So I figured I'd wait a few days and let my beard grow in nice and thick before starting week 4 of shaving, but that may have been a mistake.
I shaved today after 2 days growth, and the pulling was something fierce...
Prep was a warm towel wrap with my VDH glycerin and TOM mint lather combination, and I went heavy on the VDH today on purpose to add extra glide to the shave. I started with a Derby that was on shave #4 after having been hand stropped and figured I would let it have one more go for the thinning and I would switch to a new blade for the finish work. I want for reduction rather than elimination as I knew I couldn't expect to get all of the hair off at once without serious issues, but even still it didn't seem to want to come off.
Neither the hand stropped Derby on pass 1 or the new Derby on pass 2 could cut my beard without tugging, no matter how gently I tried to go at it. Out of frustration over how little cutting was occuring on my neck, I went S-N for pass #2 until that pulled and I realized I was at risk for razor burn, I went for another N-S to try and reduce it but that did very little if anything... I finished pass 2 after having tried some XTG on my jawline and just said the heck with it and washed off.
I'm suprised how little my face hurts, I must have done this mostly right, but it's not as happy as it normally is for sure. How am I supposed to go about tacking this type of thing in the future? I'm not sure my face would be up for 3-4 N-S passes just to knock things back enough to be managable...
I shaved today after 2 days growth, and the pulling was something fierce...
Prep was a warm towel wrap with my VDH glycerin and TOM mint lather combination, and I went heavy on the VDH today on purpose to add extra glide to the shave. I started with a Derby that was on shave #4 after having been hand stropped and figured I would let it have one more go for the thinning and I would switch to a new blade for the finish work. I want for reduction rather than elimination as I knew I couldn't expect to get all of the hair off at once without serious issues, but even still it didn't seem to want to come off.
Neither the hand stropped Derby on pass 1 or the new Derby on pass 2 could cut my beard without tugging, no matter how gently I tried to go at it. Out of frustration over how little cutting was occuring on my neck, I went S-N for pass #2 until that pulled and I realized I was at risk for razor burn, I went for another N-S to try and reduce it but that did very little if anything... I finished pass 2 after having tried some XTG on my jawline and just said the heck with it and washed off.
I'm suprised how little my face hurts, I must have done this mostly right, but it's not as happy as it normally is for sure. How am I supposed to go about tacking this type of thing in the future? I'm not sure my face would be up for 3-4 N-S passes just to knock things back enough to be managable...