Second shave, no prize winner, but, ...
OK, this morning I did my second shave with my Dovo 5/8 which I got from Tony Miller last week. Stropped it on my paddle strop and to all intents and purposes, the stropping went well. (Like I should know how this works, given that it's the very first time I've ever stropped a blade?????) Anyway, Hanging hair test--flawless! so we're dealing with a sharp blade, all ready to go.
Prep bowl and brush with very hot water. meanwhile, ...
Hot shower, then out, wrap in towel, and lather up. Proraso base, Classic Shaving lavender soap, worked up good lather and ready to go.
Holding blade at shallow angle: First pass, down strokes only, reduced beard slightly, but had to apply more pressure than with my Merkur Classic DE with Feather blade, but that's understandable, given that nothing is as sharp as the Feather.
rinse, re-lather, second pass, again, down strokes only, reduced beard some more. In both passes, my razor went down to the skin (at least all the lather was removed,) but it was apparent that I had a lot of beard left. Repeated strokes (lather/short stroke) just repeated what had gone before with no apparent reduction in beard.
At this point, I came face to face (pun?) with an interesting conundrum. I still had quite a bit of beard on my face--at no point had I reduced any of my beard down to skin level. Despite that, I saw tht I was beginning to develop some skin irritation, meaning it's time to quit for the day. So here's the puzzle: if I'm not getting close enough to cut the beard to skin level, how come my skin is getting scraped raw?
With enough beard remaining that I would have elicited stares as one who hadn't really shaved this morning, I did my third pass with my DE--a breeze,--everything nice & smooth.
Here's the thing: I know it's me, and I know I've got to give it time, and that given sufficient time, it will work. My question is: what will I learn during that time? Open to your suggestions.
Thanks, Eric.:confused: