...and, per Lynn's 'Read First' sticky and countless other threads and articles, did the area below my side burn for the first time.

For being little more than a 60 second event it was very educational, exciting, and ironic...

Educational because the blade initially had MUCH more drag due to suction to the lather than I had expected. This lead me to the strong suspicion that I may not have been using enough water in my lathers (although it was my first time using a cut throat, I've been DE shaving for just over two weeks now).

Exciting because it did not feel nearly as uncomfortable or irritating as I expected. In fact, there was no discomfort whatsoever.

And ironic for two reasons:

  1. While finish the rest of my face with the DE I got a little careless and nicked my lip. Here I was worried about slicing with the straight and I actually end up with my first little slice from a DE instead...
  2. Even after WTG and a XTG passes on the opposite cheek with the DE, the straight cheek was still the closer shave


All in all it was great - so much so that I did the rest of my cheek as well. (Won't be adventuring beyond those two areas for a while though - sharp jaw line and course beard make my neck a difficult enough area with a DE. Definitely don't want to tackle it with a straight until I'm much more practiced.)

This is bad: I've been an every-other-day-shaver ever since I left the military eight years ago. Now I suddenly find my self wanting to shave daily. As much as I hate to give up the extra sleep time, I may soon find myself getting up earlier every day just to have time to wet shave.