Gus's Shave diary

[Gustav]

Shaves #47-50

During these last few shaves I have been concentrating a lot on locking my wrist and doing long confident strokes, with very good results. During yesterday's shave I was somewhat in a hurry because I shaved very late in the evening but I nonetheless managed a very nice 3 pass DFS in 30 minutes including prep, stropping and cleaning up. I have also been trying to do ATG passes and I am just getting the hang of it. Last night's shave was also almost devoid of razor burn on account of keeping a shallow angle on XTG and ATG passes. I have also learned to better maneuver my razor around the jawline from the neck up to the cheek which is useful for removing stubble in some areas. I think a lot of the small steps of progress on these last shaves have come about as a result of sticking to one razor only.

I still have not had any news on the 7 straights I sent to RasurPur other than that he has received them but I suppose that if you want one of the best you have to be prepared to wait. I have order a 3 inch horse hide Paladin strop from Ruprazor which I am avidly awaiting. In the mean time I will have to make do with my trusty Erik Anton Berg razor and an old paddle strop.

[Gustav]

Shaves #51-54

It seems that I am more or less stuck. I am getting very good shaves from my Erik Anton Berg but since my Paladin strop has not yet arrived and my six vintage + one new straights are still at the honer's, progress seems to have ground to a halt.

To add insult to injury I got my first serious cut yesterday: I went too quickly along an unstretched jawline and must have caught a tiny flap of skin. I barely felt the cut but, my god, it bled! One reason for this mistake is probably the arko soap I am currently testing. It lathers up a treat but I find the lather rather bubbly and un-protective. Next time I will use Tabac. I also have the feeling that this straight is probably not going to be my favourite one, it just feels a bit flimsy and to skip no matter how firmly I hold it.

This is definitely a low-point on this journey, my contingency of fresh straights is nowhere in sight and the paddle-strop I am using looks like something a cat might have used to do its claws on. I will just have to stick with it I guess and hope for better luck next time.

[gull]

Ouch! I got two cuts on my jawline today. Cuts can really ruin a day. The good part about straight shaving is that you KNOW why you got cut. Next time go slow and stretch your skin and I bet you will not get cut at all

[Gustav]

Shave #55

I had a fantastic shave yesterday: near BBS in 3 passes with touch-ups. After tuesday's debacle, I decided to play it safe and use Tabac SS instead of Arko. The difference could not have been greater. It just goes to show that when straight razor shaving, you should ONLY use your very best rotation and not mess around with 2nd choice soaps or creams.

[tylerdurden]

Ive also found that some soaps that work great with DE just dont work for me and straight shaving. Sounds like your doing well

[Gustav]

Ive also found that some soaps that work great with DE just dont work for me and straight shaving. Sounds like your doing well

My sentiments exactly, IMO there are only a select few which fit the bill especially when you are, like me, still in the learning phase. Last week I shaved with Valobra shave stick which used to be one of my absolute favourites when I was DE-shaving. Now, shaving takes more time and in my hands, the staying power of the Valobra lather is just not good enough. Tabac on the other hand has never disappointed me.

[Disburden]

Have you tried the scything/slicing motion yet? It may help you eliminate the need for an ATG pass and it has helped many I know not even need the ATG anymore. You slice forward ina very subtle way while stroking with the razor, kind of like slicing bread?

It works wonders....

Go slow!

[Gustav]

Have you tried the scything/slicing motion yet? It may help you eliminate the need for an ATG pass and it has helped many I know not even need the ATG anymore. You slice forward ina very subtle way while stroking with the razor, kind of like slicing bread?

It works wonders....

Go slow!

Yes, I have tried it but not really systematically. Maybe it would be worth a shot to do so. I do however do guillotine strokes and they seem to do a lot of good and they feel a whole lot safer. I only really do ATG on the face, on my neck it is more or less useless because of the outward direction of my hair growth. Quite frankly the ATG is not really necessary when I aim for DFS but I would like to push for BBS and succeed even if it were only once.

[Luc]

Going well...

I think I cut myself this morning but no blood... Either I don't bleed anymore or it will later... I'll go with the second...

Hopefully, nothing serious in your case!

[Ru4scuba?]

Have you tried the scything/slicing motion yet? It may help you eliminate the need for an ATG pass and it has helped many I know not even need the ATG anymore. You slice forward ina very subtle way while stroking with the razor, kind of like slicing bread?

It works wonders....

Go slow!

+1...that scything motion has helped me on my neck where the hair grows in circles!

[noahpictures]

Shave #55

I had a fantastic shave yesterday: near BBS in 3 passes with touch-ups. After tuesday's debacle, I decided to play it safe and use Tabac SS instead of Arko. The difference could not have been greater. It just goes to show that when straight razor shaving, you should ONLY use your very best rotation and not mess around with 2nd choice soaps or creams.

Thanks for the journal. Love Tabac soap. I will be shaving with a straight soon. Could you please list a few important lessons that you've learned that improved your experience with a straight razor (excluding prep and razor angle).

[Gustav]

Thanks for the journal. Love Tabac soap. I will be shaving with a straight soon. Could you please list a few important lessons that you've learned that improved your experience with a straight razor (excluding prep and razor angle).

That's great, I hope you will enjoy it as much as I do. Now for tips here are the ones I can think of right now:

1. Never push yourself into doing something that does not feel right. Start off on the cheeks WTG and add other parts of the face and other passes as you build confidence. It is quite alright to finish off the shave with another type of razor until you get the hang of it.

2. Skin stretching: everything becomes much easier once you learn to stretch your skin properly. You can get a good grip on your face using an astringent, such as alum, on your fingers. Watch Chimensch's videos in the stickys and you will see how it is done.

3. As has already been discussed above, use nothing but your absolute favourite soap or cream. You will also see that you may have to re-evaluate what this is. It has to lather well, be slick and have good staying power. Learning to shave with a straight razor takes time and the shaves themselves will take time so you do not want your lather to dry out on one part of the face whilst you are shaving another part. This happens to me with Valobra shave stick but less so with Tabac. Of course YMMV.
Actually in the beginning it is a good idea to lather and shave in sections, that way the lather is always nice and slick. As you progress you can then lather up the whole face and shave the awkward part of the face first: for me these are all parts I shave with my non dominant hand.

4. Learn to shave with both hands: it may sound daunting but it is actually easier in the long run because it is easier to mirror what you are doing with your dominant hand on your non dominant hand than to learn really awkward moves with your dominant hand if you were to attempt to shave the whole face with it.

5. Lock your wrist: try to avoid moving your wrist when you do strokes. Your strokes will have a more consistent quality and you will avoid some weepers cause by movements sideways.

6. I will not bore you with prep and angle since you asked me not to. However keeping the spine near the face has helped me during the last few shaves and I would recommend a slightly more thorough prep before a straight shave than before a DE-shave. After I wash my face with soap, I apply a shave cream directly to the face and let it sit there while stropping (100 laps on leather). Then I soak a towel in hot water and apply it to the face 2 x 30 secs (observe the cream is still there). Then you lather up with your favorite soap.

7. Shave in the evenings or any time of the day where you can take relax and take it easy. Hurrying through a straight shave is always a bad idea especially whilst learning. With time the shave will take less time.

Hopefully others can chime in if I forgot something really important, good luck!

[Gustav]

Shave #56 and 57

I have been applying the slicing and scything motions on my neck with some success and in the interest of BBS, I have found a very strange move that gets rid of some troublesome stubble on the right side of my face and neck that the XTG with my left hand just was not dextrous enough to take care of. This move is during the touch up phase so I allow myself not to use my non dominant hand. Thus, I hold the razor upside down with my right hand and then shave XTG, from ear to mouth, on my cheek whilst sometimes puffing the cheek slightly. I do the same move on my neck near the adma's apple (without puffing since I am not an amphibian ). Yesterdays shave using my EAB razor and Speick cream was the closest I have been to BBS, ever! It was nothing like the forced BBS-like shave I did on shave 43. I had some razor burn but barely any cuts. There was only a few places where I could feel a bit of stubble and apart from that my face was so smooth that I could not seem to stop faceturbating.

[Luc]

[noahpictures]

Erik, thanks for the great advice. I shall follow it. I just ordered my first alum block and a "nick stick". While reading your journal I noticed that "long confident strokes" work better for you. I think I'll go that rout too.

I will also begin shaving with my left hand the left side of face, that way I'll have some practice shaving with my weak hand.

I really like number one on the list, "Never push yourself into doing something that does not feel right." I have to be disciplined about that.

I can't wait until you get your new razors back so I can read about your experience. Thanks again for your help.

[Ru4scuba?]

Shave #56 and 57

I have been applying the slicing and scything motions on my neck with some success and in the interest of BBS, I have found a very strange move that gets rid of some troublesome stubble on the right side of my face and neck that the XTG with my left hand just was not dextrous enough to take care of. This move is during the touch up phase so I allow myself not to use my non dominant hand. Thus, I hold the razor upside down with my right hand and then shave XTG, from ear to mouth, on my cheek whilst sometimes puffing the cheek slightly. I do the same move on my neck near the adma's apple (without puffing since I am not an amphibian ). Yesterdays shave using my EAB razor and Speick cream was the closest I have been to BBS, ever! It was nothing like the forced BBS-like shave I did on shave 43. I had some razor burn but barely any cuts. There was only a few places where I could feel a bit of stubble and apart from that my face was so smooth that I could not seem to stop faceturbating.

I've got a couple of moves similar to that...holding the razor that way never feels quite right and I dont think I've mastered those moves by any means...but I'm getting there too!

[noahpictures]

Erik, I take back what I said about using long confident strokes. I finished my second shave and short strokes work much better until I get more practice.

[Gustav]

Erik, I take back what I said about using long confident strokes. I finished my second shave and short strokes work much better until I get more practice.

That is alright, with increasing confidence you will get the hang of it. Meanwhile the important thing is to do whatever works for you.

[Gustav]

Shaves #58-62

I have been shaving three-four pass shaves integrating a ATG pass on my face into the routine and I am not sure it is such a good idea. On my mustach area, the stubble grows so thick that no matter how many times I have gone WTG and XTG across it, the razor still gets caught when going ATG and often I get small weepers and very little to show for it.

This week I finally got my paladin 3 inch Leather/canvas strop from Ruprazor and 5 honed razors out of the 7 that I sent out to Rasurpur at the beginning of September (the two others were not really worth it according to the honer).

The shaves I have been getting from my Erik Anton Berg have been fantastic but it seems I have reached a point where I cannot make any more progress with it. I hope I will find a favourite among the "new" razors. I thought I might do 5 shaves with them each and yesterday I tried the "Made in Solingen" from post #67 without stropping it since I expect the honer has already done this. There is nothing fancy about this razor so I will spare myself the trouble of making further pictures.

The shave with this razor was a huge disappointment. Some portions of the face were still stubbly although I had gone over it several times. It was nowhere near as good as the shaves I was getting from my EAB. I hope stropping it will make a difference and maybe the fact that it is slightly bigger 6/8 instead of the 5/8 of the EAB makes more of a difference than I had anticipated. I'll see how it goes on Monday when I shave with it again.

[Ru4scuba?]

I learned this lesson myself...now I strop every new blade regardless of where it came from.

Give it a shot and let us know how it goes!