Upgrading Quality of Shaves
Gentlemen,
After a full year of nothing but straight shaving, I have finally arrived at v1.0 of my routine and I'm wondering where to go next.
I have stuck to my DOVO Best Quality 6/8 half-hollow for a year, and it's close to second nature in my hands.
After countless tries and mess-up, hesitations and compulsive SRP reading, I have a shaving regimen that allows for a daily cleanup (pause on Sundays) without irritation or dryness, and that is smooth enough to be kiss-able.
It took me a while to get there: for the first six months, I was in a perpetual epistemological quagmire: is the shave bad because of the razor or of the stropping or of the angle, and if it's the razor is it because of the shave or of the pasted strop or of the beard, etc.
Eventually I paused for a full month while I sent my razor to Rasage Poulin for a grinding. It was the clean slate I needed to start from all over again. Xmas got me a 3" SRD strop with nylon canvas, and I got myself a John Primble barber hone. I put away the pasted strop because I was starting to believe I had put too much stuff on it and it was damaging the edge.
I have also tried countless soaps and cream (and took a cologne detour that awarded me a cease and desist letter on certain smells from the lady...), multiple prep techniques (towel or not?), until I whittled it all down to a short list of reliable products.
At this point in time... with a DOVO Best, a barber hone, an SRD strop, and my favourite shaving regimen, where do I go next to improve it?
Where do I go to get an ever sharper AND smoother AND closer shave? Do I go on learning how to hone? Do I buy another, better razor? Do I just keep on working on my stroke technique?
As an extra, I have settled on the following certitudes:
* The beard needs water and soap to be soft, but the skin suffers in equal proportion to the attack that softens the hair. I use water that is not scalding hot, shave after a shower, and no longer put a hot towel on my face on top of it.
* The lather needs water and fat. I used to believe that only the gentlest kiss of the brush over the cream pot would suffice to make lather, and I did get a lot of fluff. But I did not get protection. So now I'm not shy to swirl a few times with a wet but not dripping brush, and I make sure the lather is slippery.
* Not all fats are created equal. tallow and coconut oil have performed the best for me; olive oil and lanolin have miserably failed me. That's why I rotate between Proraso green soap, Cella, Valobra, and JM Fraser's Original, and I ditched most English creams, L'Occitane, and MWF. I even realized that I had a mild intolerance to lanolin, since I'm prone to eczema.
* You're stropping too hard! Thought you had a light touch? No way, you're still stropping too hard on a strop that's not taut enough. Once your stropping is light and swift, the wear on the edge is dramatically reduced.
* A sharp edge does not feel the same every day. The Sunday night shave is a mighty good one since the skin has rested since Friday, but the subsequent Monday night one can be rough if you scraped too much skin. Before jumping to the touchup, wait Tuesday.
* Lower your angle!. Yes, I know it's fun to shave WTG and hear that glorious scrchhh, scrchhh, but even if you're not going ATG, lower your angle for your skin's sake!
* A touchup may not be what you need. Sometimes the blade will feel less sharp after just a few shaves. Though it's tempting to touchup again, just give it another shave, use the canvas, and watch your stropping, and the edge comes back to normal.
* Three passes is not a waste of time. After learning the map of my beard grain, I refined my technique to shave properly WTG, XTG, and ATG, plus minor touchups in the neck area. It's a complicated choreography to learn, and it involves advanced strokes like slicing and scything, but like a good dancer, you have to repeat and repeat.
* A cold rinse keeps the burn away. A final, glacial rinse after shaving, for as long as you can still feel your face, works wonder to calm the skin.
* Go light on the gadgets. Alum, witch hazel, pre/post creams, all these other little extras to pre-prep or pre-finish or post-prep or post-finish may or may not be necessary, but you should first try without. Only when do they add something should you keep them.
* Good skin hydration starts with the shaving cream/soap. If you use a soap or a cream that dries your skin, no matter how much balm you put on, you will still feel sore.
* Aftershaves are fun; balms are safer Even though the drugstore clerk will tell you that splashes are evil because of the alcohol, it remains that we love the tingling, the manliness, and the fresh smell. Put on some balm to avoid dryness, and splash away.
* A good cleanup is good for everyone Not just for removing the hair in the sink, but to ensure that the blade is dry before being stored.
