Thanks. I feel like there is a lot of things to keep track of, but I know it will settle in. I will say the shave is definitely loud.
Bravo! You are doing well. If you had told me you had purchased a sport bike and were learning the twisties and said you had started going faster and faster but not dropped the bike yet (cut yourself) I would say good job. Keep going. Soon you will have your knee on the ground. That is much bette than dropping the bike, hurting yourself and then trying to overcome an issue. But your are doing well. Congrats. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
Day 3... My lather while slicker could probably still get a tad more slicker... though the razor didn't stick as much though. The off hand shave went really real, better than my strong hand in fact. I also discovered that if you just turn your head a bit more, you can get a better view of the razor. No blood with the straight, again only a single WTG pass. So far so good, and I'm enjoying it.
Excellent! I found similar results with my off hand when starting. After a couple months; you'll only need the mirror for reference.
Something I forgot to mention, but with my off hand I felt like I was getting full use of the blade, whereas with my strong hand I was only getting use out of maybe half the blade.
Nice work! It really does become automatic with repititon, and slow and steady wins the race. Lather means more with open blades. Very good start!
Day 4... Another shave that went well, though I think maybe a bit more pressure, not sure though. Less sticking, loudness, all told fairly well. In addition to my cheeks, I did shave the little spot right below more lower lip. I then looked at my neck, and was like that's a nice big area but then was like no no, don't be stupid. But I'm definitely digging the straight razor. So when I had originally thought about getting into straight razors, I was going to get one and have it engraved with the year I got it and "The First" on it. Of course I knew nothing, and am glad going with the Whipped Dog just incase it proved not to be for me. So I was wondering how should I identify that this was my first? I'm not against engraving this one, I don't really expect any collector's value out of it. But it just seems wrong. Or maybe I'm just afraid it is going to fall apart on me. Thoughts?
Engrave it, its your first and the razor that started your journey. What's important is it's value to you. If the scales fall apart just get it rescaled.
So another couple of good daily shaves with the straight on just the cheeks, though my lather regressed a bit. Still adding below the lip to the shave. Question - I'm feeling some tugging, and it has been a week or so, so I figured I'd break out the felt pad with the diamond spray, which i applied last night. So after stropping with that, do i go to the rough leather then smooth leather, or just straight to the smooth leather? Thanks
Go to the rough leather after the refresh on the felt/diamond spray and then the smooth leather. Check out this video at about the 9:30 mark.
Arko, Route 66 and Stirling are my top three for open blades. Barbasol is pretty ok too, not kidding.
So another couple of shaves over the weekend, and things went well. Which brings us to tonight's shave. So this morning I did some stropping on the felt with diamond spray, and having watched the video I guess I did it right. Since people have touted the Stirling, I decided to give it a try and see if it would be slicker. I also needed a new soap for the week. So my choice was Stirling's Pharaoh's Dreamsicle. And I've been lathering in one of those nice Turkish copper mugs you can get off eBay. That works wonders. And deciding to experiment, I didn't use any PSO to see if that would alter the quality of my shave. The jury is still out on that. I had two days worth of stubble (last shave was Saturday morning), and though there was some tugging there was some reduction. And I'll blame it on the soap slickness. I had gone to the dentist today and had a cavity, which they numbed half my face for. And it was still numb during shaving. So whether it was the lack of PSO or the numbing, I got my first nick on my left cheek which was numb. As I type this though, my face isn't numb so maybe I should have waited. So in addition to the WTG passes on my cheek and right below the lower lip, I decided to play around with the blade angle for a second pass, sort of a XTG. I also decided to try my neck, which wasn't as scary as I thought it would be. But I feel like I might be rushing, so I don't think I'll do it again. Not right away. I don't want to get carried away. I almost wish I would just slice my face to make me want to throw the razor in the bottom of the box. I'm enjoying this, and don't really need another AD. I have this tiny microfiber cloth that I am using the dry the razor instead of tissue, as it easily fits between the scales. I then finished with 20 laps on the rough leather and upped it to 40 passes on the smooth leather.
