Day 46 of shave journal (11 Aug 2013): Had no time to shave this morning so I'll just wait until tomorrow.
Day 47 of shave journal (12 Aug 2013): Preshave: Quick face wash in the shower plus a hot rinse. 50/50 mix of castor and olive oils, peppermint fragrance. Gear: Edwin Jagger DE86, Astra SP (3rd use), Whipped Dog silvertip, Arko shave stick. Lather: 30/120 second load/face lather, 30 second lather with each additional pass, 1 additional load required with the shave stick. Shave: 3 passes: WTG, XTG1, XTG2, ATG, plus a cold rinse. Aftershave: Mennen Skin Bracer. Summary: No irritation. Verdict: The Arko shave stick has a pleasant smell to it, but I'll have to get used to it. I haven't grated it into my soap bowl yet so I just applied it directly to my face and then lathered. My skin feels good after today's shave, and I can't feel very much stubble.
Day 48 of shave journal (13 Aug 2013): Preshave: Quick face wash in the shower plus a hot rinse. 50/50 mix of castor and olive oils, peppermint fragrance. Gear: Edwin Jagger DE86, Astra SP (4th use), Whipped Dog silvertip, Arko shave stick. Lather: 30/120 second load/face lather, 30 second lather with each additional pass, no additional load required Shave: 3 passes: WTG, XTG1, XTG2, plus a cold rinse. Aftershave: Mennen Skin Bracer. Summary: No irritation. Verdict: Arko is a lather beast! Not too bad a shave for a 4 day-old blade.
Day 49 of shave journal (14 Aug 2013): Preshave: Quick face wash in the shower plus a hot rinse. 50/50 mix of castor and olive oils, peppermint fragrance. Gear: Edwin Jagger DE86, Astra SP (1st use), Whipped Dog silvertip, Arko shave stick. Lather: 30/120 second load/face lather, 30 second lather with each additional pass, no additional load required. Shave: 3 passes: WTG, XTG1, XTG2, plus a cold rinse. Aftershave: Mennen Skin Bracer. Summary: 1 nick when the blade went sideways across my face. Verdict: Besides the nick, it was a pretty good shave. I think I may like waiting a day in between all my shaves.
Day 50 of shave journal (15 Aug 2013): Preshave: Quick face wash in the shower plus a hot rinse. 50/50 mix of castor and olive oils, peppermint fragrance. Gear: Edwin Jagger DE86, Astra SP (2nd use), Whipped Dog silvertip, Arko shave stick. Lather: 30/120 second load/face lather, 30 second lather with each additional pass, no additional load required. Shave: 3 passes: WTG, XTG1, XTG2, plus a cold rinse. Aftershave: Mennen Skin Bracer. Summary: No irritation. Verdict: Decided not to take a break, and it wasn't too bad a shave. I'm really liking this Edwin Jagger razor.
Day 52 of shave journal (17 Aug 2013): Preshave: Quick face wash in the shower plus a hot rinse. 50/50 mix of castor and olive oils, peppermint fragrance. Gear: Edwin Jagger DE86, Astra SP (3rd use), Whipped Dog silvertip, Arko shave stick. Lather: 30/120 second load/face lather, 30 second lather with each additional pass, no additional load required. Shave: 3 passes: WTG, XTG1, XTG2, plus a cold rinse. Aftershave: Mennen Skin Bracer. Summary: Mild irritation. Verdict: Went a little bit too fast on the shave, so it caused a little bit of irritation. I have kind of forgotten that part of the reason for starting this type of shaving is so I can have irritation-free shaves and so I can actually enjoy my shaves. I'll work on that specifically next time.
Day 53 of shave journal (18 Aug 2013): Taking my every-other-day break to help my skin recover. This is probably my last record of these off-days of shaving. From now on, I'll just include amount of hair growth in each day recorded in my journal.
Day 54 of shave journal (19 Aug 2013, 2 days beard growth): Preshave: Quick face wash in the shower plus a hot rinse. 50/50 mix of castor and olive oils, peppermint fragrance. Gear: Edwin Jagger DE86, Astra SP (4th use), Whipped Dog silvertip, Arko shave stick. Lather: 30/120 second load/face lather, 30 second lather with each additional pass, no additional load required. Shave: 3 passes: WTG, XTG1, XTG2, plus a cold rinse. Aftershave: Mennen Skin Bracer. Summary: No irritation, close shave! Verdict: I am very happy with how this shave went, especially considering the age of the blade.
Day 55 of shave journal (21 Aug 2013, 2 days beard growth): Preshave: Quick face wash in the shower plus a hot rinse. 50/50 mix of castor and olive oils, peppermint fragrance. Gear: Edwin Jagger DE86, Astra SP (1st use), Whipped Dog silvertip, Arko shave stick. Lather: 30/120 second load/face lather, 30 second lather with each additional pass, no additional load required. Shave: 3 passes: WTG, XTG1, XTG2, plus a cold rinse. Aftershave: Mennen Skin Bracer. Summary: No irritation. Verdict: A great shave!
Day 56 of shave journal (23 Aug 2013, 2 days beard growth): Preshave: Quick face wash in the shower plus a hot rinse. 50/50 mix of castor and olive oils, peppermint fragrance. Gear: Edwin Jagger DE86, Astra SP (2nd use), Whipped Dog silvertip, Arko shave stick. Lather: 30/120 second load/face lather, 30 second lather with each additional pass, no additional load required. Shave: 2 passes: WTG, ATG, plus a cold rinse. Aftershave: Mennen Skin Bracer. Summary: No irritation, even with this 2-pass experiment. Verdict: This was a test to see if I might enjoy using a more aggressive razor and eventually sticking with a 2-pass shave.
Day 57 of shave journal (26 Aug 2013, 3 days beard growth): Preshave: Quick face wash in the shower plus a hot rinse. 50/50 mix of castor and olive oils, peppermint fragrance. Gear: Edwin Jagger DE86, Astra SP (3rd use), Whipped Dog silvertip, Arko shave stick. Lather: 30/120 second load/face lather, 30 second lather with each additional pass, no additional load required. Shave: 2 passes: WTG, ATG, plus a cold rinse. Aftershave: Mennen Skin Bracer. Summary: Slight irritation near my Adam's Apple. Verdict: Doing only 2 passes is nice, but I'll have to focus on using less pressure next time I try it to minimize irritation.
Day 58 of shave journal (28 Aug 2013, 2 days beard growth): Preshave: Quick face wash in the shower plus a hot rinse. 50/50 mix of castor and olive oils, peppermint fragrance. Gear: Edwin Jagger DE86, Astra SP (1st use), Whipped Dog silvertip, Arko shave stick. Lather: 30/120 second load/face lather, 30 second lather with each additional pass, no additional load required. Shave: 3 passes: WTG, XTG1, XTG2, plus a cold rinse. Aftershave: Mennen Skin Bracer. Summary: Slight irritation on my neck. Verdict: This was a good lesson to me to use less pressure on my neck. The next time I shave, I will spend more time on the WTG pass on my neck to ensure beard reduction on that first pass, and I will use less pressure.
I'm impressed with your journal, it reads like a good blog! Regarding pressure, I always pretend I'm shaving the lather from my face, not the stubble. This helps with my pressure accuracy.
Day 59 of shave journal (30 Aug 2013, 2 days beard growth): Preshave: Quick face wash in the shower plus a hot rinse. 50/50 mix of castor and olive oils, peppermint fragrance. Gear: Edwin Jagger DE86, Astra SP (2nd use), Whipped Dog silvertip, Arko shave stick. Lather: 30/120 second load/face lather, 30 second lather with each additional pass, no additional load required. Shave: 3 passes: WTG, XTG1, XTG2, plus a cold rinse. Aftershave: Mennen Skin Bracer. Summary: No irritation. Verdict: A good shave, and a good try for me at keeping no pressure. I thought of just shaving the cream off of my face and not the whiskers.
Day 60 of shave journal (2 Sep 2013, 3 days beard growth): Preshave: Quick face wash in the shower plus a hot rinse. 50/50 mix of castor and olive oils, peppermint fragrance. Gear: Edwin Jagger DE86, Astra SP (3rd use), Whipped Dog silvertip, Arko shave stick. Lather: 30/120 second load/face lather, 30 second lather with each additional pass, no additional load required. Shave: 3 passes: WTG, XTG1, XTG2, plus a cold rinse. Aftershave: Mennen Skin Bracer. Summary: No irritation, smooth skin. Verdict: This was a terrific shave! I loved how smoothe the shave was after 3 days of beard growth. I think the shave oil helped even more with longer hair. I also think part of the reason for no irritation and the close shave was that my skin had a full 3 days to recover.
Day 61 of shave journal (4 Sep 2013, 2 days beard growth): Preshave: Quick face wash in the shower plus a hot rinse. 50/50 mix of castor and olive oils, peppermint fragrance. Gear: Edwin Jagger DE86, Astra SP (4th use), Whipped Dog silvertip, Arko shave stick. Lather: 30/120 second load/face lather, 30 second lather with each additional pass, no additional load required. Shave: 3 passes: WTG, XTG1, XTG2, plus a cold rinse. Aftershave: Mennen Skin Bracer. Summary: No irritation, pretty close shave. Verdict: Another successful attempt at no-pressure shaving. I would like to know of any experiments you all tried to get closer shaves. I know that YMMV, but I need some ideas - I've tried everything I can think of so far.
Day 62 of shave journal (6 Sep 2013, 2 days beard growth): Preshave: Quick face wash in the shower plus a hot rinse. 50/50 mix of castor and olive oils, peppermint fragrance. Gear: Edwin Jagger DE86, Astra SP (1st use), Whipped Dog silvertip, Arko shave stick. Lather: 30/120 second load/face lather, 30 second lather with each additional pass, no additional load required. Shave: 3 passes: WTG, XTG1, XTG2, plus a cold rinse. Aftershave: Mennen Skin Bracer. Summary: No irritation, pretty close shave. Verdict: Tried J-hooking for closeness. Need to work on my technique there to avoid irritation.
Day 63 of shave journal (8 Sep 2013, 2 days beard growth): Preshave: Quick face wash in the shower plus a hot rinse. 50/50 mix of castor and olive oils, peppermint fragrance. Gear: Edwin Jagger DE86, Astra SP (2nd use), Whipped Dog silvertip, Arko shave stick. Lather: 30/120 second load/face lather, 30 second lather with each additional pass, no additional load required. Shave: 3 passes: WTG, XTG1, XTG2, plus a cold rinse. Aftershave: Mennen Skin Bracer. Summary: No irritation, sort-of-close shave. Verdict: Not as close a shave as I hoped for, but at least no irritation.
