Thread: Success!

So for the past few days I haven't shaved to, let the horrible case of razor burn I had heal, and have been working on my stropping technique... Nice, slow, and methodical. I changed from doing 20-30 on felt to 40 and changed from 30-40 on the leather to 60. The bevel had a nice shine to it so I figured, "what the hell... I'll try it". I pick a small area next to my right sideburn and gave a couple light, quick, 1-1.5in passes... Hardly and tug, no discomfort! Not bad for a dry face! After that I decided to give the whole right side a try, did a nice long methodical prep which included washing my face, hot towel, Pre shave oil, made my lather, another hot towel, applied lather in small circular motion for about 1-2min and then used a paint brush action to make it nice, smooth, and thick. I took out my razor once again, and paying close attention, used a nice uniform technique for my whole cheek/jaw line. There was little to no tug what so ever and little to no hair left at all! Despite my normal impatient desires to go on to the left side, I used restraint and put the razor down. I lathered up the rest of my face and finished the shave with my cartridge. The rest of the shave wasn't bad either but there was a noticeable difference in the quality of WTG passes between the cartridge and straight. Definitely noticeable tug with the cartridge and far less for the cartridge to shave on the right side ATG after using the straight. I finished with my post shave care which was, rinsing off excess lather, washing face to gett off excess Pre shave oil, splashing with cold water, applying face moisturizer, and finished of with a splash of Hawleywood's No.9 (a delightful bay rum with clove) no burn on the right side at all! Success!

The only draw back to today was that I noticed some small scratches in the surface of my strop. By their location I have come to the assumption I have a small nick in my blade somewhere up towards the toe end. Probably hit it on the screws on my strop at some time. I'll still have to have someone check it out but it's nice to know I didn't destroy my blade in 3 shaves like I thought!

Excellent progress. Good to hear you got back on the proverbial horse. Also good to hear that you decided to take it slowly. Just keep at it and in no time at all you will be boasting a full face shave.

Enjoy

Stu

Yay!
It is always nice to hear about progress.
Thanks for sharing.

Hardly and tug, no discomfort! Not bad for a dry face!

IMHO, that's a sign of a pretty sharp edge. You're smart to start (or re-start) gradually. Success is a lot more fun than failure!

Charles

Well done; it takes small steps, doesn't it?