I'm relatively new to straight shaving (4 months) and I was thinking I was pretty good. Well, a split second of casualness taught me.
I've been practicing using one hand (right) and learning different angels. As I was attempting to move my left hand to stretch my cheek I bumped the handle of the razor. This caused the blade to travel upward then down,,, and across my lower lip. Blood freely flowed down and off my chin. As I watched it dripping into the sink all I could do was look in the mirror and say "what did I just do" or words to that effect. It didn't seem to want to stop bleeding so I decided to use the styptic pencil. I placed it on my lip and felt the sting. after a minute or so it stopped bleeding, then I noticed that enough of the styptic pencil had dissolved and gone into my mouth that it made my tongue dry up. Now not only did I have blood in my mouth but it was mixed with the pleasant taste of styptic on a wooden tongue. Then to my chagrin blood once again started to flow. I grabbed a Kleenex and stuffed it in my mouth. So now I had Wooden tongue, styptic taste and a mouth full of paper, I looked in the mirror and saw a moron looking back. What else could go wrong. The wife. Yes, I couldn't just die in peace, her sixth sense brought her right into the doorway of the bathroom. As she looked at me, with blood on my chin, drying shaving cream on my face and a wad of tissue paper stuffed in my mouth she didn't say a word but I could see she was fighting the urge to laugh out loud. Well, it's good to know that after 25 years of marriage she still loves me enough to laugh at me when I'm hurt.
I did manage to finish up without further incident, although I must admit I was a little shaky from the adrenalin dump.
I've been practicing using one hand (right) and learning different angels. As I was attempting to move my left hand to stretch my cheek I bumped the handle of the razor. This caused the blade to travel upward then down,,, and across my lower lip. Blood freely flowed down and off my chin. As I watched it dripping into the sink all I could do was look in the mirror and say "what did I just do" or words to that effect. It didn't seem to want to stop bleeding so I decided to use the styptic pencil. I placed it on my lip and felt the sting. after a minute or so it stopped bleeding, then I noticed that enough of the styptic pencil had dissolved and gone into my mouth that it made my tongue dry up. Now not only did I have blood in my mouth but it was mixed with the pleasant taste of styptic on a wooden tongue. Then to my chagrin blood once again started to flow. I grabbed a Kleenex and stuffed it in my mouth. So now I had Wooden tongue, styptic taste and a mouth full of paper, I looked in the mirror and saw a moron looking back. What else could go wrong. The wife. Yes, I couldn't just die in peace, her sixth sense brought her right into the doorway of the bathroom. As she looked at me, with blood on my chin, drying shaving cream on my face and a wad of tissue paper stuffed in my mouth she didn't say a word but I could see she was fighting the urge to laugh out loud. Well, it's good to know that after 25 years of marriage she still loves me enough to laugh at me when I'm hurt.
I did manage to finish up without further incident, although I must admit I was a little shaky from the adrenalin dump.