Sometimes, I will discover something related to shaving, which may be painfully obvious to seasoned shavers (my "Ah-Ha! Moments). Those times where the mental switch is flipped, the light bulb finally illuminates, and something works.
Instead of boring the community by starting a new thread and cluttering up the main forum with stuff that is likely already well known, I'll put it here.
An example of one of my AH! Moments happened a while ago:
I have struggled mightily with those pesky whisker directly under my nose. No amount of puffing, stretching, even "pig nose" enabled me to get those buggers. I had been shaving that area south-to-north as I had for years with the fifth blade on my carts, but that method just didn't work for me with DE.
One day I tried going E-W with the corner of my DE razor and even a diagonal ATG and low and behold, it worked! Ah-Ha!
Of course I posted it in the general shaving discussion forum, and probably invoked a flurry of "thanks, Captain Obvious" and "no s*** Sherlock" sentiments from some members, who of course were too nice and too diplomatic to actually post that.
So, that is my warning to anyone that is still reading this: you might learn something, but more likely you will roll your eyes.
Today's AH! Moment:
Since I began TWS with DE and SE razors, I have used a lather bowl. Save those very few times when using some old-school puck soaps like Williams or Arko, I have ALWAYS put my soap or cream into my lather bowl and whipped it with a damp brush, adding water, ect, etc...
This method works very well, and I have gotten very good results in attaining my preferred lather consistency. I also end up washing a ton of unused lather down the drain after my typical 3-pass shave. Let's face it, soap is cheap, even my MdC, on a pre-shave basis, but I'm still wasting a lot of lather.
MdC has a long-standing reputation for easy lathering, with very little product, so today I decided to use some for an old-school face lather and the results were fantastic.
I wet my Razorock Plissoft synthetic with warm water, swirled it on my MdC Rose soap about 20 times and went directly to my face. Adding warm water as needed by dipping the brush tips, I was able to create a perfect, slick lather. The shave was close and comfortable, very nice.
So, today's AH! Moment was many-fold:
I had more than enough lather for three passes, used less product, was forced to actually scrub my face with the brush to create the lather, the brush was always warm on my face as I dipped it into hot water, making the shave even more luxurious.
The main take-away was that the added time scrubbing my beard actually seemed more beneficial in hydrating my whiskers. When bowl lathering, I wash my face, then re-wet with hot water right before brushing (painting) on the lather. I'm usually a bit hasty, and probably don't scrub as much as I should, whereas face lathering requires a good scrub.
So, I'll still use my beloved Captain's Choice bowl for creams and croaps, but for hard soaps I am all-in on face lathering.
This AH! Moment has been thoughtfully brought to you by me...
...and I did warn you that it would be painfully mundane.
Tune in next time for my latest AH! Moment, otherwise known as: "I can't believe he didn't already know this!" There may not be many more, or any more for that matter - I'm suggestion resistant, and a slow adapter.
Instead of boring the community by starting a new thread and cluttering up the main forum with stuff that is likely already well known, I'll put it here.
An example of one of my AH! Moments happened a while ago:
I have struggled mightily with those pesky whisker directly under my nose. No amount of puffing, stretching, even "pig nose" enabled me to get those buggers. I had been shaving that area south-to-north as I had for years with the fifth blade on my carts, but that method just didn't work for me with DE.
One day I tried going E-W with the corner of my DE razor and even a diagonal ATG and low and behold, it worked! Ah-Ha!
Of course I posted it in the general shaving discussion forum, and probably invoked a flurry of "thanks, Captain Obvious" and "no s*** Sherlock" sentiments from some members, who of course were too nice and too diplomatic to actually post that.
So, that is my warning to anyone that is still reading this: you might learn something, but more likely you will roll your eyes.
Today's AH! Moment:
Since I began TWS with DE and SE razors, I have used a lather bowl. Save those very few times when using some old-school puck soaps like Williams or Arko, I have ALWAYS put my soap or cream into my lather bowl and whipped it with a damp brush, adding water, ect, etc...
This method works very well, and I have gotten very good results in attaining my preferred lather consistency. I also end up washing a ton of unused lather down the drain after my typical 3-pass shave. Let's face it, soap is cheap, even my MdC, on a pre-shave basis, but I'm still wasting a lot of lather.
MdC has a long-standing reputation for easy lathering, with very little product, so today I decided to use some for an old-school face lather and the results were fantastic.
I wet my Razorock Plissoft synthetic with warm water, swirled it on my MdC Rose soap about 20 times and went directly to my face. Adding warm water as needed by dipping the brush tips, I was able to create a perfect, slick lather. The shave was close and comfortable, very nice.
So, today's AH! Moment was many-fold:
I had more than enough lather for three passes, used less product, was forced to actually scrub my face with the brush to create the lather, the brush was always warm on my face as I dipped it into hot water, making the shave even more luxurious.
The main take-away was that the added time scrubbing my beard actually seemed more beneficial in hydrating my whiskers. When bowl lathering, I wash my face, then re-wet with hot water right before brushing (painting) on the lather. I'm usually a bit hasty, and probably don't scrub as much as I should, whereas face lathering requires a good scrub.
So, I'll still use my beloved Captain's Choice bowl for creams and croaps, but for hard soaps I am all-in on face lathering.
This AH! Moment has been thoughtfully brought to you by me...
...and I did warn you that it would be painfully mundane.
Tune in next time for my latest AH! Moment, otherwise known as: "I can't believe he didn't already know this!" There may not be many more, or any more for that matter - I'm suggestion resistant, and a slow adapter.