Sorry I'm so excited, because I finally achieved my very first BBS shave, and I had to share this with everyone. I swear, it’s like a light bulb moment for us newbie’s when we first realize the error of all our ways, and finally find out how to put together all the myriad of tips and tricks and techniques that you see, hear and read about, and finally figure out what works for you. It’s like suddenly everything falls into place, you get the perfect pre soak, you whip up the absolute perfect lather. Which by the way I finally now understand not only what the perfect lather looks like, but also feels like and sounds like when you get just the right consistency. Followed of course by the perfect shave. If I may, I would like to list my mistakes, and what I had to do to learn that I was making the mistakes in the first place before fixing it, in the hopes that it will help others going through the same things. Bear in mind, This is a straight edge tutorial, and not for you DE users. Sorry, I don’t use them, so I can’t speak very intelligently on the matter, not that I can about straight edges either, but at least I can help you not make the same mistakes I did. 1. The pre soak. This is probably one of the most important parts of perpetration, because without this, nothing else will fall into place quite right for a good shave. So for me, I was getting frustrated because no matter how much I pre soaked my face, or used hot water or anything else, it never seemed to make much difference. Until I read a write-up talking about the necessity of washing your face. See, if you don’t use actual soap, not shaving soap to first wash your face, you won’t get all of the natural oils off your face and most importantly your whiskers, so the water will not properly hydrate your hairs and soften them for shaving. Me for example, I have fairly oily skin, so just splashing it with water does nothing but spread the oil around with a coating of water on top. So my recommendation. While you're pre soaking your brush in your bowl or cup of hot water, take that time to pre wash your face with soap and water thoroughly then rinse it well with as hot a water as you can stand for at least 30 seconds, then DONT dry your face, yes your sink and the area around it will get messy and you'll be dripping everywhere, but you can clean that all up later. 2 The Lather Ok so depending upon the type of soap or cream you use, this will vary, but for me, I use The Art of Shaving cream, which came with a pre shave oil, but in my opinion, don’t even bother using that, because it doesn’t lubricate anything as they say it’s supposed to, and if anything, it will stop the lather from doing its job on your whiskers which are to lift them up, and lubricate them at the same time in preparation for your shave. When you use oil, all that does is help the hairs stick to your face, and completely counterproductive to the need for lather. So I can’t speak of any other soaps at this time, as I don’t have any experience with those, but with the cream I use, the trick is, first take your brush out of the hot water and dump out the water in the bowl. put about a finger tip dip of the cream at the bottom of your bowl. It should look about the size of a nickel on top of your finger, then gently squeeze out the excess water from your brush. Not completely mind you, but just get some of the excess water out, and begin whipping up your first foam. Just like everyone else says, you'll see the large bubbles forming at first, but as you keep going those will break down. Now the trick is, as soon as you start seeing the foam thicken up a bit, it’s NOT ready to apply to the face, unlike what the guy in the store will tell you. And I DONT recommend you lather up on your hand like they say you can either, you will never get the feel. As you’re whipping up your lather, if you lift your brush up and turn it over to look at the bristles, you will find that you'll see little gaps in the foam where you can see the bristles, like air pockets. That will be an indication that your foam is not ready. carefully add a few drops of water to your foam as your whipping it up, and continue this until you start to feel a slight resistance. You'll be able to tell when your foam is getting nice and thick and ready, and when you lift your brush and look at it, you'll see that the foam will have completely covered the brush, and it’s all sticking together without any air pockets in the middle of it, and you'll see nice thick peaks. If you DONT see this or feel this, continue to add a little water, and whip up the foam until you do. Once you've achieved it, you're ready to go. Now I'm not going to tell you how to brush it on your face, or any other steps already covered by others, this is really a tutorial on how NOT to make the same mistakes I did. Yes, I've done ALL of these things. So don’t feel stupid. 3. The shave. First, it is very important that you strop your blade real well before beginning the shave, there are plenty of tutorials on that step, so I won’t cover it right now. The mistake I made however, is that like most newbie’s, I thought I had to get as much hair off as I possibly could on my first pass. Needless to say, that’s not the goal at all. I suggest slow and steady, take your time, take 4 passes, or even 5 if you need to. You will enjoy it a lot more, get a much closer and more comfortable shave, and your face will appreciate it a lot more too. Learn from me, you basically have to UNLEARN everything you’ve been used to so far with using a cartridge razor, and start from scratch. You might get a smooth skin feel after just one stroke with a cartridge, but with a straight edge, take your time, don’t rush it, don’t press too hard in order to try to attain that, you’re going to be doing nothing more than irritate your skin, or cut yourself badly, just light even paced strokes, and only one stroke in the same area, because once you’ve taken off some of the hair and the lather, you don’t have any of the lubrication you need anymore. So take one pass, lather up again, and now you can take a second pass, or more if necessary, but make sure you have a good lather on your face every time. Nothing worse than dry shaving with a straight edge. As someone once said, the goal is beard reduction, and not elimination. and with each progressive shave, you will get closer and closer to the oh so wonderful BBS shave.
I'm a DE guy, but your experience with preparation and lather sound pretty typical. We always apply YYMV, so I'm sure most guys will find one or two spots where something different works better for them. But, this sounds like a really good place for a newbie to start. And I'd advise trying a soap. It will certainly cost less per shave than AOS cream (even if you buy a $40 soap).
Thanks for the advice... yea I actually didnt learn that until after I had already bought it, but will be switching to soap once I'm done with this cream. Thank you though.
