May 2017 30 Day Rule/Focus Pix & Discussion

It's technically Saturday here, and I'm on almost two days without a shave and facing an early morning. What does that mean? Sayuri shave time. Today's shave:


Iced Pineapple is always good. Anticipating some sketchiness out of this shave, I wanted a lather I knew I could get nice and slick, and it didn't disappoint. I lathered up, took up the Sayuri, set blade to face, and began removing stuff. Sorta kind of. It took lather off like a (ex) champ, but MAN was it tuggy. I got through about half of one cheek and realized it was not removing any hair at all. I have some course facial hair, but a normal blade mows it down just fine. I was hacking away at my hair and getting nowhere. I lathered back up and tried again. Same story. Lots of tugging, virtually no hair removal. I finally gave up, put a Gillette 7 O'Clock Green in my Gillette Old Type open comb and easily mowed two days of stubble away. Before I rinsed my brush out, I lathered a patch of my hand and tried the Sayuri on it. It did take out the fine hairs there (mostly). The blade just wasn't sharp enough or smooth enough to handle the coarse stubble on my face. No blood was shed, even with the blade chattering more than gliding. It was far less mayhem than I thought it would be. I may keep the Sayuri around in case someone needs to try and shape up their eyebrows, assuming their preferred shape is "uneven".

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Sounds like I'll have an interesting morning shave. Thanks for being the first.

 

This might not be as fun as I was hoping.

 

Thank you for this info!

 

Cinco de Mayo

Magic shavette
Astra SP
Semogue 620
Derby shave stick
Thayers Medicated
Nivea Original ASB

3rd shave in the books, only a couple good knicks, but they were mostly closed up with cold water. So after a 3rd shavette shave with blood, I did what I'm sure any of you would do-I doubled down and shaved my head! ( I am.normally a head shaver)Here's the kicker, I did a better job on my head. I got it almost completely bbs and all I have is a little irritation on the side.

 

If I lived in the states I would just own a finishing stone and pasted strops. Between the shipping and time traveling back and forth over the pacific I figured i need to learn to hone.

 

Hadn't considered this but I like the idea. Does it affect the lather or performance of the cream at all?

 

May 6 (Saturday) - Kamikaze Day shave

Little Lily thingy; Magic shavette / GSB(1); Rockwell 6s on plate #3 / PAL Gold Thin Hollow Ground ( 3)
Kent woodhandled boar brush
Cella
Alum and Thayers Witch Hazel Astringent Aftershave
Styptic pencil, ointment, bandaids standing by...

Well, that was an anticlimax.

I made careful preparations, then washed my face extralong with the Dove Men's Face Scrub, soaked it in hot water, made sure my brush soaked in hot water, used about five times my normal amount of Cella soap and whipped up a huge bowl of lather and then added more water than usual.

I then followed all the tips given earlier yesterday:
Alum on both hands for secure grips - check
Skin stretching so hard both my ears and eyes look as pointed as Spock's - check
Shavette gripped firmly in position shown on YouTube videos - check
Angle between 20 and 30 degrees - check
Touch down lightly with no slicing on landing - check
Pull lightly in short strokes with no pressure - check
Listen for the sound of whiskers cutting (water and fan off to allow this) - check

Result: Little Lily travels down both cheeks in turn with sound of velcro ripping and feel of tape pulling free, removes all the lather cleanly ... And leaves all the whiskers. No skin cut or blood leaving the body, which is good, but no whiskers cut or leaving the body either, which isn't.

I thought it might just be due to total ignorance of proper shavette technique on my part, so I did a control test. I dug out my never-used-by-me Magic shavette, loaded half a GSB into it as per @Bama Samurai's instructions, relathered my face with Cella (no shortage there anyway), and had my first ever shavette shave with a "real" shavette.

Result: Magic shavette travelled down both cheeks with a sound of velcro ripping and left them bare of whiskers.

So I dumped Little Lily and finished my shavette shave with the Magic. I did one pass WTG and called it good. I did everything except the goatee and moustache area. The one scary part was doing the offhand side of my throat. I couldn't get the angle right with my strong hand, so I ended up doing the offhand side with my offhand (my right as I am lefthanded). That's the first time I have ever used any razor with my offhand; starting out on my throat was a bit nervewracking.

After setting down the shavette and calling it good, I then relathered again and did a complete one pass shave with my Rockwell 6s.

After all that, the alum was dead silent and the astringent aftershave had very little burn. The styptic pencil, ointment and bandaids went home disappointed that they never got to play...

Oh yes, and Little Lily's blade, such as it is and what there is of it, went into the blade bank and the metal handle went into recycling.

 

Thanks for the tips, guys. As our friend Fuzzy likes to say "I ain't skeered!" I also ain't as dumb as I look, so the advice is helpful in reducing the possibility that I'll do something ill advised that could have been avoided. As a younger man I used to relish those opportunities. Now that a wife and kids are in the picture, I have got enough disdainful head shaking to deal with as it is.
I woke up with my mind racing (not on this), and everyone is still asleep, so I may just give it a go.

 

You put that very very good. One of the big reasons to do some of this stuff is to show that with proper technique a blade is a blade. Even mounted on popsicle sticks or glued to a twig. We tell newer people that but maybe letting them see it helps them understand it. Plus its a lot of fun to have the confidence to pick up a (questionable) blade and blast out a shave.

Would a picture of the 15 or 16 on my bathroom sink help with that, "Look honey fuzzy had more brushes then me I got to have more to keep up"

Your just too likeable.


My advice to add to the open blade tips..... Most of all relax. Go slow to start. Remember this is fun. Do not move the blade until you feel it is all right. The tips given by others are great .

I spent all yesterday hepling a friend move to Baton Rouge. I picked out a few highlights to quote. I promise to try later to catch up but then again it is a chore around here LOL

 

I rate that as a very solid WINNNNNNNN.

 

Soooo I hacked through about 3/4 of a shave and cleaned up with a Schick E2. These little lilies are just a very little sharp. I did manage to see a drop of blood though. I also did continue on my Synthetic brush focus. Today was a round with Spieck shave stick. Very nice lather. Finished up with Florida Water. WOO.

 

Mission accomplished. Lots of really good news here!

Pass 1 - First pass - Alum on fingers, skin stretching and several of the tips given here are used. I used Stirling Barbershop soap, and took extra time and effort to make sure the whipped dog generated lather was up to the task. The pain stick lived up to its nickname, but not in the way I expected. This is the dullest, most tuggy blade I have ever has the misfortune of dragging across my face. Holy smokes, how do they sell these things to anyone other than us idiots doing a shave dare? If these were made in Japan, I guarantee it was manufactured by Japanese people who were the spawn of generations of peasant dishwashers and laundry attendants who hadn't been within miles of a village with any Samurai swordmakers in it. I decided to stay in for the whole first pass, with the exception of my chin area, which made the blade so jumpy and tuggy it wasn't worth going on and finishing the last 5% of he shave. Because I had to take off my glasses to do the skin stretching, and because I used my right hand only, which obstructed my view, I quickly stopped looking in the mirror and went back to how I shave with my DE's now, using only "feel and sound". After 60 days of focus (thanks to @Bama Samurai and several others here who I will be eternally grateful to) I've found this technique to be almost instinctive now for my DE shaving, so the mirror is really only used to make sure I move the blade to areas which still have soap on them. Partway through the shave I realized that this instinctive method was helpful, so I went for the "use the force, trust your feelings method" and closed my eyes for the second half of the shave. Yes, you heard me, I may not have a ton of experience, but I did the second half of the shave blindfolded. That is MAYhem baby! Despite several questionable decisions on this pass it resulted removing about as much facial hair as if I had used a rusty lawn mower blade (another potential mayhem idea, although not for me), but produced no blood or injuries.
Pass 2 - That's right you heard me pass 2. Having survived the first pass without incident I am now emboldened. I am also pretty sure the pulling was a function of the blade, since the "sound and feel" method allowed me to dial in the best blade angle pretty quickly. Inspired by @Screwtape's post, I decide to test this theory, pull out the new Dovo, and dive into my first WTG pass with a straight. Wow, what a difference. After a couple strokes I realize that this pass should be a breeze after what I just endured with the whole hair pulling routine. Way smoother, better whisker removing results. AHA! This is what open blade shaving with a real blade is supposed to feel like! Was my technique crappy and inconsistent? You better believe it baby! However, even employing the "blindfolded" stunt, for some of the shave with the Dovo I finished my second pass with no cuts or weepers. At the end of the shave I did notice a drop of blood on my earlobe, which @Drygulch warned me about, but I didn't feel, see, hear, or have any idea how this happened.
Pass 3 - Oh yeah. Pass three. Let's just say that again, because now I'm pumped: Pass three. No longer feeling like a MAYhem plebe, and recognizing that at this point my shave results feels about a patchy as what my lawn would look like if a raging drunk mowed it while in the midst of a "bender", I decide to go in for clean up with my slim and 5, 6, or 7 day old Astra SP (I lost track a few days ago, but felt that putting a new blade in would not be very MAYhem like). Ironically, this WTG pass (I decided not to push my luck after I had sufficiently raked my skin with new sharp & dull objects, and I'm trying to finish with a victory here.) Ironically this pass produced a small weeper, which when wiped off with a wet washcloth disappeared. I finish up with less than a DFS, but honestly, it's better than some cart shaves I had before I found shave forums and started understanding proper shave technique.

VICTORY IS MINE, SHAVE BRETHREN! Thanks to all those who gave tips, encouragement, etc. I could not have hoped for a better initial MAYHEM experience. Sure it's no finger shave or expoxied twig, but for a guy who started DE shaving 2-3 months ago, and considered bailing out after 30 days in, I feel pretty stinking good about life today. Combine that with two "Daddy Daughter Dates" in the last two days, reminding me what awesome girls I have, and my crappy work week just evaporated. The weekend is going to be a great one! Top this off with the soap box pass-around that showed up last night, and I'm on cloud 9.

Have a great Saturday fellas! And good luck to all the other participants shaving with "the (uber dull) shard" or performing other acts of MAYhem today.

 

LOOKIE there. Came through like a champ. CONGRATS!!!!! Welcome to the open blade club too!!

 

No shave day for me as the shave week starts on Sunday. For tomorrow's MAYhem/Citrus Sunday/GEM/Soap Focus Shave I am continuing with Regiment Shaving's "High Speed". The GEM Featherweight will be loaded with a Treet blade from RiteAid. Looking forward to it
Have a great Saturday!!!

 

Congrats Randy! Great write up.

 

George had friends at InventHelp.

 

Yes he did!
Mornin' Paul.

 

How are you? Good.

 

I had my first crack at the Marshlands aftershave, by L&L Grooming this morning. Potent smell inside the bottle, but once it's applied and settles down, it's kind of nice.