30 Days Straight

Weve all been there, for me it was when your confidence goes up and you just drop the attention to seeing where the blade edge is . All part of the fun- feel the sting wait for the seconds to pass to see how bad its going to be and then reach for the Alum Bar ( small nick ) styptic pencil (bigger nick) plaster ( hungover should really not of considered shaving nick ) but its definately better to stick to shaving as much as possible, with practise the cuts get a lot less and the shave is a lot faster and easier. Dont be discouraged.
 
I caught my ear earlier on this year and it would just not stop despite holding tissue to the nick. I finally managed to stop it by applying some foot powder - I'd read that talcum powder is effective but didn't have any available. I keep some talc handy now as a back-up to alum and styptic pencil.
 
Does the talc actually slow the bleeding or just soak up the evidence.
And don't worry, I'm not put off. It's more that I am away and didn't want the faff.
Back on the straight on Saturday :)
 
DAY 1
So I start late. I am out at the crack of dawn tomorrow so shaved tonight.
Two pass. Shower with a bit of Liz Earle face wash, a hot flannel and Nannys Rose Geranium soap.
I bowl lather and tried with my Simpsons Chubby 2. I swing between loving and not getting on with this brush. I have yet to find a sweet spot with it.
I used a vintage Thomas Klas square nosed razor. I stropped it with about 30 passes on linen and then about 40 on leather - one of Neil's inexpensive strops. I am ashamed to say I have nicked it and got a few strains on it from the one occasion I traveled with it. But I bought it learn on and take away with me.
The shave was pleasant. Not quite BBS, but pretty good. No cuts or nicks and pleasant with the alum. The only mild sting was from my neckline. Finished off with some Liz Earle moisturiser.
I am firmly right handed, which makes its tricky. And I seem to really struggle with my jawline. Any tips?
I will probably miss tomorrow as it will be a long day with travel and work so will be back with the blade on Tuesday.
Tara, Al
 
interesting thread - I'm also about to start a month long feather artist club stint.

It was an birthday gift so I've held off until my birthday month to give it a proper go. I'll also be using erasmic cream to keep things on an even footing. I was on the straight passaround and Mikael suggests just doing the cheeks until you feel more confident to tackle the curvier parts of your face.

I used a shavette a few years ago (before i got into DE) with reasonable results but gave up because i didnt have a good technique. I'll keep an eye on the thread to see how you guys are faring
 
Alistair72 said:
Does the talc actually slow the bleeding or just soak up the evidence.
And don't worry, I'm not put off. It's more that I am away and didn't want the faff.
Back on the straight on Saturday :)
Click to expand...

I'm a bit late getting back to this - the talc (or athlete's foot powder in my case) helped the clotting process and worked very quickly. I should add that I was and still am taking blood thinning medication so even minor nicks can be a PITA.

A couple of weeks ago I ordered some Martin de Candre soaps and noticed that they did a talcum powder that includes alum and is recommended for excessive sweating. I'm now using this daily along with an alum stick under arms because even though the alum stick is a good deodorant it doesn't work as an anti-perspirant. However, the two combined are OK and I reckon that the talc will be even better if I need it to stem a cut given that it has alum in it.
 
The jaw line isn't the easiest especially if its quite angular, its just practise and watching different peoples videos to see their techniques and go with what feel right. If you see MESSUR RASUR on you tube you will see an expert guy going upwards from neck to top of his cheek looking effortless in one stroke- four years in I am still not going to try that stroke especially not under my nose ! so I use a wtg , xtg another wtg stroke to finish off but sweep a final xtg along my jaw line with my head tilted well over. Hard to explain but I think you get to map your own face and through practise find what combination of strokes works, Magnus has quite a few videos on here- worth a watch.
 
Well, tonight my 30 days straight starts. I have been using straights on and off for around ten years, for the first few years it was all I used and my technique got quite good over that period. As posted before I don't think I have been using one enough to keep up the muscle memory/hand eye co-ordination which has been leading to a lot of cuts and nicks.
So tonight is the first shave of a month with the feather. I have already found that the pro-super blades are just a bit too much for me, but over the next few weeks I may re-visit them just to make sure.
I put in a new pro-guard tonight and paired up with some La Toja and a Vulfix bodger, both are things I know very well and decided to use them to get rid of any variables. The shave was nice enough, and very smooth indeed, but I did end up with 2 small nicks and one cut. The cut was right on top of a little bit of scar tissue initially caused by a pro super blade a couple of weeks ago, more attention required round that area methinks. I shall continue for the rest of the month with the feather and a pro-guard until I get the hang of it again, sometimes I may finish off with another razor but at least the first pass shall be carried out with the feather. It would be rude to ignore the two newly arrived schick injectors, so they can do any mopping up until my technique gets back to where it was.
 
DAY 3
Cheers Brummell et al. I will go looking for videos.
Not so great today.
Prep as day one, only difference Nannys olive oil soap and a Dovo Natural razor. It wasn't great. Not cuts, no nicks. Not much sting with alum but a bit of rash round my neck at the bottom.
I think the main difference is Lincolnshire water. I didn't get a satisfactory lather (no bowel as I am traveling) so I will work on that in the morning. Over all it just felt draggy. I don't think the blade is an issue as I have had a lovely shave with this last week.
Prep, prep, prep and repeat for technique seems to be the method.
So overall, no blood and there will be more to go at in the morning...
 
DAY 4
Not had chance to watch videos yet. Slow t'interweb.
Still a poor soap, but home tomorrow with bowl and water I understand.
It occurred to me this morning that there are quite a view subtle changes of direction on my beard growth.
I think under my chin (& the bottom of my jawline) is a more diagonal line. This means I am effectively going across the grain on the first pass. Which my account for the dragging.
So four days in and I might have figured something out. I'll report back tomorrow.
 
DAY 5
Home today so back to my vintage blade. Also Lancashire water and and a much better lather. Other than that my usual prep.
This morning I tried a more diagonal line under my jawline - more with the grain as I am working out. It seemed smoother, but I ended up with a two pass (second more cross grain) to get it approaching smooth. But not BBS.
It's quite bizarre that I feel tired with the effort and as Rob pointed out at the start I am making (seemingly) no improvements. I have had much better shaves.
It feels like there are a lot of variables to fine tune; Prep, lather, blade prep, technique.
Overall though, I should point out, that even an off day with the straight is producing better results that I have had with cartridges. DE is still wining on overall smoothness, but the straight cant be far behind. I'm looking forward to a rest on Sunday thou...
 
Sounds like its coming together Alastair even if it's a lot slower than you'd like? Yesterday I had a really crap shave when the lather just disappeared as I started shaving! Was using a Trumpers soap that I've used before and it's never done that, very strange. Anyway partly because of that it was a lousy shave.

Today, back to Proraso pre and Proraso soap and I had a very good shave taking my time and trying to get a better angle. Ended up with a very close shave, was well pleased.
 
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