TheShaveDen

This is the sixteenth in a series about the "Life Stories" of two Gillette razors.
If you are new to this you can start the series from the very beginning at the first article and save this for last.
The articles that preceded this one can be seen in the following links:

First Article: http://theshaveden.com/forums/threads/two-brothers-part-1.25935/
Second Article: http://theshaveden.com/forums/threads/two-brothers-part-2.26027/
Third Article: http://theshaveden.com/forums/threads/two-brothers-part-3.26285/
Fourth Article: http://theshaveden.com/forums/threads/two-brothers-part-4.26457/
Fifth Article: http://theshaveden.com/forums/threads/two-brothers-part-5.26468/
Sixth Article: http://theshaveden.com/forums/threads/two-brothers-part-6.26595/
Seventh Article: http://theshaveden.com/forums/threads/two-brothers-part-7.27329/
Eighth Article: http://theshaveden.com/forums/threads/two-brothers-part-8.27434/
Ninth Article: http://theshaveden.com/forums/threads/two-brothers-part-9.27555/
Tenth Article: http://theshaveden.com/forums/threads/two-brothers-part-10.27709/
Eleventh Article: http://theshaveden.com/forums/threads/two-brothers-part-11.27924/
Twelfth Article: http://theshaveden.com/forums/threads/two-brothers-part-12.28118/
Thirteenth Article: http://theshaveden.com/forums/threads/two-brothers-part-13.28299/
Fourteenth Article: http://theshaveden.com/forums/threads/two-brothers-part-14.28603/
Fifteenth Article: http://theshaveden.com/forums/threads/two-brothers-part-15.28874/

Now we continue with Two Brothers...











This concludes the series Two Brothers. Thank you for viewing!

I have been at this wet shaving thing for about 20 years, but I have only been using a DE for a little over a year now. In the beginning I joined this forum and read all I could. I didn’t participate much in the beginning because I didn’t feel I had anything to offer, but as time went by I would ask the occasional question, comment on somebody’s post, or cite some personal experience relevant to the thread.

While soaking up as much as I could I spent every shaving minute putting into practice what I had learned. Things like, how to lather this soap or that cream, how much water to use, which blade to use with this razor or that one, which direction to shave which part of your face and in what order, and things of that nature. After several weeks and then several months had passed, I had some good shaves and some bad shaves, but with this wealth of knowledge I had accumulated, I felt my wet shaving train was on the proverbial right track and my shaves were reflecting the knowledge I had gained. I moved forward feeling more confident and more confident. Then one day a bad shave got it’s hackles up, raised up on it’s haunches, and reared its ugly head, and I felt I was once again relegated to beginner status. Ok, let’s revisit all that knowledge I thought I had. Racking my brain, searching through pages of posts, I had a revelation. Oh yeah……I forgot……I’m not supposed to use any pressure. Problem solved.

Confidence building one again, I proceeded through my daily shaving routine, applying the little tips and tricks I picked up in this post or in that thread, until………...Once again there is that snarling beast of a bad shave, barring it’s fangs and growling with an almost mocking tone. I beat him before I can beat him again. This time it was my angle, but I corrected it because of somebody’s post telling me to hold the razor flat against my face and then lower it until I hear the whiskers being cut. Once again, problem solved.

Well, here we are and all this time has passed and I still I find myself reading all I can, participating much more and trying to pass on some of that knowledge I have imbibed over the last 15 months. But still through all that, every time I open this great forum and plunge into it’s dark recesses of shaving wisdom, I am reminded that I have sooooo much more to learn and even some stuff to learn again…………and again............ and again.

This is as true for the veteran shaver as it is for the newbie. Case in point. I have had my OCMM for about 8 or 9 months and I have used it pretty regularly during that time. I would get decent shaves with it but about half the time I would end up with a couple of weepers and maybe some redness or irritation. Well, today I just had the best shave I’ve ever had from that razor and it was because of something I read yesterday. Nine months after I started using that razor, I read something that made it all come together for me.

Whether or not you feel like you have something to offer, both newbies and veterans alike, I urge you to throw caution to the wind and don’t be afraid to speak up, because there is a good chance your question or comment will trigger that spark in the tiny recess in the back of someone’s mind that brings everything into focus and provides them with that bit of missing information that gets them over the hurdle and on to shaving bliss.

So to my brothers and sisters of The Shave Den, I salute you and I beg, with the utmost humility, your continued contributions and dedication to the growth of our great TSD forum and the wet shaving community. We can never stop learning nor can we ever know enough, and if we think we have, the universe has a strange and funny way of letting us know that that, indeed, is not the case.