Originally Posted by
JordanM
I've been reading up on the forums and online about SR shaving for about 3-4 weeks, and been very excited about possibly starting to shave with a straight, but trying to ease into it. So about a week ago I picked out what I was going to order and waited til payday to put in an order with SRD. Payday just happened to be Thursday AM so as bummed as I was about containing myself over the weekend for it to arrive early this week, I was just going to have to deal. However much to my suprise Friday afternoon when I got home from work I had a package waiting for me. My SRD stuff arrived next day! And I didn't even pay for shipping! And I have all weekend to play with my new stuff (this is actually probably bad). Since I was not expecting it for a while I had not told the wife I ordered all this stuff yet, so I had to sneak into the garage to check everything out. I got the DOVO Carpe Diem Set which was actually on sale, with the upgraded Premium I strop along with some Proraso cream and Bay Rum. Seperately I also ordered the sampler packs from Trumpers and Truefitt and Hill.
First SR shaving day was St. Pats day. Very fitting I felt for a mostly Irish very pasty guy with a red chin strap beard. Went through an analized my new toys first. The DOVO seems very nice and sharp! Scales are not quite what I expected as I thought it would be a Poly or oil coated wood. It looks like they are an impregnated wood, which is actually good as that makes it more stable, especially with water, also like the rounded shape. Just has more of a plasticy feel to it, but the metal is what we are worried about right :) Strop looks very nice, everything is very sturdy looking, leather feels very nice, thick, smooth etc even the woven cloth is thicker than I was expecting, handles are great. Really like this strop, just hope I don't mess it up, or my dog eat it. Brush... it's a brush.. looks great?
So I decided to start shaving on Saturday. Realise I forgot a few things I was planning on getting; proraso pre shave, razor stand, and a alum block (no worries, they're already on their way today). Throw some hot water in my mug with the brush, get in the shower, run it nice and hot and let some conditioner soak into my whiskers. Get out, re heat mug and brush, some more conditioner and start playing with my strop. This strop is really nice and I seem to get a feel for the stropping pretty easy, do 20 passes on cloth, 40 on leather. Both have a little drag but not much, trying to not put to much pressure and twist blade just enough for blade to keep contact. Strop indents about a half an inch or so in the center.. seems to be going well? Get my lather set, put about 1.5 in worth out of the Proraso tube and shake the bush a tad. Lather works up just fine, though holding the brush way down in this mug is making my fingers hurt (yes I know soon my back.. er face is going to hurt). Get the lather all over my face.. I mean all over, menthol clears up my sinuses nicely though I might add. Having trouble gettin the lather thick and even off of the brush, however the brush feels great on my skin (kit comes with a Simpson B4) and I'm now seeing what I paid for. Doesn't even smell and seems to do what I want it to. Aside from leaving lather when I pull it off my skin, which is true for any brush for anything. Makes me start wondering why I haven't been using a brush forever, even with a safety.
So time to start shaving. Try my right side first with my right hand WTG. What is wrong with the blade? Did I mess it up already it keeps skipping and/or goes stops etc.. Squeeze through chin up with a tiny nick on my cheek, but I have idea how I did that one. Trying to move down my neck, oh man this is horrible top goes ok but bottom of neck which is usually a problem area anyways feels rough. Make it through the left side about the same. XTG chin up goes ok, but I have no idea how to do this on my neck, the blade doesnt fit! All my hair seems to grow straight down aside from a few small places btw. So XTG on my neck is going sideways, just cant figure out how to get the blade in the curve. I just did an additional WTG pass on my neck instead. I like the shape of the blade though, not too pointy but I can still tell about where the tip is unlike some very rounded ones where it would seem hard to decide where it is shart and were it is the rounded tip.
Stypic up a few small spots, cold water, bay rum, and some of the wifeys good face lotion and assess the damage. Bottom of my neck is pretty bad, irritated, very small shallow nick on my cheek, corners of my mouth feel a bit bare and my sideburns are still fairly stubbly (my hair is a lot thicker here for some reason). So I have some unexpected problems and some expected ones. All in all a better shave than with the gillette aside from my blemishes. Had a bit of razor burn through out the day.
Sunday is of course a new day, and another day with plenty of time to shave. Same shower routine, and I spend some time reflecting what I may have done wrong the day before. First off the lather produced plenty, and didnt dry out, but I think it might have been a bit too wet. My angle on WTG was probably not enough and that is most likely what cause all the problems with the razor along with a much too slow speed, but I have to get used to the razor somehow. Already ordered an alum block at this point, but maybe a little styptic over the rest of my face will help the burn in the meantime. Also maybe try some ATG on my sideburns only for now and see if that helps.
Same prep but this time but as I strop I concentrate really hard, razor sings on a few passes where it feels like I'm doing it very well, though not sure if it should sing when stropping, is this good or bad? In making my cream I add a bit more cream as I go too. This seems to help, but I used way more cream than I needed for sure. I ended up with a small shake of the brush and about 3 in worth of Proraso. Apply with a brush again, but distribute it around my face a little more with my fingers to hit any low spots. I can't feel my face? Either the mentol is that numbing it or its just that smooth, probably both, but as I move it around with my fingers I barely feel them moving on my face. Get set for my WTG pass setting my blade with a lower degree this time. Blade moves much easier and I'm using tiny little strokes but going a bit faster. Again with the bottom of the neck though, definately rubbed it raw. XTG goes ok as well. For my sideburns I make some ATG strokes sort of with the tip, and this helps some but doesn't remove much hair. I ended up trying two passes ATG in this area and still a little stubble. Also when going down I'm doing right hand right side left/left, but ATG it feels better taking my right hand to the left side of my face as I can't figure out how to hold the razor otherwise. Clean up is about the same, but I breifly rub the stypic all over my face and wash it off good. In washing it off I got a tad in my mouth... it tastes.. erm like nothing else I've ever tasted... kinda like the glue stick I ate in Kindergarden, but a bit different.
Now for the first real day shave... a Monday.. I think that sais it all. Wake up a little early so I have some extra time, hop in the shower first to make sure my wife doesn't steal all of the hot water and re assess. Wasting cream is not a good thing, I should get the brush a little dryer. My angle seemed better during my shave, but I probably need more pressure. I had not been using much at all, but I don't think I'm quite ready to change this. Shave the day before actually felt very smooth and my cheeks got a waxy feel when I was rinsing off the cream. Razor burn was still there but much less than before. Need to lay off the bottom of my neck for a while, it is just too chaffed.
A little more shaking of the brush and about 1.5 in cream gave me a decent lather, but still a bit watery. I also got some Glycerin to see if that helped, and did not notice a difference. Will try the glyc with some more cream next time around. WTG, quick strokes a little longer than the day before. This pass is done before I even noticed and seemed to go very well. ATG try the same thing. Have been having some problems with my lower lip and top of my chin, I have hair right on the tip of my chin and a little fu manchu so there is only a small part I shave. I cant figure out which end of the blade to use. Anyways I'm going from my chin out to my cheek here and dug in a bit on my left side right by the fu manchu on my lip. Not bad, but the worst so far. I think I need to move the blade from the outside in using the heel of the blade and maybe stick my tounge behing my lip to stick it out, as I'm having issues with the blade gettin near my nose when using the heel on this area. Also maybe just use my right hand for this part as it feels more comfortable detailing smaller parts.
Other than a small nic the shave went well. I have no razor burn today, but there is a good bit of stubble left. My neck is a disaster and one corner of my mouth is fairly irritated as well. I'm going to give it a rest tomorrow and try again on Wednesday. Going to trim the bottom part of my neck with a safety razor until I get a better feel for the straight. I think my main issue here is that I'm not changing the angle of the blade from shaving the top of my neck to the bottom, so with the L/C shape it makes I end up with a high degree angle at the bottom, that combined with sensitive skin in that area is whats killing me. The lather issues is just going to take time to sort out as well, but I think it is going well so far. Can understand the advise to get an older blad as well. I can only use very small parts of the blade at a time as it seems very rigid, but still a great piece I just need to break it in myself. My stropping seems to do well. I have questions on how much twist to turn the blade (torque) with to make good contact without over doing it.. also the sound. Can I go by a certain sound of how the blade moves to get a good strop? I seem to get many different sounds from what feels close to the same motion/pressure, which with concentration goes from a light drag sound (seems like not much of the blade touching) to a deeper drag (maybe too much, or just right or too much pressure on the spinde) and even a singing on occasion which im not sure what that means..
Seems to be going well so far, but will take some time as I knew, especially for detailing my facial hair and parts of my neck.
If you were bored enough to read through the entireness of my blabbering I welcome any and all comments/advice etc.. In addition I want to thank all the people who have contributed to this board. I don't know how many hours I have spent reading and going through new posts, old posts, the wiki etc but it is a lot. This is probably the only reason that I made it through O.K. Otherwise I probably would have ended up with a Gold Dollar blade and cuts all over the place :)
