Second Shave, First Blood.
After the success of my first straight razor shave last evening from the SRD provided Dovo BQ 6/8, I couldn't wait to have another go at it this morning. Last night the new Merkur 34c arrived, which is a really high quality safety razor -- I'm very impressed. I figured if anything felt unsafe or uncomfortable I'd just finish up with the Merkur. I laid everything out and went through the routine and started shaving with the Dovo. Now, being a one shave expert, I spent less time planning the attack and just stayed focused on blade angle coupled with smooth, short, gentle strokes and letting the razor do all the work. This time, I was done with two passes in probably less than 10 minutes and including prep time (which included putting a blade in the Merkur and admiring it, less than 30 minutes total.
Then it happened. After the second pass, I was wiping soap away and I saw a tiny spot of blood on my left cheek. Alas, my record for consecutive shaves without a nick didn't last very long. Looking for where the blood came from though didn't reveal the location of the gash. Once I washed off my face no more blood appeared. I rubbed the styptic pencil around in the vicinity, but didn't feel any stinging. I'm afraid the exact location of this injury will remain a mystery.
However, one thing that I have noticed is that, while the Taylor of Old Bond Street Sandalwood Shaving Cream smells great and lathers great, I do wish that it was a bit slicker. There were a few occasions where it felt like there was a bit of friction of blade and skin. Perhaps it's the lather drying, or my technique, but it was noticeable here and there. Luckily, I have more shaving creams on the way, including several sample pucks of Stirling, RazoRock XXX and Catie's Bubbles LVT, so I'll see if those are slicker. I can see early on that slick is the trick for comfortable SR shaving.
After If finished with the SR shave, I decided to give the Merkur a test drive, just to see how it felt. Unfortunately, I didn't learn much from the experience because it only occasionally made contact with a maverick whisker that had somehow escaped the SR. In fact, at first I didn't think I was holding it right, until eventually I heard the pop of a single whisker. Thus, that exercise turned out to be, for the most part, just a test of how well the Merkur removes lather from a whisker free face. I do congratulate it on easily removing those 4 or 5 rogue whiskers that it encountered in various nooks and crannies. It performed that task very well and I expect it will be a great backup/vacation/in a big hurry razor.
This time though, I see a little redness in my neck (which is, after all, an expected fashion in Georgia anyway.) I imagine that is because I just shaved last evening and then again this morning and my face isn't used to that much contact with a sharp object. I guess one way to look at it is that my neck is now very thoroughly exfoliated. It does not burn, however, and I don't feel any discomfort at all. In fact, right now my face is very, very, close to BBS and I smell so good that I may start speaking with an English accent. Seriously, this is the very best shave I've had in 50 years of shaving -- except for once, decades ago, when I had a barber do it, just to see what it was like. I'm impressed. Soon, we're going to have to talk about hones.
