Interesting trick found, details inside

Hey guys, now that I have tickled your fancy, I stumbled upon some little trick a few minutes ago during a really great shave I just had.

I did the normal two passes and decided to do a little touching up tonight. Grabbing my DE89L I noticed it was covered in lather. (By the way Shea butter soap a friend made which on it's own is incredible!)

So anyway, right back to my lathered covered razor. Not wanting a repeat of last week where I took a chunk of meat out of my cheek, I decided to do what any absent minded user would do and wrapped my razor in a piece of paper towel, giving it about another inch and a half of height.

Now I'm not sure even I understand this but this longer handle gave me the ability to really get the angle I wanted to touch up some areas against the grain which normally are taboo for shaving.

Has anyone else used a longer razor and found it particularly useful for fine work?

Also, during my shave prep, I started leaving my brush, and soap in the bowl with hot water. The soap becomes easier to develop a lather with once I drain the water, and the cost of using a little soap leads to a much more pleasurable hot lather that is great on glide. Anyone try this either?

A razor is a complete package and they all differ so maybe the longer handle might not have the same head as a shorter one. Personally I've found the Feather which has a shorter handle gives the same shave as my EJ Chatsworth which has a longer handle and my mercur 39c which is pretty long too gives me an inferior shave. My fatboy also has a shorter handle and it doesn't shave as well as the feather or the ej so go figure. Whatever works for you and gives you the leverage you need is your key to shaving success.

As far as the soap goes I just wet the brush and lather. I've never soaked any brush in water.

Just recently a discussion elsewhere goaded me into having a go at shaving with my wife's razor, a Lady Gillette. If anyone isn't familiar with these, think Superspeed with a very long handle. I found it very awkward, frankly, but got a more than passable shave out of it in the end; the difficult bit was getting the angle right... go figure, again. :shrug:

I find the weight makes more of a difference than the length of a razor. I use a Merkur 34c Heavy-duty barber pole DE and it was actually more difficult to use than my original Merkur long-handle just because it weighs so much more. As long as a razor is light, the length shouldn't make much of a difference, although I prefer heavy razors.