After reading the other "first shave" thread, I thought I'd give some insight into my own experience with the Dovo Deux after what was an unexpectedly long wait for my first SR shave. Definitely not recommending my process to others... but all are welcome to a laugh at or with me...
Prior Planning Prevents **** Poor Performance (sometimes)
Always keen to be a good boy scout (dib dib dib) I have gone ahead and read and watched whatever I could find about SR shaving (yes, @rbscebu, including the beginner's bible
)in preparation for the big day. Unfortunately that was about 6 weeks ago, meaning I currently remember absolutely nothing and for religious reasons I was not able to review any of the material (I'm a long practicing "she'll-be-right-ist".) And so that is where we begin our tale, woefully uninformed, with a shiny toy in hand and no inclination to fix the situation.
While One Hones, The Other Moans
My untrained and unexperienced eye determined that the factory finished bevel was straight and true, no need to go to resort to drastic measures I thought, let's break out the Kitayama 8000 and get this baby sharp and mustard. No problem, just a few back and forth here, some stropping on Autosol loaded denim, a bit more on my special blend CrOx strop and a finish on clean leather, badabang badabing, we'll be chopping the beard in a few minutes!
No.
We were not chopping anything, in any minutes.
What a finicky pain in the arse! The aim was for a true HHT-5 here, I can consistently get my 14C28N pocket knife to a HHT-3 which push-cuts paper towel and so expected the finer blade (with a built in angle guide) to be a piece of cake. Whether it was imperfections in the bevel, technique, equipment or what, I could not get the bastard thing to do what I wanted and this is where the hero of the story enters what can only be described as mortal peril. The wife comes to supervise.
See, as a matter of principal, I have not shaved while waiting for the SR to arrive, that's six weeks, and the missus ain't too keen on my furry presentation at the best of times... I have an "interesting" growth pattern. Dear reader, imagine Amish wisps along the cheeks and sideburns, fluffy, fun and daggy. A void of blackened steel wool for a goatee so thick and abrasive that it leaves road rash on any drunkenly consumed meal or woman unlucky enough to show me any affection. And to top it off, what I would call a display of hobo-chic in the neck region, every type of hair, in every direction, at every time. It's a bloody mess and the boss has had enough.
"You've been ****-farting about all morning with this, just get rid of the bloody beard - I can't do this anymore, I've been googling divorce lawyers."
I look over at my daughter, who bursts into tears at the sight of me for the 12th time this week.
Okay, maybe she has a point. We're at a HHT-3, although it's not as smooth push-cutting as the pocket knife, but surely it can't go too far wrong....
Just Badger and Blade, Right?
So into the bathroom I trot on goes the hot water and let's get cracking. Oh wait, I need a towel. Here's that **** poor planning again, I dig through the dirty hamper and find a semi-dry flannel. It looks clean, ergo, it is clean. Wet, wet, wet, splash, splash, dab. Nice and soaked and drippy. The bench top and all it's accoutrement are already saturated - I did not get away with this either. Ah ****, where is the shaving cream? Out in the bedroom, back to the bench, now I've dripped on the carpet, but I'm too far gone to care and this has already taken two hours longer than planned. So I lather up a brush and paste it on my face. I do remember the importance of using more lather than I think is necessary and go right ahead and plaster it everywhere. At some point I get a feeling of needing to blow my nose and assume I'm harbouring an enormous booger, I push one finger to the opposite nostril and snort. A spray of white fluffy foam squirts across the sink, bench, floor, pants. Okay, maybe that's enough lather.
Let's go, it's time! I decide to start on my left cheek as it feels the most natural. I place the blade along my face at the top of the lather line and start scraping down. Did I pull the skin like I was told to? Nope, forgot. Did I set an angle like I was supposed to? Nope, forgot. Did I pay attention to the grain direction? Nope, forgot. It was a purely instinctual motion of chopping down the forest and it was bloody magical! Swathes of fur magically split from skin to blade, a satisfying "SCRRRRRRRR" of fine metal on beard and just like that, 4 inches of beard was gone.
This SR stuff is for chumps! How easy is this?!
No Hablas Español?
It now becomes important to note that the SR I'm using has a Spanish point. Every guide I've read has been very explicit about these not being recommended for beginners. I cannot imagine why.....
Amped up on my newfound shaving mastery, with all the confidence that only an exceedingly incompetent novice can have, it was time to shave this sideburn and do it with speed and style! Let's do it in one fell stroke and get this shave over and done with. Now for those unaware, people have varying degrees of earlobe attached-ness. There is a little bit of skin connecting the lobe to the face which juts out on a slightly different angle to the jaw-line. Interestingly my SR also as a little jutting piece in the form of a Spanish point which overlaps perfectly with the lobe-attacher when striking straight down along the sideburn. My lobes used to be a medium level of attached. Used to be.
And here we come crashing down to earth, blood and momentary panic which quickly becomes annoyance. At least the blade was sharp enough that it didn't hurt. I do the Homer Simpson toilet paper trick. It's not really working but it will get me through. And from here on out, it becomes slow, steady and careful. A timely lesson in humility.
Mirror Mirror on the Wall, Who's the Dumbest of them All?
And so here we are, as you might've guessed the rest of the shave was much less exciting. But I really struggled with the right hand side of my face, whether it was an awkward angle or latent fear for my other lobe-attacher, I could not get a comfortable and smooth stroke going. Until I stopped looking in the mirror. I am not sure if this is a known phenomenon, but as soon as I just "felt" the shave it was immediately simpler and felt natural again.
Again the Spanish point was trying to cause problems, but even that felt like it was safer in a way. Instead of relying on the mirror, I spent more of my focus feeling where the different parts of the razor were and felt like I had more control. This might be something everyone knows, or it might just be a crutch of sorts because I'm new, but for anyone who hasn't tried turfing the mirror, I recommend it.
The Good, the Bad and the Bloodstained
At the end of it all, given there were no more major incidents, I'd say the experience was a success. The Spanish point proved it's worth when shaving my philtrum and around my nostrils. It was the simplest part of the entire shave by a country mile and without the tip I imagine would've felt clumsy and frustrated trying to find the angles. There was another small nick at the side of my mouth, another Spanish victim, but it was so small that it is not even noticeable now.
I did however end up with a fair few "micro-dots" of blood. Whether this is shaving too close, or the SR not being sharp enough I'm not sure, but I'm sure it will improve with better technique in all areas. The razor was noticeably less comfortable in the second-half of the shave and I wished I had the strop in the bathroom, I'll certainly have it handy in future, but I am also keeping in mind I was shaving a six-week beard, so it may have been a heavier workload for the razor than what will be typical.
As I was reaching for the towel to finish drying off, my adult came in to check on me. I needn't tell you about the mess and reaction, but as she walked in the door, she paused, flicked the light switch and asked, "Wouldn't this be easier with the lights on?"
Yes, I'm an idiot.
Prior Planning Prevents **** Poor Performance (sometimes)
Always keen to be a good boy scout (dib dib dib) I have gone ahead and read and watched whatever I could find about SR shaving (yes, @rbscebu, including the beginner's bible
)in preparation for the big day. Unfortunately that was about 6 weeks ago, meaning I currently remember absolutely nothing and for religious reasons I was not able to review any of the material (I'm a long practicing "she'll-be-right-ist".) And so that is where we begin our tale, woefully uninformed, with a shiny toy in hand and no inclination to fix the situation.While One Hones, The Other Moans
My untrained and unexperienced eye determined that the factory finished bevel was straight and true, no need to go to resort to drastic measures I thought, let's break out the Kitayama 8000 and get this baby sharp and mustard. No problem, just a few back and forth here, some stropping on Autosol loaded denim, a bit more on my special blend CrOx strop and a finish on clean leather, badabang badabing, we'll be chopping the beard in a few minutes!
No.
We were not chopping anything, in any minutes.
What a finicky pain in the arse! The aim was for a true HHT-5 here, I can consistently get my 14C28N pocket knife to a HHT-3 which push-cuts paper towel and so expected the finer blade (with a built in angle guide) to be a piece of cake. Whether it was imperfections in the bevel, technique, equipment or what, I could not get the bastard thing to do what I wanted and this is where the hero of the story enters what can only be described as mortal peril. The wife comes to supervise.
See, as a matter of principal, I have not shaved while waiting for the SR to arrive, that's six weeks, and the missus ain't too keen on my furry presentation at the best of times... I have an "interesting" growth pattern. Dear reader, imagine Amish wisps along the cheeks and sideburns, fluffy, fun and daggy. A void of blackened steel wool for a goatee so thick and abrasive that it leaves road rash on any drunkenly consumed meal or woman unlucky enough to show me any affection. And to top it off, what I would call a display of hobo-chic in the neck region, every type of hair, in every direction, at every time. It's a bloody mess and the boss has had enough.
"You've been ****-farting about all morning with this, just get rid of the bloody beard - I can't do this anymore, I've been googling divorce lawyers."
I look over at my daughter, who bursts into tears at the sight of me for the 12th time this week.
Okay, maybe she has a point. We're at a HHT-3, although it's not as smooth push-cutting as the pocket knife, but surely it can't go too far wrong....
Just Badger and Blade, Right?
So into the bathroom I trot on goes the hot water and let's get cracking. Oh wait, I need a towel. Here's that **** poor planning again, I dig through the dirty hamper and find a semi-dry flannel. It looks clean, ergo, it is clean. Wet, wet, wet, splash, splash, dab. Nice and soaked and drippy. The bench top and all it's accoutrement are already saturated - I did not get away with this either. Ah ****, where is the shaving cream? Out in the bedroom, back to the bench, now I've dripped on the carpet, but I'm too far gone to care and this has already taken two hours longer than planned. So I lather up a brush and paste it on my face. I do remember the importance of using more lather than I think is necessary and go right ahead and plaster it everywhere. At some point I get a feeling of needing to blow my nose and assume I'm harbouring an enormous booger, I push one finger to the opposite nostril and snort. A spray of white fluffy foam squirts across the sink, bench, floor, pants. Okay, maybe that's enough lather.
Let's go, it's time! I decide to start on my left cheek as it feels the most natural. I place the blade along my face at the top of the lather line and start scraping down. Did I pull the skin like I was told to? Nope, forgot. Did I set an angle like I was supposed to? Nope, forgot. Did I pay attention to the grain direction? Nope, forgot. It was a purely instinctual motion of chopping down the forest and it was bloody magical! Swathes of fur magically split from skin to blade, a satisfying "SCRRRRRRRR" of fine metal on beard and just like that, 4 inches of beard was gone.
This SR stuff is for chumps! How easy is this?!
No Hablas Español?
It now becomes important to note that the SR I'm using has a Spanish point. Every guide I've read has been very explicit about these not being recommended for beginners. I cannot imagine why.....
Amped up on my newfound shaving mastery, with all the confidence that only an exceedingly incompetent novice can have, it was time to shave this sideburn and do it with speed and style! Let's do it in one fell stroke and get this shave over and done with. Now for those unaware, people have varying degrees of earlobe attached-ness. There is a little bit of skin connecting the lobe to the face which juts out on a slightly different angle to the jaw-line. Interestingly my SR also as a little jutting piece in the form of a Spanish point which overlaps perfectly with the lobe-attacher when striking straight down along the sideburn. My lobes used to be a medium level of attached. Used to be.
And here we come crashing down to earth, blood and momentary panic which quickly becomes annoyance. At least the blade was sharp enough that it didn't hurt. I do the Homer Simpson toilet paper trick. It's not really working but it will get me through. And from here on out, it becomes slow, steady and careful. A timely lesson in humility.
Mirror Mirror on the Wall, Who's the Dumbest of them All?
And so here we are, as you might've guessed the rest of the shave was much less exciting. But I really struggled with the right hand side of my face, whether it was an awkward angle or latent fear for my other lobe-attacher, I could not get a comfortable and smooth stroke going. Until I stopped looking in the mirror. I am not sure if this is a known phenomenon, but as soon as I just "felt" the shave it was immediately simpler and felt natural again.
Again the Spanish point was trying to cause problems, but even that felt like it was safer in a way. Instead of relying on the mirror, I spent more of my focus feeling where the different parts of the razor were and felt like I had more control. This might be something everyone knows, or it might just be a crutch of sorts because I'm new, but for anyone who hasn't tried turfing the mirror, I recommend it.
The Good, the Bad and the Bloodstained
At the end of it all, given there were no more major incidents, I'd say the experience was a success. The Spanish point proved it's worth when shaving my philtrum and around my nostrils. It was the simplest part of the entire shave by a country mile and without the tip I imagine would've felt clumsy and frustrated trying to find the angles. There was another small nick at the side of my mouth, another Spanish victim, but it was so small that it is not even noticeable now.
I did however end up with a fair few "micro-dots" of blood. Whether this is shaving too close, or the SR not being sharp enough I'm not sure, but I'm sure it will improve with better technique in all areas. The razor was noticeably less comfortable in the second-half of the shave and I wished I had the strop in the bathroom, I'll certainly have it handy in future, but I am also keeping in mind I was shaving a six-week beard, so it may have been a heavier workload for the razor than what will be typical.
As I was reaching for the towel to finish drying off, my adult came in to check on me. I needn't tell you about the mess and reaction, but as she walked in the door, she paused, flicked the light switch and asked, "Wouldn't this be easier with the lights on?"
Yes, I'm an idiot.
. Don't try that until about your 3rd or 4th SR shave when you are an expert in the gentlemanly art.
