I mean NO pressure!
OK, I had a top 5 shave this morning.
The salient points:
Good lather, hot shower- check
A very sharp razor- check
Keep the blade angle very low- check
And now the coup de grace'-- don't use any pressure.....NO! Not just light pressure.....NO PRESSURE! :nono:
Just whisper that fine edge across the skin. You have to keep your skin taut as a snare drum, and just try to float that blade along. A nice full hollow helps provide the feedback--listen to those whiskers slicing in two.
Don't grab your razor like holding a hammer, you are a conductor waving his baton, the razor dances across your face like the soaring melodies of Bethoven's 9th.....
I usually go WTG, then shoot right to ATG and get a nice shave, but sometimes a bit of burn (or sometimes a lot of burn:w) from the alum tells me I could do better.
Don't bear down at all, this is where the whisker reduction part comes in. So, this morning I say to myself I'll make use of a full 3 pass shave and use zero pressure (to borrow a phrase from our friend lieghton "like a hovercraft over your face"), just touching that blade edge to the skin to wipe off the lather.
WTG- OK, that felt nice, but WTG always does...
XTG- Hmm, that was nice too....had to work on blade direction, as I normally skip the XTG pass...between pass wash, my face is feeling smooth and comfy....things are looking good....
ATG- OK, if I had gone direct to ATG, as per normal, I think my very flat laying whiskers would normally contribute to "grabbing" the razor and pulling it in towards my skin, especialy right under my chin, but since I went XTG first, there wasn't the usual whisker length there to do that, so the ATG pass I was able to keep that light touch going....
The result?
Super-smooth shave. My skin felt sort of powdery soft, nicely BBS, and just a bit of tingle, not burn, from my alum block task-master. Usually a three pass shave for me (normally one WTG, one ATG, and one finishing ATG pass) would feel fine during the shave, but the alum would kick my ass afterwards. Not so this time.
There's always room for improving your shave! Get to it, men!:nj
