Hmmmm an odd thing happened tonight.

Good evening Chaps!
Well I decided to have a shave tonight ready for work tomorrow, but tonights shave was different and so very very wrong: I stropped my Dovo about 20 times and prepared for my shave but I was in the right frame of mind you could say for a shave. I had just got in from a long car trip and jumped into the bathroom, I didnt shower first, I placed a hot wet towl around my face and then applied my Poraso balm, I stopped the dovo and then made up my lather which was appalling.....very thin and runny.....I splashed the hot water upon my face then lathered up and set to.

My Dovo did bugger all.

I stretched my skin and pulled my "shaving faces" and my Dovo seemed to trim up the stubble but not shave it down, I commited myself to my typical shaving techniques, but as I noticed I wasnt getting anywhere fast I soon got frustrated and my artistic strokes turned to frustrated hacks.

I cleaned my face off, stropped my razor several times, reapplied water and lather and set too again......but no change.

My face was beginning to burn and feel like it had just lost a battle with a cheese grater when I reached for my SE ever ready and zipped it around my face.

How ashamed I felt reaching for my old trusty SE, I have shaved several times with my Dovo and had no issue until now.

Afterwards I stropped the Dovo 50 times and ran it up my arm.....damn its sharp....it took off a great chunk of hair.

I sat down in front of the box to watch the end of "Countryfile" and pondered on where I went wrong tonight and several ideas came to mind:

I didnt shower before my shave.
I was in too much of a hurry, I wasnt at peace and wanted to shave so that I could enjoy the rest of my night in.
I dont think ive stropped my Dovo enough or ive stropped it incorrectly and caused some harm to the blade.
Though applying Poraso, I believe my Lather was diabolical and its shear runnyness may have hindered the blade in some way.

So why am I posting this ramble? I wondered if anyone may have some other ideas of where I went wrong? is it my stropping? my haste? my lack of focus?

Let me know your thoughts.

Byron

Some days ya get chicken.

Other days ya get feathers.

Sounds like yesterday was a feathers day. ;)

It'll work out. Just keep tryin'.

One of my main factors concerning shaving with a straight is "if you are rushed, in a hurry or not in a good frame of mind, don't use a straight."

I would guess that was your issue. The other stuff is window dressing. Even if you didn't prep or strop or had bad lather that would more make shaving uncomfortable but really, if all you used was water and the razor you can still get a great shave.

Sounds like stropping. I think prep is important, but bad shaves come from bad stropping. You may not posses the tools o fix it like I would. I would lightly hone the razor, 6 laps, then lightly strop it.

Sometimes when you don't feel normal, doing a normal thing makes you feel normal. Here... start shaving.

(wish I said that 1st!!!)

Sounds to me like it needs to be honed. Maybe your stropping is causing the edge to be dulled?

One thing that really stuck with me from my visit with Howard Schechter was, "It’s easier to keep your knife sharp than it is to sharpen your knife."
He stressed the importance of having a sharp edge and not stropping more than a few times to either clean the edge off after shaving, or to just polish it a little before.

Maybe you're putting too much pressure on the blade when stropping?

Personally, I don't see why anyone would strop more than 10 strokes. 50? 100? yipes!