Ahh ha moments

Hi all so I have been reading through the formus and as I have read I have seen different comments that I would think of as Ahh ha moments for different members that eventually lead to my Ahh ha moments. I thought it might be interesting for everyone to talk about their Ahh ha moments and maybe help some people along to their own.

I know I have three big Ahh ha Moments

1. Was definitley learning how to lather properly I think it probally took me a month or two of shaving till I real got this part down and what a difference it made. I wish had taken some of the advice I had seen to take a day and just spending it building lather would of made those first couple months much better. In this part my main moment was learning that just because it looks like it is good lather doesn't mean it is good lather. Learning to build a lather to what I thought was good lather and applying it to my face and waiting a few moments to see if it stayed wet or went dry is when I really started building consitent lather.

2. The second one was realizing just how light of a touch you need with the razor. For the longest time I thought I was using very little pressure and was doing a good job but then one day I wasn't feeling my best but still wanted to shave so I slowed down even more doing my first pass like normal but unlike normal do to my fever I think my face felt a bit raw so on my second pass I really lighten up on the pressure and places I had been fighting with forever to get smooth got smooth. Since then the shaves have gotten smoother and smoother.

3. The third is my most recent and that is the cold water shave I had tried it when I first started shaving but didn't put my full effort into it. So after a week off and no shaving I decided to revist it, my dumb self also did this in the middle of winter. Went from a weeks worth of growth to almost BBS had a few rough spots with no irritation. Also spend up my shave. Repeated it for a week and was hooked haven't turned back since.

So those are mine what are yours?

1. My brush was too wet when trying to load with soap.
2. The ATG ange is almost flat to the skin
3. The amount of pressure to strop with was lighter than I thought.
4. The amount of pressure to shave with was lighter than I thought.

Ditto on the strop pressure, it took me a while for that one to sink in.

Also, I was pretty flaky at first with the razors edge. I hit the faucet with my first razor more than once. It is certainly not to be treated like a pocket knife.

One other big aha moment was shave prep. It took me a while to figure out that a hot shower or hot towel can make a shave soooo much better.

J

Mine came while chopping broccoli. I saw the analogy between the way I was moving the knife through the broccoli was much like a razor through beard hair.

I realized that the the stroke I had been using (moving the razor competely perpendicular to the edge of the razor) was very inefficient as well as being hardest on the blade.

After dinner I had to shave to try out my new method. I angled the razor, and moved it at about a 45 degrees off perpendicular. What a difference it made! Then I came here to post about it, and changed my avater picture :D.

My most recent came when I soaked a wash cloth in a tupperware container full of ice water at the beginning of the shave. After completing everything, I threw the wash cloth on my face, and have never felt so alive! I highly recommend soaking a wash cloth in ice water, and finishing with it. You can feel the ice locking up your pores, and it really wakes you up early in the morning.....

I had a revelation about 6 months in about stretching the skin. I was finding that places on the neck were catching, despite holding the razor lightly, but when I stretched the skin taut it glided through and even cut closer than I had been. Then I found the direction you stretch the screen can also make a difference!!!

Repeat on the lather it took me about 6 weeks to get it right, which I did with the help of people here. It was little water to soap the brush then wet and lather. Also I find it works better if you soak the soap in hot water while you strop. Total 180 on my shaving experience. Thanks SRP!

One of my moments was when I finally changed the angle of the blade to almost flat against the skin on the ATG pass. Smoothed things out tremendously and got rid of razor burn!

Also became a total menthol nut!

As I recall maybe 3 months or so after I started with a straight and being very careful with the strokes, I was doing my chin and for some strange reason with wild abandon I just ran the razor all the way down my chin and around to my neck in one stroke. It was at that point I realized I could handle the blade.