itself, I was using the Dovo Shavette with a red sleeve and the Merkur blade that came with it. Probably more to do with my wrist position than anything I suspect but I did not like the fact that the whole edge was not a blade. Trying to pickup on where the real edge started and stopped seemed to be another minor issue for me. Needless to say I found myself taking off more cream with a plastic edge than I had hope would have happened. Still though all in all a positive experience. I probably spent about a total of 40mins on everything, and probably about 15min if that was showering time.

I think before I try my second shave I will practice with just the empty sleeve on my dry face different angles in the mirror. That way I can explore a bit more as well as possibly visually observe things a bit easier not to mention practice with the ole lefty and stretching . I'm open to other suggestions.

Oh yea almost forgot my wife gave it the ole look over afterwards. For context she was has not been on board with the whole thing from the get go :P. So after she ran her hand accross my face (specifically the area where it is BBS) she was ohh that is wierd its like smoother than plastic. And with that, I'll talk to you ladies and gents later

Sounds like a good first start. It all gets better from here for a few weeks. And then you will build up too much confidence and whack yourself good. But it gets better again after that.

I know about that spearmint thing. The first time I did it I put way to much on the towel and my eyes started watering. Next time I get a cold, I'll be doing overloading it again because that will definitely clear your head.

STP that's a good one :<0) I'll be grinning over that for awhile.

If you stick with it for a while the shaves get awesome and you will one day wonder how to shave with a DE.

Your wife will get on board when you get more shaves in

A quick note on your lather bowl. I have found that i get a better lather with a wider bowl. I feel like i kinda smash the lather if the vessel is to narrow. this is what i just picked up to try and i have tried it with TOBS creme and 2 different hard soaps and have made my best lathers to date with them all http://straightrazorpalace.com/misce...ther-bowl.html . It is a lot wider that what i was using before. YMMV

Good start! Things will only get better from here. I too find that a wider lather bowl works best for me.

So, I thought I would follow-up with a few photos I took this morning after last nights shave for reference. Sorry in advance about the image quality, my phones front camera sucks for selfies :P



As you can see (well maybe with these horrible pics) the nicks and cuts aren't all that bad for the most part more like scratches instead of cuts.

I also wanted to post a pic of my starter setup including my mug that I used since several of you chimed in on that aspect. This is all my gear minus my Thayer Witch Hazel and empty prescription bottle for blade disposals I forgot to include in the shot.

Good start. By the way, great idea on the empty pill bottle for used blades. I hadn't thought of that!

Originally Posted by Haroldg48

By the way, great idea on the empty pill bottle for used blades. I hadn't thought of that!

I gotta give the credit to the members of SRP on that one. I did a search on blade disposal and there were several threads on it. All sorts of ideas from a emptied condensed milk can to a kids porcelain piggy bank. I had some expired meds from last year so voila, free disposal container.

Originally Posted by 10Pups

STP that's a good one :<0) I'll be grinning over that for awhile.

Sorry you lost me, what is STP?