five minute shave

I screwed up my timing this morning, thinking I still had half an hour to get ready to go to work, while I really only had ten minutes. And I was still in my pyjama's.
So I had to choose between a quicky or no shave at all and went for the speedy gonzalez routine. I slapped on some proraso prebarba and let my badger soak while I performed a salto mortale through the shower. After that I face lathered with Cella because it's a very forgiving soap. It doesn't matter if your lather is a bit too dry or too wet, Cella is always smooth and slick. I had a one day old Astra SP blade in my HD and just flew across my face for a WTG first pass. After that I took a little more care to do an XTG pass and some quick touch ups around the sideburns. Rinsed and slapped on some Speick AS (witch hazel, alum and AS in one bottle, woohoo!).
Done. In five minutes.
Was it BBS? No. Was it presentable for work? Hell yeah! Was it comfortable/bloodless? Not too bad, actually. I guess I wasn't overthinking it and didn't get tempted to do too many passes on the hard spots.
I'm actually pretty proud of myself. After about two months of DE shaving I'm starting to get the hang of it. I still have some issues on the base of my neck (can't get it anywhere near smooth without getting burn and ingrowns) but I can do a quick shave without too much hassle AND I can still take my time for a nice shave. And it's all thanks to you guys, and I mean everyone here because I pick up little things from anyone all the time!

Glad it work out for you!!

Good Stuff..

Glad it worked out. (I have to admit I keep a cart razor around for travel and for those 'crap I'm late' days. One pass wtg with the fusion gives me a socially acceptable shave in a hurry with little chance of hurting myself - not to mention making me late while I dig out the styptic pencil. )

Even had time to throw on some pre-shave, Well done!

I need to match this. Today, am unshaven because I was running late. I am actually considering a fog free mirror for the shower for days when I am too late for a proper shave.

Glad it work any cuts ??

For that scenario I grab a fresh Gillette Superthin load it into an Edwin Jagger, face lather boar and palmolive soap then do a single ATG pass. Then alum then Oldspice Whitewater.

The blade and razor combo used in a single ATG pass seems most likely to produce a good result without nicks or pain, but in case there is irritation the alum and whitewater sorts it.

All in all not something that I wish to do too often but it works when needed.

I've been attempting to shave every, and to give myself plenty of time for the task at hand... for me, I'd rather skip the day and look forward to an amazing second day shave, than to rush through something I know normally takes me 20 minutes or so. I'd be rubbing my face all day, and feeling disappointed by my mediocre results!

I see a lot of old Japanese guys here shaving in less time than that! They just wet their face and shave against the grain with no soap or cream. I cringe when i see them doing it!

Good show . Kinda takes the fun out of it though .

Arnoud said:

After that I took a little more care to do an XTG pass and some quick touch ups around the sideburns. Rinsed and slapped on some Speick AS (witch hazel, alum and AS in one bottle, woohoo!).
Done. In five minutes.

Click to expand...

Congratulations. You know that you have been bitten by the wet shaving bug when....

I've had more than a few occasions when I've opted to be a little bit late, but have at least a socially acceptable shave. Yet, I realize that my quickie shave is still better than many of the people that I'm meeting.

Good call on using Cella for a quick lather.

@mandoman: one small cut in my neck and some weepers, but nothing too bad. Better than when I try to get close...
@thevillageidiot: nice nickname! I sport some sharp sideburns and my beard is a bit patchy, so I look like a bum when I don't shave. I did infact feel my face all day, but all I could think was 'man I'm glad I shaved after all'.
@igloo: shaving should be fun, but so should eating. I hate to stuff something down my mouth while I'm driving, but sometimes I'm just glad I'm not hungry.
To paraphrase James May:
Shaving quickly is like playing the bagpipes. A gentleman can, but chooses not to.
(May ofcourse referred to driving quickly)