Survived my first straight shave
After hanging around here for a couple weeks, reading everything I could find, asking a lot of questions, and watching Lynn's DVD that arrived today, the last piece of shaving kit came in today's mail so I was ready to go.
Hot shower
6/8 Columbia from Joe Chandler
Vulfix 2234 brush
Classicshaving soap, bay rum flavor
Alum block
Old Spice after shave (Pinaud due in tomorrow)
Lathered up and let my face soak while stropping the razor 25 licks on a Tony Hiller wide paddle. Passed the HHT well toward the toe but not the middle or heel. Gave it another 15 licks, same result. Decided to proceed.
Cheeks went easy, no pulling, no cuts or irritation, nice and clean even left handed. Had planned to stop at this point and finish with the M3 but decided there was no fun in that and continued on with the Columbia. Kept having to remind myself to use short strokes. Started working down the neck, harder than the cheeks were but not going too badly except for right under the jawline.
Noticed at this point that the lather was getting pretty dry and so was my skin everyplace the razor passed over. Re-applied from the brush, and carried on with the chin and middle of neck shaving mostly right handed. Seemed like the razor wouldn't glide but I was afraid to push through. Used short chopping sort of motions, far from clean, face is drying out again. Kept at it until I'd made a first pass everywhere including upper lip.
Upper lip and chin all the way to adams apple looked like I hadn't even shaved. Time to re-lather and finish with the mach 3. Squeezed the rich lather from the center of the brush and spread it around. Joe's Columbia was still calling to me though so I picked it up again and went diagonally as best I could across grain on the cheeks - harder to see what I was doing on this stroke but the results seemed good.
Proceeded on to the hard parts again and drew blood the instant I touched razor to face under my right nostril. Kept at it and even made a courageous E-W stroke on half the upper lip. Too much red on the other half to do anything more there at this point.
Moved on to chin and almost landed the razor on my lower lip when I started. Reminded myself to be careful and slow the hell down. Did a pretty passable job on the front and sides of the chin but unable to turn the corner onto the neck, too much resistance on the razor and no nerve to push through with it.
Went S-N on both sides of the neck using opposite side hands pretty much like Lynn in the video and that part came out pretty well. Went S-N up the center and just couldn't get it clean. The razor didn't so much grab or pull there, just didn't want to glide through like it did other places. It took a very conscious effort not to bear down there like I would have with a M3.
SO, at this point I'd been over pretty much everything three times or so and decided to hang it up. Bottom of chin to adams apple looked like I hadn't even shaved, upper lip not much better. Noticed a couple more little bleeders on side of mouth, cured with a splash of cold water and the upper lip wasn't bleeding much either by now. Lathered up again but used Prorasso cream this time and reshaved with the M3. Was discouraged to see a lot of whiskers floating in the sink afterward that I had missed with the straight but got with the M3.
Rinsed off again, wetted the end of the alum block and proceeded to wipe everyplace down with it. Expected some sting after making so many passes but it wasn't bad at all. Rubbed it into the upper lip bleeder a little to stop that one for good.
Not much burn with the aftershave either, but feels a little bit raw now where I kept scraping away under the chin.
Stropped the razor 20 licks and put it away. No bandaids required and the wife was relieved not to have to call 911.
I'm hoping I didn't mess up Joe's hone job on the razor when I stropped it - did that slowly and carefully but caught myself pressing down more than the weight of the razor a few times. Kept the spine on the strop at all times though. I have three more good razors in waiting and may try another one next time to see if there's any difference.
I've been lathering up that soap with too much water in the brush over the past few days and think I over corrected this time by going too dry. Have to say it did a pretty good job of protecting my face through. Maybe next time I'll get it perfect.
Am disappointed with under the chin/jawline and the upper lip results. Probably won't do anything much different there for now though unless you guys think I should push through a little harder when the razor doesn't want to move readily. From what I've read here it sounds like that's the hardest part for most of us at first. I've had worse cuts from a M3 than I got today, so the one I got today was enough to keep me respectful but puts some fears to rest.
All in all it was exciting and fun and I'm looking forward to the next one. :tu