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Flask's newbie adventure

Chan Eil Whiskers

Fumbling about.
Captain of the Obvious (meme).jpg



Mostly I'm too stupid to understand the mechanics and engineering aspects of razor design. Apparently they're far more obvious to some guys.

Beyond what Mike @Esox and a few other gentlemen and I did way back as we explored blade clamping I can't say I fully understand anything. Some of what I've learned from Grant @ShavingByTheNumbers and some of what I've learned from Mike about skin flow related to gap makes sense, has stuck with me, and is helpful. I find caveats to most things I think I know.



I am his apprentice.​
Captain Feedback.jpg



The really big technique breakthrough for me occurred learning the Schick injectors. It was a frustrating process. I went about it wrong. I received bad advice or didn't understand good advice. I found it very hard to shift from what I already knew from DE and AC safety razors. Shifting to the injector was hard. Getting an acceptable shave was elusive.

Giving up on everything I knew helped. Abandoning any attempt to understand advice and just shaving by feedback from the razor (probably the blade) made all the difference.
  • How does it feel?
  • Is it removing lather and whiskers?
  • How does it sound?
  • Am I paying attention to the tactile and audible feedback and getting the message?
  • Is it a good shave I'm getting?
  • Is there still room for another pass or several more passes should I want or need to go closer?
  • Above all is it also a damn comfortable shave?
Feedback can be understood in a quantitative manner but mostly my understanding is qualitative. What are the sound qualities? The vibrations? What qualities are associated with this moment's blade and skin interaction and what are they telling me?

Previous to my feedback epiphany a few friends and I have discussed the degree of pressure or no pressure required and/or ideal.

In my view, the blade should "skate" across the surface almost not touching the skin. I realize much of what we feel on our skin is not the blade but the guard and I realize there are various ways of thinking about this matter of pressure. Some razors may require more pressure; perhaps that means more pressure of the razor; it does not mean more pressure of the blade edge (according to me). No edge is below the skin's surface as it cuts whiskers.

Fo me blade feel is a foolish form of feedback. My skin is what I'd call average. It can become dry. It can become inflamed. With much blade feel I can't tolerate shaving ATG on my upper lip. Plus I don't find much blade feel necessary as a feedback component.

With more ability to hear well without hearing aids I'd be better able to shave by feedback. One might think I'd thus be better at the tactile side of the feedback equation. Yet here I am still learning about pressure and everything else.



Associate Captain of the Steep (meme).jpg
If anything I default to the steep and start with the steep, but feedback trumps everything else.



I'm not complaining. Quite the opposite. My shaves are great. I'm enjoying the learning curve. I don't expect to master the blade.

In a lot of ways it's like cutting grass. If the grass isn't being cut beautifully and easily enough something is off. Change a variable.

Perhaps mastery means the ability to simultaneously successfully change numerous variables. Technique becomes more automatic. Paying attention becomes more enjoyable and satisfying. Then the blade jumps up out of nowhere and bites.




Experience continues to teach.​
Shaving White Belt Photo Meme.jpg



Maybe one of these days I'll get good enough at this to chase the baby. That's a scary thought!

Happy shaves,

Jim
 
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View attachment 1616283



Mostly I'm too stupid to understand the mechanics and engineering aspects of razor design. Apparently they're far more obvious to some guys.

Beyond what Mike @Esox and a few other gentlemen and I did way back as we explored blade clamping I can't say I fully understand anything. Some of what I've learned from Grant @ShavingByTheNumbers and some of what I've learned from Mike about skin flow related to gap makes sense, has stuck with me, and is helpful. I find caveats to most things I think I know.



I am his apprentice.​
View attachment 1616287



The really big technique breakthrough for me occurred learning the Schick injectors. It was a frustrating process. I went about it wrong. I received bad advice or didn't understand good advice. I found it very hard to shift from what I already knew from DE and AC safety razors. Shifting to the injector was hard. Getting an acceptable shave was elusive.

Giving up on everything I knew helped. Abandoning any attempt to understand advice and just shaving by feedback from the razor (probably the blade) made all the difference.
  • How does it feel?
  • Is it removing lather and whiskers?
  • How does it sound?
  • Am I paying attention to the tactile and audible feedback and getting the message?
  • Is it a good shave I'm getting?
  • Is there still room for another pass or several more passes should I want or need to go closer?
  • Above all is it also a damn comfortable shave?
Feedback can be understood in a quantitative manner but mostly my understanding is qualitative. What are the sound qualities? The vibrations? What qualities are associated with this moment's blade and skin interaction and what are they telling me?

Previous to my feedback epiphany a few friends and I have discussed the degree of pressure or no pressure required and/or ideal.

In my view, the blade should "skate" across the surface almost not touching the skin. I realize much of what we feel on our skin is not the blade but the guard and I realize there are various ways of thinking about this matter of pressure. Some razors may require more pressure; perhaps that means more pressure of the razor; it does not mean more pressure of the blade edge (according to me). No edge is below the skin's surface as it cuts whiskers.

Fo me blade feel is a foolish form of feedback. My skin is what I'd call average. It can become dry. It can become inflamed. With much blade feel I can't tolerate shaving ATG on my upper lip. Plus I don't find much blade feel necessary as a feedback component.

With more ability to hear well without hearing aids I'd be better able to shave by feedback. One might think I'd thus be better at the tactile side of the feedback equation. Yet here I am still learning about pressure and everything else.



If anything I default to the steep and start with the steep, but feedback trumps everything else.



I'm not complaining. Quite the opposite. My shaves are great. I'm enjoying the learning curve. I don't expect to master the blade.

In a lot of ways it's like cutting grass. If the grass isn't being cut beautifully and easily enough something is off. Change a variable.

Perhaps mastery means the ability to simultaneously successfully change numerous variables. Technique becomes more automatic. Paying attention becomes more enjoyable and satisfying. Then the blade jumps up out of nowhere and bites.




Experience continues to teach.​
View attachment 1616290



Maybe one of these days I'll get good enough at this to chase the baby. That's a scary thought!

Happy shaves,

Jim

Thank you for this Jim!

This makes complete sense to me. It almost sounds like your knowledge and experience from experimentation has seeped in to an instinctual level with you, something that evolved as you were on your journey. Maybe. I think that makes you more Mr. Miyagi, flowing like water, than Ralph. :)

karate kid GIF


I'm sure glad B&B doesn't make the new guys wear headbands.

Being attentive to the moment and reactive is something I've just really started leaving space for in my shave - thanks to @Ligeti's advice to turn the radio off and not space out. Rather, like you and Mike and other, I'm try to get a little more scientific method about the whole thing.

I appreciate your reminder that in the end the science is secondary to sensation; feel trumps math when it comes to shaving and I should keep that in mind as I tiptoe around the rabbithole.

And, in full BOSC form, you've quantified your qualitative "feedback" criteria and measurements.

How does it feel?
Is it removing lather and whiskers?
How does it sound?
Am I paying attention to the tactile and audible feedback and getting the message?
Is it a good shave I'm getting?
Is there still room for another pass or several more passes should I want or need to go closer?
Above all is it also a damn comfortable shave?


See, wow. I just thought to myself "I should use these as a template to analyze my shaves and form my journal posts around answering them" but then quickly realized that's exactly wrong :). Come on Flask.

These are the questions to ask myself during the shave - and if I don't like the answers I need to change some variables. And not just rock out to cool Fleetwood Mac covers.



You can draw some comparisons with shaving and playing music, they both can murky melange of math and feel. Simple and complex at the same time. Thanks for reminding me feel is important!
 

Raven Koenes

My precious!
FFFMM Shave 2
SWS Shave 3

View attachment 1616081

Alpha: Hot Shower
Preshave: The Cube 2.0 applied with a brush, 1x
Razor: Razorock GameChanger 68-P with RR UFO handle
Blade: Gillette Platinum (1)
Brush: Omega Jade boar
Soap: Mike's Natural Barber Shop

After the last few days of dissuasion by the cabal of sage shaving shamans that suddenly, awesomely, manifested here to help me understand everything I wasn't - and taking it a step further to show me just how much I didn't know I didn't know, I approached my shave with a different perspective today.

After some experimentation I made some adjustments in my grip for WTG, moving the thumb and finger pinpoint higher near the head and really cementing my pinky to the ball end of the handle. I was looking to better control both my angle and my pressure.

What's been made clear to me is that I've been shaving too steep in general and with the GC particularly as well as not taking the advice (command!) of "zero pressure" seriously enough. This morning I tried to envision scything the growth over the skin, not scraping it off. Not that I was trying to scrap it before, but in hindsight I was moving in the direction of "the more blade song the better" which I realize now is wildly not correct.

For a few strokes it happened. I felt the magic of the right angle, zeroish pressure, experienced-informed pass directionality and short controlled strokes all come together. The first time I thought I might have accidentally rode all the way to the cap because it was so smooth. But the telltale lather was gone, it was a cutting stroke for sure. Then a few strokes later it happened again and I started to realize that now after six months of seriously working at this I've finally, briefly, experienced how doing it right feels like.

jack black rock GIF


I wish I had to shave five times a day so I could try to groove in the feeling of getting the pieces all aligned like that. Ok, not really. That would have been like living out Teen Wolf 2 probably. But I'm certainly impatient to build that muscle memory - I want to stay in the batting cage, I still have tokens, come on man.

It was a great shave. Smooth and irritation free, although I did catch nick XTG on my endearing chin birthmark. I'm still wrestling with XTG passes with the GC, I need to be more deliberate about my grip for that pass I think. It's sort of whatever right now which is not helping maintain a neutral, slicing angle.

I really appreciate all the time and mental energy that....ok, I started listing all of you that have been so helpful and it started looking like a radio show call out. And there's there that whole "hey look at my post" factor with tagging that's a little...you know. So let's not.

Rather I'll just say thank you!! B&B is an amazing place, I'm glad I found you all. I mean, mostly glad. Now when I take my semi-daily 5k walk I take a backpack full of shaving gear because maybe I might want to take a SOTD photo.

So there's that. I can't really make fun of my sister for taking photos of her food constantly anymore!
Razorock GameChanger 68-P with RR UFO handle and the blade of destiny! :a5:
 

thombrogan

Lounging On The Isle Of Tugsley.
@flask28 , I recently read your post about your Jade Ω brush being almost broken in and it reminded me that @Contact_vs_Feedback has had a few piggy brushes that required extensive break-in periods as well. Their final forms look awesome, but they were a testament to persistence.

Here are links to glamour shots:

Big break-in

Much quicker break-in

Even quicker break-in

I remember @GNR broke in his Connaught’s Jade Ω, but don’t remember how many shaves were needed.

Don’t know if it helps, but your comments on it reminded me of other Boarthers boarfore you.
 
@flask28 and @thombrogan I honestly can’t remember the number of shaves my Connaught Premium Jade Boar took to break in…but it was certainly more than any other Omega Boar brush.

It’s worth it, because it’s an outstanding brush.

Have fun breaking it in. I never rush Boars, I just coax the piggies to perfection with repeated use and enjoy seeing them develop. Sometimes it’s perplexing but, it’s worth it in the end.
 
This was your chance to say it turned it into a Varlet knot! We could have started a whole thing, like putting your boar in the freezer for a week.

Did it seem to feel resistant at first and then get easy, as if you were freeing things up in there by combing it? Or was it just easy the whole time? That looks just like the knots I felt a change in when I tried it.

Science!

Combing felt easy the whole (short) time. It really wasn't tangled. I should comb the manes of some of my horsies. The long loft horse seem tangle-prone in use.

Tax season and a tough 10 day rotation for the LOTH resulted into the Zenith comb out resting until last night.

Anyhoo, the short lofted Zenith felt softer post-comb out. As a brush heretic, that is not my general goal. I have badgers for when my face is bored of the Inquisition/ExfoliationMassage.

BTW, how can anyone who frequently drags a highly honed piece of steel across their face think they are 'exfoliating' with a shaving brush? I do have paint-stripping brushes that would exfoliate even better than a razor, but those brushes have steel bristles.
 
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thombrogan

Lounging On The Isle Of Tugsley.
how can anyone who frequently drags a highly honed piece of steel across their face think they are 'exfoliating' with a shaving brush?

Pressing the brush harder into one’s face and fighting to use as light a touch as possible with the razor is my guess. I can — and will — be wrong.
 
@flask28 , I recently read your post about your Jade Ω brush being almost broken in and it reminded me that @Contact_vs_Feedback has had a few piggy brushes that required extensive break-in periods as well. Their final forms look awesome, but they were a testament to persistence.

Here are links to glamour shots:

Big break-in

Much quicker break-in

Even quicker break-in

I remember @GNR broke in his Connaught’s Jade Ω, but don’t remember how many shaves were needed.

Don’t know if it helps, but your comments on it reminded me of other Boarthers boarfore you.

Thank you @thombrogan! It's great to see what these boars are actually supposed to look like. I can't believe the bloom on that bleached Zenith - that's HUGE compared to mine! lol, looks like a different brush really.

Thank you sir, super helpful.
 
@flask28 and @thombrogan I honestly can’t remember the number of shaves my Connaught Premium Jade Boar took to break in…but it was certainly more than any other Omega Boar brush.

It’s worth it, because it’s an outstanding brush.

Have fun breaking it in. I never rush Boars, I just coax the piggies to perfection with repeated use and enjoy seeing them develop. Sometimes it’s perplexing but, it’s worth it in the end.

Thanks - It is fun! And I agree, they seem to have many, many personalities over their break in period. It seems hard to believe that combination of firm softness it's got going right now is still going to get better :)
 
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Or in the market for a copper lather bowl?

Exactly!

Although the fact that @Phoenixkh has every known Captain's Choice bowl but shaves with the plastic Timeless gives me pause.

In addition to the nice ceramic bowl that got turned into a pre-shave soap container I have one of these collapsible ones in my travel kit.

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I haven't actually tried it yet - it's on the list.
 
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