Thread: what is the #1 aspect of the shave for you

not counting the faceterbating when youre done, cuz i think that goes for all of us. what is the one thing during your shave that just makes the day better. maybe stropping is your zen time. or you build lather just for fun.

right now, from me, its that point when i first put the lather to my face and i get a nice strong whiff of it. at that point my brain says "alright, nothing else in the world matters right now" and for the rest of my shave the world and its stress just dont exist.

Being that I'm still new to SR the best part is the improvement I see from shave to shave. I remember it being the same when I picked up the DE a few years ago. I enjoy finding that I got a better shave on that part of my face that I got stuck on the week before.

"learning the terrain" has definitely been fun

The mindfulness plays well with my own practice. Focus is everything.

I like the zen experience of stropping and prepping, and also the knowledge that the razor I am using could have been used by almost anyone in generations past before ending up in my hands.

I been shaving awhile now and it became more utility but I still love doing it all. You have to remember I restore a lot of blades and do a fair amount of honing. So I am always looking at how good things are working and feeling. It's nice when I am just using a razor out of my normal rotation and I know I can just shave. I concentrate more on getting it smooth then and love rinsing off and not feeling any left over nubs. A splash of hazel and I know it's going to be a good day.
Now, I greet a lot of people in the morning at work and there is always the regular " good morning" but when I hear "how you doing?" I love to say " I had a great shave this morning so I am doing great" :<0) By now those people all know I use a straight but it still makes them smile. More to it than just the shave for me.

Though I don't usually think about it the stropping is something I value because when I was a kid, watching those old barbers strop, I thought it was so cool, and now I'm doing it. Lathering, probably because I have a small rotation of brushes that I really like the feel, and the look of. The shave. A combination of having become fairly proficient, and as with the brushes, using razors that I really like as tools and objects of art. All that said, when I'm actually doing it I don't usually think on any of that. It is sort of subliminal.

10pups that still counts in my eyes

It's the total package. I've never thought of it as separate parts and I wouldn't say I look forward to one part over the other.

I'm more into the restoring and honing. Shaving and shave prep is something I would do with or without a SR.

I spend far more time working on razors than I do shaving with one.