Striving for a Consistent Shave......

Shaving.....

Hi you guys.

First, a cold water wash & scrub of the face & head with Palmolive soap, rinsing using the bath tap for the extra flow volume & the fact that by leaning over the bath, I can splash it over me without getting it everywhere. Cue rapid skin tightening + cursing & brainfreeze, because the frostily cold water comes right off the bloody mains here, not a tank in the loft.

Cold water lathering up & working in of Arko, followed by a shiveringly obligitory 5 min wait, but time not wasted. Get coffee going, sort out cats, stand by warm radiator.

Re lather, shave face using Ever Ready & Gem (5th shave) blade:
Baby smooth, bloodless, rashless finish: three passes; first one with and across the grain, re lathering for the second shave against the grain + pulling faces & skin;
last one with a little extra water, virtually no soap,
going against the grain.

Re lather head, shave using short handled Merkur Slant
with (4th) shave Astra Platinum. Same as face passwise.

Rinsing off with plenty of cold. Brrrrr!
That's it. Clean up razors, palm strop & oil blades,
No alum needed!

Figured out how to shave with the Ever Ready.
Feather light grip, just guiding with a little light pressure to cut down and no pressure into the skin; small, gentle strokes of the blade - held almost vertical with the flat of the head lightly on the skin. What I had taken to be 'dragging' was in fact the blade edge cutting very cleanly but with just a little natural resistance from the stubble-- the blade actually makes a 'shik!' sound as it's shaving.The

These two razors are my favourites.
Ever Ready for face shaves.
Merkur Slant for head.

My thanks to you all for your advice.
You've made shaving a real pleasure.
And a bit of an addictive rabbit hole.
 
Afternoon, All!
__________________________________________
TLDNR:- Rabbit holed.
And then I learnt to shave! Again.
__________________________________________

Well, it's taken me a the best part of a year,
But I've finally gotten to the place where
The shaves I'm having are very, very good.

And by that I mean easy, smooth and....
reliably bloodless. How? Practice....

And by pulling my goddamned self
out of the many, many, many rabbit holes
I fell into, despite saying I would'nt.
I did. Blades, soaps & razors; all rabbit holes.
And me disappearing head first down
each & every one of them.

In the end, after a fair few follicular slash
& hacks - being scabby faced & headed
for a few days after some of those
barbarous blood bedizened barberings -
I had to take a step back and
put those fncking razors down.

You see, my shaves had gotten better -
as you can see from this thread.
But then I got cocky and the resulting
shaves became progressively worse.
I just couldn't fathom the reasons why.

So I took it back to absolute basics.
One razor. One soap. One method.
Because then you get consistent results.
Even if they're bad ones at least they're
consistently bad (and thus subject to
both logic & rational analysis, Captain!)

Once you've started to shave well,
well that's when you really get the practice
in and start building some real experience.
You keep doing it the right way and you
start to build solid memories of exactly
how you did that and why you did that and
what you did that with.

Hence my SoTD posts - you'll see that
for head shaves I use Merkur Slant
w/Nacet. Only. For face shaves,
An Ever Ready razor & Gem. Only.
Soap? Arko Stick.
Yup - Only.

I kept using them & just found better ways
to use them; adding the barber's brush
back in & then the soap stick dispenser
later.

Discovering that a digit firmly inserted simultaneously into each nostril to yank my conk up & out of the way - (thus providing far better traction than a single digit on the offending organ's soaped up tip) -the end result being far less bloody than need be (& previously had been) was a revelation of epic, nay, possibly biblical proportions.

Nevermind that the utterly astonished missus, bursting worriedly into the bathroom upon hearing sounds of the mortal struggle within, and with an astonished look of horror on her face at seeing her beloved husband attempting and locked into some ungodly version of BJJ on himself, screamed "Have you bern trained for this kind of operational mission!?"

All went unnoticed by myself, being far too busy smirking hard into the mirror
at a shave well done.

So have I since been tempted?
Yes. My Ever Ready collection stands at 3.
Yes. Thirdhand Razorock Hawk A Plate.
Also my old DE Gilette, Merkurs (2), KoS & a Wilkinson Sword Shavette.
Various pots & tubes of soaps, multiple DE blades.

What's on my bathroom shelf to use?
Merkur Slant & 3 Ever Readies.
Arko Stick in dispenser & Jumbo Brush.
Nacet & Gem blades & Alum block.
Various Bart's Balms.
That's it.

Sometimes less is more.
I had to learn it the hard way.

TTFN
B.
 
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We have all been there....... The variety of options can be like looking for Nirvana. It's good that you have got to a place where there is a reduction to the challenging and bloody shaves. I am in a similar place, that now I find what works and go from there. I do however still have a thing for shaving creams, but then again there are worst things to buy......

Your post should be added to a 'how to' for newbie shavers I found it very useful!

Good luck with more great shaves in the new year!!

Mark
 
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