Thread: Don’t be afraid to fly in the face of the consesus of accepted wisdom…

I feel that its been only in the last few weeks that I’ve come to truly love SR shaving. I get better results, with less irritation and more satisfaction than I ever did with cartridges or electrics. I feel that my current routine is perfect (for me) and I don’t see any reason for significant further changes.

Don’t get me wrong, reading and asking questions on this forum and the wiki were invaluable as I was starting out, I would never have gotten to where I am without this wealth of information. But I think that a lot of my frustration over the past year was that I really didn’t understand just how much your individual and unique beard, disposition and equipment can make “what works for you” so different from the consesus of accepted wisdom.

So anyway, I present for your amusement, comment and ridicule, all the ways that I differ from the norm:

1) a lot of emphasis has been put on heat during beard prep. Long hot showers, hot face rinse, steaming lather. I now wash my face quickly with soap and warm water, rinse it off with COLD water, and whip up some williams mug soap with lukewarm water. Works great for me.

2) learning to shave with two hands? I only hold the blade in my right hand. Works great.

3) Use only the “weight of the blade” when stropping? I am a fanatic about stretching the strop super tight, but I must put at least a pound of downward force on the blade when I strop. Haven’t rolled the edge yet

4) Shave WTG first? I do a single pass only, always against or across the grain.

I hope I don’t come across as trolling, I just wanted to throw this out there to hopefully let some newcomers to this hobby realize that they need to take everything they read with a large grain salt. You may be surprised at what ends up working good for *you*. Have fun, and god bless…

I agree with you. Charlie 'Yardbird' Parker, the great jazz saxophonist said,"Master you instrument, and then forget all that sh*t and play." I also followed the drill in the beginning and now I shave with cold water and my only prep is rubbing in the first lather with my fingers before I re-lather and shave. Oh, and I also am a dominant hand shaver. I tried the two hands and found I'm used to the one and sticking with that. Many roads to Rome.

I agree with you also. I've been frustrated over the whole strop pressure problem for years. I will add though that the amount of pressure needed is directly related to how sharp the razor is before you start stropping. Don't be surprised as time goes by that you can get along with less and less pressure.

I also used to just want to giggle about threads on prep, knowing what I know about stropping, and I would ask about whether people thought I was shaving with a spoon or something. But in the end the advice made sense for someone having difficulty with other aspects. Its a good basic concept to re-enforce.

You'll also begin to see, if you haven't already, that there is a big give and take aspect to shaving with a straight. Bad prep can be overcome with good stropping, bad stropping can be overcome by high grit hones, poor soaps can be overcome by using a light touch, etc., etc.

MuzzleVelocity,

You are correct...Shaving--whether with a str8 or a DE razor--is a very personal activity. Finding what works best for each individual shaver is a large part of the fun.

At the same time, however, we needn't throw all of the accumulated wisdom about str8 razor shaving out the window. As Charlie Parker noted, even he first mastered the technique of playing the horn. Then he took that accumulated knowledge and "reinvented" it to become the virtuoso jazz musician that made him famous.

Personally, I like the hot shower, hot towel pre-shave cream preparation for my morning shave. Not because it is the only way or the best way to shave, but because it reminds me of the kind of ritual that is part of the type of shave that I would expect from a professional barber.

In fact, it appears that your shaving preparation is not as completely far afield from SRP wisdom as first thought. Your use of cold water during your preparation is touted by a number of SRP members. I believe that there is even a thread on that very same subject in the forums. Perhaps your experience will encourage more of us, including newbies, to try this method as well.

Take care--and continued smooth shaving.

This will be a personal experience. Do what works best for you. Explore and enjoy!