First Spectacular Shave: It's All Coming Together

Wow, the light has finally come on for me. Today was the 20th time I've shaved with a DE and it was the best yet. Here's what I did:

1. Showered
2. Hot towel
3. Smeared some olive oil on my face and neck
4. Lathered up with VDH sensitive skin-glycerine puck
5. Shaved wtg - with Merkur 42c and a Feather blade that I had used 4x
6. Lathered up again
7. Shaved xtg & atg (in a few spots)
8. Rinsed with water
9. Applied alum block
10. Applied witch hazel after alum block rub dried to my face
12. Then I got a big smile on my face

I admit, by about shave 7 or 8 I was wondering why the heck I'm using this Merkur razor, I was tempted to go back to my those Gillette 3 blade disposables, or even my electric razor. My neck was hurting from irritation and a couple of pimples. I'm not sure exactly what happened but I chalk it up to a confident technique, olive oil, and witch hazel.

Congratulations on your shave. Keep up the good work.

Birddog said:

Wow, the light has finally come on for me. Today was the 20th time I've shaved with a DE and it was the best yet. Here's what I did:

1. Showered
2. Hot towel
3. Smeared some olive oil on my face and neck
4. Lathered up with VDH sensitive skin-glycerine puck
5. Shaved wtg - with Merkur 42c and a Feather blade that I had used 4x
6. Lathered up again
7. Shaved xtg & atg (in a few spots)
8. Rinsed with water
9. Applied alum block
10. Applied witch hazel after alum block rub dried to my face
12. Then I got a big smile on my face

I admit, by about shave 7 or 8 I was wondering why the heck I'm using this Merkur razor, I was tempted to go back to my those Gillette 3 blade disposables, or even my electric razor. My neck was hurting from irritation and a couple of pimples. I'm not sure exactly what happened but I chalk it up to a confident technique, olive oil, and witch hazel.

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You used olive oil as a aftershave treatment?

Congrats bro!

Congratulations!

Nice work!

alex2363 said:

You used olive oil as a aftershave treatment?

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Must be a foreigner. Lol

alex2363 said:

You used olive oil as a aftershave treatment?

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No. Not yet. I used it as pre-shave. I've gotta try it as aftershave treatment. Unfortunately, I'm not Italian, but I am dark complected.

Congrats!!

Thanks guys.

Congratulations! 20 shaves seems like a reasonable amount of time to get the hang of DE shaving. Seems as though I needed at least that many to feel comfortable.

Glad to see it's working out for you.

I'm into my third week and wouldn't be able to repeat-shave at all without witch hazel, I believe. I'm also trialling Lucky Tiger Aftershave & Face Tonic, which contains WH too. Great post and can relate to what you're doing. I wonder if you've thought of making your own pre-shave oil based on several recipes on the internet? They're all mostly based on a mix of castor oil, olive oil and some nice-smelling essential oil. Would like to try making some myself.

Great to hear. And it just keeps getting better!

Congrats!

Congrats. Its nice when things come together and work right isn't it?

alex2363 said:

You used olive oil as a aftershave treatment?

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That's not what he said. He used olive oil as a pre-shave. As long as it doesn't clog the razor, sounds good to me...

Congrats on a great shave, keep up the good work.

Great to see you enjoying your progress; Congratulations!

Nice presentation, the list, and it's interesting to me, I would switch #s 2 and 3. I consider the pre-shave oil to be a light oil cleanse. One CAN shave on oil in a pinch, but if it frees the hair from the follicle, allowing it to be extracted a little ahead of the blade, its job is done. Soap is slicker. I'm totally open to the possibility that you find a thicker coating of oil protective from the glycerine soap, though.

Regarding recipes, there are any number of ways to get the right viscosity, but canola seems right and is fine for me, when it's just going to be washed off with soap. Olive + mineral oil seems like it would be the one step up, I think I'll refill my little vape juice bottle with that when the canola runs out. When I use argan and castor oil, I definitely don't use more than five drops at a time. But a single drop will take the shine off my face and I can wear it all day... and lubricate my blade, soften my nail cuticles... not a bit is wasted. It seems so precious, even though I price it about 5% what some of the rip-off "artists" charge.