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3/2 Shave #10 was the
best yet! The edge I had built on this razor was the best I’ve felt in my limited experience. Really, I think what’s been missing is the wisdom of benchmarking my apexes. More to follow on this through Shaves #11-12.
From the 1st stroke- I had the sense of confidence + pride in the edge that I had a really smooth ride (for me), through my new WTG, WTG, ATG progression. Experimenting with some new skin stretches: mainly opening the mouth, puffing cheeks, tongue jams, and ear tugs.
Ended with 4-5 weepers: 2-3 chin and lip, 1 neck, 1 high cheek. Cleaned up perfectly though my skin needed a 24+hr break/rehab at this point.
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3/4 Shave #11 was bad. I spent a long time between shaves reading
scienceofsharp and I went at the hones when I should not have. I introduced an irresponsible variable and this caused bad results. Lesson learned, though I thought I was making improvements... I was fooling myself. I could feel sharpness fade rapidly through the 1st pass and knew this one was a “punt.” I took it back to the strops and called the shave after the 2nd WTG pass.
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3/5 Shave #12 was my “rebound” shave. I went back to
my adapted honing progression. Added a few compulsory tweaks, and ended up back in fine fashion as Shave #10. I noticed in this shave, that I’m finding a bit of a groove. My process may be forever comparatively chaotic (just how I like most tasks... interesting), but that may end up acceptable in the end. I’m not deciding that now and I’m keeping all options open. As I transition, I feel much more confident and realize I’m not pre-meditating stroke by stroke. I’m calling that progress. Results and comfort show improvements and that’s keeping me
slap happy.
Further Thoughts
- Thursday night I was feeling feverish. This carried into Friday and I finally realized I was not feeling the ultra-hyped and dreaded COVID-19; but rather some complications from a recent surgery. I ended up in the hospital, where I now sit, awaiting a final procedure in the morning and anticipating discharge on Wednesday. I mention this to explain my lack of activity/contribution of late.
- I have a lot of catching-up to do! I tend to disengage from pleasurable and positive things in troubled times, so as not to create any unwanted negative associations between the “good” and the “bad.”
- Trying to adjust my so-proclaimed great edge from Shave #10 was a mistake. I mean I totally drank the SOS Kool-Aid and fouled my edge. Conceptually, I think there’s some benefit but I’m too green to tinker so often. This may be a bit of a setback and I’m hoping that being aware of the situation will keep it under control.
- I won’t see another opportunity to shave before Wednesday night so I have something nice to look forward to! I’ll be plotting my software carefully until then.
- I’m still focused on improving comfort around the mouth. I think I have some work to do here. My guess is that I’m using too much pressure and employing skin stretches sub-optimally. I’ll need more reps, some experimentation, and some advice I think. I’ll work on describing the input-output better as I continue to drill into my perceived issues in this area.
- Experimenting with some new AS treatments has been fun! I’m enjoying the products selected so far. Glad to have the flexibility here. No regrets in my brush-soap-razor selection. The soap scent I find to be of mild and pleasantly “clean” aroma, which fades quickly and has clashed with nothing so far.
- It could be that lather is related to comfort. I think my lather game is strong. I’m hyper aware of the consistency, slickness, and time invested in my lather. More likely, I think over-tweaking my edges is a culprit in this area. But ever mindful of the lather I remain!
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