My SR journey

rbscebu said:
Congratulations!

SR shaving is like golf in being consistent. It only gets better from here.

Do not change anything. Stick with what you are doing now until you are consistently getting the same results. Once you are achieving consistent results, then and only then change one thing at a time to see if there is any improvements.
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Thanks Richard! I sure took my sweet time to crack the code. But I don't regret getting into SRs a bit. If it wasn't for you, I would probably never make the jump.

Good thing is I got this shave with a really simple setup and procedure. And it has made a strong impression on me to believe, that I could get very very similar results with whatever brush, soap or cream and aftershave that I have. Warm shower, gently paint on some really hydrated lather for a minute or two and make every stroke as light as possible with as low angle as possible, then put on something to hydrate the skin - is a perfect shave recipe for me. Truly shave-ready edge is a must of course. It's a challenge for me to slow down and pay undivided attention to one task. And to make my hands stable and listen to me. A really neat trick was to dig my elbows to my sides and rest the shaving hand (wrist) on the stretching hand. I was really able to make some strokes that levitated above the skin while touching the lather. And then touch the skin veeery lightly. As opposed to make a random stroke wihtout paying attention and lightening up if it hurts.
 
Congratulations Jacob, for me that is some of the appeal of straight shaving when you get beyond the nerves and into than zen moment when you know exactly where the edge is and have full control to start playing with angle, speed, length of stroke etc:

I expect those that conduct a fools pass go beyond a 2nd gate and one that I am still to enter.
 
Holiday said:
Congratulations Jacob, for me that is some of the appeal of straight shaving when you get beyond the nerves and into than zen moment when you know exactly where the edge is and have full control to start playing with angle, speed, length of stroke etc:

I expect those that conduct a fools pass go beyond a 2nd gate and one that I am still to enter.
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Thanks!

I suspect my edges need to be further refined for a fool's pass. All my shaving troubles are on the neck, so I could shave ATG above my jawline. I did try it a few times but figured that I don't need it. If on my neck I have to do a single WTG, then that's what is done to my whole face. I would love to be in position where I would only have to avoid some razor burn or nicks. I deal with ingrowns. I don't think I will be shaving ATG, or even XTG on my neck anytime soon. Maybe one day, my hair will decide not to grow extremely flat to the skin. Maybe it will decide it doesn't want to curl back into the skin anymore. Then I can start playing around. But for now, my shaving is purely focusing on removing the hair in a matter that does not lead to ingrown hairs (and is some fun).

When I see videos of "luxury" barbers shaving customers with Gold Dollars, that are clearly not sharp enough and struggle to remove hair.... I would hate a shave that I paid 50$ for to be carried out with a Gold Dollar - for that price you can buy that razor, have it honed by a pro, get a cheap strop, CrOx, a brush and a decent soap/cream, AND USE IT FOR MONTHS, with proper technique! I mean I use them and they shave just fine, but after a loooot of work. And if I had to bet money, those edges are not far from how they come from AliExpress. When I see those barbers paying attention on how they fold a towel on the face of a customer... And then they continue to shave them with just oil and a 45-60° angle, without following their growth pattern and with a criminal amount of buffing... And when the customers say that is the pinacle of grooming experience... Those guys, for me, are those that are beyond a gate that I never want to even see on the horizon. My face could never. I swear after a shave like that I would shed my skin like a snake. But yeah, the barber was dressed nice and gave them a 5 minute massage. Priorities, priorities...
 
@TheBeast, you barber shaving story reminds me of a few years ago when living in Lapu-Lapu, Cebu.

Once every few months I would go to my barber there for a traditional SR shave. He used an old Dovo SR handed down to him by his father, a retired barber. This SR was maintained on a hand-me-down barber's hone and leather strop. My barber then was charging the exorbitant price of US$1.20 for a shave.

His SR shaves were good but I could do better at home with my SRs. I went to him mainly for the pampering and to eye off his cute female assistant.

For one of my barber shaves, I took one of my honed Titan SRs with me and asked the barber to shave me with my SR. He did and the shave was as good as I got at home. My barber was very impressed with my Titan so he asked me if I could refresh his old Dovo. I agreed.

After that shave, I took his Dovo home and refreshed the edge, finishing on a diamond pasted balsa strop progression. The Dovo was returned to him the following morning as he opened up shop.

A few days later I called in to my barber and asked him how the Dovo was going. He couldn't praise it enough. That was the start of a customer/barber relationship that lasted until I departed the Philippines a couple of years later. I would pick up his Dovo in the evening of the day before I wanted a barber shave, refresh the edge and bring it with me the following morning for my barber's shave. He would then charge me just half-price.

The last I heard was that my Cebu barber was charging ₱150 for a SR shave. That's about UD$3!
 
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rbscebu said:
@TheBeast, you barber shaving story reminds me of a few years ago when living in Lapu-Lapu, Cebu.

Once every few months I would go to my barber there for a traditional SR shave. He used an old Dovo SR handed down to him by his father, a retired barber. This SR was maintained on a hand-me-down barber's hone and leather strop. My barber then was charging the exorbitant price of US$1.20 for a shave.

His SR shaves were good but I could do better at home with my SRs. I went to him mainly for the pampering and to eye off his cute female assistant.

For one of my barber shaves, I took one of my honed Titan SRs with me and asked the barber to shave me with my SR. He did and the shave was as good as I got at home. My barber was very impressed with my Titan so he asked me if I could refresh his old Dovo. I agreed.

After that shave, I took his Dovo home and refreshed the edge, finishing on a diamond pasted balsa strop progression. The Dovo was returned to him the following morning as he opened up shop.

A few days later I called in to my barber and asked him how the Dovo was going. He couldn't praise it enough. That was the start of a customer/barber relationship that lasted until I departed the Philippines a couple of years later. I would pick up his Dovo in the evening of the day before I wanted a barber shave, refresh the edge and bring it with me the following morning for my barber's shave. He would then charge me just half-price.

The last I heard was that my Cebu barber was charging ₱150 for a SR shave. That's about UD$3!
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Thats really cool. I have a friend that partnered Up with his other friends and opened a barber shop in Prague. They do mostly haircuts. I offered them a supply of straight razors, honed and to be maintained. They refused. I understand it since I heard from another barber (my haircut guy) that even a use of a shavette is prohibited here (hygiene concerns). But barbers use shavettes with regular customers.
 
Well, I'll be damned. Even after the most perfect shave I have ever produced - BUMPS! Yes, the difference is night and day, there are only three patches of 2-3 hairs that are trapped. My aloe Vera and crushed aspirin solution keeps the inflamation and discoloration to a minimum. So the overall look is very pleasing and those visible imperfections are not that uncommon.

After deep examination, some of my hairs are growing out almost perpendicular to my skin, instead really flat like all of them used to. But I have some hairs that are much much thinner and they seem to curl more - perfect ingrown recipe. Perhaps I over-stretched in those places as well.

But, I will not have my mood ruined. I still learned how to hone a straight razor and how to shave with it comortably. No cuts and no razor burn are no little victories. Perhaps my hair will thicken, straighten, or will grow less flat in coming years. Perhaps, even if it won't, I will find a way to keep it out after wet shaving.

So the quest goes on and the next goal along with consistent shaves like yesterday is to back off from stretching in order to aim for not as close of a shave. And that is still with a single WTG pass.

There is always an option to put Down a razor when I get to the neck in the shave and finish with OneBlade. Not what I'm looking for though.
 
I often hear that story about barbers being restricted to shavettes for shaving because it is against "regulations". However, none have been able to find it in their regulations. Most regulations just state the required hygiene for a shaving razor.

This required hygiene can be easily achieved with a traditional SR. It is just that the barber(s) are too lazy to do it and don't want to and/or know how to hone a traditional SR.

As a barber to check his regulations and find where it specifically states that a traditional SR must not be used or that only a shavette must be used. I doubt that he will find it.
 
Another day, another shave.

This one felt very similar to my last one, just not as good. Somehow mistakes were made and a bit of redness showed up - died down in matter of minutes. I let all the bumps grow out but there could have been some inflamation leftover. Or maybe it was from an aftershave sample. Anyhow, nothing negative in terms of feel during or after the shave, so pretty good. Second shave in a row where I felt totally in control and comfortable, it was close and effortless. I paid more attention to following the grain in twisty areas and stretched less. Will see what it does in terms of bumps reduction.

Stirling Haverford aftershave - wow... To me it smells like a christmas evening with boiled wine, cinnamon tea and vanilla cookies.
 
rbscebu said:
otherwise we would all be as exceptionally handsome as @SpeedyPC
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I feel like there may be a little bit more to it. It's as if the more I stretched, the better the razor glides and the shave feels amazing - but the more ingrowns I get since I am cutting so close to the skin. And the less I stretch, the worse the shave feels but the more I am preventing ingrowns by cutting not as close to the skin. Anyhow... I won't settle until I feel like there isn't any more progress to be made. And luckily for me, there always is.
 
Basically you should be stretching the skin in the against-the-grain direction. This tends to stand the whiskers up so that they are cut closer to the skin surface and closer to perpendicular to the centreline of the whisker.

The more perpendicular the whisker cut is to the centreline of the whisker, the less chance the whisker has to re-penetrate the skin surface (ingrowns).
 
rbscebu said:
Basically you should be stretching the skin in the against-the-grain direction. This tends to stand the whiskers up so that they are cut closer to the skin surface and closer to perpendicular to the centreline of the whisker.

The more perpendicular the whisker cut is to the centreline of the whisker, the less chance the whisker has to re-penetrate the skin surface (ingrowns).
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Huh. Well I have been stretching the skin "with the grain"/"across the grain". Since my growth goes from adam's apple outwards, it was easiest to lift my chin up and stretch from the bottom of the neck or from below the ears. So I'll try to improve there.

After one shave, left side was perfect, right side had a few ingrowns. After another, left side has a dozen ingrowns, right is next to perfect.... They felt the same during both shaves. I will need to develop more attention to detail and learn how to read the feeling duting the shaves to improve it further. Until then my Aloe-Aspirin solution keeps me afloat, since the irritation is now minimal to none, with zero nicks or cuts after three shaves. But I don't want to keep using aspirin paste in long term.
 
I did some changes to my skincare. I switched to CeraVe products - a hydrating cleanser and a lotion. They are wonderful for cold months as my face seems upset with the cold outside and heating inside. And they help to eradicate some issues with my shaves. No more drying lather and way less irritation. I took a break from shaving but couldnt wait any longer and had quite a nice one tonight. It is now easy to get an irritation free shave. But my new aproach of using products aimed at strengthening the skin barrier and providing only the ingredients it needs to be healthier seems to aid in avoiding bumps as well. Given that the shave is to the best of my ability.
 
TheBeast said:
I did some changes to my skincare. I switched to CeraVe products - a hydrating cleanser and a lotion. They are wonderful for cold months as my face seems upset with the cold outside and heating inside. And they help to eradicate some issues with my shaves. No more drying lather and way less irritation. I took a break from shaving but couldnt wait any longer and had quite a nice one tonight. It is now easy to get an irritation free shave. But my new aproach of using products aimed at strengthening the skin barrier and providing only the ingredients it needs to be healthier seems to aid in avoiding bumps as well. Given that the shave is to the best of my ability.
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Glad to hear you have found a routine that works for you
 
Even though I got a pleasant shave the last time, it still resulted in problems when my hair started to grow out. So the chapter of getting a comfortable shave is close to an end, since I am now producing those reliably. Now my focus can entirely switch to the problems that come a day or two after shaving. This prevents me from shaving daily. And the first thing that comes to mind is to cut back on aftershaves. Now I don't need much if anything to help with razor burn/irritation, since I dont get any. So just a simple cream, like the one I use for my face, should do the trick to strenghten the skin, soften the hair a little so it doesnt dig in that much. A simple old-school alcohol splash might also work, but not now during winter, that would make me dry and flaky. Will see.

I am awaiting a delivery of a custom straight, so my next few shaves I will be getting used to it. And only use my Stirling unscented w beeswax and a simple, dermatologist recomended cream afterwards. I might also try good old vaseline - skin friendly, could help to make the hairs soft and the skin protected and lubricated, so they just slide along and dont dig in causing inflamation and redness. It helped around my nose when winter came and it started being red itchy and flaky.

So the plan is set, now just to stick with it patiently and then we can analyze the results.
 
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She's home and She is picture perfect. In hand She seems much bigger. I think I will name her Lucille.

I will need to get use to shaving with a big blade and a heavy grind, but first shave with the edge honed by her maker was quite nice, different sensation than smaller blades and more hollow grinds.

River Razor custom:

I wanted a piece from Boris for my birthday in February and I contacted him 5 weeks ago, he was booked till March. But luckily one of his customers left him hanging so I got a piece that matches 95% of my requirements, even with a gentlemenly discount.

Everything seems to be perfect, even came with a decent Ark edge. I need to learn how to use this big girl but I waited too long to get a big blade with a heavy grind. No the heavens didn't part because the shave was so divine, but it's even more badass than a "regular" (5/8 hollow) straight razor. She's Massive.

1.2510 steel
8/8 in
62.5 HRC (holy Molly)
Buffalo horn scales
Near wedge

As suspected, the CeraVe moisturizing lotion does just fine as an aftershave, with a bonus of being dermatologically tested, studied and is recommended by most, if not all dermatologists for basically anyone. I think I am living proof of: you don't need a better aftershave for sensitive skin, you need a better shave. Moisturizing is everything you 'need' to do.

No irritation, I was super careful and slow. I stretched less, did less strokes overall, did All the gymnastics needed to hit Every hair perfectly WTG. If I failed to remove a hair after two strokes in one place, I left it there. If this helps, I will keep doing it. Vaseline will come in if I feel like the hairs are digging in.
 
In hand she feels bigger than in the picture. There is a tiny defect near the toe but that could be dressed up with a Q-tip and laping paste. Second pic is after the shave, it picks up EVERYTHING and will show it on top of her mirror shine. But hey at least I will always remember to give her a good wipe before putting away.

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