4th shave, different beard prep
Did my 4th shave last night, and the shave was not as nice as last time. I used my Dovo Prima again, as my last shave with it was just phenomenal.
I changed 2 things in my shaving routines, and my shave was not quite as good as the last one so I'm wondering what it could be. My girlfriend was staying the night at her Mom's house and took the conditioner with her, so I didn't get to use it for my beard prep. I also used a different soap, Mitchell's Wool Fat soap instead of the Kissmyface.
The shave went okay, I did the whole face with no nicks, cuts, or razor burn, but the blade simply did not seem to cut as well as the last shave. I don't think its the soap, because it created a rich lather that lasted the whole shave, and the soap has been spoken of highly by others. Oh, and for those wondering, my scuttle kept it nice and warm the whole time as well :)
Its possible that the lack of conditioner made the difference. I usually let it sit on my beard for about 5 minutes while in the shower, and this time I only washed my beard and left it wet.
Also possible is my stropping technique. I preped my strop with 100 hand strokes to give it some nice oil and soften it up. I then did 30 on the linen and 60 on the leather. On the leather side it did not sound very even. Its like I was getting a good sound on the down stroke, but not a great sound on the up stroke. I also notice that sometimes my grip doesn't feel solid, usually on the up stroke. I'm not sure if its my fingers getting oily or what, but its definitely something I'm going to be working on.
Of course, it could be that my shaving technique is not good either. I notice sometimes I have to remind myself to lighten the touch. Normally I focus on what I've come to call, "the 3 ights," keeping the skin tight, the angle right, and the touch light, but I do notice that I'll occasionally have more pressure against the skin than I need. This usually happens in the harder areas, like my chin or parts of my neck. Everywhere else I'm pretty consistent on keeping a very light touch.
I'm hoping that of any of these, I hope it is either the lack of conditioner or the stropping. If I'm dulling the blade from my 3rd shave with this razor (2nd shave was with my John Williams), then I'm really doing something wrong.
As far as progression of technique, I'm finding the chin area is getting easier. I'm getting a better understanding of the curves and adjusting the angle as I shave it, and using both hands really does allow me to attack it in different ways. I'm still relathering multiple times to keep the area nice and wet and am only cutting a few hairs a stroke. The 'stache area is also a lot easier now as well. Not as easy as the cheeks of course, but hardly a problem at all.
The neck is also a bit of a pain. I don't find it hard per say, but I never get the smoothness that I get with other areas.
The left hand is also developing more comfort and coordination. I find keeping my hand and wrist locked with occasionally making angle adjustments with with my fingers and making the strokes with my arm gives me a lot better control. In contrast with my right I make more wrist adjustments as I shave.
All of this is only using one WTG pass. You may have noticed that I only shave every 3-4 days. I don't need to be clean shaven, so I'm afforded this time between shaves to let my face recover. In addition, I love taking off a few days of growth in a single whack. That said, I think I'll start shaving every other day and see how my face feels with that.
Till next time