- Thread starter
- #521
@Mr. Shavington , I want to thank you for your thoughtful response. I'm doing much the same thing. Months ago now, though it seems like yesterday, @Cal told me...... Always wear your white belt. Along with @never-stop-learning 's very SN.. that's my goal... always remain the student.Yes, I think I do mean better bad shaves. I’m sure my bad shaves are also a lot better than my good shaves used to be.
What’s your journal telling you so far? Any clear threads that run through your best shaves and are absent from your bad ones?
Thinking back, I suspect my breakthroughs included:
Any of that similar to your experience, or anything different?
- Using glycerine soap for my pre-shave wash
- Smearing some in-progress lather on my beard so the stubble doesn’t dry while I’m still working on my lather
- Spending longer on lathering and adding more water so it’s still creamy but it’s just about to start running down my neck
- Learning to use a lighter touch with the razor
- Learning that my hair growth direction isn’t what I think it is in some small areas - and sometimes the growth direction changes
- Moving away from aggressive razors and learning that mild razors can be just as efficient if you are better at keeping the angle and using less pressure
- Learning that razors which make the blade edge rigid work much better on my tougher stubble against the grain and allow me to cut better with less pressure
- Not settling for a good enough shave, but rather demanding a certain shave result and experimenting with different things until I can reliably get the result I want without irritation. If I get a less closely shaved area or irritation somewhere, I specifically plan to do something different there next shave - I learned much faster once I determined not to accept imperfection and keep doing the same thing
- Discovering the joy of witch hazel, which surely does nothing at all but has become my favourite part of the shave
I also like to use mild razors but sharp blades and my own aggressive, home-made shaving techniques, which I avoid talking about because they are surely unwise and I don’t want to be responsible for anyone else’s injuries. It just works well for me, the way I want the shave to end up. But don’t try this at home.
I wouldn't want to hazard a guess at your own special techniques but I know I adapt as I'm shaving.. to the razor, to the blade, soap, whiskers... everything. With that bad blade, I knew it wasn't working well.. and as @LRod suggested in one of the Green Cult threads, I knew on the first WTG stroke something wasn't right. I should have changed the blade out immediately but I plowed on. I did my usual two pass shave: WTG and ATG.... but wasn't getting the close shaves I normally get so I did an odd XRG pass, throwing in different angles, etc., and that's how I ended up getting a satisfying end result. It just took too long and a lot of extra effort.. no weepers or cuts. Like I said... it wasn't relaxing, comfortable or smooth.... but I did get the closeness I expect.