Sudden Downturn in Shave Quality

At the times when my shaves were off but I still had to be clean-shaven for work, I found switching over to the trusty ol' Trac II for a few shaves tended to help a lot. For that reason alone, I will always have some form of T-II on hand.

 

But, you never just randomly forget how to do it if you've been shaving ever day. I honestly believe that it's a problem of moisturization.

 

Yes "you" do - I did! It happens when being relaxed and not thinking about it.

 

So you have NEVER forgotten to do something that you do every day? Never forgotten to punch in or out of work? Never forgotten to take your vitamins? Never forgotten to grab your phone as you head out the door? Wow. I'm impressed.

 

Oh to be young again.

Heck I've been in the shower and forgotten what I was doing or what step I was on...

"Did I wash my_____yet?"


Every routine is susceptible to complacency or mindlessness. How many of us have arrived home work and wondered where the drive went?

 

I'm not sayin either way, but, there is a difference between forgetting your keys and forgetting how to ride a bike, our how to brush your teeth.
the op has had difficulty with de's for a little bit now. my advice to him is to prep well, and mind your technique. trying too hard is a downhill slope. remember to listen to your razor, NO PRESSURE.

 

Nah, that happens. But some of those are unimportant and not life-changing and risky in any sort of way. If I forget to take my multi with breakfast, I take it with lunch. If I forget my phone, I run in the house and grab it while the car is warming up. But, I think that when it comes to something as precise as a wetshave, that you tend not to forget how to do it randomly. Unless you're going senile, then who knows.

 

It's not forgetting how to do something, it's getting sloppy, having something else on your mind, etc. Sorry @GeneralKinetics , but that does happen with all kinds of things, even 'life changing' ones whatever those are to you. Life long gun owners forget to unload before cleaning and have an accident. Sailors forget to secure or check on a piece of equipment. People forget to put on their safety belt. This is why most forms of heavy equipment or dangerous equipment have some kind of a safety on them; people forget. People make mistakes. People rush and then make the rush part of their habit not thinking about what rushing is costing them until the undesired result occurs.

It's pretty much physically impossible to unlearn how to ride a bike. That has more to do with physics than actual learned behavior. As a life long bike rider I've made more mistakes than I care to admit, from taking paths faster than I should to misjudging stopping distances. This is part of being a human being. We are not robots. By your statements, humans would never cut themselves, burn themselves, have auto accidents, etc. because we've done certain things enough times. It doesn't work that way.

 

Get out of my head, man.

What was this thread about?

 

Great thread. All this is good to know for future problems.

 

Thanks for the advice. I took 3-4 days off. Sunday's shave went fine, but I still had half a dozen nicks and weepers. I usually have zero with my go to set.

 

I'm tellin ya man, look at the razor head. Something's wrong with it. Half a dozen nick/weeps?

 

Yeah, it doesn't sound right. Half a dozen weepers is not a fine shave :-(

 

Yep.

 

For some of us, that's the best we can do. Some of you guys have such a skin/beard combination that you could shave with a mower blade and still get BBS with no irritation. (i.e., Glenn's video of a one pass, BBS, irritation free straight razor shave.) A lot of us on here have to settle for our own definition of a "decent" shave. On a great day I end up with serious redness on each side of my neck, stubble over my throat and jawline, and a couple nicks. For me, that's "decent." And it won't get better. As with any other physical endeavor, we are all limited, or blessed, by genetics. Fortunately, I'm extremely handsome.

 

But compared to what you wrote - "I usually have zero with my go to set" - it wouldn't call it a fine shave.

Didn't mean to offend none-the-less

 

No offense taken. I'm just envious of all the guys who get BBS.

 

Wow I feel bad for you. The days of me getting nicks and irritation are far and few in between. My bad shaves came as a result of not having the right blade angle, bad prep, and going too fast. Half a dozen nicks doesn't sound normal at all. It actually sounds pretty miserable.

 

I don't know if this applies to you but I noticed since its got warmer my skin changes a bit. My face feels a bit sore after the first stroke of the razor. I felt my face and there is no slickness whatsoever. I find that when it gets warmer I need to add way more water to my Lather then I normally do. It's as if my face soaks up all the moisture.
Once I put in all that water the Lather becomes super slick and everything is great again.
Guess I need some moisturiser. This happened last year too.
Don't know if this might help.

Hope your good shaves return to you soon.