I'm about 2 minutes removed from what was probably the worst shave of my life. I loaded the second blade from my sampler pack, a shark super stainless, in my fat handle tech. I bought a set of soaps on the 'bay a while ago, which I have been working with and have finally got quite a nice lather from (I'll be posting a review of the soap once my sd card stops acting up.) Anyway, I followed my usual prep; first a shower. Set my bowl, razor, and brush in a sink of hot water, washed my face with my shaving soap, leaving the lather on for a minute or two. Whipped up a nice looking lather, thick and slick. Put the razor to my face. And all hell broke loose.
I'll spare you all the gory details, but to give the idea, the water in my sink was pink by the time I was 3 stokes into the ATG pass. Normally I'm a trial-by-fire guy. I'll take a fair amount of irritation for a close shave. But this was absurd.
I slowed down, took shorter strokes, attempted to apply less pressure, changed my angle a dozen and 1/2 times, all to no avail. Trying to eliminate every variable, I ditched the soap and whipped up some proraso. At this point my face was so raw I really couldn't tell if it was any better.
I think my problem was a dud blade, as I doubt any proper blade could do that much damage, especially one so highly regarded around here.
Not wanting to leave half shaved, I finally decided to slip back into the old routine: A bic disposable and a bottle of olive oil. 2 minutes later I was smooth with no further irritation. Finished up with alum, witch hazel, aqua velva, adidas ASB, and olive oil.
All the long-windedness to get to this point. While I will not deny that I'm enjoying all the ritual to this, I'm not really sure its worth it when I was able to consistently get better results in 4-5 minutes with the olive oil and Bic. Sure my shaves are usually nowhere near this bad. But to get near BBS, its hit or miss with the irritation. Grease and plastic always yielded little to none. About once a week I'm getting bit by the blade, leaving an ugly red line on my neck. I never had these problems with the bic or even my straight razor.
On the bright side I'll have a few days to map out some new facial hair. And to decide if I want to try another shark or move on to the 7 o'clocks.
~Zac
I'll spare you all the gory details, but to give the idea, the water in my sink was pink by the time I was 3 stokes into the ATG pass. Normally I'm a trial-by-fire guy. I'll take a fair amount of irritation for a close shave. But this was absurd.
I slowed down, took shorter strokes, attempted to apply less pressure, changed my angle a dozen and 1/2 times, all to no avail. Trying to eliminate every variable, I ditched the soap and whipped up some proraso. At this point my face was so raw I really couldn't tell if it was any better.
I think my problem was a dud blade, as I doubt any proper blade could do that much damage, especially one so highly regarded around here.
Not wanting to leave half shaved, I finally decided to slip back into the old routine: A bic disposable and a bottle of olive oil. 2 minutes later I was smooth with no further irritation. Finished up with alum, witch hazel, aqua velva, adidas ASB, and olive oil.
All the long-windedness to get to this point. While I will not deny that I'm enjoying all the ritual to this, I'm not really sure its worth it when I was able to consistently get better results in 4-5 minutes with the olive oil and Bic. Sure my shaves are usually nowhere near this bad. But to get near BBS, its hit or miss with the irritation. Grease and plastic always yielded little to none. About once a week I'm getting bit by the blade, leaving an ugly red line on my neck. I never had these problems with the bic or even my straight razor.
On the bright side I'll have a few days to map out some new facial hair. And to decide if I want to try another shark or move on to the 7 o'clocks.
~Zac
Last edited:
