The Low-Down on the First Go-Around
Ok all, I'll post my first experience with the straight and how things did/did not go.
CarrieM was nice enough to lend me a 6/8 Torrey Round Point to experiment with. Much thanks to her because without her, I wouldn't be able to be making this post right now.
Did the usual pre-shave face soak in hot water and lathered up with some awesome lavender soap, again compliments of Carrie :). Got the face nice & hot and my first impression was that I was actually a bit nervous about bringing the blade to my face. I didn't strop because the blade had been pre-stropped. In retrospect, I think I should have stropped, but it's okay.
I didn't think I would be until I put the blade in my non-dominant hand (left) and realized "wow, you have surgical control over how this blade hits your face.". So anyway, up to the underside of my side burn and angled the blade to what I could perceive to be 30 degrees. Pulled softly down and got a slight bit of resistance/tugging, but I was warned that some resistance is to be expected. I felt pretty comfortable after the first pass on both sides of the face under the side burns, so I decided to move on to my cheeks. Again, being very careful over blade angle. My first pass down on my cheek did not "glide" like I expected, so I experimented with the angle. The higher I went up on the angle, the more the "tug" seemed to become more prevalent. The lower on the angle I went, the less "resistance" or tug I felt and the more the razor seemed to glide. I was actually comfortable enough to go down my neck, all the time experimenting with angle to see if I could find the right angle.
I never found the angle with the "perfect" feel to it.
A couple of times I feel some discomfort, but minor and I was quick to change the angle. I stopped at my cheeks and down my neck and washed off my face to feel my results. It wasn't very close as I had expected it would be, but I'm sure the blade angle was a major contributor. I went back over the area with the Vision DE and got the BBS shave. Do I need to increase the angle or decrease the angle? I don't want to decrease it too much in fear of just skipping over the hair, but maybe my angle was too steep.
The one super positive about this was that I did not get even the slightest nick - no blood given today! No irritation either, which was surprising.
Ok, on the experience part of it: fun fun fun. I think this is the start of something super fun and when I finally DO get it, it's going to be quite the relaxing experience. Based on how the experience felt, I'm pretty nervous about the chin area because I feel like I'll have to put some pressure on the blade to make it glide through the hair on the chin. Oh! And I can see the absolutely necessity of skin stretching. That's going to be paramount to getting the close shave. Getting used to using my non-dominant hand to shave with is also going to take some time.
Tomorrow, I'll strop up very well before hand and see if that makes any difference - which I'm sure it will. :)
Thanks for all the advice in advance
