It's been almost exactly 2 months since I started using a DE and it's been a great adventure! There has been blood spilled, skin burned, acquisition disorders diagnosed and moments of joyful faceturbation. I appreciate greatly all the resources that have been made available from everyone on B&B, so I thought I would take some time to share some thoughts on my experiences in the hope that maybe one or two rookies out there might end up with a more pleasurable learning curve. The idea at first was simply to "jot down a few ideas", but as I look at the result I notice that it has become QUITE lengthy. So that said, I hope those that take the time to read this find some value...of course, YMMV. 
YMMV
The golden rule of B&B is YMMV, or “Your Mileage May Vary”. I couldn’t agree more. While there are some things that are generally true for everyone, most things are not. Soaps vs. Creams, to preshave oil or not to preshave oil, face lathering vs. bowl lathering, alum block vs witch hazel (or both!) “Best blade” discussions…It’s all relative. The bottom line is you’re going to have to experiment with several different things over the course of a few months before you even have the foggiest idea of what things are going to work for you. Don’t be intimidated…embrace the opportunity to experiment!
Use More Product
When I first started wetshaving with a Gillette Fusion 6 years ago, I started off with an Art of Shaving Sandalwood puck of soap. I had no idea what I was doing when it came to lathering soap, but it really didn’t matter. My one pass with the Fusion lasted all of 60 seconds, so my less than ideal lather didn’t have any time to dry out, flake off, or disappear. Moving to the DE however is when my poor lathering skills reared it’s ugly head. Because I was taking more time with the DE, my lather was becoming useless. I read just about everything on B&B trying to figure it out. More water, less water, more swirling, etc. Nothing seemed to work. I even started buying creams and using them instead…convinced I would never be able to effectively lather a soap.
I read it all the time on B&B when it comes to addressing lathering issues. USE MORE PRODUCT! That’s great advice…but the problem is that I thought I was using all the product I could fit on the tips of my badger brush. See what I did there? “Tips of my badger brush”? When it comes to loading soap on the brush, I’ve read over and over again, “load the tips…that’s where the lather is built”. Quite frankly, I think that’s incomplete advice. I think you need to load the tips AND the inside of your brush. I stumbled upon this tutorial here http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showthread.php/21136-How-to-make-great-lather-from-a-soap-Tutorial and it was like a light went on in my brain. The gentleman that wrote the tutorial had a step in there involving a “plunging” motion in order to get soap deep inside the bristles. Eureka! This is the step I was missing! The next day I took my brush to my D.R. Harris Arlington soap, followed the tutorial to the letter, and since then have been enjoying my soaps like I’ve never had before. If you’re about to throw out your soaps, give that tutorial a shot!
Got Razor Burn? Maybe not!
For the first month of shaving multiple passes with a DE, my face was always at least somewhat irritated, even after my best shaves. No matter how well I did my face prep, concentrated on my blade angle and lack of pressure, or how well I cared for my face after shaving, my face was never quite comfortable. Then one night when I was trying to figure out why I wasn’t getting great lather from my soaps (see “Use More Product” above), I did about 5-6 test lathers on my face. After I finished the last one, I quickly realized that I had done some serious damage to my face. It was the worst feeling “razor burn” that I had ever experienced…but of course, I hadn’t even shaved!
Back when I used to use a Fusion for one pass only, I would aggressively swirl the brush on my face when trying to create lather. This never was an issue because I was only doing it once per shave! Now that I was doing 3 passes, all of the sudden I had to consider the possibility that it was the brush that was causing the “burn” and not that razor! After giving my face a couple days to rest from my “brush burn”, I began my next shave with a far more gentle building of the lather on my face. I also tried to use less “swirling” motions and more back and forth “painting” motions in order to be a bit more gentle. Ever since then, I can count on one hand the number of times that my face didn’t feel absolutely terrific after a shave. It’s made a world of difference for me…so if you’re struggling with what you think might be perpetual razor burn, try being a bit more gentle with your brush. You might be pleasantly surprised!
Get to know your beard/Everyone loves a cheater
One thing that won’t come very quickly is the process of getting to know your beard, or what most people would call the process of “beard mapping”. It’s fairly common knowledge that facial hair does not grow in one uniform direction. You’re going to do yourself a HUGE favor if you start to become intimately familiar with all the different areas of your face and how the hair grows accordingly. Once you do, you’ll be able to find ways to “cheat” the shaving process, in order to become a little bit more efficient in your shaving routine.
For example, on the areas of my neck closest to my ears, I have areas of hair that don’t grow quite up and down, nor side to side. They grow at about a 30 degree angle…Southwest to Northeast, if you will. Those areas were trouble spots to me because I couldn’t cut those whiskers closely enough in my normal 3 pass routine. I would then have to spend time on those areas during the touch up phase, which was okay, but I found that the more touching up I did the more prone I was to irritation. As I continuted to experiment with my shaving technique, I realized that it was really easy to adjust my shaving pattern when I got to those trouble spots. Instead of doing a simple North to South pass on my neck, I’ll adjust the angle of my stroke in those areas so that I can get the most efficient cut possible.
I also have a spot directly below my chin about the size of a 50 cent piece that I swear grows in 8 different directions. What I'll do is sneak in an extra pass just on that spot going in a slightly different direction. So on my N to S pass, I'll give an additional quick swipe on that area going NE to SW. On my S to N pass I'll give another stroke going SE to NW. At first it was a bit tedious, but now it’s almost 2[SUP]nd[/SUP] nature. It speeds up the shaving process and reduces the amount of effort needed to touch up at the end. Now...in the sprit of YMMV, you need to be aware that most people don't advocate doing a 2nd pass over an area unless there's lather on it, but I've found that for me it's not really a problem. Know your face and your beard!
Shimming can make a great razor, a perfect razor
My Muhle r89 is a great razor. It’s pleasing to the eye, feels great in my hand, and shaves very smoothly. However, as I’ve gotten more experienced I’ve found that it’s just the tiniest bit inefficient (read “mild”
for my tastes. I’d find that even after 3 passes I’d have to do quite a bit of touching up, and it was those final passes with the razor that would give me nicks and cause me irritation at times. Many people would simply say that I should get a more aggressive razor and that would solve the problem. To me, that’s silly. I LOVE my Muhle! I just wish it was a bit more…well, perfect! I read a few threads on B&B about “shimming” a razor and decided to give it a try. One shim for me was all it took to make a noticeable difference in the quality of my shaves, while still keeping it a very smooth performer. If you’re finding that you’re making way too many passes in order to get the closeness you’re looking for, and you’re not ready to go out and buy a completely different razor, give it a shot! More info here, among many other places: http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showthread.php/367575-Anyone-Ever-Shimmed-Their-Razor
Try skipping a day
I’ve found that for my skin, doing a 3 pass shave plus touchups can be pretty traumatic to the skin. Even if you’ve done everything right and your skin FEELS good, it’s going to need some time to recover. When I first started out with the DE, I shaved every day…because that’s what people do, right? I noticed that the quality of my shaves were terribly inconsisent. I discovered something interesting about what would happen after a particularly rough shave. I would give my face an extra day to rest up, and then without fail I’d have a GREAT shave afterwards. I did some looking around B&B as well as some other sites and it turns out that there really is something to the idea. Many people have said that their best shaves have come after they’ve skipped a day. Now…whether that has to do with your face being more “well rested” or if longer whiskers are eaiser to cut, I’m not sure…and quite frankly I don’t care! So…if you’re just starting out and you’re not getting consistently great, irritation free shaves, try going 36-48 hours between shaves and see what happens!
BBS? We don’t need no stinkin’ BBS!
Whenever I read someone describing the quality of shave they received with a certain soap, cream, razor, blade, preshave product, etc...invariably it seems as though we're all getting a BBS or a DFS. For the time being, lets put aside the distinct possibility that people are giving themselves higher marks than they deserve for a shave. After all, a study done several years ago revealed that 80% of people regarded themselves as "above average" drivers, which of course is a statistical impossibility. Let's instead focus on the idea that there is much joy to be had in what should be regarded as a CCS...a close, comfortable shave.
One morning I had an important meeting that required me to be clean shaven. I shaved the morning before and normally if I didn't need to go out of my way to impress anybody, I would have waited until that night, or the next morning to shave. As I mentioned before, I've found that my best shaves happen when I go 36-48 hours between them. If I shave any more frequently than that, I find that my shaves aren't quite as close, and aren't nearly as comfortable.
So I was in a bit of a pickle. I NEEDED to shave, but I realized that if I went for my normal WTG, XTG, ATG + touch up routine, I was destined to experience a world of irritation. So...I decided to simply do a WTG pass and see what things looked like. After I did so, my face looked quite a bit cleaner and felt just fine. I decided to do one more pass, this time going XTG on the cheeks. On the neck, where I would have risked the most irritation, I decided to simply stick with another N to S pass. I say N to S as opposed to WTG because like most people my neck hair grows in several different directions, but going N to S is clearly the smoothest direction on my neck.
The result? A great shave! Not BBS for sure. Probably not even DFS. But I can confidently call it a Close Comfortable Shave. Where's the joy in that? Well, I got to take a hot shower, rub some great feeling preshave oil on my face, whip up a great batch of Martin de Candre lather, enjoy the sound of my razor shearing off my whiskers (twice), feel the sweet sting of my alum block, and experience the cool feel and smell of my Floid Blue aftershave. To top it all off, I could still faceturbate...and as as long as my hand was moving WTG, I was baby butt smooth!
Whew...so that's it! For those of you that are still awake after reading this, I congratulate you (or feel sorry for you...I'm not sure). But anyway, best of luck to you on your wetshaving journey!
YMMV
The golden rule of B&B is YMMV, or “Your Mileage May Vary”. I couldn’t agree more. While there are some things that are generally true for everyone, most things are not. Soaps vs. Creams, to preshave oil or not to preshave oil, face lathering vs. bowl lathering, alum block vs witch hazel (or both!) “Best blade” discussions…It’s all relative. The bottom line is you’re going to have to experiment with several different things over the course of a few months before you even have the foggiest idea of what things are going to work for you. Don’t be intimidated…embrace the opportunity to experiment!
Use More Product
When I first started wetshaving with a Gillette Fusion 6 years ago, I started off with an Art of Shaving Sandalwood puck of soap. I had no idea what I was doing when it came to lathering soap, but it really didn’t matter. My one pass with the Fusion lasted all of 60 seconds, so my less than ideal lather didn’t have any time to dry out, flake off, or disappear. Moving to the DE however is when my poor lathering skills reared it’s ugly head. Because I was taking more time with the DE, my lather was becoming useless. I read just about everything on B&B trying to figure it out. More water, less water, more swirling, etc. Nothing seemed to work. I even started buying creams and using them instead…convinced I would never be able to effectively lather a soap.
I read it all the time on B&B when it comes to addressing lathering issues. USE MORE PRODUCT! That’s great advice…but the problem is that I thought I was using all the product I could fit on the tips of my badger brush. See what I did there? “Tips of my badger brush”? When it comes to loading soap on the brush, I’ve read over and over again, “load the tips…that’s where the lather is built”. Quite frankly, I think that’s incomplete advice. I think you need to load the tips AND the inside of your brush. I stumbled upon this tutorial here http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showthread.php/21136-How-to-make-great-lather-from-a-soap-Tutorial and it was like a light went on in my brain. The gentleman that wrote the tutorial had a step in there involving a “plunging” motion in order to get soap deep inside the bristles. Eureka! This is the step I was missing! The next day I took my brush to my D.R. Harris Arlington soap, followed the tutorial to the letter, and since then have been enjoying my soaps like I’ve never had before. If you’re about to throw out your soaps, give that tutorial a shot!
Got Razor Burn? Maybe not!
For the first month of shaving multiple passes with a DE, my face was always at least somewhat irritated, even after my best shaves. No matter how well I did my face prep, concentrated on my blade angle and lack of pressure, or how well I cared for my face after shaving, my face was never quite comfortable. Then one night when I was trying to figure out why I wasn’t getting great lather from my soaps (see “Use More Product” above), I did about 5-6 test lathers on my face. After I finished the last one, I quickly realized that I had done some serious damage to my face. It was the worst feeling “razor burn” that I had ever experienced…but of course, I hadn’t even shaved!
Back when I used to use a Fusion for one pass only, I would aggressively swirl the brush on my face when trying to create lather. This never was an issue because I was only doing it once per shave! Now that I was doing 3 passes, all of the sudden I had to consider the possibility that it was the brush that was causing the “burn” and not that razor! After giving my face a couple days to rest from my “brush burn”, I began my next shave with a far more gentle building of the lather on my face. I also tried to use less “swirling” motions and more back and forth “painting” motions in order to be a bit more gentle. Ever since then, I can count on one hand the number of times that my face didn’t feel absolutely terrific after a shave. It’s made a world of difference for me…so if you’re struggling with what you think might be perpetual razor burn, try being a bit more gentle with your brush. You might be pleasantly surprised!
Get to know your beard/Everyone loves a cheater
One thing that won’t come very quickly is the process of getting to know your beard, or what most people would call the process of “beard mapping”. It’s fairly common knowledge that facial hair does not grow in one uniform direction. You’re going to do yourself a HUGE favor if you start to become intimately familiar with all the different areas of your face and how the hair grows accordingly. Once you do, you’ll be able to find ways to “cheat” the shaving process, in order to become a little bit more efficient in your shaving routine.
For example, on the areas of my neck closest to my ears, I have areas of hair that don’t grow quite up and down, nor side to side. They grow at about a 30 degree angle…Southwest to Northeast, if you will. Those areas were trouble spots to me because I couldn’t cut those whiskers closely enough in my normal 3 pass routine. I would then have to spend time on those areas during the touch up phase, which was okay, but I found that the more touching up I did the more prone I was to irritation. As I continuted to experiment with my shaving technique, I realized that it was really easy to adjust my shaving pattern when I got to those trouble spots. Instead of doing a simple North to South pass on my neck, I’ll adjust the angle of my stroke in those areas so that I can get the most efficient cut possible.
I also have a spot directly below my chin about the size of a 50 cent piece that I swear grows in 8 different directions. What I'll do is sneak in an extra pass just on that spot going in a slightly different direction. So on my N to S pass, I'll give an additional quick swipe on that area going NE to SW. On my S to N pass I'll give another stroke going SE to NW. At first it was a bit tedious, but now it’s almost 2[SUP]nd[/SUP] nature. It speeds up the shaving process and reduces the amount of effort needed to touch up at the end. Now...in the sprit of YMMV, you need to be aware that most people don't advocate doing a 2nd pass over an area unless there's lather on it, but I've found that for me it's not really a problem. Know your face and your beard!
Shimming can make a great razor, a perfect razor
My Muhle r89 is a great razor. It’s pleasing to the eye, feels great in my hand, and shaves very smoothly. However, as I’ve gotten more experienced I’ve found that it’s just the tiniest bit inefficient (read “mild”
for my tastes. I’d find that even after 3 passes I’d have to do quite a bit of touching up, and it was those final passes with the razor that would give me nicks and cause me irritation at times. Many people would simply say that I should get a more aggressive razor and that would solve the problem. To me, that’s silly. I LOVE my Muhle! I just wish it was a bit more…well, perfect! I read a few threads on B&B about “shimming” a razor and decided to give it a try. One shim for me was all it took to make a noticeable difference in the quality of my shaves, while still keeping it a very smooth performer. If you’re finding that you’re making way too many passes in order to get the closeness you’re looking for, and you’re not ready to go out and buy a completely different razor, give it a shot! More info here, among many other places: http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showthread.php/367575-Anyone-Ever-Shimmed-Their-Razor Try skipping a day
I’ve found that for my skin, doing a 3 pass shave plus touchups can be pretty traumatic to the skin. Even if you’ve done everything right and your skin FEELS good, it’s going to need some time to recover. When I first started out with the DE, I shaved every day…because that’s what people do, right? I noticed that the quality of my shaves were terribly inconsisent. I discovered something interesting about what would happen after a particularly rough shave. I would give my face an extra day to rest up, and then without fail I’d have a GREAT shave afterwards. I did some looking around B&B as well as some other sites and it turns out that there really is something to the idea. Many people have said that their best shaves have come after they’ve skipped a day. Now…whether that has to do with your face being more “well rested” or if longer whiskers are eaiser to cut, I’m not sure…and quite frankly I don’t care! So…if you’re just starting out and you’re not getting consistently great, irritation free shaves, try going 36-48 hours between shaves and see what happens!
BBS? We don’t need no stinkin’ BBS!
Whenever I read someone describing the quality of shave they received with a certain soap, cream, razor, blade, preshave product, etc...invariably it seems as though we're all getting a BBS or a DFS. For the time being, lets put aside the distinct possibility that people are giving themselves higher marks than they deserve for a shave. After all, a study done several years ago revealed that 80% of people regarded themselves as "above average" drivers, which of course is a statistical impossibility. Let's instead focus on the idea that there is much joy to be had in what should be regarded as a CCS...a close, comfortable shave.
One morning I had an important meeting that required me to be clean shaven. I shaved the morning before and normally if I didn't need to go out of my way to impress anybody, I would have waited until that night, or the next morning to shave. As I mentioned before, I've found that my best shaves happen when I go 36-48 hours between them. If I shave any more frequently than that, I find that my shaves aren't quite as close, and aren't nearly as comfortable.
So I was in a bit of a pickle. I NEEDED to shave, but I realized that if I went for my normal WTG, XTG, ATG + touch up routine, I was destined to experience a world of irritation. So...I decided to simply do a WTG pass and see what things looked like. After I did so, my face looked quite a bit cleaner and felt just fine. I decided to do one more pass, this time going XTG on the cheeks. On the neck, where I would have risked the most irritation, I decided to simply stick with another N to S pass. I say N to S as opposed to WTG because like most people my neck hair grows in several different directions, but going N to S is clearly the smoothest direction on my neck.
The result? A great shave! Not BBS for sure. Probably not even DFS. But I can confidently call it a Close Comfortable Shave. Where's the joy in that? Well, I got to take a hot shower, rub some great feeling preshave oil on my face, whip up a great batch of Martin de Candre lather, enjoy the sound of my razor shearing off my whiskers (twice), feel the sweet sting of my alum block, and experience the cool feel and smell of my Floid Blue aftershave. To top it all off, I could still faceturbate...and as as long as my hand was moving WTG, I was baby butt smooth!
Whew...so that's it! For those of you that are still awake after reading this, I congratulate you (or feel sorry for you...I'm not sure). But anyway, best of luck to you on your wetshaving journey!
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