- Joined
- Monday September 28, 2009
I was given the gift of a straight razor shave at The Barber Shop in Clifton Village, Bristol as a present for Christmas that due to a hectic schedule I only managed to get to yesterday. I've waited until today to tell this tale as I wanted to cool off a bit and be objective, you'll find out why later.
The Good bits
The free shot of whiskey, mine was about a quad!
The Bad bit
The shave.
I'll elucidate that last bit....
At no point was I asked about my own shaving habits and no attempt was made to ascertain my direction of beard growth. Also none of the shave process was explained, the mental notes about creams, blades etc are just from memory.
Started off with hot towels to prep the face and whilst I was under wraps as very wet lather using Trumpers Lavender and a moss scuttle was prepared. The lather was then applied. I face lather so it was nice with the hot lather from the moss scuttle, albeit a very, very wet lather. This is when the problems started..... The first "pass" went against the grain with so much pressure I feared that nicks and cuts were a possible, maybe even a probable. He occasionally re-lathered a spot to re-attempt a scrape even mentioning that I had a tough beard. The shave finished quickly, at a guess it lasted less than 5 minutes. No second pass, just a bit of touch up. An alum piece was passed long my jaw ridge "that'll sting a bit" followed by a hot towel and then a cold towel. A touch of moisturiser and then the shot of whiskey "to help the pain". At this point my face is already on fire and he proceeds to add petrol by liberally spraying an alcohol based aftershave all over me, I almost took off the pain was so bad "ahh, the sting, all part of the experience!".
He wasn't happy so offered me a free shave, we said our goodbyes and we left.
Half way up the street I asked my wife if I was still bleeding, an affirmative answer confirmed the fears I had when I was in the chair. 40 minutes later I was home, my face on fire, I proceeded to wash it in ice cold water for 5 minutes. After this I counted 20 small nicks on my chin, jaw line and neck. It could have been more but the rush of blood was covering several patches on my neck.
With liberal use of alum, proraso nick relief and moisturiser I managed to stem the flow and calm my face down a bit. 8 hours later when I went to bed it was still burning. As I write this now nearly 30 hours later patches of my chin and neck are still burning and have red patches.
Rather annoyingly, despite the pain, the shave wasn't even close, worse than when I was a goo & Mach3 user.
Anyone like to guess if I'll go back for my "free" shave?
The Good bits
The free shot of whiskey, mine was about a quad!
The Bad bit
The shave.
I'll elucidate that last bit....
At no point was I asked about my own shaving habits and no attempt was made to ascertain my direction of beard growth. Also none of the shave process was explained, the mental notes about creams, blades etc are just from memory.
Started off with hot towels to prep the face and whilst I was under wraps as very wet lather using Trumpers Lavender and a moss scuttle was prepared. The lather was then applied. I face lather so it was nice with the hot lather from the moss scuttle, albeit a very, very wet lather. This is when the problems started..... The first "pass" went against the grain with so much pressure I feared that nicks and cuts were a possible, maybe even a probable. He occasionally re-lathered a spot to re-attempt a scrape even mentioning that I had a tough beard. The shave finished quickly, at a guess it lasted less than 5 minutes. No second pass, just a bit of touch up. An alum piece was passed long my jaw ridge "that'll sting a bit" followed by a hot towel and then a cold towel. A touch of moisturiser and then the shot of whiskey "to help the pain". At this point my face is already on fire and he proceeds to add petrol by liberally spraying an alcohol based aftershave all over me, I almost took off the pain was so bad "ahh, the sting, all part of the experience!".
He wasn't happy so offered me a free shave, we said our goodbyes and we left.
Half way up the street I asked my wife if I was still bleeding, an affirmative answer confirmed the fears I had when I was in the chair. 40 minutes later I was home, my face on fire, I proceeded to wash it in ice cold water for 5 minutes. After this I counted 20 small nicks on my chin, jaw line and neck. It could have been more but the rush of blood was covering several patches on my neck.
With liberal use of alum, proraso nick relief and moisturiser I managed to stem the flow and calm my face down a bit. 8 hours later when I went to bed it was still burning. As I write this now nearly 30 hours later patches of my chin and neck are still burning and have red patches.
Rather annoyingly, despite the pain, the shave wasn't even close, worse than when I was a goo & Mach3 user.
Anyone like to guess if I'll go back for my "free" shave?
