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Fresh Faced Newb Checking In!

Welcome! Great stuff so far. I also like TOBS avocado, and I just got a Semogue brush in boar. My first brush was a board from VDH board from Walgreens. It just about tore my skin off. The Semogue is amazingly soft. I didn't think boar could be this good.
 

linty1

My wallet cries.
Hi and welcome, looks like you are off to a great start. Let us know how your first one goes!
 
After reading some comments on the quality of the shave vs price at Artof Shaving, I opted instead to head across the street to a local barber for a shave. Had about a weeks worth of growth that he shortened with clippers first. Lathered up, had a hot towel then a second lather before he began. The shave was good and he did a pretty good job keeping everything nice and even in the WG direction. Couple spots around the lips he missed. But I'm going to a wedding tonight and want a BBS finish, so I'm heading upstairs for a second pass with my wife's Shick.
 
Welcome aboard the good ship B&B. Take a stroll on the promenade deck and enjoy the voyage. :thumbup1:

Always remember, relax but be vigilant when you shave!
 
So I decided I couldn't wait till Father's Day to start wet shaving, but didn't want to try and squeeze my first DE shave in before work. Gonna set aside some time during the kid's nap on Sunday to spend some quality time in the shave den with the new EJ89. So in the meantime I've been practicing my lathering technique this week and breaking in the Semogue and shaving with a cartridge razor to help get my face used to a blade rather than electric. Need to go back and watch a few more lathering videos apparently as I'm not getting a very good result on my first attempt each morning.

First batch keeps coming out light (as in, not a well loaded brush). Looks good, nice and thick appearance (I think) with stiff peaks in the bowl and on the brush, but when I go to put it on my face, it quickly thins out and I notice that the brush seems empty. I'll grab a bit more cream, whip up a second lather, and then the brush will get nicely loaded and I have a good thick coat spread on my face. So my guess is that I'm not using enough cream in my first batch. But after watching mantic's video where he shows how to load up the brush tips with cream and then lather in the bowl, he makes a point to show that you don't need much cream to get alot of lather, and that you really just need to load up the tips, which I thought I was doing. Would I be better off just scooping a measured amount of cream into the bowl instead so that I know I have the proper amount instead of swirling the brush in the cream to load the tips? I'm just paranoid about using a lot more cream than necessary and being wasteful.

Other than that it's going great. Love the smell of the TOBS Avocado cream and my face feels so nice through the day with the witch hazel and balm (never used any product when I dry shaved using my electric).
 
So, first DE shave on Sunday. Went ok. Only one major nick on my neck, but it was obvious that I have no technique yet as my result was fairly patchy. Overall smooth WG, but light to moderately scruffy still in the XG and WG across a good bit. Still having some issues getting good lather with the TOBS in the bowl. Can get one pass nice and thick, but my second pass seems like there's nothing left in the brush. At first I thought it was due to trying to do the dip and twist method of loading the brush, and I wasn't getting enough, so Sunday I just scooped out an almond sized dollop and used that, still same result. So for my second pass I just rubbed some of the cream on my face and face lathered with decent results.

Then there was this morning's shave. Nick and bleed city all along my neck. Think I was distracted by trying to fit it into my morning routine for the first time along with my wife in the bathroom doing stuff, and trying to be more agressive with getting those scruffy spots that I missed yesterday, plus the sub-par lather performance again resulted in some significant razor irritation this morning. Probably going to wait a day now to let my skin heal up a bit before I go for my next attempt on Wed. Probably get up a littl earlier too so I can get most of it done before my wife comes in so I can focus a bit more. Definitly going to watch some more vids on lathering technique, as I think this is my biggest issue. Bad lather = bad shave.
 

strop

Now half as wise
Don't be too hard on yourself at this stage of the game! That's a good brush, and will eventually hod more lather. Be patient with it until it's better broken in. The tendency is to push the razor into the face to try to get a closer shave. With the electric you could push as hard as you liked and it wouldn't matter. With the DE, a light touch is imperative. Think about try to remove the lather with the blade, without touching your face. Can't really be done but that's the amount of downward force that you need. Try doing a second WTG pass to reduce the stubble more before trying the XTG. Don't even think about BBS. Just think aboiut comfortable shaves. Before you realize it the ATG pass will just happen and one day without even trying the first BBS will just magically appear!
 
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