Professor Flanders's Journal of Nerdy Observations and silly camaraderie

[spacemonkey42]

Sorry to hear about the bad shave, Aaron, recover quickly. Thanks for sharing real life experiences, we all have a bad run now and then.

 

[Jay21]

I'm the king of mangling my face with a razor and I know what it's like. Heal up quickly.

 

[APBinNCA]

Please heal quickly, Aaron.

Sorry to hear about the bad shave, Aaron, recover quickly. Thanks for sharing real life experiences, we all have a bad run now and then.

I'm the king of mangling my face with a razor and I know what it's like. Heal up quickly.

Thanks everybody. I am off to see what I can manage right now!

 

[Darth Scandalous]

The one thing that I realised is that I think the Blackbird's pointy safety bar is acting more like an OC plate and not displacing the skin ahead of the blade and that my ultra light hovering might be exacerbating this. There is a certain feeling OC razors have when they aren't really working as safety bars, it's one reason some people like them even if they don't have long growth

Sorry about the rough shave. However, this description has me thinking about the Blackbird again. As much as I like the more engaged feel of the Fatip comb I think my technique (probably informed by using straights for so long) is more dialed into a bar with less engagement. I used my SC again today and actually had that thought as I was shaving. Ironically, every one of handful of DEs in my den is an OC and I'm a daily shaver...so...not sure what that says.

I am loath to spend a lot of money on a razor that I'll only use for a partial pass, but the Blackbird and Athena have had my attention for a while.

 

[thombrogan]

I don’t like feeling the comb or safety bar these days. It’s gap is there so accidents limit the thickness of my self-made deli slices.

 

[cajunrph]

the sea lions run right off the dock in one swipe(HT Cajun)

Excellent job with the sea lions, don't worry those sunny beaches are waterproof. Haha.

I like you have taken a step back this week, seeing blood more often than I care to. Mine is user error, sometimes we need a wake-up call.

 

[Galibier_Numero_Un]

Mne is user error, sometimes we need a wake-up call.

and some recovery shaves

 

[APBinNCA]

I really had a wonderful shave this morning, everything just worked! I used the Glyce and as expected, it tightened my skin as it dried and provided some protection. The SV was perfect as usual along with my TSN limited edition Badger brush. Then came the Tatara Nodamune with GSB and it went exactly as planned. In fact, I didn't really take it as easy as planned and let's just say that some of those affected areas were a little bit thin. No discomfort or new injuries incurred and I wrapped it all up within 20 minutes. If I am being critical, the shave wasn't as even as I am used to, but the shave is lasting nicely! Three more shaves on this combo and I might just load another blade instead of switch razors. I am thinking about the Blackbird Lite plate again... hmm.

 

[BigAlVista]

Well, I mangled my face yesterday and finished it off this morning! Darn. I may have learned something though.

I am not sure if I used the wrong tuck of Dorco Primes or what, but it was bad. As a refresher, I ordered 300 several months ago and upon receiving them, I found a tuck that was not behaving. After trying another, I felt like it was a fluke and set that other tuck aside. But I may have accidentally picked it back up, or not. These things require a pretty tame razor for me so I may have pushed my luck.

I am not sure why I chose this blade when I decided to pull out the Blackbird, but I can usually make any blade work for one shave and then, if it's a bit much, move it to a different razor. I admit that everything is user error to some degree or another, but in this case using this blade may have been the only real error. Everything was going fine for the first pass, pretty high efficiency, but all I did was make an ear to chin pass with my usual combination of bull frogging and lightly pulling the opposite direction of the shave and I might as well have used a napped flint(aka broken glass)! By this I mean that I had immediate red dots following along right after where the blade passed, yikes. Literally no pressure and I have visible damage after the shave. Then today, it decided to finish me off by digging in and producing a nicely visible slice into my chin. I waited a bit to see if I was having a problem day so I could blame it on myself, but there was no sign of sleep deprivation or intestinal distress that usually causes me to be off my game without knowing it until after the shave so I am calling this a bad blade. Normally I would try it in another razor, but I am certain that that won't go any better. The one thing that I realised is that I think the Blackbird's pointy safety bar is acting more like an OC plate and not displacing the skin ahead of the blade and that my ultra light hovering might be exacerbating this. There is a certain feeling OC razors have when they aren't really working as safety bars, it's one reason some people like them even if they don't have long growth. I just hadn't realised this previously until I felt that familiar feeling. So what I think is going on is two fold: one, I am using the wrong technique with Blackbird and two, the Blackbird is not as forgiving as I thought. Using milder blades that I prefer, I have taken huge swipes just like the one I did yesterday and today without any consequences and was left with the sea lions run right off the dock in one swipe(HT Cajun). The Blackbird is a confidence inspiring razor for me, it feels like it's got some sort of super power to it. However, not stretching with an OC razor and a sharp enough blade is a recipe for what I got. Some people have higher tolerance than I do, but I am pretty sure by Bull Frogging I put my skin right in front of the blade and these blades are sharp enough to dig right in. And this might be a particularly bad one too.

So in contrast to the actual damage, the condition of the rest of my face is worse. My skin has that freshly scrapped look and feel to it and just putting water on it is uncomfortable. I was making a great recovery from the last time this happened and then, like somebody pulled the rug out from under me, I am back to where I was a few months ago! So, put away all the aggressive razors and pull out the milder Tatara combinations along with the Aylsworth. Maybe I will use the Timeless again already, it was surprisingly mild. I don't have many choices on the milder side of medium. I guess I will put off any razor purchases so that's a plus. Sometimes I wish I didn't need to be clean shaven and could go back to evening shaving, my face would be a lot happier.

Please ignore me and continue with the pre-shave discussion!

Been away for a couple of days. Hope you are healing up.

 

[BigAlVista]

This sounds like a pretty well thought out and effective pre-shave routine. It might be overkill, but not doing this much might be underkill just as likely. I have been using the Grooming Dept. pre-shave for several years and although I use others for some time, I usually return to it. The reason that I know it works is because it actually inhibits the closeness of my shave, I have proven this over and over again. It's the reason that I either skip pre-shave or pull out one of the others. I use Furbo during the summer, it's alcohol based and leaves a dry film on the face that doesn't have any effect on the soap lather or cause razor drag. The protection is good enough, but it doesn't do much to condition the whiskers and I don't really care. I have been using Baume.be for as long as I have been wet shaving it's slightly greasier applying it than anything short of oil based products, but once wet and worked in it's a great product for me. I use it Spring and Fall mostly and will probably pull it out now that I think about it. I agree about the Cube, I use it and it's really a hard form of PAA soap for the most part. Now that I think about some of the posts above, I think I might pull out the Glyce actually! It has some interesting properties and I like the scent.

I think I need to try Baume.be. A good many positive reviews for it.

 

[APBinNCA]

Been away for a couple of days. Hope you are healing up.

Surprisingly, everything seems to be back to normal... as long as I stick to milder razors and blades. Thanks for asking.
(I am very likely to run out of patience and do something stupid while my face is healing, but I am enjoying my Tatara shaves enough that I might not)

 

[Galibier_Numero_Un]

Surprisingly, everything seems to be back to normal... as long as I stick to milder razors and blades. Thanks for asking.
(I am very likely to run out of patience and do something stupid while my face is healing, but I am enjoying my Tatara shaves enough that I might not)

In backcountry skiing (which I've done little of recently due to a balky knee), the primary goal is to come back home safely. Don't let powder fever steer you into dangerous terrain. Fun is a big part of it, but it comes second to safety.

There must be a parallel here in this blood sport we call shaving

... Thom