Here are some observations that Ive made as a blind wetshaver. Some of them are probably obvious to sighted people, some of them are totally obvious to me, and others Ive figured out along the way, meaning they werent obvious at the beginning but they are now. I wish I would have had something like this when I started out, so maybe this will help someone. Maybe another blind person will find it, or maybe it will help some sighted person shaving on a desert island without a mirror. Maybe Ill use this thread for things I think of as I go and later, organize it into a DE-specific article and another straight-razor specific article. Please tell me what you think.
Lather, especially soap lather, has a specific sound to it when its ready to start applying to face while being whipped up with brush. It took me about 3 tries before I knew that sound if memory serves. Now I do it subconsciously.
I now less prefer voluminous lather like that imparted by TAOS-type shaving creams. I think this is because I cant feel what Im doing through it. I think if you know what youre doing, thin lather is not dangerous (counterintuitive to me at first,) and in fact helps you feel what youre doing as you go.
Its ok to feel your face as you go! Just take that lather you pick up on your fingers and put it somewhere else, or use more lather than you think youll need and dont worry about it. I can, in fact ,not imagine shaving without feeling my progress.
Especially when your face is in a good lubricated shave-ready state, you can feel a lot more whiskers than you can see; raised whiskers is, after all, the point of beard-prep! The up-shot of this is that on the second or third pass there can be a delicate balance between going for baby smooth and getting skin irritation. Sometimes its just better to leave whiskers alone if you can only feel them when you move your hand just so, at just the right angle over a teeny spot just above your Adams apple; sighted people cant see them! Also, many times Ive found that those little whiskers go away once your face is dry.
There are two types of DE-blade cuts: those you can feel and those you cant. The ones you can feel will be obvious. To avoid the ones you cant feel, be super aware of how sharp the blade is you are using, (is it more like a Feather or a Merkur) and what shave number its on, even what shave number that particular side of the blade is on! As tempting as it is, dont go over spots more than once. An alum stone rubbed over the face before aftershave will make you keenly aware of all cuts.
Stropping has a good angle blade-is-getting sharp sound and a bad angle blade-is-getting-rolled sound. At least for me right now, its not always obvious that spine is in contact with strop; Im getting better at using the sound, and then trying to keep spine in contact.
With a straight blade, its possible to feel the part of your face that is shaved and the part of your face that isnt with the blade itself on a first pass. It involves angling the blade a bit wider or narrower than cutting angle and lightly probing, then going back to cutting angle again. This is useful because, unlike in the case of DE shaving, my other hand is busy stretching and I cant stop and feel the part that Ive shaved. Im still working this out, but it was a huge epiphany when I realized that I could use the blade to probe! (This is also how I cut meat and other food at nice restaurants or in other situations where its not appropriate to feel food, so its possible that there was some skill-transfer there.)
I now have a mustache, and Ive found that its easier to use the heel of a straight blade to do the type of detail work around it that I think most sighted people use the point to do. (Obviously, keep the rest of the blade pointed away from mustache and away from things like eyelashes and nose.) This is because I can take the thumb of my razor-hand and probe while I keep stretching with my other hand. Like lots of straight razor technique, Im still working this out, but Id love to hear peoples opinion.
Most counterintuitively of all, it is easier for me to cut myself with a DE blade than it is with a straight blade. I got a lot of help from the guys at The Superior Shave, including an awesome shave-ready razor honed by them. They talk about a warning zone between cutting hair and cutting skin, and its totally true; the razor lets you know when its about to cut you with more than enough time to make a correction. Even when Ive almost cut myself, Ive had little or no skin irritation afterwards!
Ive found this not to be true with the shavette that I tried and DE blades. This is by far the best part of straight-razor shaving for me, and makes me think that someday Ill get rid of all my DE razors, (maybe one for travel,) and just straight razor shave all the time.
Im really curious what people have to say about all of this. Ive learned all of my shave technique without looking at a single picture (DUH,) and with very little hand-over-hand work. I've had a few embarrassing missteps, the most recent of which was a honing disaster that is the subject of another post when (if) I get it straightened out. For now, it's good to start documenting the success tips.
Lather, especially soap lather, has a specific sound to it when its ready to start applying to face while being whipped up with brush. It took me about 3 tries before I knew that sound if memory serves. Now I do it subconsciously.
I now less prefer voluminous lather like that imparted by TAOS-type shaving creams. I think this is because I cant feel what Im doing through it. I think if you know what youre doing, thin lather is not dangerous (counterintuitive to me at first,) and in fact helps you feel what youre doing as you go.
Its ok to feel your face as you go! Just take that lather you pick up on your fingers and put it somewhere else, or use more lather than you think youll need and dont worry about it. I can, in fact ,not imagine shaving without feeling my progress.
Especially when your face is in a good lubricated shave-ready state, you can feel a lot more whiskers than you can see; raised whiskers is, after all, the point of beard-prep! The up-shot of this is that on the second or third pass there can be a delicate balance between going for baby smooth and getting skin irritation. Sometimes its just better to leave whiskers alone if you can only feel them when you move your hand just so, at just the right angle over a teeny spot just above your Adams apple; sighted people cant see them! Also, many times Ive found that those little whiskers go away once your face is dry.
There are two types of DE-blade cuts: those you can feel and those you cant. The ones you can feel will be obvious. To avoid the ones you cant feel, be super aware of how sharp the blade is you are using, (is it more like a Feather or a Merkur) and what shave number its on, even what shave number that particular side of the blade is on! As tempting as it is, dont go over spots more than once. An alum stone rubbed over the face before aftershave will make you keenly aware of all cuts.
Stropping has a good angle blade-is-getting sharp sound and a bad angle blade-is-getting-rolled sound. At least for me right now, its not always obvious that spine is in contact with strop; Im getting better at using the sound, and then trying to keep spine in contact.
With a straight blade, its possible to feel the part of your face that is shaved and the part of your face that isnt with the blade itself on a first pass. It involves angling the blade a bit wider or narrower than cutting angle and lightly probing, then going back to cutting angle again. This is useful because, unlike in the case of DE shaving, my other hand is busy stretching and I cant stop and feel the part that Ive shaved. Im still working this out, but it was a huge epiphany when I realized that I could use the blade to probe! (This is also how I cut meat and other food at nice restaurants or in other situations where its not appropriate to feel food, so its possible that there was some skill-transfer there.)
I now have a mustache, and Ive found that its easier to use the heel of a straight blade to do the type of detail work around it that I think most sighted people use the point to do. (Obviously, keep the rest of the blade pointed away from mustache and away from things like eyelashes and nose.) This is because I can take the thumb of my razor-hand and probe while I keep stretching with my other hand. Like lots of straight razor technique, Im still working this out, but Id love to hear peoples opinion.
Most counterintuitively of all, it is easier for me to cut myself with a DE blade than it is with a straight blade. I got a lot of help from the guys at The Superior Shave, including an awesome shave-ready razor honed by them. They talk about a warning zone between cutting hair and cutting skin, and its totally true; the razor lets you know when its about to cut you with more than enough time to make a correction. Even when Ive almost cut myself, Ive had little or no skin irritation afterwards!
Ive found this not to be true with the shavette that I tried and DE blades. This is by far the best part of straight-razor shaving for me, and makes me think that someday Ill get rid of all my DE razors, (maybe one for travel,) and just straight razor shave all the time.
Im really curious what people have to say about all of this. Ive learned all of my shave technique without looking at a single picture (DUH,) and with very little hand-over-hand work. I've had a few embarrassing missteps, the most recent of which was a honing disaster that is the subject of another post when (if) I get it straightened out. For now, it's good to start documenting the success tips.
SWMBO tells me that I must be half-deaf (hee hee), so maybe that's why my fuzzy ears are not attuned to lather sounds, but I can tell when eggs and cake batter are good.
