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  1. #51
    Excited Member AxelH's Avatar
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    Apr 2008
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    Shaved yesterday with the Dubl Duck "Dwarf". All of the blade is good. Good shave. Today shaved with the Goldtech DE. When I looked at the clock after completing the shave I figured I'd only saved maybe five minutes compared to a str8. Also parts of my bearded area didn't get very smooth. That side of the DE blade is done, but it was cutting at the beginning well. Not as fun or as smooth, and it looks like I have more of the little bumps of my chickenskin acting up. Oh well. I try not to sabotage myself, unconsciously less than possible form and such. It was the second DE shave in over a month. Gonna try the Duck tomorrow again. I'm really liking the smoothness of the str8s at this point.

  2. #52
    Excited Member AxelH's Avatar
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    Smile Follicular Update & Improvement

    Well, I've been experimenting with my skin conditioning threshold and toughening time-line. It seems it takes 3-5 shaves to really condition the skin and get tough, with regular str8 shaves and achieving easy, non-bumpy shaves. At one point I only shaved with a straight edge twice in a two week period. When I str8 shave less frequently I do it less frequently, but the more I shave with a str8 the more I want to shave with a straight. It's a recursive function.

    "To shave with a straight, or not to shave with a straight, that is the question." -- Shavelet

    I tried the somewhat circular scything motion, having seen Abrams' DVD, under the jaw, to get the sharply angled left-to-right hairs that persist under my jaw. Not only does the traditional WTG as downwards pass not work on my bearded jawline, but the double-edge safety razors are much easier to attack under the chin as they have a shorter width. Getting corners of the jaw was surprisingly easy, but along the jaw from corner to chin was a challenge. Even though I had some success getting under the jaw by tilting my neck up and mildly pulling down with the second hand and making circular scything strokes I needed a little better for along the relatively difficult line just along the jawbone, without the multiple passes right along the jaw, with just a small section of the blade in contact with the skin (excess irritation is very easy, as there is more pressure, not fast enough shaving action with that kind of attention to detail).

    My success with shaving the area I couldn't reach along the jaw, towards the bottom, in an expedient manner was to use a diagonal scything slightly circular, with dropping the chin into my neck and being careful to keep a firm pull on the neck below with the second hand. Kind of the opposite of what I had been playing with. Shaving with upward strokes, for me, is far less ATG than for many others, it's only left-to-right with upwards that is the aggressive ATG pass. So now I have a fast, effective means for a very clean str8 shave on both sides of my jaw. The left side of my face was always easy because of using the left hand razor with right hand pulling behind it, it was easier to pull the skin over the jaw for effective cutting along the entire jaw.

    Of course, all of this is particular well beyond visible acceptability. It was easy to shave my face clean by visual standards, this is just refining the full shave for personal enjoyment.

    I've been using the J.B. Williams mug soap, the cheapest I've got, the hardest to lather and keep moist of all the quality shave soaps and creams in my arsenal. I have not found it to soften the skin in such a manner as to lose the toughening benefits of regular straight razor shaving. It softens very well. The lubrication/glide is definitely there, with repeated lathering the cushion kind of builds naturally. I find myself regularly wetting the badger's tip and using the brush as a re-wetter, not even loading the brush in the shave bowl much for the last two passes. Good stuff, just have to work it more than other soaps and creams.

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