Yesterdays shave was so nice and easy. So quick and fun I thought I would post about it. Its not important how I shaved, the point of this post is to remind you guys that it can really be easy, simple and fun. We talk a lot about, everything.
I'm on a few gun and motorcycle forums and I note problems posted and I forget that we usually only talk about our problem issues. The casual observer probably thinks shaving with a straight is really hard and requires immense discipline to do it exactly correct. It took me a while to get here but thats another story. . .
So here, only for food for thought, is about the shave I did yesterday, which produced near BBS with little effort in under 15min.
First, I don't shower before a shave if I don't have to. I don't like to steam up the bathroom and I like keeping everything kinda dry when I shave with a straight, why I'm not sure. For me I like shaving with a straight in my pants, and that is to say without my towel on (so yea, commando might work), but I like it better. No need to deal with the towel settings and it all seems to work better.
What I do do though is to wait until I've cut the grass or worked out a little. Instead of soaking the beard down with so so temp shower water from the shower I prefer to sweat a little to bring out the oils in my skin and dampen down the whiskers, just like the hot towel treatments in the old barber shops used to do. So my prep is a little work out to sweat and then splash on some hot water.
I made two lathers yesterday. This is a habit I've picked up on. Its a silly little pampering I think, but I made the first lather with the smallest dab of cream I can get and I make a really hot, overly wet lather and almost slash it on with the brush. I have to put my face over the sink cuz it'll drip off a little at first.
Then, I grabbed my razor, which was in the closet because I hadn't shaved with this particular one in a while, which I already knew was a little dull and applied the wet lather to the hone (a barbers hone) while the wet lather soaked in a little more and kept my beard from drying any. I applied 10 laps to the barber hone and stropped, which was an ok draw but I applied 10 more and then got a better draw. I still wasn't satisfied so I slapped the razor down on the strop and built up a really nice draw in about 10 slapping laps until that bad boy was drawing really nicely then used a very light pressure for a few strokes. I build up the draw on the push off from the strop. Ahhh, the agony of pulling out a razor thats been in the closet for a month; what they don't like it in there? :-)
I should add here that I'm not advocating that you start slapping your razor down on the strop, simply that it might be alittle harder to screw up the edge if your technique is good than you might imagine.
Next, I made my second lather. Thick and well protective. I add a little more cream than I really need (ohhhhh yea, I'm worth it) and squeeze out almost all the water in the brush. And then I applied it in, in all its stiff protective power. Yeaaaa baby! Now I can shave with a straight without any cream, they are that smooth but . . .. why not add as much as I can get huh?
No particular eventful issues with yesterdays shave, but I did nick myself which is really rare, probably from the drying lather. I usually dip my four fingers of my left hand into the water and wet down the lather again as I shave if I make these over dry lathers to compensate but I didn't and got a little nick which didn't bleed even for the length of the shave, another benefit of an ultra smooth straight razor.
I did the right side, added a touch of water to the left before I shaved that side and then relathered again the goatee area before tackling that area. I stropped 5 quick laps with ultra light touch between each section, cuz I like to I quess. 2 quick strop wipes on a towel, 2 on linen and 4 on leather between right side, left side and then goatee area. Did I need any of this, probably not. I strop a little on my hand some days too. I like to clean the razor off of all the gunk and strop in three well defined sessions instead of when I started which was kinda hurky jerky, looking at the blade and thinking about whether it was time to clean it or what. If your new to straight shaving you might know what I'm talking about. I find that knowing the exact second I should clean, quick dry and re-strop makes the entire process faster.
I did have to take my time cleaning up my upper lip. I've found the lightest touch and using the base of the razor with a little higher angle did the job.
So then I cleaned up, a little splash of cool water and I was done, no alum/styptic needed and no aftershave needed either.
Unfortunately, the shave was close enough that I don't need to shave again today, but instead I can spend that 15 minutes posted here I guess.
So I hope you guys keep faith that its really, eventually, pretty easy and not as fragile a process as you might think and hang in there. :)
