Thread: Flick, Swipe & Scythe - Knock Me Over With A Feather

Fast learner? Not so much. Slow learner, probably. But I did my homework; I am, first and foremost, an actual Old Fart who is both wary of, and attracted to, hobbies with potentially lethal outcomes. I was well prepared before my first sport parachute jump and my first open water dive. I actually did a fair amount of pre-first-shave lurking, video shave watching, butterknife practicing and (maybe most important) visualization. First shave was a one-directional breeze.

I also had a decade working in packinghouses (selling my own brand of commercial cutlery); I have dry shaved my arm about 11-teen thousand times. Funny, though, about that leap of faith which allows you to swipe your face and throat with a str8 for the first time; nothing really prepares you for doing it except doing it.

You're doing it right, Moo. I remember my first few months very fondly. I had no idea what I was doing, but I sure enjoyed it. You sound like you've taken to it very well!

Ha, you sound as deliberate and meticulous as I am; however, I still ended up with razor burn only to be rivaled by my worst suburn for the first three days. Welcome and good luck. The extra 20 minutes a day is worth it to me. It occupies my mind and forces me to wake up, setting the tone for the rest of the day.

Originally Posted by K37

...The extra 20 minutes a day is worth it to me. It occupies my mind and forces me to wake up, setting the tone for the rest of the day.

The Zen of shaving - total concentration, absorption of the moment? Kevin Costner's pitching mantra in "For Love of the Game" was "clear the mechanism." This is a good pre-shave mantra.

Time almost stops when I shave. Concentration without tension isn't so normal in everyday tasks but this is what a str8 asks of me. Focus, concentrate, think, relax, develop muscle memory (but don't rely on it). Every moment with a razor in my hand should whisper release from all other thoughts. Reaching for a towel to wipe the edge, changing hands, approaching a strop - they're all opportunities to think about something else. It appears thinking about something else is a bad fit; I trained myself to think 20% about shaving and 80% about anything else while using an electric or a Schick Hydro. I really need to turn that around to 100% shaving focus. This has to be as important as keeping the edge sharp and moving. Or so I think.