Thread: What tricks have you learned?

Originally Posted by Jimbo

How to smuggle copious razors past your wife and into the secret storage area using only a paperclip and some vaseline.

James.

On behalf of all the members,I would like to thank you for the lack of further explanation,or pics.

learning proper technique for your face is probably the best thing you can do.... Proper beard prep is next. Try various soaps or shave creams until you find something that works best for you. You'll find discussions on hot prep vs cold prep. imo, take it all in, try stuff until you're comfortable.

Hydrating your skin and beard will make for a better shave. Keep it hydrated, before, during, and after.

Never give up. And you only ever need just one more razor/hone/strop/brush.

I shave in the evening before dinner when I have more time to enjoy the shave. I face lather so I keep my lathered brush warm by putting it in a mug and the mug in a sink full of hot tap water. I lather my whole face but shave in sections like left cheek, left neck and so on. When shaving a section I shave WTG with the lather followed by XTG w/o re-lathering. This works if you don't wait too long to go XTG. When I go ATG I just lather my cheeks or neck, shave and then lather the other sections(neck or cheeks) and shave them. I find I can stretch my skin better this way. I pinch the shank of the razor and swirl it in the sink of hot water used to keep the lather warm, rinch my index finger and thumb and then wipe the razor's blade a few times and rinse again to get all of the lather and skin oil off the blade, then wipe dry. Pinching the shank helps keep the water from splashing into the pivot area. I try very hard not to touch the metal parts of the razor after wiping it down as my shin oils will rust metal quickly. I leave the razor open in a safe place to completely dry between the scales just in case I splashed any water there. I don't think these are tricks but they are ways that improve my shaves and keep the razors free of both red and black rust. If there is a trick to stay focused I'm all ears. I usually don't have a problem with my focus but when I do I don't know it until I'm well past the areas I nick and usually nick a few more places before I refocus on the task at hand.

I keep a thin hand towel over my shoulder. It's convenient for wiping my fingers (and sometimes my face) off when skin stretching. When I really need to stretch super tight, as when shaving the neck ATG, I place the dry towel between my fingers and skin. The traction is magnified and the skin is very tight.

I also use the same type of towels, dampened and in a bowl, microwaved to steaming goodness as part of my preshave.

Keep some Glycerin around for when you run out of your favorite Cream/soap. A few drops turns the crappy cream/soaps into not bad barable one.

I'm a big fan of the Alum Block (both as an after shave treatment and for traction on the finger tips.) I also use a sponge to clean lather off my blade during the shave. A simple sponge like you would use for cleaning works just fine. They cost about a buck and change a piece and once you've used them for quite a while they can get very nicked up at that point you simply toss it and pull out a fresh one. Much easier than slicing up the bathroom linens and keeps the razor fairly dry as well (corrosion avoidance and ease of drying). I've also found that when you have a razor full of lather and wipe it off on the sponge you kind of get indirect feedback on how good your edge is based on where the stubble is on the sponge (i.e. little or no stubble means blade is getting dull, all stubble in one area means edge in uneven, lots of stubble straight across the lather gob and the edge is good.)

And one that I've only recently started to embrace. Second and third passes should always be just for fun. If you can't be at least presentable with a single pass, the edge on your razor requires work. There was a time when I did 3 pass shaves every single day. No discomfort, nothing wrong with it but generally, it's just not necessary. These days most of my work day shaves are single pass. Occassionally I'll do two just for fun (if I have the time) but 3 pass shaves are fairly rare for me these days. No need to obsess over the perfect shave, have fun with it. The shaves will be what they are. Some are fantastic and others just OK but IME, they are all pretty good (kinda like pizza.)