Let me start by saying that I’m only about a month into the str8 road. That makes me very hesitant to offer advice of any sort, but I feel last night may be a story worth telling. I would appreciate it if a Mentor could be sure to let me know if part of this sounds just wrong.

It needs to be prefaced by mentioning SWMBO had a dinner appointment with a friend who was changing jobs. They were to meet about a half hour before I was to leave work so naturally I couldn’t attend. This meant I was home alone after work and not entirely sure what to do with myself.
Having spent more time than I probably should reading the SRP forums yesterday, I naturally decided it was a good time to have a shave. No one else at home meant no distractions.

I wandered about, fed the pets, and put a kettle on to boil water, transferring the water to a bowl I went to the bathroom and placed my mug full of hot water into the bowl of boiled water and took a nice hot shower.

Realizing I actually had time for the first time in what seems like ever, I put the hand towel under hot running water and went to get dressed. Nice shirt, sweet shaving vest (went with the double breasted one, it’s summer I’m not wearing a jacket) and trousers.

Taking the towel downstairs I put it in the microwave for 30 and turned on some Spanish guitar. I wrapped the towel around my face and went on to make my lather. I spent a good 4 minutes or so, until the song changed, working up a lather and happened to glance over and see some shaving gel left over from my cartridge days.

With a shrug I spent about a minute working that into my face before applying the lather far more slowly than I had ever tried before. As I had time I decided to throw yet another variable into my routine. (I know that adding to many variables is normally a bad idea, but I was fairly sure this one wouldn’t hurt.) I cut my usual shaving stroke in half, having read about a hundred times on the forums to use short strokes, I thought I already was, but hey I had time.

The important part is that it was the BEST shave I have experienced yet. It was the first time without so much as a single red dot swelling onto my face and while not quite BBS, closer than I have ever managed before.

The advice part I think I learned was that it REALLY helps to make sure you take your time, and it’s just possible that what you tell yourself is a short stroke, isn’t really. As I mentioned, I thought I was already using short strokes, but shorter ones reduced the punishment for my sins from several small red dots to only a burn from the aftershave.

The
part I'm curious about is, has anyone else tried using a King of Shaves Shaving
Gel under lather. It seemed to help, but it may be improved technique, ability
to take my time, or even the better lather that made me feel that way.