Introduction and Newbie Question: a dubious combo

[Mac]

Greetin's from the south, y'all!

So one day, a few weeks ago, I was shaving with my Gillette Fusion and not having a good time of it. The thought occured to me: I am holding a battery powered, vibrating piece of plastic to my face.

I am shaving with a dildo.

Worse, I'm paying ~$4/week (cartridge) to do it.

Well that was the end of that. I did some research (maybe not enough), and today my merkur futur and tube of proraso arrived from North Palm Springs, care of classicshaving.com. Incidentally, CS matched the price and then some on the futur, which I had found for $5 less elsewhere. Okay, shameless plug over.

Research has indicated that I'd prefer Boar over badger. My preference is for more "scrub" than soft, so I copped out and got a boar brush. I'll see how that works out for a couple weeks and then I might step up to a vulfix or the E&C brush. So I've been shaving with Williams mug soap for a few weeks and here arises my newbie question:

How do I shave with tube cream? With the mug soap it was obvious enough for someone like me to pick up on. But with tube cream, is it like toothpaste on a toothbrush? Do I soak the brush and just squeeze the tube onto it?

Thanks in advance, and it really looks like a great community you guys have here, I hope to be a part of it. Strip clubs and shaving seem to be the last bastion of masculinity, and I don't carry enough one dollar bills for the former.

[Scotto]

Welcome Mac.

Soak your brush for a bit in warm water. Shake it out a bit, put a snurdle* of cream in a bowl and whip the heck out of it. Sounds easy, right?

If you want to lather straight on your face, just put that snurdle on your brush after it has been soaked and shaken.

I have never used a boar brush, so you'll have to play around with how much or how little water to leave in it.


*start with about 3/4 inch to start. Less will work, but better to learn with too much than too little

[Queen of Blades]

Welcome to B&B.

Innuendo! Look it up.

[mantic]

Welcome Mac--

Coincidentally I'm working on a video that might help you out. Check out this thread. Pay particular attention to the part that starts about 6:30 into the first video as it goes into lathering with a boar brush and shaving cream.

--Mark

[Leisureguy]

Wonderful intro!

Yeah, use a lathering bowl. You can add driblets of hot water as you develop the lather. Here's a good tutorial on building lather from a cream.

One problem that guys moving from a cartridge razor often have is using too much pressure. The cartridge is pretty forgiving of that, but not the DE razor. So the rule is: for a closer shave, use more passes, not more pressure.

I have the Futur and like it. I started with the setting at 1 (least aggressive) and adjusted it upward until I had a shave I liked. That was at 1.5. So don't feel you have to start out at the macho settings.

Welcome.

[Jim]

Welcome Mac

[Tito]

Originally Posted by Mac

I am shaving with a dildo.

Got to love that southern wit and charm. Saying things like that is why everyone picks on us.

Get a bowl. Squirt some in it and lather up in the bowl. Use the same prep you would for soap.

[Mac]

Originally Posted by mantic

Welcome Mac--

Coincidentally I'm working on a video that might help you out. Check out this thread. Pay particular attention to the part that starts about 6:30 into the first video as it goes into lathering with a boar brush and shaving cream.

--Mark

Mark:

Great work. Very informative, with comedic value to boot. A novice's dream, and with your permission, I'd love to pass this around to some other shavers.

One question though: the execution of the passes? You covered the direction of the passes in perfect detail, but should the nature of the pass ( with a DE razor) be short strokes, like a paintbrush? Or, wide swaths? Common sense would indicate the former, but I'm old enough to know that common sense doesn't always answer the question.

Again, I thank you. You've provided an excellent resource for us novices, and made it fun, to boot.

[mantic]

Originally Posted by Mac

Mark:

Great work. Very informative, with comedic value to boot. A novice's dream, and with your permission, I'd love to pass this around to some other shavers.

One question though: the execution of the passes? You covered the direction of the passes in perfect detail, but should the nature of the pass ( with a DE razor) be short strokes, like a paintbrush? Or, wide swaths? Common sense would indicate the former, but I'm old enough to know that common sense doesn't always answer the question.

Again, I thank you. You've provided an excellent resource for us novices, and made it fun, to boot.

Mac-- Glad you liked it. Don't pass the link around just yet though, as I'm tweaking the video to reflect a number of constructive critisisms (see the thread). DE passes should be in short strokes, no more than one inch long for the beginner.

--Mark

[fret]

Your intro conjures up nicknames other than Mac but I'll leave it at that .
Welcome aboard and keep up the entertaining images!

[htownmmm]

Originally Posted by Mac

Greetin's from the south, y'all!

So one day, a few weeks ago, I was shaving with my Gillette Fusion and not having a good time of it. The thought occured to me: I am holding a battery powered, vibrating piece of plastic to my face.

I am shaving with a dildo.

Worse, I'm paying ~$4/week (cartridge) to do it.

Thanks in advance, and it really looks like a great community you guys have here, I hope to be a part of it. Strip clubs and shaving seem to be the last bastion of masculinity, and I don't carry enough one dollar bills for the former.

Great Intro, Mac! welcome to the collective; resistance is futile- you will be assimilated!

Marty

[Mac]

An Update, of sorts:

Well, the mistakes I did make would've been avoided if I'd read on a couple more minutes, but being a "who needs directions?" kind of guy, I rushed into it. That's okay: anything less than a quart of blood and a whole roll of toilet paper is cheap tuition.

Prep: took a hot shower. I used the boar brush and some Wilsons Mug Soap and scrubbed well to cleanse/prep my face. I really like the boar for this as it feels like it's exfoliating more than a softer brush would.

Lesson learned: lather in a bowl. Prior to shaving, I preheated the bowl itself by filling it with water and then microwaving until it boiled. I heard the aftershave at the burn ward stinks, so I tossed the water before I shaved.

I read Joel's thread about the hot water pot, and it gave me idea: my coffeemaker is a "thermal carafe" rig. So I ran a couple batches of clean water through it and brought it to the sink with me. Cords were just one more I could screw up. Worked pretty well, I had piping hot water the whole time.

Still to learn: how to keep the lather warm/hot. The lather was pretty cool by the time I finished (granted, the whole thing took about 25 minutes). I'm sure there's an answer to that on B&B, but none of my searches have as yet yielded a solution.

Stuck to simple NS passes and an ear-to-nose or two. Lesson learned: the scale of adjustability on the Futur. Yup, I had it backwards and thought that 6 was the least agressive, and that 1 was supposed to mean, "closest" shave. Could've been worse, as I had it set to 3.

Lesson Learned: get more, new, blades ASAP. If I'd read more, I wouldn't have used the blade that came with the Futur. D'oh.

Does anyone know where I can pick up some feather blades in short order? I'm in the Atlanta area, and orders from classicshaving take a couple days to get here. If there was an actual store I could walk into and walk out of with the blades, that would be best.

Even so, it was a great experience, and the results were not too shabby. The Proraso was amazing. Perfect for steamy Georgia mornings where you wake up at 7 and it's already 85+ (degrees and humidity) Still a much better shaving experience than any other I've had, and I look forward to many more and better in the future.

[BGog]

Welcome to the party Mac!

One great way to keep your lather hot is to use a Moss Scuttle. A wonderful woman, Sara Bonnyman, makes them by hand up in Canada. They are essentially a pot broken into two sections, upper and lower. You fill the lower part with boiling water and the bowel on the top, where you put your shaving cream and brush, remains pipping hot throughout the shave.

You can find them here. http://www.sarabonnymanpottery.com/

[Jim]

Originally Posted by BGog

Welcome to the party Mac!

One great way to keep your lather hot is to use a Moss Scuttle. A wonderful woman, Sara Bonnyman, makes them by hand up in Canada. They are essentially a pot broken into two sections, upper and lower. You fill the lower part with boiling water and the bowel on the top, where you put your shaving cream and brush, remains pipping hot throughout the shave.

You can find them here. http://www.sarabonnymanpottery.com/

I could not agree more about Sara , in the short haul you could do any number of keep it hot schemes from a coffee cup on one of those keep your coffee hot hotplates after you create the lather you can park the brush in a smaller cup or bowl or set up a double boiler with a hot water bath under your bowl (bowl in a bowl) keep reading the posts on the board as well for more info- here are a couple
Scottos FAQ

newbie to newbie-click here

leisure guy


kYLE

[mrob]

Welcome, Mac! Looks like you're going to be adding a lot to our discussions here! Post and post often!