Thread: First Shave Quit Lengthy (Sorry)!

Well my Ti Evide Sonnant Extra 5/8 arrived from Lynn this morning. Exactly one month from placing the order with Classic Shaving. (Quite acceptable given I live in the UK.)

My two strops, a practice strop and a 3" Artisan Latigo, had arived form Tony Miller earlier in the week, so this morning I was ready to take my first str8 shave.

I made my way hastely into the bathroom and bolted the door. This was just too important an endeavour to risk any interuptions from the wife or the cat!

I took a good hot and prolonged wash to soften my facial hairs and then proceeded to lather up using my C & E Sienna soap and Rooney Super Badger Brush.

I then flicked the blade open and wiped off the protective oil dressing. The blade felt substantial and sparkled like a new diamond in the sunlight. A smile crossed my face and I knew my initiation had at last arrived.

Starting with my right hand I took long and confident strokes down my right cheek. As I did so I could hear the whiskers yelling for mercy as the blade scythed them from my face. OMG it felt soo good.

I was then left with my left cheek. Should I stick with my right hand or bite the bullet and use my left. I bit the bullet and went with the left. I was amazed how easy this blade was to control even with my none domminant hand. Again the whiskers yelled for mercy as they met with their demise.

Next I moved onto my neck. Still going WTG I used the appropriate hand for the right and left sides. Again, things went pretty well so I decided to lather up once more and started a XTG pass.

When I had finished my cheeks and chin felt BBS. Unfortunately my neck only felt about as good as it would after a shave with my Braun.

I can see that this is going to take time to perfect, but all in all I am pretty darned happy with how this first shave went.

Injuries you ask? Well yes there was, I didn't get off scott free. I managed to pick up 3 tiny nicks when I tried to get a couple of rough areas smooth.

What scares me most now is damaging that sharp edge on my strop. I didn't realise stropping was quite as difficult to get right as it is, so I'm going real slow with it.