"Once I have that down pat, I can start trying my Muhle Rocca, and Merkur Progress. Next year maybe."

Smart. Learn with what you have, not changing things around too soon or too often.

Ah yes too right @PLANofMAN ! Nice thought, that...

{...those were the days, ~40 yrs ago, my 3rd set, American white oak, backyard, night time, eyes closed, half-moon stance, didn't take too long to find the knuckles!

Planning on less damage these days LOL!}

Edit: Image removed.

very cool.i started in 1981 at 14 ,but with bic disposables and canned foamy.a truly crap way to start.but i figured it it out.the problems came with multiblades..

for me it gets the most with fewer passes.i used to do 3.but only based on my growth pattern.if it grew in multiple directions it may not work.i will say also..it takes time for your skin to adapt.a raw shave at first the right way doesn't mean you did it wrong.it takes a few shaves in the same way.one day at a time..it will improve.

Dec 26th 2022
Happy Boxing Day!

Today I did something I have been wondering about for a while...can my DE wet shave get as smooth as my electric shave?
I would say that a month ago the best/smoothest shaves I had were with the electric foil shaver, using really wet lather and going in all directions.
I still thought that no ways could wet shaving get as smooth.

So I went half and half:

1. Right side of face dry shave with foil electric shaver, minimal pressure, going in all directions, until I felt it was done, all cleaned up.

2. Left side of face with my usual Muhle R89, usual hot water prep, Proraso blue pre-shave and my favourite shaving cream TOBS tobacco leaf.
Two day stubble. Astra SP day 4 still feels sharp. Two passes and touch ups, then ATG in the areas that tolerate this: left cheek and under lower lip. Thayer's both sides.

I must say the shave is better on the left with DE/wet compared to the right. Even getting some areas of BBS, no nicks cuts weepers lumps or bumps.
A few hours later the left (DE shave) definitely feels better.
On the right (done with the electric shaver) the shave and the skin were not quite as smooth. Still very good though. Except the neck area below the level of the adam's apple, where I am still only going WTG and XTG with the R89/Astra SP at this stage. In this area the right side was smoother.

Conclusion: Either I am getting better with the wet shave, or I should have done the right side with some slick lather.
Either way the electric shaver results are good and likely good enough for a quick pre-work shave.
It may not be quicker because you still need to clean, brush and rinse the electric shaver afterwards anyway.

But, the wet-shaved left side of face is definitely smoother and much more satisfying and way more fun.

Up to now I have felt the wet shave stubble feels sharper when it grows back over the next day or two. I will wait until tonight and tomorrow morning to see if the stubble on both sides feels the same, or one side feels sharper.

Question 7: Do you Exfoliate, yes or no?
On the recommendation of some shaving sites I saw somewhere, I bought some exfoliating cream last week and used it once.
Is there any point to this? Surely we are taking off thin layers of skin too when we get a close shave, so does this not amount to blade induced exfoliation?
Thoughts?

My opinion is as PLANofMAN, the the brush and razor do plenty of exfoliating by themselves. Anything more is overkill and may (emphasis may) not be good for your face.

No. I don't use any specific product.

Yes. I do face lathering and shave daily.
When my dermatitis strikes back, I use exausted coffee powder to gently scrub the other areas.
In the shaving areas, the brush and the edge are enough for me.

Well, being stubborn, I exfoliated last night before going to bed. I figured, I have the product, I might as well use it. Only one way to find out.
Shaved this morning. Reasonably good shave, day 5 with the Astra SP, skin did feel a bit more tender, maybe the combo of the 5 day old blade and the exfoliation, who knows. Stopped at 2 passes and some touch ups and left some stubble around the left lower chin.

Lesson learnt.
Anyway, I still have the product, thankfully it was on the cheap side, so as mentioned above, I guess I can just use on rest of my face and back of my neck, and leave the brush and razor to do the rest.

A novel use of coffee powder, I must say it makes sense, the commercial exfoliators all have some kind of organic abrasives in them.

I have heard of putting used coffee grounds in the garden as mulch or plant feed, might try some on my balding spot!

Dec 27th 2022.

Day 5 with the Astra SP, just starting to tug a bit, still managed a good enough shave. Skin starting to feel a raw around the sides of the chin after 2 passes and some touch ups, called it a day and just enjoyed the parts of the face that were nice and smooth.

Slowly learning which areas are the more challenging and how to work around them.

(BTW: The other side of the face done with the electric shaver yesterday clearly had more stubble, so I am happy with where I am at the moment as I learn more about wet shaving. Progress!)

@PLANofMAN #21 of this thread https://theshaveden.com/forums/threads/on-blades-coatings-etc.66939/page-2 you mentioned different waters.

Well anecdotally anyway, I think using our reverse osmosis (RO) water makes a difference.
Not scientific of course; the best I could do was mix up 2 lathers with the same starting points and just using different water.
Definite impression is the RO water lathers quicker faster and better.

Looking online, our Perth, Western Australia water is quite hard, but don't know enough how to test it. I do know it tastes terrible, and when the filter guys replace the RO filters annually they are clogged brown, lots of ferrous stuff in the water here. You can spot the houses here with bore water: the walls and fences discolour brown fairly fast. We only use the RO water in our coffee machine.

I could only control for the use of the same shaving soap, the same 1.0 gram of the soap tared off on the scale, the same boar brush, the same 'dryness' of brush before soaking the brush, leaving the same amount of water in the brush and going from there. The end point of when the lather is 'right' is more problematic to measure. 3 minutes with the tap water and 90 seconds with the RO water to get to where I wanted it to be. Don't know the science behind this, but I am convinced enough to know I will stick with RO water.

@PLANofMAN Wow, that's a good thread, thanks for pointing me over there. Clearly I am coming late to the party! Seems more interesting/complex than I thought. I do know we have added Chlorine to our water in Perth, and coffee experts also suggest to allow the tap water to stand overnight to allow this to diffuse/evaporate off. Another variable! They likely also add Fluoride to our water here, too many variables to bother about.

29th December 2022
Two day growth, Muhle R89, Muhle Raserkultur blade Day 1. Pure Badger brush.
TOBS Tobacco. This reacts completely differently than the Mr Taylor's Shaving Cream. Needed the water from the brush AND an additional 6 cc water and then more!

Hmm yup, already had that issue a few times, when it dries before the end of the first pass.

Lesson 1 of the Day: I think I need to get the lather more glossy, paint like, like milk just before the latte art. If it dries half way through the 1st pass >> rough shave. No good. The lather starts to sound different just before it comes right, more sloppy like...?

Lesson 2 of the Day: the Muhle blade 'aint bad, not nearly as sharp as the Astra, but smoother, and I could afford to do more passes and touch ups with less "raw skin." Easier to navigate around the chin area with no damage. Will take it for a second run and see how it goes.

Really satisfying shave, though. Still a few red spots left lower neck, but Thayer's 3x during the day almost cleared that up.
It will be a while before I can tackle the lower neck with more than a WTG pass and a XTG pass. Or maybe too much sun damage means I never will. I will try using even less less pressure here.

@brit thanks for the encouragement, the learning curve continues...so little time.

30 Dec 2022

Yep, still too impulsive, but got have some fun.

After reading the above thread in #53 about lathering (amongst others), while I was washing my face with Shea butter soap this morning... I thought: Hmmm? can I get this to lather? And maybe shave with it?



Loaded the brush from the bar for around 30 seconds, added to bowl, adding tap water as I went, looked ok.
Should I apply this to face? Why not? feels ok. Shrug.
Should I try shaving, I can always bail out....
Added blade to R89 and before I knew it, I had completed the shave.


Growth: 1 day
Lather Bowl: Blue op-shop bowl.
Brush: Pure Badger, quick dunk in the sink
Razor: R89
Blade: Muhle (2)
Face Prep: quick soap wash, cold water.
Pre shave: None!
Shaving Soap: Shea butter soap! Loaded brush off the bar around 30 secs, then into the bowl, adding tap water on the trot, as it were.
Passes: mainly WTG, the XTG in some areas, then XTG (the other way), one or two areas ATG.
Post Shave: Warm then cold-water rinse, then Thayer’s unscented, (lots of), rubbing in ATG.
Aftershave: Nivea Sensitive for Men, rubbing in ATG

Result: a pretty good shave actually. Just one tiny weeper on chin, cleared on its own after cold water rinse.

Cold water prep and shave is not as comforting but is a different experience. Not sure I would have done this with a sharper blade/more efficient razor.
I will come back to this at a late date.

Question to self? Am I spending too much on expensive shaving soaps and creams?

Learning Point of the Day: slowly mapping out my face into Zones and trying to stick to that routine.

You're spending too much on shaving stuff when you can no longer cover the bills for utility, house, food, medical, etc.

There's plenty of inexpensive shaving gear out there that can be a joy to use and still give you a close, comfortable shave.

Hi Steve, thanks for the comment, perhaps a bit of a rhetorical question of course, but you are right I am not mortgaging the house quite yet! Even if this hobby goes overboard it would still be one of the cheapest ones I have ever had. TOBS 150 gram tub for AUD 35 or so, around 150 to 200 shaves, that's way less than a dollar a day! At this stage I only have about 7 soaps/creams with many more that look exciting to try! Bring on the New Year. Just need to avoid the urge to get more razors, (Brain to Heart: you only need one razor, you only need one razor, you only need one razor.......). The vintage ones seem to be hard to get around here. Only found one Rolls Razor in an antique store last week, didn't even bother to look at it. Might have to go online at some stage.

No shave for 2 days, BBQ with friends y'day, giving my face a rest today, spent some time with my eldest today. Tomorrow is another day, and another Year.

All the best for 2023 for everyone here on this great forum.