30 Days of Wet Shaving @30daysofwetshaving-blog - Tumblr Blog

Days 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, and 31

Somewhat anti-climactic to combine all of these posts together, but I’ve had terrific shaves all across. Maybe a little irritation on one day, but I can’t be more excited for what lies ahead in this journey. What a wonderful new skill DE shaving is to learn and I’m excited to do this for the rest of my life. A new super awesome razor should be arriving in the mail soon. Lots of fantastic soaps to try. And so many days to feel a soft smooth neck and face!

Day 25

I can’t believe it’s been 25 days.

Today I tried Chiseled Face’s Easy Street. It was a nice lather (but given that it was a sample, I found it hard to load enough; not an issue I expect to have with a full tub).

After yesterday’s not so great shave, I was more careful today and got a pretty good shave. Not the best ever, but much better than yesterday. I learned that when there is a patch that I can’t quite get well, I can just go over it lightly repeatedly, changing the direction ever so slightly every time.

It’s been more than a week with Derby so I’m going to put a new one in tomorrow.

Day 24

I made a mistake I’ve made before: skip WTG because my skin didn’t feel like it needed it. Woops. Close shave, but definitely not as close as yesterday.

Day 23: Yes!

Absolutely excellent shave today. I loved it. Probably the least irritation I’ve had since I started shaving with a safety razor and certainly the closest and smoothest shave (I won’t lie, it did require some touching up at the end, but that’s OK, right?)

On the face, I switched pass directions around. Instead of down (or sometimes down and out) first pass, up second pass, and horizontal in third pass, I did a down and in first pass (between WTG and XTG, since the skin there can easily handle it), a horizontal in second pass, and a diagonal up and in third pass. Apart from a patch on my left jaw, this worked perfectly. The patch on my left jaw just refused to shave. No matter what direction I tried, I seemed to be left with a rough patch there.

However, it’s the neck that is usually the problem. So this is the important part. Things I did differently today. First, I tried to really tilt my head back so the skin was well stretched. Then the passes were slightly different. I went WTG as far as possible on the first pass using a shallow blade angle. I went mostly straight up on the second pass, which serves as a slightly aggressive XTG pass. Then finally, I tried to experiment with direction and tried to find what true ATG would be. This meant holding the razor at an awkward angle, but it worked. I’ll note that one really important change was to have a steep blade angle on these last two passes (otherwise the blade “jumps”, which is awful).

I needed to touch up a few small patches and then I was golden. I kept trying the left jaw patch, and nothing seemed to work there. That’s something for tomorrow, I guess.

The alum block stung a little, but not as much as it did before. With continuously improving technique, I hope to have even better shaves soon. Meanwhile, I think buying 10 Derby blades to focus on technique was a good decision.

Day 22

I tried a slightly different direction today, which didn’t work great for me. My neck feels rough (but no irritation on the neck; ironically, I managed to irritate my left cheek). I believe that I still haven’t found the best directions for my neck yet. The Derby is working out well, so I’m going to stick with it for a few weeks and hopefully, once my technique has improved, I will be able to do some better blade exploration.

Day 20 & 21

Great shaves, both days. The Omega S is performing really well. The Derby blade seems to be working out well. It’s not quite as sharp, so I need to get the angles right, otherwise I end up having to do a lot of touching up, which obviously leads to irritation.

Day 19

I enjoyed the Tiki Star Anise today. The lather was fantastic. I don’t particularly love the smell of Star Anise, so the smell was OK-ish.

The shave was great. The Derby blade seems to suit me well. I had slight irritation in parts of my face, as demonstrated by the alum sting. But overall, it was incredibly close. I might stick to Derby for a while, before trying another blade.

Day 18

I tried the Derby today. It didn’t like the 3 days of growth that it had to deal with on the first pass. But after that, the blade did well. It seemed to be milder than the other blades and was able to cleanly shave my beard off without irritation. (The lack of irritation might be because I haven’t shaved in three days; I’ll find out tomorrow).

Closeness: nearly perfect Nicks/cuts: none Irritation: almost none Blade: Derby

Days 15, 16, and 17: First Cut

The ASTRA Platinum doesn’t seem to have worked too great for me. Maybe I should wait until my technique is better. In any case, I was travelling the last few days and managed a little irritation and some small weepers everyday. However, on Day 17 I finally cut myself in the neck. It barely bled, but you can see the redness even two days later (I haven’t shaved the last two days to make sure it gets a chance to heal).

Maybe I applied too much pressure. But I am going to switch to the Derby tomorrow.

Day 14

I was in a huge hurry and had more nicks. No shave today.

Day 13

Switched to the ASTRA Superior Platinum today. It felt sharper and I got a closer shave. A lot less irritation when compared to the last couple days of the Stainless. I seemed to have failed spectacularly going up on my chin and got multiple weepers on a line (so almost a cut). I think the next few shaves are going to be better.

My neck is smooth! Very smooth.

Closeness: near perfect Nicks/cuts: plenty (possibly my fault) Irritation: none (one small patch might be residual from yesterday) Blade: ASTRA Platinum

It’s been two weeks (with one skipped day). I’m going to pat myself on the back, feel my fingers glide down my neck with almost no roughness.

Things I am excited for:

I can’t wait to try out more blades. Specifically, I want to know what mild Derby and super sharp Feather feel like. I’m also super excited for an alum bar and an Omega S brush, both of which are on their way here. And I can’t wait to try more creams and soaps. Top on my list of soaps to try are Tiki, Mickey Lee Soapworks, Sterling, and Chiseled Face.

#day 13 #shaving #excited for

Day 12: lesssion: swap blades sooner rather than later

I got a close shave, but with a lot of irritation and a few weepers. It was shave #7 with this new blade after all. I blamed myself for the irritation yesterday, but I won’t today, because I was being careful throughout and even on my first pass, I felt some tugging and irritation. In retrospect, I should have just swapped blades then.

Closeness: decent Nicks/cuts: three or four weepers Irritation: plenty on my neck Blade: ASTRA Superior Stainless

Tomorrow I will begin shaving with the ASTRA Superior Platinum (not Stainless).

#day 12 #shaving #irritation

Day 11: still great

As I said yesterday, I was not sure how much of a difference the Cremo alone made. So I didn’t use the Cremo shave cream today and still had a great shave. Maybe a tiny little bit of irritation, but I’ll blade that on technique.

On my neck, I only used a little bit of the Gillette slide technique going up (not going down) and then went ATG. What a great close shave!

Closeness: very close Nicks/cuts: none Irritation: minimal, under jawline Blade: ASTRA Superior Stainless (6th shave)

#day 11 #shaving

Days 9 & 10: back-to-back great shaves

I changed three things and got two amazing shaves:

1. dropped unnecessary passes. It's a waste of time. My face can handle against the grain right after a with the grain/across the grain pass. So I just did a down pass and an up pass on the face. Perfectly smooth and no irritation. This let me focus on the neck.

2. Gillette slide on neck. To make an ATG pass on my neck, the stubble needs to be short and even. The Gillette slide before ATG did just that. Yesterday, the stubble was long enough (after a poor shave the day before that) that I did a WTG pass before using the Gillette slide on a XTG pass. Today the stubble was so short, I went straight for the Gillette slide on a XTG pass.

3. Cremo Cream, then regular lather shaving cream, and ATG on neck: the Cremo helps, I think. The fact that the stubble was so short must have helped too. I will do a more controlled experiment on the effects of Cremo vs Gillette slide (before ATG) and see what in particular allowed me to go ATG on my neck.

Overall, fantastic shaves. No irritation. One weeper ("nicks" are bigger, I learned yesterday, and I've meant "weepers" all this while). Minimal roughness below the jawline.

Closeness: close Nicks/cuts: one or two weepers Irritation: none Blade: ASTRA Superior Stainless

#day 9 #day 10 #shaving

Day 8: not so close

I tried the conservative approach I did yesterday and the shave on my neck really wasn’t that close. It’s been annoying me for the past few hours now. Not a lot else to comment about except one small nick.

Closeness: one very rough patch under my jawline Nicks/cuts: one nick under my chin Irritation: none, although the nick stick did sting Blade: ASTRA Superior Stainless

#day 8 #shaving

Day 7: true WTG helps

I took a break yesterday to let those multiple nicks heal.

My first pass today was actually with the grain (WTG), unlike before (where I would just shave down). The result: much easier shave for the next two passes. I have a feeling that my downward first passes earlier weren’t quite reducing the beard evenly enough for the next two passes.

I also focused on maintaining a good blade angle today. I caught myself falling back to a steeper blade angle, but I have a feeling that habit will die quickly!

I completely avoided anything close to ATG (against the grain) today. My passes were WTG, XTG (across), and XTG the other way. Of course, because the grain changes directions so much, I’m sure some parts of one of the XTG passes weren’t precisely perpendicular to the growth direction.

I felt a pretty rough patch under my jawline at the end of my shave and tried to make one short pass over that. It didn’t seem to do much though. I realized after my shave that once the skin dried out, it didn’t seem quite as rough. Going forward, I should remember that rough patches always feel rougher in the bathroom than they will outside.

Closeness: close Nicks/cuts: two tiny nicks on the neck. Not sure which pass I made those nicks on Irritation: almost none! I’m proud of this one. Blade: ASTRA Superior Stainless

#day 7 #shaving

Day 6: nicks nicks nicks

I switched blades today and loaded the ASTRA superior stainless (not platinum). The blade seemed sharper than the Merkur and I got a very close shave, but had at least five small nicks on my neck and cheek. This is despite feeling like I was putting less pressure than any of the previous five shaves.

I won’t give up on this blade yet. I’m going to be even more careful and hopefully will get a better shave from this. I want to try playing around with the angle to see if that changes anything.

#shaving #nicks #day 6

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