Hey guys,
After the brief excitement of actually being old enough to begin shaving, I quickly realised how horrible it is to my face and have hated it for the past ten years. Cartridges and canned foam do my face no favours, and often left me very irritated (internally and dermatologically...), bleeding and bound to get numerous ingrowing hairs afterwards. I pretty much gave up shaving.
Now, however... after a reasonable amount of research online (and here at B&B particularly), I decided to take the plunge and invest in a few new pieces of equipment to see if I could achieve the enjoyable and luxurious shave you all seem to revel in.
Equipment:
Lord LP1822 safety razor
Gillette 7 O'Clock Super Stainless blades (Green, Russia)
'Best Badger' hair brush (dubious authenticity from China)
Palmolive Palm Extract shave stick (UK version)
So far, I'm not overwhelmed. Yes, it's a more comfortable shave than I'm used to but I'm still finding it irritating (although ingrown hairs are definitely few and far between now). Granted, that may be technique and experience!
The growth pattern of hair on my face is quite random, so I'm slowly learning exactly which direction I need to pass the razor for a WTG pass; obviously chin and upper lip is straight down, but my cheeks vary massively, and could be down, diagonally from my nose to my jaw or even horizontally. It doesn't help I can't see the direction once the I'm all lathered up...
Routine and technique:
1) Shower and wash face with soap and face wash, also soaking razor and brush
2) Wash face again with hot water and flannel, then hang it up outside the window
3) Apply shave stick to face and then working up a lather with the brush
5) Rinse, relather
6) XTG: as above
7) Rinse, relather
8) May or may not finish with ATG
10) Rinse with cold water, then fetch my flannel in from outside (which is almost freezing cold by this stage) and it's a glorious fresh feeling as I wipe my face down
11) Nivea AS balm
So there you have it! That's me so far, still learning and still unsure to be honest. Any tips, advice or comments would be hugely appreciated.
TPL out!
After the brief excitement of actually being old enough to begin shaving, I quickly realised how horrible it is to my face and have hated it for the past ten years. Cartridges and canned foam do my face no favours, and often left me very irritated (internally and dermatologically...), bleeding and bound to get numerous ingrowing hairs afterwards. I pretty much gave up shaving.
Now, however... after a reasonable amount of research online (and here at B&B particularly), I decided to take the plunge and invest in a few new pieces of equipment to see if I could achieve the enjoyable and luxurious shave you all seem to revel in.
Equipment:
Lord LP1822 safety razor
Gillette 7 O'Clock Super Stainless blades (Green, Russia)
'Best Badger' hair brush (dubious authenticity from China)
Palmolive Palm Extract shave stick (UK version)
So far, I'm not overwhelmed. Yes, it's a more comfortable shave than I'm used to but I'm still finding it irritating (although ingrown hairs are definitely few and far between now). Granted, that may be technique and experience!
The growth pattern of hair on my face is quite random, so I'm slowly learning exactly which direction I need to pass the razor for a WTG pass; obviously chin and upper lip is straight down, but my cheeks vary massively, and could be down, diagonally from my nose to my jaw or even horizontally. It doesn't help I can't see the direction once the I'm all lathered up...
Routine and technique:
1) Shower and wash face with soap and face wash, also soaking razor and brush
2) Wash face again with hot water and flannel, then hang it up outside the window
3) Apply shave stick to face and then working up a lather with the brush
I'm still not entirely certain how well I'm doing here. I've followed the various tutorials and videos I can find, but I don't know if it's a thick enough lather - I usually do it until all the hairs on the brush clump together with lather when I take it away from my face. Also, I often find that the lather is flaking from my neck as I finish each pass - have I taken too long and it's just drying up? Is it not wet enough to begin?
4) WTG: sideburns, then cheeks, upper lip, chin, neck5) Rinse, relather
6) XTG: as above
7) Rinse, relather
8) May or may not finish with ATG
More often than not, I don't. I find this is the most likely time to cut myself and that especially on my upper lip the razor catches instead of smooth passes.
9) Rinse with hot water, then apply alum block
10) Rinse with cold water, then fetch my flannel in from outside (which is almost freezing cold by this stage) and it's a glorious fresh feeling as I wipe my face down
11) Nivea AS balm
So there you have it! That's me so far, still learning and still unsure to be honest. Any tips, advice or comments would be hugely appreciated.
TPL out!