Domino's Shave Journal

[DominoM]

Up until today, the only wet shaving I've done has been cartridges. As the years rolled on I've noticed that the number of shaves I have has gone down in proportion as the number of blades in a cartridge has risen. For months now, I've not even bothered with wet shaving at all. I'll let my beard grow for a few weeks, run hair trimmers over it to reduce to stubble, sometimes leaving a goatee, and then leave it a few weeks, run hair trimmers etc..

Well today I received my Whipped Dog Sight Unseen razor in the post, and had my first attempt at a straight razor shave. I've still got both ears and the end of my nose, so I count that as a success

I had probably about a weeks growth, and totally ignored the advice Larry sent with the razor to reduce it to stubble before my first SR shave. I figured if I'm going to stick with this, I need to know how to handle my usual shaving pattern first. So with my cheap Wilkinson Sword brush and a cereal bowl, I whipped a dollop of "Maca Root Shave Cream" from the Body Shop into a reasonable looking lather.. Applied to face and started shaving..

The hardest part was trying to get a good skin stretch without displacing my glasses. I couldn't see well enough without them, and couldn't see when I pulled them up to my eyebrows either. I did a WTG pass on both cheeks and neck, and XTG on cheeks, ATG on neck. I left goatee and a little stubble close to it by accident

Result is generally as close as a cartridge, and although I've a few weepers, I'm pretty happy with this as a first attempt..

 

[Oblique Human]

It probably looks worse than it was. Cameras tend to do that. Pretty good effort. I would listen to Larry. The best shaving advice I ever received that has gotten me pretty consistent DFS's, I got from him.

 

[DominoM]

It probably looks worse than it was. Cameras tend to do that. Pretty good effort. I would listen to Larry. The best shaving advice I ever received that has gotten me pretty consistent DFS's, I got from him.

Yeah it's not as bad as it looks. I've got sensitive skin, so I'm used to a little redness if I go for a close shave - this is no worse than I get off a cartridge shave and the redness had gone within an hour or so. It's now about 12 hours later and I'm looking forward to my next shave. With cartridges at this point I'd be more likely to be thinking about how long I could put off having another shave for as the recovery time is far longer

The only point I've not listened on was on reducing whiskers to skin level until I've got a few straight shaves under my belt (as beard reduction is hard for newbies) - "Before shaving with the straight razor, shave your whiskers down to skin level, to stubble length, with a safety razor" - while I've no doubt this is sound advice, I wanted the comparison between my old routine and using a straight. Sometimes I get nearly this much irritation just from the hair trimmers and have to wait until next day to be able to shave, so getting there in one step is an improvement. The amount of irritation and the recovery time for how the shave felt were something I wanted to know - I learnt so much more than I would have with a clean irritation free shave straight away

 

[Oblique Human]

It's now about 12 hours later and I'm looking forward to my next shave.

I love it whenever someone catches the bug

"Before shaving with the straight razor, shave your whiskers down to skin level, to stubble length, with a safety razor"

Your reluctance is perfectly understandable, the desire to jump in. I'd recommend reading his shave guide here, scroll down a bit, its a PDF link under the NEWBIE HELP heading. He recommends going 2x WTG in the beginning for reduction.

You shouldn't accept that irritation and redness as a norm for straight or DE shaves. Keep working on your angle/pressure technique until you get comfortable shaves. A BBS is no good if you wince every time you admire it.

 

[EvilZeg]

Congrats on using a straight razor. I'm not sure what your after shave routine is but I have sensitive skin and I immediately rinse my face with ice cold water, and then apply Clinique after shave balm. It really helps out the redness in my case.


Jim

 

[DominoM]

2nd straight razor shave with the Costa & Sons.. Here's the before picture..



Things I did differently..

I used a little more water in my lather - and I sat my cereal shave bowl on my hot flannel.

During the shave I tried less buffing and more stroking.. It didn't really make much difference to the shave quality or irritation level, but with longer strokes it did go a little quicker.

I felt more comfortable handling the razor, and found changing hands and grips went more smoothly this time. I open the handle to 180 degrees when shaving the front of my neck.

I also could see better and have no idea what I changed for that to happen

Thanks to Shave 1's lesson on when to stop, I didn't get a clean shave. And although there's some redness again, it's not as bad as the first time.

The only shave balm I have is "Simple" and it's way past it's best.. I'll get some Clinique to try, though a part of me fancies making my own.. I've made my own scar minimiser cream in the past, and suspect a lot of the same ingredients would be good in a shave balm, at least with my skin

Here's the after picture..


It's pretty obvious that I need to focus on reducing irritation whilst improving closeness of the shave. I'll probably give it a couple of days again before my next effort..

 

[DominoM]

Had my 3rd shave with the Costa & Sons straight today. I went on a shopping expedition yesterday, so a few items got retired before the shave.
Gone are the out of date Simple, my Wilkinson Sword brush and the cereal bowl.

In their place in comes a cheap ebay badger brush, some Pecksniff's Leather After Shave Balm and a new pudding shave bowl. I also got a different shave cream to try.

Had the usual shower and hot flannel prep. The Taylors cream didn't lather as well as the Maca Root from Bodyshop - I ended up with less lather for the same amount of cream. With the Maca, I have left over lather, I was close to running out of lather this time by the end of my shave. With everything related to lather making changed this time, I'll see how the next shave or two goes but at the moment I'd have to say I prefer the Maca, though I'd need to retest to be sure that the improvement this time was just technique and not related to the cream.

Yes, I've improved again. I went back to buffing for the first WTG pass, this wasn't a concious decision - I just found that's what I wanted to do when I put blade to skin. I did revert to longer strokes when going ATG, and this time I kept irritation to a minimum so got to do a 3rd pass XTG where some areas I buffed and some I stroked. By this time I was watching why I was varying things and it seemed to be to adjust blade angle - so the more the blade needed adjusting, the more I used a buffing stroke. I think this is why there was so little irritation this time.

I managed to mishape my goatee, I'd trimmed it before the shave with electric trimmers, and when I was shaving down the side of it I got a bit carried away and shaved a bit off.. Who knew that 3 shaves I'd be complaining about taking off too much hair

I had a cold rinse, and no blood so no alum. Patted dry and applied some balm.. Disappointed that Pecksniff's Leather doesn't actually smell like leather, but it smells reasonable. There wasn't enough irritation to judge how well it would have helped with that

So here's today's after picture. I didn't bother with a before as it was pretty much the same as last time.

 

[Oblique Human]

Marked improvement in that last photo. Good shave.

 

[DominoM]

Marked improvement in that last photo. Good shave.

Thanks. I'm seeing slow but steady improvement with each shave. The photo I took for shave 4 was blurry and I didn't realise until hours after the shave. It went pretty much as shave 3 but with added stropping and more lather. I concentrated on improving around the edges of my goatee. That's one good thing with taking pictures, I spot things I've missed more easily. Like that blind spot I seem to have under my chin behind the goatee.

Shave 5 was approached with all the same equipment as shaves 3 & 4. Again I increased the amount of the Taylors cream I used, it's now about twice as much as I use with the Maca and now I'm getting the quantity and quality I want. I use about two fingernails worth and add about half a palm of hot water after first few swirls. This fills the brush with enough for two passes and there's enough in the bowl for probably another two.

I'm getting into DFS territory now with the quality of shave and little to no irritation. I'm still not quite getting that blind spot on my goatee, but at least it's stubble now rather than totally missed.

 

[Krodor]

Diggin the photos. Great way to show the progress. Doesn't it feel good? NIce work!

 

[Oblique Human]

Thanks. I'm seeing slow but steady improvement with each shave. The photo I took for shave 4 was blurry and I didn't realise until hours after the shave. It went pretty much as shave 3 but with added stropping and more lather. I concentrated on improving around the edges of my goatee. That's one good thing with taking pictures, I spot things I've missed more easily. Like that blind spot I seem to have under my chin behind the goatee.

Shave 5 was approached with all the same equipment as shaves 3 & 4. Again I increased the amount of the Taylors cream I used, it's now about twice as much as I use with the Maca and now I'm getting the quantity and quality I want. I use about two fingernails worth and add about half a palm of hot water after first few swirls. This fills the brush with enough for two passes and there's enough in the bowl for probably another two.

I'm getting into DFS territory now with the quality of shave and little to no irritation. I'm still not quite getting that blind spot on my goatee, but at least it's stubble now rather than totally missed.

You know Domino, I wouldn't put too much stock in the photo test. Cameras tend to bring out every minute imperfection in us as is Even with a BBS, unless I use a DSLR, in photographs my skin seems to have a 5 o' clock shadow even though I cannot discern the same in a mirror. Rely more on the fingertip or back of the knuckle feel test. If it feels alright thus, then it probably is.

Yes, you can never go wrong with more product. I wish I could give you some advice about straights regarding my own experience but the earliest I start with them will be this September. I'll look forward to some advice from you then. Enjoy your shaves.

 

[DominoM]

Shave 6

Two new arrivals for todays shave. St James of London Founder's Reserve preshave oil and Clinique Happy for Men balm. I'm still using the Taylors soap and the Costa & Sons razor from whipped dog.

Besides the changed preparation with the added use of the pre shave oil, I also experimented a lot with blade angles. Not the angle of the blade to the skin, but the angle across it. Particularly around my neck I found this helped a lot. The WTG pass didn't take off as much as normal for some reason - I did a second WTG and then XTG on face, ATG on neck, though the new angles I tried made it more like halfway between an ATG and XTG in places. I had to go and see a man about a dog, no that's wrong... I had to go and see a man with a dog so didn't have time for a third fourth pass. The man walks his dog from 10 to 11am every morning, so I headed to the park to meet him. Besides the dog, he also has a drill press and I wanted to ask if I could use it for drilling the scales on my restoration work. He's going away until Friday though so it'll be next week before I can use it.

So there's a few patches I didn't get chance to clean up, but there's places where the shave is smoother than before. I think the oil must have helped, though I'll use more next time. I was a little wary of having greasy hands after applying it, and was overly cautious I think. I liked the smell of it. The Clinique balm feels about the same as the Pecksniffs on my skin, maybe a little thicker and without the strong fragrance. It'd be a good choice for use under a cologne.

Any redness is from being in the sun, the shave was irritation free.

 

[DominoM]

You know Domino, I wouldn't put too much stock in the photo test. Cameras tend to bring out every minute imperfection in us as is Even with a BBS, unless I use a DSLR, in photographs my skin seems to have a 5 o' clock shadow even though I cannot discern the same in a mirror. Rely more on the fingertip or back of the knuckle feel test. If it feels alright thus, then it probably is.

Yeah, the photo is just for really obvious stuff like just behind the goatee which I can't see at all. I'm shaving blind there. I might have to lose the goatee for a few weeks so I can figure out how to shave that bit

I have to be careful about fondling my face. I get pimples easy as anything if I touch it too much. But shave 5 I could feel ATG stubble long enough to bend over, shave 6 has ATG stubble but only enough to feel and not bend over. Both felt smooth WTG. Hmmm back of knuckle might be better for me as it'll avoid putting fingertip grease on my face. I'll have to try and cultivate the habit of testing that way.

 

[Oblique Human]

That last shave looks awesome. You really do excel when you put your mind to something. That is very impressive improvement in such a short time. What you could do now is experiment with the lather. Try adding few drops of water as you work it to achieve the most hydration. I have somewhat sensitive skin myself, reddens easy, and I've discovered that with the right water ratio in your whips, the razor gets the perfect surface to glide on.

I know what you mean about face fondling, I don't get pimples but it does irritate somewhat.

 

[DominoM]

That last shave looks awesome. You really do excel when you put your mind to something. That is very impressive improvement in such a short time.

Thanks. I'm really just focusing on improving one aspect of the shave at a time. The first one was just to give me a baseline of experience to improve from. The most important thing to improve going into shave 2 was the irritation level, so got a poor shave, but avoiding aggravating the burn. Shave 3 was focused on getting a closer shave. Shaves 4 & 5 was to improve my work around other hairlines such as goatee and sideburns. Shave 6 was to help reduce shave time, looking for better passes. I'm fortunate in some degrees as I'm semi ambidextrous. Not naturally so, but one of my hobbies is playing keyboards, so I've always made a point of doing other things with my weaker left hand to help with that. Even simple stuff like drinking coffee with wrong hand helps improve the co-ordination. So I wasn't afraid or have any major issues in using my left hand to shave with. Because of using a swivel knife in leather work, I'm also pretty familiar with how easily a sharp point can cut through tough skin. I'd probably have a cut or two already if I didn't already know to avoid putting the point of the razor to the skin first. It's probably why the edges are the toughest for me to figure out, as I'm making sure I use the inner part of the blade to shave with mostly.

So one step at a time, but I'm am drawing on resources from the rest of my life too, so I can fully understand why people with different life experiences might take a little longer than I am to figure it out. And why some get it faster than me too.

What you could do now is experiment with the lather. Try adding few drops of water as you work it to achieve the most hydration. I have somewhat sensitive skin myself, reddens easy, and I've discovered that with the right water ratio in your whips, the razor gets the perfect surface to glide on.

I am still experimenting with the lather and water amounts, I added a palm of water rather than a half palm for shave 6 and it did seem a little better in the bowl. Not sure how much difference in the shave I can attribute to it though. I'm guessing that sort of fine tuning is why it takes 100s of shaves to really get the hang of this

I know what you mean about face fondling, I don't get pimples but it does irritate somewhat.

Yeah. It's one of the reasons I tend to keep the goatee. It lets me do thinker style face fondling without actually touching my skin

 

[DominoM]

Shave 7

For the first time I've not waited a day between shaves, so I went into this with far less stubble than normal. I decided to have a nice leisurely shave and go for BBS.

I spent awhile stropping the blade. I did 40 passes on felt and 60 on leather. Every 20 passes I stopped and examined the blade with a 40x illuminated loupe. This is powerful enough to get a good view of scratches on the bevel and just about enough to see if the edge is uniform. I've ordered a 60x-100x adjustable loupe for a better look at the edge. The bevel was pretty scratched up and the edge uneven when I started stropping. By the end, the bevel was mostly looking polished and the edge even. Into the shower I went.

After my shower I patted my face dry and applied the St James of London pre shave oil. This was a change from the previous shave where I applied it after the hot flannel.

I lathered up my Taylors cream and added an extra palm of water (2 palms in total). While it lathered OK I think this was too much as it tended to run down my face. I compensated by lathering just the section I was about to shave.

I had a minute with the hot flannel and began the shave with a WTG pass. Next up was an XTG pass on face, ATG on neck (I can't do XTG on neck). Then I did ATG on face and WTG on neck. I did a partial 4th pass to tidy up where I mostly used 45 degree strokes to get areas that weren't being full caught by the other passes. I think I figured out why I keep missing behind my goatee too. I paid particular attention there and needed to put the pivot end into my beard to get to it. I'd been avoiding that in the past so the pivot didn't get wet.

I'd a few weepers so after cold rinse I had a quick styptic pencil session. I finished off with a good splash of Pecksniffs Leather balm.

The result is the smoothest and cleanest shave yet. There's a small amount of irritation in places but BBS WTG everywhere and although I can feel stubble ATG it's not sharp, more like running fingers over wool than sandpaper.

 

[DominoM]

Shave 8

The prep work for this shave goes back days! The reason is I've been cleaning up an ebay special. I honed it yesterday, and as there were a few chips in the blade it took quite awhile. I spent about two hours on 1000 grit King waterstone, pretty much immediately I noticed besides the chips, the blade had uneven hone wear, heavier towards heel on one side and towards toe on the other. it also had a slight frown in the middle, a a half smile at the toe. I did my best to keep a little pressure on the spine in the right places to start addressing these issues while I was honing out the chips. It seemed to work as I eventually got a blade length bevel. Not even by any shot, but at least I had an edge. I then did 40 laps on 3000 grit HK waterstone, then moved to my welsh slates. 40 laps @ ~9K 40 @ ~ 12k and 50 @ ~ 15k. I then did 20 laps on felt strop and 50 on leather. I used a 40x loupe with built in LED light to check my progress through this and was pretty confident it was good to go.

So today, with a few days growth I decided to see if, as I thought, I'd managed to put a shaveable edge on Le Doris. Here's the before picture.

Here's today's new stuff. Besides Le Doris, I also got some bay rum (and alum block which I forgot to photo).

I kept everything else as per shave 7 except I only used one generous palm of water in my lather. It was spot on with that, though I did add a few drops more after 2nd pass as it looked to be slightly drier by then.

I did two NS passes, I found the 6/8 blade a little awkward at first especially at top of cheeks where it would bump my glasses. I guess I can cross bigger blades off my wants list, at least until I'm confident enough to shave without glasses.
One thing I discovered after shave 7 was that my hair didn't grow in the direction I thought it did. So NS is actually mostly XTG for me on the face. For the next pass I did SN on neck (ATG) and ear to mouth on face. I then did a cleanup pass neck to nose on face which is ATG for me. Cold water, alum, Clinique and bay rum to finish. One small patch of irritation on my left jaw bone, one small weeper where I took the top off a pimple on my neck, but otherwise fine.


DFS with patches of BBS ATG
I think I can safely say I can make a razor shaveable!

 

[Doc226]

Very nice, very nice indeed.

 

[paco664]

nice razor... nice shaving job...

 

[DominoM]

Very nice, very nice indeed.

Thanks. One thing I forgot to mention is that I'm starting to think of skin stretching and skin moving as two processes. Stretching I can do with head position and facial contortions, but moving I need the help of fingers. The areas I move the most are under my ear, which I pull forward onto my cheek, the underside of my jaw line which I pull up onto my cheek and on this last shave I suddenly realised that instead of trying to shave my stretched out adam's apple, it was a lot easier to move it sideways onto my neck and get it there.