Sunday, September 27
Karve C OC
Gillette Platinum(4)
Omega 618 Silver Tip
Mike's Natural Bergamot, Orange, Ylang-ylang
Pinaud Clubman Nivea Sensitive Balm
I have been using tap water for the past 2 months instead of bottled water, but I used bottled water tonight because even though the Mike's has been giving me comfortable shaves, building the lather seems to take more work than most of my other soaps. I also used my Timeless lathering bowl, as I have been using that a lot for breaking in brushes.
After what seemed like an eternity of whipping and adding more water, I let the lather sit in the bowl while I soaked my whiskers with a towel soaked in warm water. The lather still wasn't thickening up the way I like it, but I started painting it on with my nicely broken-in Omega, seeing as it wasn't going to get any thicker I took the brush back to the puck for a few swirls and started more face lathering, splaying and swirling the brush to fully moisten my whiskers. I really like this brush. It is soft, but not plush. I has some backbone. The scrub is good scrub. There is no scritch.
This will be my first full shave with the Karve.
With 144 hours since my last shave I put the Karve to my left sideburn and started with a nice sweeping pass, slow and steep I let the razor go around my jawline and stopped just shy of the scar, then proceeded with two more passes on my left side and rinsed.
Switching to my right side, the pass was the same, except as there is no scar to impede my travel, I continued on all the way down my neck on the first pass, then just around my jawline to under my neck the next two passes like the left side.
I shaved under my lips and chin N-S then rinsed and shaved my neck N-S.
As I was shaving my neck I was only tilting my head to stretch my skin. I did no skin stretching at all on my face and jawline.
While shaving my neck I also varied the angle somewhat, starting steep, moving to neutral then back to steep, I noticed the blade felt much smoother as I started to ride more of the radius on the guard, in fact it actually tickled a few of the whiskers at the base of my neck as it removed them.
Yes, I felt the blade tickle my whiskers. The blade does not flex at all. It was very comfortable.
With a bowl full of not so great lather, and my face feeling like I had not shaved yet I whipped up the lather in the bowl and proceeded to paint my face again.
I could have just rinsed and been done with the shave, it was already plenty close enough, but the brush felt so nice on my face I went back to the puck and face lathered for a second pass.
I shaved my face and chin nose to ear, the Karve providing plenty of audible feedback as I kept the angle mostly neutral for maximum comfort. I shaved my neck N-S again, keeping the razor easily at it's sweet spot somewhere between neutral and mildly steep.
I don't remember how much pressure I was using, it must have been just enough. I know the blade was there, I could almost feel it. I can sense it. I can feel how sharp it is. Even with a gap of .034" , the razor does not feel aggressive. It doesn't even feel like it
has a gap.....
I rinsed my face, then enjoyed the post shave feel as I cleaned up my gear, my face still not feeling as though I had just shaved. The Witch hazel was uneventful, but the Clubman was almost blissful. I used the Nivea to finish.
Tonight's shave was wonderful. The comfort level was maximum.