Hi All,
I recieved my Dovo Ebony, bridle strop and brush from SRD on Friday. Those guys are great! Seems they were down a day or so for Easter and decided to ship my stuff next day. Pretty cool. Then when I got the order, it had the larger SRD #3 brush rather than the #1 I had ordered (which I confirmed was OK with them before opening). Also very cool!
So this morning I've been doing yard work and checking the mail every half hour as the MB soap was due today. Sure enough, when the mailman finally came, there was my order.
I ran to the shower, with my temporary bowl (I'm thinking scuttle for father's day) and my other toys. Hung my strop yesterday and got the bathroom sparkling. My wife accused me of "nesting"!
After my shower I filled the bowl and sink with hot water, dribbled a little on my MB "Northwoods" soap, and dropped the brush in the sink to soak. I dumped the water out and put a splash of distilled water in the bowl (I live in San Antonio, world headquarters of hard water) and set that in the sink full of hot water. I stropped the blade five easy strokes after drying the oil off of it. It passed the HHT with one of my wifes fine hairs. I was ready.
I spent about 10 seconds rubbing the brush on the soap until it began to foam and then went to the bowl. In about 30 seconds I had coolwhip-like foam and set the brusn to my still wet face. Wow!! That was so nice.
I grabbed the razor and set to "shaving"One thing a lot of you have implied is that a couple of days worth of growth is easier to shave then just one, so I haven't shaved since Friday morning. This might have been a mistake. The sideburns were easy, the cheeks a little harder, the goatee area virutually impossible on 2+ days of growth. I chalk that up to a coarser than average beard and being a complete novice with no technique. The razor pulled a fair amount and I got a little over zealous on my right cheek. It burned, but no cuts.
I started with my sideburns and just kept going until I was uncomfortable. I did one WTG pass on my sideburns, cheek and neck. Even shaved my Adam's apple with no cuts. No go on the chin. I ended up with one nick on my right-side cheek and one "mistake".
NEWBIE ALERT!!!: Dear fellow newbies, The straight razor is NEVER meant to go sideways on your neck. Especially near the jugular vein!
I decided to leave well enough alone and clean up my chin and jowls with my mach 3.
I followed this up with a warm water rinse, a cold water rinse, and some Clinique Post Shave Healer. My cut burns, but the rest of my face feels pretty good.
It's not BBS (not expected) and I definitely missed some areas. But I bet tomorrow will be light years better than today. We shall see.
All-in-all, I give myself a B-. Would have been a B+ without the slicing cut to my neck. What a rookie mistake.
I have two questions:
1. Until I get my "shave den" set up, can I safely keep the razor in it's case or does it need to be in the air to dry?
2. Does anybody else use a DE as their backup for days when the beard is too heavy or you just don't have time for the SR shave?
Finally, I think I have soap acquisition disorder. I want to try them all. Oh, and I've started my Kamisori savings fund. Nuts, I know.
--David