Shave Diary day 1

[lamaman3]

Well - some of you had seen my last post on getting back into DE shaving. In a nutshell - I have been using a Gillette Fusion with decent results - I can get a BBS shave but ONLY if I shave every 48 hours. If I shave every 24 hours I get mediocre shaves coupled with irritation. I want to shave every day and be clean shaven every day - so I am getting back into DE shaving. I tried it a few months back but gave up after about 2 weeks.

My setup:
Merkur HD
WCS sampler pack (currently on Derby but have only 3 left)
Bunch of different soaps and creams
C&E BBB and B&B LE 2008

Tonight was my first wetshave since I gave up months ago.

Shower with noxema pre-shave
Made a nice superlather using HBS ye olde barbershop and KMF vanilla earth
face lathered
Merkur HD with Derby blade (day 1)

Went very very slowly. I had a nice 3 day growth. One of my problems is my grain - the direction of my grain goes from my lip horizontally across to my cheek which means to shave WTG I cant exactly let "gravity do the work" in using little pressure. I alternated between using mantics advice of just going N-S and attempting WTG. I would place the HD "head" on my skin and move down while rotating until I heard some hairs being cut. I found going N-S WTG on my lip was the easiest, my chin and neck the most challenging.

It dosent look like I shaved at all but thats ok - I dont need to be clean shaven for tomorrow. I remember back when I had shaved DE for 2 weeks - towards the end I saw lots of little black hairs in the sink - but this time I hardly saw any - probably was being a bit too cautious but I have a hard time finding a balance between finding the angle that will just cut the hair without going too far and feeling the blade catch on my skin so I probably end up being too conservative. Hopefully will get better with time.

Finished off with a cold water splash and Thayers Rose Petal Witch Hazel.

[vitaman]

Welcome back!! Sounds like you have some really nice gear! Just be patient, prep real well, take your time and have fun! Great shaves will come.

[kzoo1]

Slow and steady, slow and steady.

It sounds like you are on the right path, the only advice I would add is to not change too many variables. Try to stick with the same cream/soap/blade for a week and see how it goes, once your technique is down, you can start altering a variable at a time.

Good luck, and enjoy the shave!