My first "fool's pass"

[penn1313]

I recently shaved my beard and its the first time my upper lip has been bare since about 2002. Today while shaving a thought popped in to my head that I always have a bit of stubble on that area and I wondered how it would feel to be totally clean shaven. Since going beardless, my normal routine was to go two passes WTG and do one N-S pass on my neck and cheeks, leaving my chin and upper lip alone on the third pass. Today though, after cleaning up the cheeks and neck, having lather left only on the "goatee" area, I went for it. My chin was surprisingly easy going upward with the straight. Making a face like I was surprised to stretch the skin, I glided the blade up to my bottom lip. I set the razor down to inspect, and I felt a smooth chin for the first time in a while. Now for the hard part. I tucked my lip tight under my top teeth, and held the razor to my skin. I was shaking and I realized I was holding my breath. I stopped and took a breath. I concentrated on breathing and used two hands on the blade, the right doing the work and the left guiding the tip of the razor in the correct direction. I carefully did a N-S pass from my lip to just under my nose. I thought I did a fine job but after I rinsed with cold water I looked in the mirror and looked like I tried to make out with a porcupine. No pain but little drops of blood everywhere. I applied WH and some Clubman and had a little burn. The finish was very smooth, smoother than I have felt on this area since before I can remember. I don't think I'll try this again for a few shaves, but hope to make this a regular part of my ritual. After all, only a fool would want to point the edge of a razor toward their nose, and I am that fool!

Penn

 

[Raithskar]

only a fool would want to point the edge of a razor toward their nose, and I am that fool!

Nope! I do it all the time. It is also a great test to see if my honing is on par. Sometimes it is and sometimes it is not. Great to hear it went well. Practice it as often as you can and it will get a lot easier, and less nerve racking.

 

[dpmtherrien]

I too point the edge towards my nose when I do a ATG and clean up pass at the end of my shave. If you go very slow and easy, its no problem.

 

[Shave Ready]

Congrats - you're (all of you!) a braver man than I! I'm getting incredible results with WTG/XTG; I can't even imagine how much closer it would be with an ATG. I might only have to shave once a week at that point, and where would be the fun in that ?

 

[tinkersd]

I always to the "Fools Pass" on my upper lip, I just don't feel clean shaven if I don't.
BUT I think is is hard on some edges and when done with it and my chin area I give my razor another 20/20 on my strop to keen up for the rest of my shave.
I do a stretch with one finger and shave the lip upward with my shaving hand, take's some practice to feel condfident about it, but time does wonderful things with finger skills!!

Good Job!!!

tinkersd