Thread: Newbie Rant 1st DE shave

Good news!! My straight finally arrived to the honemiester now I just have to wait for it to be sharpened and <gulp> shipped back

Originally Posted by mbwhoosh

Has anyone ever used one of those candle warmers(looks kinda like a tiny hot plate) to keep thier lather bowl/mug warm?

I tried something similar, but it got much too hot.
A mug resting in hot water (or scuttle equivalent) really is hard to beat as a way to keep lather warm.

^^^ Is that a fondue pot?!

Haven't tried the candle warmer yet been experimenting to much w/ other stuff. Thanks though for the caution.

Well its been a little over 2 weeks and my shaves have gotten better and better. Along w/ williams and VDH I added C.O. Bigelow cream to the mix (I thought I was having an allergic reaction but it was just the mynthol lol) and most importantly tabac cream and soap.

I now know what it means to have real lather! At first I didn't much care for the smell of tabac, it wasn't overpowering like some say but it wasn't inviting either, luckily it pretty much dissapeared onced rinsed (and irradicated by the pungent witch hazel). Now that the smell has lightened after use it has kinda grown on me, still not what I would seek out but at least I like it now.

I tried uber lather w/ all the different combos (tabac/tabac bigelow/tabac VDH/tabac etc) I like the tabac w/ bigelow combo cushion and cooling nice.

I also tried shaving in the shower, I know I know thats a big NO-NO but it's how I always shaved before and wanted to see if it would work wetshaving. I faced lathered (for some reason the VDH works best face lathering but only in the shower ) and did my wtg and atg pass. I found the xtg pass only irritated me and made it uncomftorable to do a atg pass so I nixed it out of the routine.

The shower shave went fine I got bbs results and in half the time (cleanup is way easier in the shower). There were downsides though I nicked myself more in the shower,as opposed to not at all in the sink. This may have been from the lather having adverse effects to the steamy environment but I would bet on the fact that I went to fast thinking I was back using a cartridge (wow it feels so long ago).

Anyways my straight finally arrived so I have been practicing w/ that. The straight has a .......uh....much steeper learning curve (yeah lets go w/ that) I've shaved 3 times so far I need to post about them but its been kind of a "meh" week.

your story sounds very familiar right now jimmy lets hope it ends happily for me too.

One last question guys how do you dry your DE's? I know mantic says in his videos he just rinses them and hangs them up w/ the blade inside since he uses them daily they don't rust, but I don't feel satisfied doing that for some reason.

Right now I open it up take out the blade rinse both the inside and outside wipe gently with a towel (I know thier sturdy but I feel like I'm going to break a door when I dry them) and then put on my dresser doors open w/ a fan to let it dry.

Just wondering if rinsing and a alcohol dip would work? or how about keeping it submerged in alcohol? would that have any negative affects over time always having them that way? I considered getting a barbicide canister and barbicide and keeping them that way, would that work?

sorry my posts are always so long my mind wanders and starts asking questions and remembering inane details that no one cares about.

As always thanks for the great advice and kind words

I can only answer your DE questions.

I only rinse my DE with hot water, and shake it dry. I have never had a problem, except when I went on a trip for two weeks, and left the razor; the Stainless blade had minor rust spots. I tossed the blade, and the razor was fine.

I believe an alcohol dip would not hurt, and would probably help, particularly if it was going to be several days before using the razor.

I would only remove the blade if it was going to be several weeks before I used the razor again.

Good luck,
V1