Some questions at the Half(?) Way Point

So, this AM I finally did a weekday morning shave covering the full dominant side of my face. The results favorably compare to a singe pass of my cartridge razor ( a fusion) on my non dominant side. No Van-Gough'ing an ear or Sweeny-Todding' the throat, so OK in my book. Only a little redness around the throat that let me know it was there when I used the alum block.

At this point, I have a few questions for the community:

First, is it OK to strop the razor a few (say 5-10 min) before the shave? The process that seems to work best for me is to strop before I shower. Right now my skill with the strop still requires some time to do it right. Before this becomes a habit I'd like to check with folks.

Second, when making lather I seem to be driving most of it up into my brush - I need to force the lather to the tips of the brush as part of the process. Am I using too much pressure when "swirling"? I am using a "fine" badger brush from TAOS.

I want to thank everyone for their suggestions and help - I can't imagine getting this far without you guys, thanks!

-Michael

Hi and congrats on the progress:)
To answer your first question; I do excactly the same.
Strop first and then shower.
I do not think that matters much really, if it is stropped it is stropped.
Others may have other opinions, but that's how I do it.
Others will surely chime in to answer the other question as well.
Good luck with your shaving:)

I've heard two schools of thought on the stropping matter:

1. The edge of your razor is very fine and prone to rusting on the microscopic scale, long before you can see any deterioration with your naked eye. Stropping is what helps to remove these rust and other particles before your shave. Therefore, it is beneficial to strop immediately prior to your shave, so the edge will be the most clean and smooth.

2. Stropping actually does not remove any particles from the edge, it just aligns the edge which has been microscopically bent from normal use. Therefore, it does not matter when you strop the edge, it will perform the same afterwards. I think some people simply strop their razor after each shave, and pick it up for the next shave without stropping.

Since you want to strop immediately before a shave, I think both schools of thought would agree that there is absolutely nothing wrong with what you are doing.

As for your second question, I don't think getting lather all the way up in your brush is avoidable. You can either make enough lather that you don't even need to worry about getting the lather from deep within your brush, or when you're lathering your face, you can hold your brush by the shaft of the bristles, so as to push some of the lather up from the core. If you watch some of mantic59's videos on youtube, he recommends holding the brush by the bottom of the bristles while lathering your face.

Stropping a few minutes before the shave is fine! I strop first, then I do my hot towel routine then make and apply my lather before I pick up the razor. There must be a good five minutes between stropping and shaving and the edge is just fine when I pick it up.

When swirling, keep the tips of the brush on the soap but dont mush it up too much. What I do is grip the actual brush hairs (rather than the handle) with three fingers as I load the brush. The keeps the hairs stiffer and also keeps the soap on the tip of the bristles. Give it a try and see how it works for you..!

Good luck and keep us posted! :)

I strop after I shave, to dry the edge, then before the shave after I have applied lather. It gives the lather some time to do its work.

What might help WRT the brush is to hold the tips together with your fingertips. I think there are images of that in the Wiki article on making lather from soap.

Regards,
Robin

Thanks All,

I tried the trick with the fingers on the brush hairs and it helped a lot.

I managed to shave my full face on Saturday PM - still some rough spots and it took 20 min, but still I was pretty pleased with the results.

I was at my barber on Sat as well, and he's celebrating 50 years in the biz - he was offering tips and brought out his gear to show me - kinda cool to see stuff from 1960 still in wokring condition.