I Must Be Doing Something Wrong

[Truckman]

In only my first week of DE shaving, my last 4 shaves (out of 7) have been better than I could have imagined. So far, I have not had any of the problems recently spoken about by other newbies. I now have no irritation; my neck has healed up and I'm getting closer shaves. In fact, as my stubble grows back I have absolutely no irritation - it used to irritate the heck out of my neck when it started growing back.

I also find myself looking forward to shaving now. How did that happen? So far I haven't varied my routine yet, but now that I'm starting to build a base, I'm getting excited about trying different blades, soaps, creams, & AS/ASBs.

Even though I've only been using a DE for a week, I've been experimenting with my routine for about 3 weeks now. I'll post it below in case anyone else may be helped by it:

1. Soak brush in hottest tap water in bowl, soak bowl in hottest tap water in sink
2. Shower - body, hair, face - Oil Cleansing Method
3. Dry all except face & neck
4. Drain sink, dump bowl, refill bowl with hottest tap water and replace brush
5. Wet face with warm/hot water
6. Dump bowl again, shake out brush
7. Mix lather in bowl - brush the beginnings on my face/neck
8. Once lather is mixed, rinse lather off face with warm/hot water
9. Apply good lather, scruffing brush around quite a bit, then finishing with paint strokes
10. Shave WTG (which for me is NE-SW & NW-SE from top of cheek by nose to under tip of ear) to about a razor's length up from the bottom of my neck, then E-W/W-E (center-line to under ear)
11. Rinse remaining lather off with warm water
12. Repeat steps 9-11, this time shaving XTG-45 (45* angle instead of a full 90*) which for me is N-S to about a razor's length up from the bottom of my neck, then E-W/W-E (center-line to under ear)
13. Repeat steps 9-11, this time shaving XTG-45 the other way (E-W/W-E from lips to ear) to about a razor's length up from the bottom of my neck, then S-N that last portion on my neck.
14. Rub in remaining lather on neck, then rinse 2X with lukewarm water, then 2-4X with cold water.
15. Pat face dry with towel.
16. Thayer's non-alcohol witch hazel.
17. After a few minutes when witch hazel dries, Aqua Velva Ice Blue.
18. Once AVIB dries, then a light coating of Nivea ASB (more as a moisturizer than an ASB even though it is an ASB).

I do plan on moving the angles of my XTG closer to a 90* soon, maybe only going with one full XTG pass to start.

 

[kongjie]

I think you could safely omit part 7.5-8, where you are doing a first brush on your face and then rinsing it off. Your face is already washed. If it dries before you've created your lather, just splash some hot water on it and lather up.

 

[blades]

my routine,
Place brush in cup with boiling water, let it stand.
Rinse and wash face with olive oil soap in water as hot as I can bear.
Empty cup and create lather, lather face.
Shave.
Shower.

 

[BatNastard]

Don't worry, pretty soon you will start experimenting with soaps and aftershaves and blades and you'll get some irritation

 

[Alacrity59]

Sounds like a great routine. Mine is similar:
1. While attending to other things. . . hrmmmph . . . run hot water in sink to reach second floor from the water heater in the basement.
2. Fill bowl with hot water and submerse brush and razor (using razor to hold brush so brush does not float and stay half dry) and put a little water on top of cake of soap
3. Shower and ensure I get face into the stream of warm water.
4. Dump out water from bowl and shake out brush
5. Add squirt of Proraso to bowl if doing the superlather thing (or if just using Proraso), plug sink throw washcloth into sink and start running hot water while whipping up lather.
6. Put some of the first bit of lather on face but keep whipping up the lather for up about a minute.
7. Float the shave bowl in the hot water in the sink . . .pull washcloth out of hot water wring out a bit and hold over lather on face for about 30 secs. Repeat once.
8. Apply the now warm lather to neck then face.
9. Do pass one with the grain (Gillette slide) down to jawbone.
10. Relather - Do pass two xtg down to jawbone
11. Do pass with the grain on neck up to jawbone
12. Relather - Do pass from bottom to top (on me this is close to with the grain on the bottom of my neck, xtg on upper neck, and atg above the jawline.
13. Finish up non-bbs spots either with a few drops on shaving oil rubbing more water on my face with my free hand between razor strokes (mostly blade buffing ATG) or applying lather from what is left in the bowl with my free hand between strokes.
14. Rinse with cold water
15. Apply witch hazel (yep I managed to find Thayer's non-alcohol aloe even here in the great white North)
16. Pat on Aqua Velva, Old Spice, Pinaud Clubman . . .

I only rinse once . . . the cold water one . . . I don't dry my face . . . takes about 10 minutes.

 

[vcardona]

Congratulations on your shaves. Keep up the good work, and just remember to basics.