Losing through laziness lesson for beginners

After 18 months of mostly successful SR shaving 5 days out of 7, I lost it yesterday, because of laziness. I have a relatively (4 shaves) freshly pro-honed razor and went through my usual pre shave stropping (20 linen/80 'Roo) and then face lathered, although quickly. In retrospect, that was my problem....didn't pre-wash or even wet down the face thoroughly, built a relatively weak, but seemingly decent lather on my face, cold water....and began the shave. The razor wouldn't move easily and was pulling. Refreshed (kind of) the lather and started again....same. Relathered that cheek and got a new, also verified sharp straight razor, stropped and tried again. Failure! Gave up and switched to a DE with a new blade...even that was uncomfortable, but I got by.

lesson...a good shave DEPENDS on good face prep and lather. Skipped today! Tomorrow is a new day.

Harold,
Your testimony is quite valuable. You lost nothing. You exemplified the positive judgement and experience to know when to STOP.

Glad you shared it here in this sub-forum. Good stuff to hear for beginners. Setbacks can happen at just about any level, right? Sure seems true for me.

Cheers,

Simon

Knowing when to stop is one of the most important lessons I think you can learn - regardless of what you are doing.

Sometimes I don't even know what feels wrong: blade, lather, prep, mood, dew point... If I've got my head screwed on right, I bail out and grab my most unaggressive DE (Gillette Tech). If not, I try to macho through, and enter a world of pain.

Good thread...

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Originally Posted by Haroldg48

After 18 months of mostly successful SR shaving 5 days out of 7, I lost it yesterday, because of laziness. I have a relatively (4 shaves) freshly pro-honed razor and went through my usual pre shave stropping (20 linen/80 'Roo) and then face lathered, although quickly. In retrospect, that was my problem....didn't pre-wash or even wet down the face thoroughly, built a relatively weak, but seemingly decent lather on my face, cold water....and began the shave. The razor wouldn't move easily and was pulling. Refreshed (kind of) the lather and started again....same. Relathered that cheek and got a new, also verified sharp straight razor, stropped and tried again. Failure! Gave up and switched to a DE with a new blade...even that was uncomfortable, but I got by.

lesson...a good shave DEPENDS on good face prep and lather. Skipped today! Tomorrow is a new day.

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Amen to that....been there done that..... No fun!
Glad you shared this..... Reminds me not to do it again....lol

As an encouraging update, today I Stropped the same razor after making a super lather with MWF, a touch of Proraso white cream, and a few drops of glycerin. I really worked it in a mug, instead of on my face, washed my face really soaking wet with Dove soap, rinsed well, lathered, rubbed it in with my fingers, covered it with a hot towel, Relathered after wetting down again, and did 3 passes WTG, XTG and clean-up scything and diagonal.

result: smooth, combo of BBS and DFS all over. Hallelujah!

This for me verifies that prep is a key component that can't be short-changed!

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Originally Posted by criswilson10

Knowing when to stop is one of the most important lessons I think you can learn - regardless of what you are doing.

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Nothing could be more true here in the world of straight razor shaving... Bingo!!!

Pete <:-}

I blow hot and cold,always wet shave,I have a mild case of parkinsons,when my hands are steady I will use a straight,when not a DE.

It is multiple skills set in a progression to get us as smooth as the day we showed up. I've had a couple of times that I thought, "I've got this nailed down, it wasn't that tough", then the next day happens. Sometimes I know, as I do it, that I have missed something, other times I don't have a clue why this shave is ........ lacking. AND this is learning DE shaving for the most part. It is even more critical when I'm using my SR.
I stopped the thought that this will be easy to master. The skills are slowly built on each other however as you gain experience other things come up and seem to change everything, (ie. lather and pre-prep, stropping, execution and then post). I was getting close to BBS daily face shaves but then I developed some nasty razor bumps at the corners of my mouth and had to grow my goatee back. A month later and they are still healing! I've finally given in to the fact that this is an ever changing game and that you can only get better at the game by playing. Some days I'm not destined to win, other days victory is mine.
Happy shaving,
G

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Ggoongreen

It is multiple skills set in a progression to get us as smooth as the day we showed up. I've had a couple of times that I thought, "I've got this nailed down, it wasn't that tough", then the next day happens. Sometimes I know, as I do it, that I have missed something, other times I don't have a clue why this shave is ........ lacking. AND this is learning DE shaving for the most part. It is even more critical when I'm using my SR.
I stopped the thought that this will be easy to master. The skills are slowly built on each other however as you gain experience other things come up and seem to change everything, (ie. lather and pre-prep, stropping, execution and then post). I was getting close to BBS daily face shaves but then I developed some nasty razor bumps at the corners of my mouth and had to grow my goatee back. A month later and they are still healing! I've finally given in to the fact that this is an ever changing game and that you can only get better at the game by playing. Some days I'm not destined to win, other days victory is mine.
Happy shaving,
G

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+1
I think it took me about 2 years of daily SR shaving before I started appreciating the differences in razors, soap and face prep.
But, as you try new approaches like Noxema, the ritual will remain fairly uniform. As your experience grows, you learn to appreciate the nuances in small changes to the routine.