On Shaving: Minor Musings of an Eternal Beginner

[Goblin]

I have resisted doing this because I don’t think my opinions are very interesting, and because I suspect that a lot of other folks probably agree!

Still, I am prone to cluttering up other threads with my loquaciousness (a terrible vice, as St Augustine tells us) and I often have things to say that don’t really deserve a topic, although I still want to get them off my chest. Additionally, I am stuck at home whilst I go through the painfully slow process of improving my mobility after a succession of moderately significant injuries and secondary complications, so I have plenty of time on my hands both to experiment with my shave and write about the outcomes.

So, going forwards I shall post the occasional ramble here. If other folks want to join in, great. If not…well, that’s why it's best to contain this stuff in one place.

I gave the thread this title because I know that I am prone to dogmatism. I find something that works for me and then become convinced that it is the best way and that everyone whose "mileage varies" is misguided. Of course, it is me who is misguided. Often, experience eventually teaches me that the doctrines I adhered to so inflexibly might not be as universally correct as I first thought.

They say that dogmatic thinking is a trait associated with dumb people. I think I manage to look quite foolish enough already, so as I document my shaves I will try to keep in mind the famous quote from that populariser of Zen, Shunryu Suzuki:

“In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert's mind there are few.”

Here’s to being an eternal beginner!

 

[Eric_75]

Welcome, James!

 

[thombrogan]

Thank you for sharing your journal with us, @Goblin ! I’ve already been reading your discoveries, rediscoveries, and advice elsewhere and can’t wait to read more.

experience eventually teaches me that the doctrines I adhered to so inflexibly might not be as universally correct as I first thought.

Been there, done that, keep doing it without noticing on far too many things.

Here’s to being an eternal beginner!

Here‘s to your recognizing the human condition is one of perpetually being a beginner. The late Bob Orlando used to call experts “former spurts” as part of his eternal studying.

 

[Goblin]

I’ve already been reading your discoveries, rediscoveries, and advice elsewhere and can’t wait to read more.

Thank you! I have started to spend more time reading other folks' journals in the past couple of weeks. I don't typically leave comments, but I have realised there's actually much to be learned from sharing and discussing our experiences like this. Hopefully, I will sometimes be able to touch upon a subject that is of interest to other people as I record my own thoughts.

Here's a daily shave. I am taking a break from shavettes at the moment to give my DE razors some love.

The cereal bowl I was lathering with seemed a little large so I got this attractive but cheap Japanese bowl online. The top curves in very slightly, so when the lather reaches the top it falls back down inside instead of spilling over the edge. I am still looking at "proper" lather bowls with some sort of texture to aid lather building. I will invest in one eventually, but this one is okay for now.

I have rather neglected synths for the past 18 months because of their harshness on the face. Bowl lathering is letting me get them back in rotation and enjoy their lather making properties. I have never owned a "high end" synth but even this humble 24mm Tuxedo whips up a fine lather with the wonderful Palmolive cream - the last man standing of traditional shaving products available UK supermarkets.

 

[Goblin]

I have a few topics lined up that I want to post about here once I have had a chance to collect my thoughts, but initially
I suppose a potted history of my journey through shavedom would be helpful.

I began traditional shaving nearly 15 years ago. Cartridge shaving was causing me terrible ingrowns. I have a permanent scar from the worst one, and that is what tipped me over the edge to search for an alternative way of removing those pesky whiskers. With everything I now know about shaving, I can get a decent shave from a cartridge, but when I started shaving in ye olde pre-internet days there was nobody to teach me about things like prep, grain direction and that sort of thing. Traditional shaving taught me lots of things I should have already known.

I discovered B&B quite early on and thought I went almost a year before signing up, but my join date says 2011 and one of my early posts says I have been using a DE for a couple of months at that point, so I guess it is 14 years and not 15!

I began traditional shaving with a Merkur 34C, an Omega Pro49 and some Proraso. Back then, your razor options were basically Merkur, EJ or a vintage Gillette. Synthetic brushes weren't a thing, so boars were the commonly recommended beginner brushes. The first few months weren’t great. Blade samplers weren’t a thing in those days. I bought a few random tucks and spent weeks messing around with brands like Derby, Merkur and even Shark. I was getting nowhere. On the verge of giving up, I ordered a tuck of 7OC SharpEdge blades after reading some forum comments. These blades were much sharper back then and considered second only to the mighty Feather.

Hallelujah! I had found a blade that seemed to actually cut the stubble rather than tug it and now I was finally able to make some progress with my technique. I tried a few razors (EJ de89, Flare-tip, post-war Tech) but decided to stick with the Merkur…until Connaught Shaving got Fatips in stock for the first time.

I bought a Fatip Grande, and it quickly became my main user, paired with a Feather blade. I was self-employed for about 8 years and using the Grande 3 times a week when I had to meet clients gave me very close shaves with enough of a gap in between to let my skin recover. I stopped looking at shaving forums – I had everything figured out.

Back in those days I was a one brush guy. I would buy a boar and abuse the heck out of it for 18 months, then buy another. If you want to know how to destroy a brush, I am your man. I worked through 3 Omegas and 3 Semogues in ten years.

I should mention that early on I made a diversion into the world of straight shaving. In those days, you could pick up a decent piece of Sheffield steel from an antique / junk store in the north for nothing money. Nobody wanted them. I lightly restored and honed up about 12 razors and shaved with them when I had time. You can still see some straight SOTD posts in my history. Eventually, I bounced off straights. I suspect I never really got the hang of stropping. I found that even though I could get a good edge off my bevel setter and coticule, it never lasted more than about 7 or 8 shaves before it needed to go back on the stones. Too much maintenance for me.

It was some time after the pandemic that my interest in wet shaving was reignited. I needed a new brush, and in looking for one I saw how much the landscape had changed. Synthetic brushes were now a thing. Artisan soaps and CNC razors had both taken the wet shaving world by storm. I needed to know how good these things were, plus try all the different blades that could now be easily acquired from online vendors!

Fast forward to today. I now have about 20 DE / SE razors, 20 brushes and a 10-year blade stash, plus there are other items that I have tried and sold. I never consider some of the very high-end gear like Wolfman razors or High Mountain White badger brushes because I don’t have masses of disposable income and already spend more than I should on shaving. Still, I enjoy what I have for the variety and find that I can be just as satisfied with a good shave from a very cheap razor as a good shave from a very expensive razor.

The only thing I am not that interested in is soaps. My skin is somewhat reactive, and a lot of artisan soaps are just too heavily fragranced for it to tolerate. Reactions range from extreme dryness to swelling and blotchiness. I have a few brands that I trust, and I also continue to enjoy the more traditional Euro shave soaps and creams…at least, the ones that are still left!

I will speak a bit more about my current gear preferences in another post, including my latest obsession of shavettes. Looking back, it's amazing just how the shaving hobby has exploded and the gear has evolved in what is really a relatively short space of time.

 

[Phoenixkh]

James/Jim, welcome to the Journals and Diaries Forum. I learned so much from the mostly guys who started their journals prior to me finding B&B back on March 1st, 2022... and those who started them after I joined.

I look forward to reading your musings....

 

[Goblin]

I have been interested in trying a more recent generation of synthetic brush. As usual, the UK pricing penalty applies - all the brush makers working with the latest knots are based in the USA.

So, I did a little research and found that some folks say the DSCosmetic G7 knot is the same fibre as the popular G5 knot. Given the price (circa £14) I figured it was worth taking a punt. I ordered this brush:

Well, it arrived this morning and...for my tastes it's ghastly.

It has a substantial glue bump and feels like it has been set in a handle that is tight for the knot size (although I doubt that is actually the case). Interestingly, when I look up the character of the G5 on the APShave website, it does say that it is a brush with a lot of backbone and minimal splay. Maybe this is actually what it is meant to be like?

It reminds me of my Zenith B03-A26 in terms of its overall stiffness. That's a very popular brush, so maybe some folks like this kind of thing, but it's not my cup of tea at all. In fact, that is the brush I moved out of the bathroom and into storage to make room for this new arrival.

I do have another cheap China brush incoming that I hope will be more my speed, using on older generation of knot that I have some experience with. I think I am also going to have another look at the offerings from APShave. Based on their comparisons, it looks like a lot of the lateset generation of knots are actually going to be too stiff for my tastes - maybe the Synbad or Independent knot would be more my speed.

@Dave himself and @madmedic, if either of you fancy giving this G7 a try then let me know and I will ship it to you. Perhaps you will get on with it better than I do. The actual fibres themselves seem great, but I am a splayer, not a fighter, and this brush puts up too much resistance for me.

I guess the moral of this story is twofold: 1) Do your research, and 2) Buy cheap, buy twice.

 

[madmedic]

@Dave himself and @madmedic, if either of you fancy giving this G7 a try then let me know and I will ship it to you. P

Thanks for your kind offer but I will respectfully decline this time. I only use synthetics when I occasionally use creams and with those instances I prefer a bit of loft with plenty of splay. That knot does not sound as if it would meet my requirements.

 

[Guido75]

Looking forward to your musings James! I enjoyed reading about your journey thus far at least. You have been engaged with SEs I believe lately. Occasionally you come to my mind when I grab that Rocca for a spin.

Welcome to the journal section!

 

[Dave himself]

I have been interested in trying a more recent generation of synthetic brush. As usual, the UK pricing penalty applies - all the brush makers working with the latest knots are based in the USA.

So, I did a little research and found that some folks say the DSCosmetic G7 knot is the same fibre as the popular G5 knot. Given the price (circa £14) I figured it was worth taking a punt. I ordered this brush:

View attachment 1929929

Well, it arrived this morning and...for my tastes it's ghastly.

It has a substantial glue bump and feels like it has been set in a handle that is tight for the knot size (although I doubt that is actually the case). Interestingly, when I look up the character of the G5 on the APShave website, it does say that it is a brush with a lot of backbone and minimal splay. Maybe this is actually what it is meant to be like?

It reminds me of my Zenith B03-A26 in terms of its overall stiffness. That's a very popular brush, so maybe some folks like this kind of thing, but it's not my cup of tea at all. In fact, that is the brush I moved out of the bathroom and into storage to make room for this new arrival.

I do have another cheap China brush incoming that I hope will be more my speed, using on older generation of knot that I have some experience with. I think I am also going to have another look at the offerings from APShave. Based on their comparisons, it looks like a lot of the lateset generation of knots are actually going to be too stiff for my tastes - maybe the Synbad or Independent knot would be more my speed.

@Dave himself and @madmedic, if either of you fancy giving this G7 a try then let me know and I will ship it to you. Perhaps you will get on with it better than I do. The actual fibres themselves seem great, but I am a splayer, not a fighter, and this brush puts up too much resistance for me.

I guess the moral of this story is twofold: 1) Do your research, and 2) Buy cheap, buy twice.

Mate thank you so much for your very generous offer. I'll give this brush a try.

 

[Goblin]

Mate thank you so much for your very generous offer. I'll give this brush a try.

Okey-dokey, skipper. I will try and get it out to you some time this week. Might take me a few days, but consider it on its way.

 

[Goblin]

So, today I was going to go back to shavette shaves but it was not to be. Last night I had a bit of a mishap and I think I have torn my rotator cuff in a couple of places. It's not the first shoulder injury I have had in the past few years. I already had quite a lot of physio to get things working again after the last time, so I am a bit concerned we may be at the point where it needs a proper look to assess the accumulated damage. Let's see how things go over the next couple of days. I'm already in hospital next week for something else so I could do without this.

Anyway, I'm dictating this because typing is uncomfortable. There was no way I could contemplate the shoulder movements required for a shavette shave. That being the case it was the turn of the Fatip again.

I usually use my left hand for the left side of my face. I struggled a bit today and ended up with some irritation due to not being able to angle things quite right. Nevertheless, a bad shave is still better than no shave.

I have said before how the Fatip was my main razor for many years, and although I’ve now tried (and own) a few flashier razors it still remains a firm favourite. I've been thinking about why it works so well for me and had a bit of a Eureka moment upon reading something a couple of weeks ago from @Flanders.

He made the point that a poor XTG or ATG pass is often caused by an inadequate WTG pass. It's obvious really, but it is the kind of thing you forget when you've been doing this for a while and think you know what’s what!

I have mentioned elsewhere that I sometimes struggle with irritation ATG because I don't get enough reduction from my earlier passes. I think the reason the Fatip works so well for me is because its “zero gap” OC design provides for a really close first pass compared to my other razors. I get a better ATG pass with the Fatip not because it is truly better ATG, but because it has done a better job on the preceding passes.

Of course, my usual 2 pass routine was one that I developed when I was using Fatips for every shave. I have been experimenting a little bit with other razors and discovered that with things like the 0.72 Lupo, instead of attempting my usual 2 pass shave and then spending a lot of time on aggressive ATG touch ups, I can get a better result by adding a second WTG pass before moving on - it's now a three pass shave, but I'm adding a 2nd WTG pass at the beginning instead of more ATG work at the end.

I've always been aware that we need to adapt ourselves to individual razors, but it never occurred to me that this could extend to adding entire extra passes with razors that are already reasonably efficient. I always wanted to keep the total number of passes as low as possible, but it goes to show that in some cases this can actually be detrimental - extra reduction passes can lead to less irritation and not more, provided that they are truly needed.

Incidentally, I apologise for any spelling or syntax errors here. Usually, I am entirely to blame for these, but today we can blame windows speech detection!

 

[thombrogan]

I hope your rotator cuff mends quickly (surgically or otherwise), @Goblin

Very excellent composition and photograph of your Fatip collection.

 

[Dave himself]

Praying for you to heal quickly mate .

 

[Goblin]

Thank you, gentlemen. I don't think this instance of damage is particularly bad, as I still have range of motion but I'm more concerned about the cumulative damage on top of the last injury And I want to avoid ending up with frozen shoulder like I did before. Let's see how it goes.

 

[Frinstance]

So, today I was going to go back to shavette shaves but it was not to be. Last night I had a bit of a mishap and I think I have torn my rotator cuff in a couple of places. It's not the first shoulder injury I have had in the past few years. I already had quite a lot of physio to get things working again after the last time, so I am a bit concerned we may be at the point where it needs a proper look to assess the accumulated damage. Let's see how things go over the next couple of days. I'm already in hospital next week for something else so I could do without this.

Anyway, I'm dictating this because typing is uncomfortable. There was no way I could contemplate the shoulder movements required for a shavette shave. That being the case it was the turn of the Fatip again.

I usually use my left hand for the left side of my face. I struggled a bit today and ended up with some irritation due to not being able to angle things quite right. Nevertheless, a bad shave is still better than no shave.

I have said before how the Fatip was my main razor for many years, and although I’ve now tried (and own) a few flashier razors it still remains a firm favourite. I've been thinking about why it works so well for me and had a bit of a Eureka moment upon reading something a couple of weeks ago from @Flanders.

He made the point that a poor XTG or ATG pass is often caused by an inadequate WTG pass. It's obvious really, but it is the kind of thing you forget when you've been doing this for a while and think you know what’s what!

I have mentioned elsewhere that I sometimes struggle with irritation ATG because I don't get enough reduction from my earlier passes. I think the reason the Fatip works so well for me is because its “zero gap” OC design provides for a really close first pass compared to my other razors. I get a better ATG pass with the Fatip not because it is truly better ATG, but because it has done a better job on the preceding passes.

Of course, my usual 2 pass routine was one that I developed when I was using Fatips for every shave. I have been experimenting a little bit with other razors and discovered that with things like the 0.72 Lupo, instead of attempting my usual 2 pass shave and then spending a lot of time on aggressive ATG touch ups, I can get a better result by adding a second WTG pass before moving on - it's now a three pass shave, but I'm adding a 2nd WTG pass at the beginning instead of more ATG work at the end.

I've always been aware that we need to adapt ourselves to individual razors, but it never occurred to me that this could extend to adding entire extra passes with razors that are already reasonably efficient. I always wanted to keep the total number of passes as low as possible, but it goes to show that in some cases this can actually be detrimental - extra reduction passes can lead to less irritation and not more, provided that they are truly needed.

View attachment 1930565

Incidentally, I apologise for any spelling or syntax errors here. Usually, I am entirely to blame for these, but today we can blame windows speech detection!

Major forehead slapping moment - you've made me realise why many a shave should have been better.

 

[Goblin]

@Frinstance, I know, right?

Me too! It's the kind of mistake a beginner probably wouldn't make.

 

[Balin]

I hope your shoulder is improving!

 

[Goblin]

It looks as though I'm going to be on the DE for the foreseeable future. In protecting my one bad shoulder I have now injured the other one too. You can't make this stuff up. Bloody painful and difficult to sleep. These are reinjuries from some shoulder strains I had about 3 years ago, but they seem to be worse this time around. I shall give it a couple of weeks and then decide whether I need to seek treatment and potential surgical repair. Hopefully not.

Aaaaaanyhoo….

I used the Nodachi with a GSB today. This was my first foray into more expensive CNC razors. I vacillated between this and the Blackbird for a couple of months, but in the end, I decided to go with the EU product. It's fantastic.

I keep thinking about what my next razor might be. I have been planning to sell some bits to fund my next acquisition (if I don't end up paying for shoulder surgery) but I am honestly struggling to find anything high-end in the EU that really appeals. The Lambda and Atelier Durdan options don’t float my boat. I would have gotten a Blutt, but I think they are on a hiatus at the moment. A Stando appeals, although they mostly have a more utilitarian aesthetic. There is a good chance I may just pick up the OC Nodachi plate and call it good.

These GSB's are part of a 100 pack I received recently. It got stuck in customs and beaten up a bit, so when I opened the envelope a lot of loose blades fell out everywhere, because about 1/3 of the tucks had burst open. Thanks to the wax dots holding them firmly in their wrappers the individual blades actually all looked fine. Still, I can't shake the feeling they don't feel quite as good as they should. Almost certainly my imagination!

Thank the Lord for Signature Soaps! With my shoulders in this condition, I thought lathering was going to be a real challenge and that I would probably have to get help, but these soaps lather so easily I was able to manage it quite adequately. I shall be sticking with this tub until my shoulders improve.

 

[Darth Scandalous]

I've always been aware that we need to adapt ourselves to individual razors, but it never occurred to me that this could extend to adding entire extra passes with razors that are already reasonably efficient. I always wanted to keep the total number of passes as low as possible, but it goes to show that in some cases this can actually be detrimental - extra reduction passes can lead to less irritation and not more, provided that they are truly needed.

I missed this, somehow. First, good luck on the shoulder. RC pathologies are the worst. But, specific to this idea I've quoted, yeah. Yeah! Extra reduction passes almost always make my final ATG work much more trivial. I used to race through my WTG pass, figured whatever got missed would get picked up down the road. Nowadays I try to eliminate as much stubble as I can in the direction that I'm shaving and it seems like the subsequent passes get easier and easier and my skin likes it.

Possibly related, I have toyed with a second partial sideways pass, with the opposite hand, off and one, and I'm back to doing it every shave. Somehow the slightly different angle of attack seems to have a big effect on picking up stubborn stubble.