Razor- Gillette 1959 E2 fatboy adjustable, setting 3 Blade- Dorco 301(new) Brush- Edwin Jagger best badger Lather- Edwin Jagger soap I worked from home last Friday, so I started working early, and I reached a point that I knew I had nothing to do for an hour about 2pm, so I thought it was time for a shower and a first shave. Thanks.. the shower was fine. The lathering part, however, had a couple issues. Being new to all this (except shaving with goo and a cartridge razor), I tried to build a lather for the first time with soap and a badger brush. I had already watched mantic59's videos, and videos from others a few times and I thought I was ready for the task of building lather from a soap puck. In real time, that took a long time the first time.. maybe 10 minutes to get something that was usable. I was able to realize when I just needed to start over twice, because there was no recovery from that point. The third time was the charm, and I was able to use the lather (although I think it was barely usable) for a shave. Actually shaving, I made a WTG pass across my face in the same direction that I did with my old cartridge razor. Because this is new to me and my Gillette Fatboy Adjustable is significantly heavier than my old cartridge, I was very hesitant, and I took moderate length strokes on "straighter" areas of skin and very short strokes around areas that had contours, like the jaw and chin areas-- not to mention around moustache area and the lips! This pass took me about 4-5 minutes. For the second pass, I relathered with my weak cream, and I made a really light pass over the same areas AND close, but slightly angular to the direction of the first pass. (I was REAAAAALLLY tentative about contact with that first pass due to the weight of the razor) What I found after assessing what I did after with the first pass was that I found that I really didn't shave too much, hardly any at all when looking at the razor rinse water. On this second pass, I changed my grip on the razor from some recommendations of holding just the base of the razor to a little further up, giving me a more comfortable "hand feel". I don't feel that I applied any more pressure to the razor, but I think that I may have changed the angle of the razor to my face that time to be a hair more aggressive. Feeling my face after that pass had a feeling that I had a stubble and feeling that I needed more work. This pass took me maybe another 3-4 minutes. On the third pass, I relathered with the little lather I had left, and I went ATG as much as I could. I found that the weight of the razor restricted my feeling of being comfortable doing this in the opposite direction, but I believe this is really a problem with me getting used to holding this razor, especially since the it's head doesn't pivot at the base of the blade like the cartridge did. I found I couldn't figure out how to go ATG on the upper lip. Have to figure that out. This pass took maybe almost 3 minutes. After that pass, I felt my face and it felt smoother than I had expected. I found it smoother than I expected on my cheeks and upper neck, but I had a little roughness on my chin and upper lip. I used the last bit of cream that I could get out of my brush for those areas, and applied it. I made a really light pass over those areas, and I called it complete. After that I rinsed up and took a look... I was really content with the outcome. That pass took maybe a minute. A half hour later, I took a close assessment in the mirror. I was really smooth on the cheeks and neck. Irritated areas that I would normally have on my neck were not irritated. I did notice that my technique will need a little more work... as I have a fine line of shortly-cut hairs at the top of my upper lip that I hadn't noticed didn't get removed. Also a swath of (ATG) short hairs at the top of the neck (right under the jaw) from the chin to the ears have a bit of feel left.
Well done! Glad you got a decent result for your first shave. Sounds like your technique is pretty good and once you gain confidence, you won't be tentative at all and your shaves will be even better. Pete
some more advice...You did good! Try different soaps out and when you find you have nothing to do, just go practice making lather without shaving. It takes a long time to use up a soap and the few pennies you waste going down the drain will be made up to you in better shaves when you have it down pat.
Excellent! Don't worry about going ATG on your lip, just getting a smooth shave. I'm impressed you went ATG at all on your first DE shave, but on 3 the Fatboy is a rather tame razor. I like your choice of blade and brush, both are underappreciated by most. Never tried the EJ soap, but it's on the list of stuff to try.
Congratulations!I have a E1 Fatboy and shaves so well.I hope that you can enjoy your futures shaves,learn how to make great lather,...Its a nice journey!
Great job, no you will start to build confidence and it won't take so long. Going ATG on my upper lip can give me irritation but doing xtg different ways i.e west/east usually gets it smooth. I like my E1 Fatboy too.
That's great advice right there! Other than that, it sounds like you're way ahead in the game. Something else to do would be to watch the stubble as it grows back in. Study it, feel it with your fingertips...notice which direction it grows. You will be amazed at how you thought it grew, and how it really does grow. Congrats! Happy shaving!
The 2nd and 3rd shaves.... Hey all, thanks for the kind words. I have been cartridge shaving with goo for many years(I hate saying decades, but it is more than one). So, I have a feel for the blading process and even with the cartridge, I knew that to get a smoother shave (if my face could take it) that I needed to go ATG on another pass. I shaved that first time on Friday about 2PM with a brand new blade. I didn't mention this in the first post but, I did not shave again until Monday morning. On Sunday afternoon, however, I was remarkably surprised that I had only minor stubble when feeling for growth. Like Truckman said, I did feel it, feeling where and what direction the stubble was prevalent. That is why I delayed my first DE shave until I knew I had a weekend to study it. On a scale of my personal thoughts of whether I could go somewhere super nice for dinner with my current stubble level on sunday evening, yes I could. With my prior razor---never at just over 48 hours growth. As for the Monday shave, It was good. I still had some problems with the lather. I used the same Dorco blade from Friday. Results form the feel of it were still really smooth at 6pm that night. The process was overall faster, as I was feeling a bit more comfortable. Tuesday shave was good also. I still used that same blade. I think I'm figuring out my lather problem. In my cup with the soap puck, I need to add some water to melt the soap just a bit while I shower. I was able to get much better lather this time. I did notice that I unexpectedly nicked myself once, and I had two small cases where it seemed like it pulled on a hair then cut a small bit of skin, resulting in a micro-bubble of blood that dried up before I even realized it. The 7PM skin-feel is a bit more stubbly than with the first two shaves. I think it is now time for a new blade. I got 3 good shaves out of that Dorco 301. I'm staying with this particular type of blade until I get my process improved. I'm also staying with the fatboy E2 (on setting 3) for at least one more blade, but I have an 1940's Rocket from england that I really want to try also. I've heard great things about that razor.
I didn't see it mentioned, but how are you getting your lather? Are you using a bowl? I'd suggest that if you haven't already, try face lathering. For the life of me, I could never get a decent lather using a bowl, or even hand lathering. As soon as I switched to face lathering, I consistently got an excellent, cushioning lather that drastically improved the quality of my shaves. I highly recommend giving it a shot.
I fully agree with this... I want to do that but I have had little time to actually do that. I think I'm going to have some more time to try a couple lathers tomorrow evening, but I think I've discovered the little secret that I was missing by adding a small bit of water to the soap puck while I'm showering and the brush is soaking.
I've been building my lather in a bowl, and I'm on my third different bowl already. I'm probably wrong, but I think that I was not building enough soap into the brush from the dry soap puck. When I changed that by adding some (about a tablespoon) of warm/hot water to the puck, the badger brush seemed to pick up more soap deeper into the bristles, and in the same bowl that I had problems with on Monday, I had a much better lather today. I wouldn't call it great, because I have no "great" lather to compare it to yet, but is was better that I had ever created.
Definitely give face lathering a shot then. For me at least, I feel like I have better control of the lather. If things are too dry, a little dab of water on the tips of the bristles goes a long way. A good shake of the brush before lathering keeps it from being to wet. If I worked at it, I could probably make a decent bowl lather now, but when I face lather, I get an excellent lather in no time. Again, that's from personal experience, though the face lather thread seems to show that others have the same experiences as well.
I will give face lathering a shot. As I tend to use a scientific method, I'm trying not to change up too many things at once. When I had to go through three type/shapes of bowls on that first shave to get a bad lather, I tried to keep most everything constant. Now that I'm figuring that out a bit, I think that I getting closer to water in the brush and soap levels. Once I can get something consistent there, I will try face lathering. (as it is, it seem like I'm making a sloppy mess all over the counter with trying to add extra water to a brush that just didn't have enough soap in it to begin with) --B
