The Mentored Shave - No. 2

MadsL

Smokey - this thread is for you. I haven't forgotten you so!

I planned on spinning out to collect stuff from Amalgam this weekend and dropping it up to you - I didn't expect An Post to be so efficient and get that parcel to Sligo so fast (I was trying to synch things)

So - let me give you a PM to arrange the weekend. In the meantime, any questions?

Smokeyskelton

Jaysus!

I didn't realise this thread was for me, I was reading the Mentored Shave 1!

Have pm'd etc.

Looking forward to it.

Smokey

MadsL

Running bit late but leaving now see you in 15 mins

Smokeyskelton

Well maybe I'm cheating a bit here as I've had two DE shaves at this stage, I think I'll post a separate post for the second DE shave.

Sorry for not posting after the first shave, but I'm ... how do you say it? Oh yes lazy is the word I'm looking for. I'm lazy, that's why I didn't post after the first shave.

Firstly, I'd like to thank all the generous folk who have contributed time, thought and shaving equipment to assist us budding DE shavers.

I'd also like to thank the kindly delivery man who arrived at my door earlier this week with a bag of goodies.

For the record I received a Merkur razor, palmolive shaving cream, proraso shaving soap, blades (Persona, Super-Max, and Gillette 7 O'Clock), Omega badger brush, brush stand and styptic matches and pencil.

I see that Mr Justice (he of the Mentored Shave No. 1) put in plenty of pictures, whereas mine is one of those annoying posts without pictures. My excuses are as follows: my camera is broken, my phone camera is pretty poor and did I mention I'm lazy?

Anyway, back to business.

For my first shave I was pretty hairy after not shaving for three or four days, so the razor had quite a challenge on its hands. For those among you afflicted with ADHD the short version is that I'm pretty impressed by this DE shaving lark. For those more into detail I'll post some below.

I had my shave after my shower to soften up the bristles.

For blades I decided the use a Super-Max. I think I was swayed by their catchy radio jingle that describe them as "tasty and tempting". I found the blade to be pretty good, but then again I don't really have anything to compare it to yet.

For lather I used the Proraso and found it built up a nice lather, which went on well. Overall I was impressed with it, and it was much nicer than using the usual canned goo.

I made three passes, two with the grain and one kind of across the grain.

The first pass went pretty well getting rid of the densest of undergrowth, but it was certainly patchy. I didn't cut myself at all on this pass.

The second pass was much closer and I did manage to slightly cut myself near the lip. The cut was very minor, and I didn't even use the styptic.

The third pass was across the grain and was slightly closer than the second pass. I think I was trying to get too close on this pass and managed to cut myself again just under the chin and used the styptic to stanch the flow.

Overall the shave was close, but not perfect. Around the chin and under the jawline there was some slight stubble, but not too bad at all.

After all this I applied an aftershave balm that I have had for a couple of years, but never got around to using. So now I have a good excuse to use it. Coincidentally it is the same Nivea one that Mr Justice pictured on his thread. It's a bit on the wet side i.e. a liquid rather than a gel, but it seems to do the job, and made the skin feel pretty smooth without burning.

One problem I had with the lather was that I followed Mantic59's suggestion that you keep the shaving bowl, (in my case an old mug), in the sink to keep it warm. I did this, but when I rinsed my face after the first pass I flooded the mug, (despite trying not to), and had to throw out the water and stiffen up the lather again. After this I kept the mug out of the sink. Perhaps it's because I don't have a retro shell shaped sink like Mantic59 has.

Bottom line? I enjoyed the ritual involved in the DE shave. The preparation of inserting the blade, rinsing the brush, forming the lather applying the lather, first pass, second pass, rinsing, re-lathering and so on.

I'm looking forward trying other blades, lotions, potions and to improving my technique.

I'll post the results of my second DE shave later.

Thanks guys.

p.s. There should really be a bristly Smiley for this forum

Smokeyskelton

Hi Guys,

Second shave went pretty well.

Used Gillette 7 o'clock blade and the Palmolive shaving cream tube.

Firstly, the lather seemed drier and thicker than the Proraso, but then again maybe I just used too much (it was about the size of a broad bean if that makes any sense to you). Overall I think I preferred the Proraso.

First pass with the grain went well, and was closer than the first shave. I think I preferred the 7 o'clock blade to the Super-Max, as it seemed sharper. But maybe I was just that bit more experienced on the second shave.

Second pass was somewhat across the grain and was pretty good.

Third pass was against the grain and I reckon was about as close as I should try without cutting myself. In fact I did cut myself. Somehow I cut my nostril! Not even the piece just above the lip, but on the outside of the nostril. The styptic came to the rescue again. Also, even though I didn't exactly cut myself on my face, a bit of blood came to the surface in a couple of spots. Maybe I was trying too hard to get really close.

Overall, a very successful shave. Although there was still some minor stubble around the chin and under the jawline it was a very close shave indeed. Report on number three to follow.

hitemfrank

Sounds like you've taken to DE shaves quite well.

If your lather seems a bit dry don't be afraid to add a bit more water to it. A few drops can make a big difference to dryish lather. That being said, I haven't actually used the Palmolive cream so it could be the nature of the cream itself.

When you have used each of your sample blades send me a PM with your address and I'll send you some other blades to try out.

MadsL

To avoid weepers (blood weeping) maybe try repeating the with the grain pass, so WTG, WTG and the across the grain. You might not need an against the grain pass.

Certainly its a gentler approach.

gaza123

I'm not experienced enough to say on this but reading and watching videos so far I hear a lot of guys saying the blade might be rough on the first shave or two and needs to be 'broken in'. I've been too impatient to try new blades that I've only given each one about 3 shaves max since starting DE shaving. But I'm on about shave 4 with the feather and it's still going sharp. Drying/kind of stropping with a towel as was suggested in a mantic59 vid on prolonging the life of blades.

Anyway food for thought. Maybe someone here might be able to shed some light on this 'breaking blades in' idea. No point making your mind up about brands if you're only trying them all out in the rough early phase.

run_Forrest_run

gaza123 wrote: »

I'm not experienced enough to say on this but reading and watching videos so far I hear a lot of guys saying the blade might be rough on the first shave or two and needs to be 'broken in'. I've been too impatient to try new blades that I've only given each one about 3 shaves max since starting DE shaving. But I'm on about shave 4 with the feather and it's still going sharp. Drying/kind of stropping with a towel as was suggested in a mantic59 vid on prolonging the life of blades.

Anyway food for thought. Maybe someone here might be able to shed some light on this 'breaking blades in' idea. No point making your mind up about brands if you're only trying them all out in the rough early phase.

I tend to use a blade 3 times, maybe 4 on rare occasions. I've yet to use a Feather so I may extend this when using them. But for Gillette 7O'Clock Greens I use 3 times and dump.
If I ever get a few nicks in the one shaving session I will dump that blade straight after the shave.

oscarBravo

Smokeyskelton wrote: »

Somehow I cut my nostril! Not even the piece just above the lip, but on the outside of the nostril.

Been there, done that...

Smokeyskelton

Thanks for all the advice guys, I'll try and follow it.

Yes, as some of you have mentioned, I probably have been to eager to try out new blades and therefore tend to switch to a new one each time, without giving each a chance.

I'll tone it down a bit and attempt to get three or four shaves before I switch. Thanks for the generous offer Hitemfrank, I'll take you up on that . I'll also try adding a few drops of water to my lather if it gets a bit thick, I was trying to loosen it up by wetting my face more.

Pity I didn't read MadsL's advice before I moved onto shave 3, which didn't go well, more of which in a separate post.

Thanks to everyone for all the advice, it makes the learning curve a bit easier.

hitemfrank

Wetting your face can be used to wet the lather more. Just make sure you give it a good mixing on your face to get the lather mixed well with the extra water.

Smokeyskelton

Had I been less rash I might not have had a rash.

By which I mean if I had read MadsL's advice on "weepers" I might not have ended up looking like Freddie Krueger's understudy. Unfortunately, I had actually had shave 3 by the time I got around to posting shave 2.

I followed the same progression as shave 2, and all was well.

However, a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, and I foolishly looked at Mantic59's advanced shaving techniques. I had plenty of lather left and I thought there's no point in wasting this. I lathered up again and attempted "buffing" i.e. lightly going against the grain in a gentle scrubbing motion to get a really close shave.

Now don't get me wrong the shave was spectacularly close, and I had no nicks at all. My skin was tingling from the super-close buffing I gave it, and before I got a chance to apply some aftershave balm, blood came leaching to the surface all over my face. :eek:

The styptic pencil was applied all over, there was way too much for even a whole matchbook to cover. Oh that smarts!

Lesson learned, (for the time being at least). Leave advanced shaving until I have got the basics out of the way.

Smokeyskelton

hitemfrank wrote: »

Wetting your face can be used to wet the lather more. Just make sure you give it a good mixing on your face to get the lather mixed well with the extra water.

Thanks, will try and remember this.

oscarBravo

Smokeyskelton wrote: »

...blood came leaching to the surface all over my face. :eek:

The styptic pencil was applied all over, there was way too much for even a whole matchbook to cover. Oh that smarts!

That's alum block territory. Think of it like a giant, slightly less aggressive styptic.

Smokeyskelton

Thanks OscarBravo,

Hopefully I won't be needing an alum block if I just try and be a bit more careful and learn to walk before I try to run.

Smokeyskelton

I didn't start a separate post for 4 and 5, but lumped them in together as they were pretty similar.

After a disastrous third shave I went pretty easy on shave 4. I used a Gillette Green 7 o'clock, which I thought was pretty good. It's pretty hard at this early stage to decide what is down to my bad technique and a bad blade.

I used the Palmolive cream this time and a couple of extra drops of water to loosen up the lather, and I was happy with the lather. Thanks for the tip Hitemfrank.

I used two passes WTG and one between WTG and ATG. No nicks, cuts or weepers, which was good, but to be honest the shave wasn't as close as I would have liked. It was fine, but there was still some minor stubble on the cheeks if you looked closely, and the usual light stubble under the jawline and around the chin. Don't get me wrong, the shave wasn't bad, but not brilliant either.

For shave 5 I followed the same procedure, except that I went ATG with the third pass. This shave went pretty well. Again no cuts and the ATG third pass seemed to do the job, as the shave was nice and close.

Overall my technique seems to be improving, as I'm not cutting myself and my last shave was pretty close (although not perfect).

I must say I quite enjoy the ritual of a DE shave, and I'm delighted to break away from all the canned goo and plastic cartridge malarky.

Smokeyskelton

So, for another challenge I decided to keep on shaving once I reached the top of my face. I am, as the the expression goes, "follically challenged", and I tend to shave my head once or twice a week, so I decided to give a DE head shave a go.

There was some trepidation in using a safety razor to shave my head, but I thought I'd give it a go. And I'm glad I did!

The DE razor is much better at shaving than a cartridge razor when the hair is more than a millimeter or so long. With the metal Merkur razor the grip was a little slippy and the razor was a bit too heavy, but I switched to the Merkur Bakelite, and this was perfect for the job, as it has a better grip and is much lighter. Whereas I prefer the metal razor for my face, the Bakelite razor seems designed for the job (although maybe it could be slightly more aggressive).

No cuts or nicks on my head at all, so I think it was a pretty successful experiment.

In regards to my general DE shaving progress there isn't too much to report. I rarely nick myself, but when I try and get close I do occasionally get the odd "weeper". I think my technique is getting better, but I still can't get the BBS result unless I go against the grain and risk getting a weeper, but I'm just going to keep on practising.

gaza123

Did you completely cover your head in lather?

Smokeyskelton

I did! It worked out pretty well too.

gaza123

Cool!

MadsL

Hmmm....pic or it didn't happen

Smokeyskelton

Ha ha, Shave porn. Love it. :pac:

Maybe next time I'll take a pic (I'm such a tease).

However, my technical abilities to take a picture of the back of my head might lead to interesting results, and I'm not going to ask anyone else to take the pictures... I'm not into that sort of thing.

MadsL

About six weeks into the Mentored Shave- how are we doing? Ready to pass the torch along?

Smokeyskelton

I was just thinking today that I should be posting some more random musings about facial depilation for the mentored shave thread.

I had another beard-cum-head shaving episode today, so I'm pretty smooth from the neck up.

I'm reasonably comfortable with the whole shaving business at this stage. However, I'm still trying new blades etc.

I would like to say thanks to Hitemfrank for forwarding some more blades, which I have been trying out. So far from his kind donation I've tried Bolzano (which I thought tugged my beard excessively), Croma (good) and Astra (which were surprisingly good). I didn't expect Astras to be that good considering that they seem quite cheap.

I've also invested in a sample pack of blades and TOBS Sandalwood. From the sample pack I tried the Gillette 7 o'clock Green and a Derby. I have liked all the Gillette 7 o'clocks I've tried so far. However, I didn't like the Derby much, as it seemed pretty blunt and tugged at my beard.
The TOBS Sandalwood foams up nicely and smells good too.

All I have to do now is try the infamous feathers sometime!

In short MadsL, yes, I think I may now be ready to pass on the torch. Do you have any more acolytes lined up? Are they aware of the painful and shameful initiation rites? :eek:

p.s. I'd give the gimp mask and the ball-gag a bit of a scrub, they're a bit sweaty.