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Shaving back to being a chore?

OP: You need some excitement in your boring life. Have an affair with your boss's wife. Bet big on the ponies. Take up sky diving, or polo.

Seriously, this shaving thing is not for everyone.

LOL I don't know if the bitterness in this post is genuine or sarcastic. Assuming you're in earnest, I'll just say I've already sampled a few from your list. So this first-hand experience allows me to classify your list as a list of cheap thrills.
 
No way. How can such a nice hobby become “boring”? You’re just not being challenged by the vast wealth of knowledge around you. Join all the shaving sites and get connected with some very nice folks who are anxious to lead you along the pathway to nirvana which is wet shaving.


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Look, I actually think this is fine, normal, and much more common than we on B&B would like to imagine.

Many people are motivated to learn wetshaving because their previous shaving style wasn’t giving them the results they wanted.

Once people get to a place where their shaving does give them the desired results... the job is done. I bet a lot of people move on with their lives and focus on other things, having brought this skill up to the point where they’re satisfied with it.

I don’t think a high percentage of people turn it into a hobby the way most of us here have.
 
Comes down to speed of the passes -- carefree swiping vs. a measured slower approach.
Clogging is a non-factor.

Never had a carefree problem of a slow approach with my DE,but I guess I have been doing it for so long that I don't even think about it .

Get out of the shower,rub some shaving foam on my wet stubble and go to town with my DE for a 5 minute ,4 pass BBS shave...no muss no fuss.

On the other hand a modern razor always slows me down because it is so inefficient.
 
Shaving will always be a chore, because us beardless ones must shave with boring regularity. But chores don't have to be boring in themselves, if we use the best tools available and allot the few minutes needed to do the job right.
 

Chandu

I Waxed The Badger.
@Razorcan What you say about lathering once and using residual foam is a huge time saver. Rarely will I lather more than once. I use soaps, creams, and canned foams. Residual slickness is where it's at. Once the long hair comes up with the first pass, just rewet a little and get a very close subsequent pass without the cushion getting in the way. I do two pass, wtg, atg and touch ups. I do my touch ups with just witchhazel.
 

Chandu

I Waxed The Badger.
Any of you fall back into the rut of shaving being a chore? Did you get out? Any advice for my situation? Care to start a support group LOL!

Since you've dialed in the razor and blade combo, throw yourself a curve. Get a sampler pack. Try different blades until you find one you don't care for. Figure out how to get a good shave out of it. That could involve, thicker, thinner, lather, speed, angle, any number of factors. That will keep your brain busy for awhile.

Or pick up some cheap disposables and see if you can get a good shave now that your techniques have improved.

Or see how long you can use one blade.

Find some way to change something up.
 
@Razorcan What you say about lathering once and using residual foam is a huge time saver. Rarely will I lather more than once. I use soaps, creams, and canned foams. Residual slickness is where it's at. Once the long hair comes up with the first pass, just rewet a little and get a very close subsequent pass without the cushion getting in the way. I do two pass, wtg, atg and touch ups. I do my touch ups with just witchhazel.

Exactly,no need to relather and waste time (not to mention that your face will thank you for not rubbing a hard brush or extra soap ,if you apply your shaving foam or cream by hand, on a freshly shaven area that is already very vulnerable and tender :001_smile)
 
I will look into synthetics; thanks for the suggestion. SE and SR are out for now, still interested, just right now not feeling like mastering different skillsets. I did try the GC .84 a few times, found it rough on my face.




Thanks for the advice. I do about half of what you suggest; the other half I'll take up in the coming days.



I think you got the right picture. The challenge of DE shaving is largely gone for me. While there are a couple of razors and such I'd like to try, I've come to the realization that a razor is a razor, and a new raved-about razor is unlikely to improve my shaves significantly. (Didn't mean to sound so nihilistic!) I think what led me to this realization is when I finally got the Game Changer 68, which is a lot of people's favorite, and realizing it only shaves OK (slightly worse than the first razor I shaved with).



Great suggestion RE music. I'll incorporate it.

With everything you wrote so far, I think that you are in the rare position for B&B members to actually save money by shaving with a DE razor! :thumbup:
 
@Razorcan .......... Residual slickness is where it's at. ............

How true. Residual slickness is something I look for in a great soap. The best soaps maintain residual slickness without even adding water.

With some soaps, a splash of water with restore slickness even when no visible lather is present.

With a few soaps and creams, even adding water will not provide sufficient residual slickness for buffing strokes without irritation. I find that many traditional shave soaps and creams (DRH, TOBS, GFT, T&H, and Williams) are somewhat lacking in residual slickness. With them, I have to re-lather before doing a touch-up.
 
Residual slickness is a relatively new term in B&B. The first occurrences I found of the words started in 2016, and the frequency increased in 2018 and 2019. I missed the concept because the idea of three passes with soap is more popular.

On 1 Apr 19, I started doing two passes instead of three. I buffed with only water. The shave was as close as three passes, so on 29 Apr 2019, I started doing one pass with soap and two passes with water. I rinsed with water before the second and third pass. The second pass was the right side of my face. The third pass was the left side. I did minor buffing on the second and third pass. The shave has steadily gotten closer. So close, I became concerned about ingrown whiskers. The secret for me was a touch so light I didn't deflect the skin at all, and there was zero feedback from the blade. I didn't stretch my skin at all.

I used WMS for all the shaves. The difference may be that the Van der Hagen razer has a 24 degree shaving angle instead of the 30 degree angle most other razors have.

I shaved every day, which might have made a difference.

This may evolve into not using soap at all. I'll start experimenting with a second daily shave about eight hours after my first. If it works, my minimalism will be reduced to one razor and one type of blade.
 

musicman1951

three-tu-tu, three-tu-tu
Wow, after three months! Your biggest problem is obvious: you're not spending enough money. Get a few more razors and a pile of soap.

While you're shopping: every once in a blue moon instead of a BBS I do a HAS (half-donkeyed shave, although around here I think we call it a DFS) with only one pass. It's very quick and I get to "enjoy" the lousy shave all day. That usually snaps me out of the doldrums.
 
Residual slickness is a relatively new term in B&B. The first occurrences I found of the words started in 2016, and the frequency increased in 2018 and 2019. I missed the concept because the idea of three passes with soap is more popular.

Spot on. Before it was slickness (positive) we knew it as greasiness (negative) and was frowned upon as residual oily film that's difficult to rinse off. The constant pursuit for daily BBS with purchases towards sharper blades and more aggressive razors, as well as more shavers diving in SR waters, made greasiness/slickness an advantage.

In your case with Williams, being a very slick soap, it's an advantage. Try lathering with Proraso only once and doing additional passes with reapplying only water. I don't see it going well.
 
When I first started proper DE shaving (about 3 months ago), I was excited to start the ritual everyday. Of course the process of learning to lather and handle the blade added to the excitement. I guess I've been lucky since I started with a razor+blade combo that worked for me, so I pretty quickly figured out how to give myself a painless BBS.

So now I find the excitement largely gone. I know I can give myself a very smooth shave when I take the 5-10 minutes to do it properly. But shaving is quickly reverting back to chore status. Last couple of days, I even found myself (gasp!) dreading it, specifically the tediousness and involved nature of traditional shaving: prep brush 5 minutes before, 2-3 passes with rinses in between, wash razor and brush carefully, dry brush, treat face post-shaving.

Any of you fall back into the rut of shaving being a chore? Did you get out? Any advice for my situation? Care to start a support group LOL!

My intent has always been to experience the past and so, I sought for vintage razors. As a results, I’ve amassed a great collection of DE, SE, and straight razors which keep me excited about shaving.

Some enjoy the hunt for rare razors. My favorite threads are when they get into the weeds about old stuff.

So, I would suggest letting your shaving be more about something else than shaving. Just a suggestion.
 
...Try lathering with Proraso only once and doing additional passes with reapplying only water. I don't see it going well.

I pretty much did this, this morning using Proraso and no additional water on face to ready for subsequent passes. Worked out fine and will repeat tomorrow, not truly multiple passes everywhere more just touch up on spots missed initially. Should cement my focus and up mt technique if my mindset is on doing it right the first pass no second/third/fourth chances.
dave
 
I've always shaved DE/SE shave except when I tried carts when new ones came out (razor burn, ingrown hairs) tossed them all. I always found my morning shave as "Me Time". a time to reflect on the day or just enjoy my shave. Soak my brush while I shower, then work my lather, hot water prep and shave, rinse, after shave. "Me Time" has lasted me nearly 60 years. I rarely missed my morning shave.
 
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