Shave Trek

[Folace]

…where no man has shaved before

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Captain’s log, shavedate 20141002.

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I have decided to start a journal about my journey into straight razor shaving initiation, under the patronage of Captain Yakup T. Kirko, Holy Father of the Cult of Arko. I have been wet shaving with a double edge safety razor for some years now, and wish to upgrade and step up with the mighty cutthroat. My previous attempt back in 2008 or so was a complete failure, mainly due to my juvenile haste and unpreparedness. These days, I feel astute enough to pick up again this hazardous mission: to explore strange new razors, to seek out new soaps and new aftershaves, to boldly shave where no man has shaved before.

 

[rockviper]

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Captain’s log, shavedate 20141002.

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I have decided to start my journal about my journey through straight razor shaving initiation, under the patronage of Captain Yakup T. Kirko, Holy Father of the Cult of Arko. I have been wet shaving with a double edge safety razor for some years now, and wish to upgrade and step up with the mighty cutthroat. My previous attempt back in 2008 or so was a complete failure, mainly due to my juvenile haste and unpreparedness. These days, I feel astute enough to pick up again this hazardous mission: to explore strange new razors, to seek out new soaps and new aftershaves, to boldly shave where no man has shaved before.

Uh-oh. This isn't going to end pretty

Welcome back to a second swing at straights, and I'm glad that you're starting a journal. It took me a year or so off between my first straight adventures (I sold ALL of my kit) to when I started up again. That's why my journal is tagged as 2.0

 

[Folace]

Thank you, let’s hope I succeed this time. Luckily I kept everything in an obscure drawer.

Pilot episode of my Shave Trek coming soon!

 

[Attila]

Steady as she goes Capn'!

Remember, you're a shaver not a bloody surgeon! ;-) Keep a (very) light touch, shallow angle (no more than one spine width from your face) a steady and decisive stroke as well as stretching the skin and keeping it flat and tight in front of the blade always by pulling with the offhand, puffing air into your cheeks or pulling your mouth to the side with your cheek muscles as needed. Engage!

Keep us posted. We look forward to your journeys into uncharted territory!

Man...I so miss that series...

 

[Lmarkow]

Excellent! This is better than Netflix!!

 

[Folace]

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Captain’s log, shavedate 20141002.2.

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Incidentally I received today a simple beginner’s practice strop in Horween oil tanned leather, circa 58 x 5 cm, made by Shavefleet officer Torolf Myklebust of shaveship USS Scrupleworks. I will not be afraid to do wrong and make mistakes with this tiny one, until I buy a more refined leather strop once I master this grand art of stropping.

The initial exploration is approaching.

 

[Attila]

Excellent choice for a first strop!

Spine in contact with the strop at all times! Don't rush your strokes, the Romulans won't be firing any disruptors at you and there will be no Klingons de-cloaking and judging your stropping prowess! Take your time!

 

[Folace]

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Captain’s log, shavedate 20141003.

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This evening I met with the sagacious Jean-Luc (*), a wetshaving scholar and professor emeritus at the Shavefleet Academy. Live in front of me, he honed on a Coticule one of my straight razors –the one of my collection he considered the best and more suitable for my first learning attempts– incidentally branded The Starter, a vintage 5/8 blade by RO Delorme. He taught me how to strop with the X-pattern (or windshield viper pattern, as Jean-Luc names it), assorted with practical exercise, and PIF’ed me one of his refurbished paddles, so narrow that I cannot cheat when training the right movements, plus a cleaning straw for the scale inside and a case for the cutthroat. Additionally, he gave me some useful tips on shave prep and shaving techniques, while we drank a few rounds of Romulan Ale.

Thanks to this encounter, I feel a little bit more confident for my first shave flight.

(*) This is the gentleman’s real name, the unintended pun with Star Trek is purely coincidental.

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Kirko: Grit 48,000 Mr. Sülü.
Sülü: Aye aye, sir!
Scotty: She can’t take much more of this, Captain.

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[rockviper]

I sure hope that the refreshments were your treat! That friend sounds like a very knowledgeable chap... and generous as well. From what I see of that paddle strop, you're well equipped to "up boot and give er" (a Newfie saying).

Gotta love all the coincidences you've got going on here!

 

[Attila]

Action stations! All fingers on the tang. Take her out under impulse power, steady as she goes!

 

[Folace]

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Captain’s log, shavedate 20141004.

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I prepared this morning my weaponry for shave #1. The set I assembled consists of:

• N°7 Men Oil Control Face Wash
• Georgetown Pottery G3 shaving scuttle mug
• 2008 Badger & Blade Essential Brush
• RO Delorme’s The Starter 5/8
• Arko Extra Performance shaving cream
• Ali Biyikli alum block
• Alt-Innsbruck aftershave cologne
• 444 aftershave balm

Within a few hours, I will be ready to take off for this voyage into hostile and unshaved territory.

 

[Lmarkow]

You got this, Cap'n!

 

[Folace]

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Shave Trek episode #1

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Captain’s log, shavedate 20141004.2.

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This was not the self-Amok time Mach 3-armed Klingons expected.

Around 5:00 PM CET, I entered the bathroom. I first prayed Yakup T. Kirko, Holy Father of the Cult of Arko: “Ô saint Kirko I summoned thee, I implore your benevolent mercy, let me survive this ordeal!”

I filled up the whole GP scuttle mug with hot water and then soaked the badger brush in it. In the meanwhile, I used another faucet to wash my face with N°7 Men Oil Control Face Wash, using the warmest water my hands can bear (I would not wish to burn them!). After that, without drying my face, I tapped my cheeks with a small quantity of Arko Extra Performance shaving cream. I removed the badger brush from the scuttle mug; I shook the former to squeeze the excess of water and emptied the latter to fill up again with hot water, but this time the inner reservoir only.

Then I started face lathering with circular movements. Once I created what I believed was a thick lather, I dropped the shaving brush in the scuttle mug.

And this is where the hardest part starts.

I took the straight razor in my right hand (I’m a right-hander, should I mention it). My first problem was to find the right way to hold the cutthroat. I mean, theoretically I know how to hold it, I guess I have seen like 3,497,842 YouTube videos of dudes shaving. But when you stand pathetically alone in front of a mirror, face lathered and holding a cutthroat, things are slightly different… My difficulty was to find the right balance between visibility and ease of use.

When I found an acceptable spot, I pressed the blade against my right cheek, then I slowly lifted up the spine until I got a reasonable angle. And there appears the second problem: I could not manage to stretch my skin because my fingers slipped on the lathered skin. That was not that much of an issue: my youth is behind me but I am not so old, my skin is not loose yet. Afterwards I found a solution by using a barber towel to stretch my skin when needed.

And there I go with the first strike. The razor does not slide that well on the skin, the blade stumbles over the hairs. I tried several up and down movements with my wrist. A little bit better. I cannot explain that. The razor looks fine to me, it was carefully prepared the day before by Jean-Luc if you remember the previous entry of my captain’s log. Maybe my shave prep was not so good, or the Arko cream was sub-par? The latter is impossible, Kirko could not do that to me. I had the intuition that my skin tended to dry fast and to me the hairs did not look that much soften by the beforehand moisturization. Why, I don’t know yet but I shall find the answer in a further episode.

Before resuming my report, let me describe how my beer is made. Being of Southern European extraction, I have a thick and heavy beard. The hairs are particularly dense in the cheek, bottom jaw and neck areas; on the cheeks, hairs are a little bit less dense. I studied my bear: the hairs grow from top to bottom mostly everywhere except the neck where the hairs, from under the chin to the Adam’s apple, tend to do some sort of a windshield movement and grow more and more laterally, from center to exterior. It’s kind of hard to explain, I hope you understand what I mean.

OK then basically everything went down the toilet. I started to experiment XTG and ATG movements with no particular order while Mr. Speck, watching from the shaveship, was muttering “Illogical, illogical”.

In the meantime, I re-washed my face with warm water and re-did a face lathering, with no better results on softening the hairs. Then I gave up the cheeks, I had to force gently and managed to shave most of the hair, not that close of a shave but not too bad neither, I guess, for a first attempt. The jawbone angles were kind of hard, and the left cheek was a little bit less tricky and it looks like I can handle the razor with my left arm.

Now let’s go to the most interesting part: the neck. I wanted to try a movement from bottom to top, which means, if you remember well, a XTG becoming a ATG movement. Pressing the blade against the throat was so impressive. I did not want to end like a Sweeney Todd’s victim. And there I moved the blade from the Adam’s apple to under the chin. I faced the very same issue, with hairs being tight and blocking the blade. So I forced a little bit with small movements with my wrist.

And goddammit, Bones! I figured out it was the easiest part of my attempt. I shaved in a completely *** way, mixing WTG, XTG and ATG movements (Mr. Speck could not handle it and closed the transmission) and I never achieved such a CLOSE shave with my regular DE safety razor. EVER. It was not BBS but still better than what I usually achieve, and with much less skin irritation. There were still tiny bits of longer hair, here and there, yet I was still glad with this unexpected result.

I gave up on the chin and the mustache. I tried to do a Jay Leno chin but sincerely, those areas were so tricky to approach and my hairs there are the thickest. I would have to force A LOT and the original purpose was not to butcher myself. In the end, I got not a single cut.

Okay now the post routine, in a few words: I rinsed my face with cold water then applied a Cüneyt Arkin block (Vulcan for alum block) on the freshly shaved skin. It burns. Rinsed again with cold water. I wiped my face and then sprayed Alt-Innsbruck aftershave cologne over the shaved parts. The finishing touch was a 444 aftershave balm. I love that strong menthol feeling! I look ridiculous, half shaved half hairy. Luckily I am not on chore leave today.

Overall I am quite happy with this shave #1. Still a lot to learn yet I do not feel like I lost my time.

…where no man has shaved before

 

[Attila]

Well, anytime the blood stays on the inside is a win! Congrats on your successful maiden journey.

If you are experiencing burn it would be due to either too much pressure or your angle being too steep. Perhaps a bit of both. Still, you did very, very well for your first time!

Don't worry, it will get better and better with more practice.

 

[Folace]

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Shave Trek episode #2

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Captain’s log, shavedate 20141012.

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The weaponry for my shave #2 consists of:

• N°7 Men Oil Control Face Wash
• Georgetown Pottery G3 shaving scuttle mug
• 2008 Badger & Blade Essential Brush
• RO Delorme’s The Starter 5/8
• Arko Extra Performance shaving cream
• Ali Biyikli alum block
• Rebul for Men After Shave Cologne
• 444 aftershave balm

Basically almost the same set as the previous episode, with a slight variation in the aftershave lotion choice.

This time I tried to improve two lines:

• I stropped the straight razor before shaving;
• I spent much more time face lathering and kept a little bit of water in the brush.

The result was satisfying: the slide of the razor was much much better. I did not have to force like I did on episode #1. Also with much more confidence, I had the time of my life. Maybe too much.

I also tried to be less chaotic, and did first a WTG pass then an ATG pass, skipping the XTG pass for now. The jawbones and the neck were the easiest. I still cannot shave the chin and the whiskers, these areas are really tricky plus I have NO glide there, despite my efforts during the prep. Hairs there are too thick and dense. So I finished the chin with a DE safety razor, and kept a Van Dyke.

Since I have shaved a bigger area of my face and my movements were probably a bit too triumphant, I suffered from much more razor burn; and a few nicks here and there, but no cuts.

Still no BBS in the end, but I am not expected this as soon as episode #2. This will come later in the plot, I hope.

My narration had to be quick today, I will do my best to develop more next time.

See you next week for episode #3.

Engage, Mr. Sülü!

 

[Folace]

Shave Trek episode #3

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Captain’s log, shavedate 20141019.

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The weaponry for my shave #3 consists of:

• N°7 Men Oil Control Face Wash (not pictured)
• Georgetown Pottery G3 shaving scuttle mug
• Delong Silvertip Brush
• RO Delorme’s The Starter 5/8
• Arko shave stick
• Ali Biyikli alum block (not pictured)
• Alt-Innsbruck aftershave cologne
• 444 aftershave balm

Dear readers (if there is still someone reading my captain’s log…), here I am to tell about my attempt #3 at straight shaving.

As you noticed in the picture and list above, I made some slight changes to my weaponry: I found back my good old Chinese Delong brush, and I replaced the Arko shaving cream by the infamous Arko shave stick.

Shave prep:
As usual, warm water wash with N°7 Men Oil Control Face Wash, while the shaving brush was soaked into the scuttle mug full of hot water.

Shaving itself:
First of all, there is absolutely NO comparison between the Arko shave stick and its cream counterpart. The soap provides a monstrous lather and a way better glide. Most of my previous glide issues were solved by using the stick. I have yet to find a more suitable shaving brush, the Delong like the B&B Essential Best Badger have got too big knots for face lathering. I use the scuttle mug only to keep the brush warm between passes.

I started with the cheeks where I have managed to master and improve my technique the best: a WTG movement with no issues on the right cheek, but a little bit difficult on the left side since I am right-handed. Still something I need to improve.

The neck and the jawbones were kind of smooth too, nothing complicated to raise.

Then I continued with an ATG movement on cheeks, jawbones and neck, overall OK and same tricky issues on the left side.
For now I still skip the XTG part. I prefer to master the WTG/ATG perfectly before considering a 3-pass shave.
I skipped the whiskers since I am growing a Johnny Depp-like Von Dyke beard.

I kept the chin for the end, as it is the most difficult part for me. Last week I completed shave trek #2 with my Merkur 37G and a Feather blade (damn I hate those!) and my chin was butchered, it caused me cuts and irritation which lead to a couple of annoying pimples. Obviously this was a real nuisance for shave trek #3 and today I had some little nicks on those.

So the chin was still kind of hard, but I noticed that doing ample movements like in the cheeks or the neck was completely useless. The best way I figured out was to concentrate on a small area of the blade and shave with quick, surgical and precise movements. That worked way better like that. I managed to shave almost all the chin though the result was far from being a BBS. I removed a handful of remaining hairs with tweezers.

After shave:
Before narrating the routine, let me summarize the shave result:

• Cheeks: CCS almost DFS
• Neck: SAS almost CCS
• Chin: almost SAS

My skin was hell of red; the razor burn was much more intense than before. A couple of micro cuts on the chin, where I had pimples from the previous shave; bled but nothing serious.

The routine was:

• Cold water rinse
• Turkish alum block (no more bleeding afterwards)
• Cold water rinse again
• Alt-Innsbruck splash all over the face
• 444 aftershave balm

I do not know which ingredient works the best but my face was not red anymore after that combo.

This was my best shave with a straight razor until now. I have been learning for 3 weeks now, with one shave per week end. I happened to find it easier to shave with long hair on the face. I am now considering to reduce the turnover and shave twice a week.

All hail Kirko! Hail Kirko!

 

[Folace]

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Captain’s log, shavedate 20141020.

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The day after, it appears that my face has been more damaged than I initially thought. Oh well, still happy with shave trek #3.

 

[rockviper]

We've all been there. I still see cat scratches mysteriously appear later in the day from time to time.

 

[Lmarkow]

We've all been there. I still see cat scratches mysteriously appear later in the day from time to time.

I've been curious how that happens. I'll walk away from the mirror thinking I done good, only to return later in the day to find I wasn't so good. Used to happened frequently; not so much any more.

 

[Folace]

Once the nicks and cuts have healed they became more visible to the eye, IMHO. Plus here at the office the lights in the WC are way too bright so these things were more noticeable to me.