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In the beginning....

I wet shaved for a year-and-a-half before I tried Method Shaving. It was not an easy transition. I absolutely barbequed myself the first couple of times. It was so bad that I though I was having an allergic reaction to the Cube. I called Charles and told him this. He said this was a common reaction that had nothing to do with the Cube. It was simply lousy technique. It took a good two months before I had any real proficiency with the blade. I kept bouncing back and forth between MS and my old method. As time passed I sort of blended the two together. Little by little my shaves got better. Each time I reached a plateau I would add a little more MS and take away some the old way. It is very tough to jump full-blown into Method Shaving, especially if you have been wet shaving for any length of time. Method Shaving is not always instinctual and has a fairly steep learning curve.

Here are some of the mistakes that I made early on;
Mixes that were too thick when using an English cream and too thin when using HydroLast. If you want to cut MS style you need water and lots of it. English creams cut very slow and really need to be blown up with water before you can cut MS. This is where the big bucket brushes come in. Mixing in a bowl just doesn’t get the mix wet enough. Priming with the cube, mixing in your hand and blowing it up on your face is the only way to hydrate those puppies. Feather blade not recommended.

HydroLast can wash out if you don’t use enough Cube or an inadequate brush (or both). We always chirp about water, but HydroLast is so thin by itself that if you don’t use enough Cube it will sink into your brush and wash right out the bottom. Prime that sucker more than you think you should. Also, brushes with no gutters and a smaller breech (ala the SMF brush and I know because I have one) hold a lot of water and not enough cream. They can be used in an MS environment but require some jockeying and are tough to learn on.

Using way too much blade exposure. My first cracks at MS were done with a slant bar. HUGE mistake. An expert MS’er can pull it off but not a beginner. Use no more blade than is necessary to do the job. The blade exposure on the weak side of an HD (or the equivalent on an adjustable) is the absolute maximum you need. Less is preferable.

Failure to understand reduction. The normal way to shave, and the most instinctual, is to cut as close as you can with the first pass and then pick up loose garbage with the next. Once your skin is irritated, you’re done. The idea is to chop the whiskers down bit by bit. It keeps the blade off the skin and keeps you in a position to finish the shave correctly. Imagine that you are cutting the hair in half with each pass.

Too much skin tension too soon. I was a big skin stretcher before I tried MS. Skin tension is only needed to cut skin close (and then less than you think). Since we are not trying to shave skin close until the final pass, very little if any skin tension is needed when cutting the forms. Understanding this is what allowed me to turn the corner on my lower neck. I used to tear the sides of my adam’s apple to shreds. Once I stopped stretching my skin piano wire tight early in the shave, my neck cleared right up.

Fear of working outside the box. When I first started MS I had the same misconception that almost everyone else had. I thought that if you deviated, even one little bit, from what was written or what Charles said then you weren’t Method Shaving. Method Shaving is a framework. Every shaver’s face and beard are different and have slightly different needs. It is impossible to describe or provide general instruction for every situation that a shaver could encounter. That’s why Charles has always taught shavers personally. You can’t help someone through their own speed bumps without direct interaction, but it is still up to the individual to fill in the blanks (and part of the fun). As the interest in Method Shaving (and wet shaving in general) continues to grow more and more people will be learning by reading. That is unfortunate but unavoidable. What it means is that shavers will need to understand that the information on MS is a framework and not gospel.

The products are not that important. The HydroLast line of products is the only one available that matches up with the high velocity (extremely wet) environment that MS needs to be at is best. I have tried nearly every wet shaving product out there in conjunction with MS technique, and while many can be made to work, they are far from ideal. The Cube, the paste, and the large bucket brush are necessary to create the best mix. The Feather blade is the only thing sharp enough to shave with the necessary speed.
Razors are less of an issue but either the Merkur HD or the Progress are the best available for MS. Cutting Balm is designed to provide extra protection for the finishing pass. And Charles’ post shave moisturizers and tonic are absolutely the finest available. Throw in the fact that these products are pure and chemical-free and you put your skin in a position to be at its very best.

This is not a comprehensive list, but I think it gives a good overview of what most beginners struggle with. Most other problems are specific to the individual shaver and require individual attention. Either through direct interaction with Charles himself, interaction with experienced MS guys on the forums, or through the shavers own research, study, and ultimately, experimentation.
 
Excellent, clear post. I don't have the green to order a big Simpson's (and my SMF brush is out for service), but what would be a good example of a big-bucket brush, say from the ClassicShaving brush page? Let's talk mm of rise and mm of brush knot width. Again, I can't clear more than say $100 for a brush at this stage: should I even bother?

(Edit: how about the Vulfix #2236?)

-Rich
 
Rich,

I have a 2236 - it doesn't work very well at all for this purpose. Unfortunately, I don't know what would. I am using my SMF and it is doing pretty good. I also have a Shavemac 167 which is a very large dense brush - but unfortunatley I cannot use it yet as i have some finish issues with it.

Perhaps some of the big guns will chime in on a recommendation.
 
Other than the SMF, I have not used any of the brushes mentioned. I am very reluctant to comment one way or the other about brushes that I have not tried. The brushes I haved used are as follows: $30 Col Conk pure badger, Simpson's Chubby #3 Super, SMF Brush, and the ShaveMaster prototype. To my knowledge, Simpsons and the soon-to-be-released ShaveMaster are the best for Method Shaving. If there are others, I have not used them. There are other gents out there who are much more qualified to answer specific brush questions. Adam Mendelson and Joel being two.

That being said, what I mean by a big bucket brush is something in at least super badger with a sizable knot (24mm+) and gutters. Gutters might be the most important yet least understood aspect of a brush. The best way to describe gutters is to look at the photos of the ShaveMaster (on methodshaving.com) vs. the SMF brush. The head on the ShaveMaster is wedge shaped. No hair has been trimmed away. The SMF is shaped like a light bulb. The SMF has been trimmed to look like that. To make a long story short, the gutters are necessary to hold the excess media that has been expelled from the breech (core) of the brush. A good Method Shaving brush needs to hold both a lot of cream and a lot of water. The SMF brush holds a nice reserve of water but throws cream around like Trump throws money around. It is difficult to control your mix if the brush holds one component well and not the other. I realize that is a short and probably unsatisfying answer. I plan on writing an article in the near future outlining the differences between Method Shaving and traditional wet shaving using the SMF brush and the ShaveMaster as centerpieces.

If some of the more experienced brush guys have corrections or anything else to add, please do.
 
Brett -

First let me say that I have thoroughly enjoyed your writings and have been checking out the MS site quite a bit as well. So - THANKS for the input.

However - to my point. I thought I read somewhere (maybe Joel can comment on this) that the SMF brush was NOT trimmed to look like that. If memory serves that's how it was tied or something(??)

I just wish I could remember where I read that...
 
Howard,
Trimmed may be the wrong word, though I can not speak directly to the smf brush as I don't own one. The lightbulb style brushes are very common in German brushes, look at the Dovo brush. My Plisson is also made in a very similar style, as are a number of other brushes. Usually the brushes are cut to some degree, just not the tips of the bristle.
 
As for the question of Vulfix and other brushes..... I do not own and havenot used a Vulfix so I can not speak to them. I have heard from a few people that they are obviously good brushes, but lack the recoil to load and release cream and water.

What I do trust is Charles experience and knowledge as he has put most of these brushes through the ringer. I have little reason to doubt him when he tells me that Simpons and now the brush he has developed are the only ones that do what he wants. Sorry, but I just don't beleive you can find a cheap substitute at this point. If it existed you can believe Charles would be selling them as the brush buy in is the hardest part of the sell. That is the whole reason the new brush will be sold around the $200 price point.
 
HlSheppard said:
Brett -
However - to my point. I thought I read somewhere (maybe Joel can comment on this) that the SMF brush was NOT trimmed to look like that. If memory serves that's how it was tied or something(??)

I just wish I could remember where I read that...

Hi Howard!

I believe you are referring to: this response from Bernd:

"One great advantage of the handmade brush is that the forming of the brush head using a shaping box; the bundle of badger hair is turned over so the the tips are pointing downwards, they are then inserted into the shaping box and carefully “tapped” until the correct form is achieved.

The shaping box has a contoured inside which gives the brush heads their shape. Under no circumstances are scissors allowed to be used to correct any unevenness. No hair is injured or cut. This makes the brush very soft and durable."

Brett - Nicely written post! I wish more posts on MS were as easy to understand.
 
If the shape of the head on the SMF brush is due to knotting or shaping and not trimming then I appologize for the inaccuracy.

The comments about the functionality of the brush in a Method Shaving environment are still valid. This brush is designed to mix soap or cream in a traditional manner. It has a tight center with very little breech action (center of the brush opens and closes). It is wonderful for mixing creams and soaps in either a bowl or mug. A good MS brush needs to be able to hold volumes of both water and media, and have the ability to mix them inside the brush itself.
 
I've been trying to lather mashed (open-breech) recently with my low-rent Vulfix, and it is a very effective way to lather--I use a lot less cream or soap than going paintbrush-style, and the lather is wetter.

I'm also beginning to see the need for "gutters." When you start lathering this way, you want all the hairs of the brush touching your face; in a lightbulb shape a la the SMF brush the curved sides of the lightbulb aren't easy to get to touch the face when mashing--they're pushed out of the way by the longer top-of-lightbulb bristles. Again, like Brett said, great for lathering in a bowl and for painting lather, but not for mashing. It's just different design.

Though I'm not sure I agree with the statement that the SMF doesn't hold much water. The thing was damp for two days after its initial use, and I shook the heck out of it when I was done. :eek:

-Rich
 
Rich,
I believe what Brett said was the smf brush hold a lot of water, it does not have the capacity to hold the amount of cream in the crown of the brush. That is why you get ejection of the cream.
 
Sorry about that, misread.

In other news, got a great shave today lathering open-breech and trying for faster bladework with shorter srtokes (the 'velocity' concept). Less irritation than in a long while... Very promising.

-Rich
 
I did that exact thing yesterday Rich. I really does work!

I think you and I are the current "neck irritation kings."

I get a BAD case of ingrowns (to the point where there is some scarring from shaving them off!).

MS is making it better!
 
Joe:

I was skeptical about this too, until I decided to try it one morning. The way it works with me makes it seem like moving the razor head faster (lots of small, short, light strokes) does a better job of cutting my whiskers (letting the razor's weight do the work) instead of bending them. Thus more hair gone, less pulling and irritation.

...Or at least that's what it seems like to me. I'm still learning and working on form, so anything I say should be taken with a small salt lick.

-Rich
 
I'm not skeptical, just curious.

I gave up the short strokes because they're too prone to going over the same spots too early, which contradicts the reduction principal. It seems to me that the most speed and best reduction would come from long flowing strokes. I started using those when I started str8 shaving. It keeps the pressure more consistent.

But there is no sense that I need speed, just a smooth flowing motion. As I said, it may be faster coincidentally, but I have no sense of wanting to go fast.

PoshRichM said:
Joe:

I was skeptical about this too, until I decided to try it one morning. The way it works with me makes it seem like moving the razor head faster (lots of small, short, light strokes) does a better job of cutting my whiskers (letting the razor's weight do the work) instead of bending them. Thus more hair gone, less pulling and irritation.

...Or at least that's what it seems like to me. I'm still learning and working on form, so anything I say should be taken with a small salt lick.

-Rich
 
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