I've wanted to try a straight for many years but stuck with cartridges for unknown reasons. A few weeks ago I started looking seriously, lurking on B&B, researching and finally bought some stuff from http://www.classicedge.ca/ and got free shipping to boot! Everything I bought was a first for me, here's the list:
Here it is, the star of the show. My first man-razor
And the brush.
The strop and some sandalwood cream
But wait, I didn't order anything else. They threw in another cream and a handwritten note. Classy, sir. Classy.
Now for the shave. I felt incredibly awkward holding this thing and decided it might be a good idea to practice on something I can see better. So I lathered up part of my arm and got ready. Fully expecting to cut myself, I made a few passes in the air first, lowering the blade each time to get a feel for the right angle. I heard it before I felt it and as if by magic, I had a patch of perfectly smooth skin on my otherwise hairy arm.
That was easy.
I did a few more spots until I was pretty confident and returned to the face.
I never noticed how... curvy... my face is. It's a hundred times harder to shave than an arm, but piece by piece I accomplished it. At first I was totally jacked on adrenaline but at some point my brain just clicked and my muscles started doing it without thinking. I was shaving and it just felt natural, as if I had been doing it my whole life. I tried looking for more challenging parts and found my jawbone to be the biggest villain of all but after I figured out to to just trace along the curvature it wasn't so bad.
At one point it was pointed at my neck and my internal voice said "Um... that could seriously kill you". My adrenaline spiked again and I pressed on.
I was having so much fun that I ended up taking off more than I have in ages and created a rather dapper goatee.
I did the whole shave without cutting myself, I imagine it will start to happen when I'm overconfident. For now there is too much fear to be careless.
Questions bouncing around in my head:
Q: How do I know if I'm stropping correctly? Am I using too much pressure? Not enough? Correct angle?
Q: How long until SWMBO notices a mysterious shaved patch on my arm?
Here it is, the star of the show. My first man-razor
And the brush.
The strop and some sandalwood cream
But wait, I didn't order anything else. They threw in another cream and a handwritten note. Classy, sir. Classy.
Now for the shave. I felt incredibly awkward holding this thing and decided it might be a good idea to practice on something I can see better. So I lathered up part of my arm and got ready. Fully expecting to cut myself, I made a few passes in the air first, lowering the blade each time to get a feel for the right angle. I heard it before I felt it and as if by magic, I had a patch of perfectly smooth skin on my otherwise hairy arm.
That was easy.
I did a few more spots until I was pretty confident and returned to the face.
I never noticed how... curvy... my face is. It's a hundred times harder to shave than an arm, but piece by piece I accomplished it. At first I was totally jacked on adrenaline but at some point my brain just clicked and my muscles started doing it without thinking. I was shaving and it just felt natural, as if I had been doing it my whole life. I tried looking for more challenging parts and found my jawbone to be the biggest villain of all but after I figured out to to just trace along the curvature it wasn't so bad.
At one point it was pointed at my neck and my internal voice said "Um... that could seriously kill you". My adrenaline spiked again and I pressed on.
I was having so much fun that I ended up taking off more than I have in ages and created a rather dapper goatee.
I did the whole shave without cutting myself, I imagine it will start to happen when I'm overconfident. For now there is too much fear to be careless.
Questions bouncing around in my head:
Q: How do I know if I'm stropping correctly? Am I using too much pressure? Not enough? Correct angle?
Q: How long until SWMBO notices a mysterious shaved patch on my arm?