Born again

bobbyseal · Post by **bobbyseal** » Thu Feb 24, 2011 9:17 pm

I tried wet shaving back in 2007. I bought Truefitt & Hill cream, a Merkur HD, a Merkur slant, a 100 pack of israeli personna blades, a badger brush, preshave oil. The whole nine yards.... I was totally into it. The problem was that my technique wasn't good. I couldn't get a tight shave, and I kept getting nicks and burn. Plus, I didn't have the time/patience to get good at it. I was in my residency, working 12 to 14 hour days and I just couldn't handle it.

So, I kept the badger brush and used kiss my face cream with a mach 3. I did that for the last 4 years.

Then at work, I started talking to a colleague who has some bad razor burn and said jokingly, that he should try the wet shave. Pretty soon, I was showing my coworkers mantic's videos, and everyone was getting fired up.

So, I busted out the ol' HD and tried it out again. Interestingly, my technique did improve just using the mach 3. I stopped pressing down into my skin, and just used the weight of the razor. I got a pretty good shave with just a couple nicks.

I came back to the forums and I noticed someone mentioned the Edwin Jagger razor as being a good intro safety razor. He preferred it to the HD. So, I bought it off amazon for $28.

Not to sound sacrilegious, but I think I found Jesus. The last couple of days I've had great shaves with no burn just using my old pure badger brush and the kiss my face cream. I just put an order in for some soap and a new badger brush. Can't wait to try them out!

Anyway, as George Costanza says, "I'm back in business, baby!"

gil3591 · Post by **gil3591** » Thu Feb 24, 2011 9:27 pm

alright!!

bernards66 · Post by **bernards66** » Thu Feb 24, 2011 11:23 pm

Glad to hear it and welcome aboard. You seem quite clear on why your first attempt did not work out and I'm sure you're right. Good DE technique DOES take most newbies a little while to develope and under the circumstances you then had it's understandable that time and patience were in short supply. Also, although the Merkur HD is still oft recommended to newcomers, my personal opinion has always been that it's a pretty aggressive razor and often not a really good choice to learn with. I've not used one of those newish E-J/M-P heads but the consensus seems to be that they are a bit milder and seems like they would be a better bet as a first DE. Glad that it worked out in the end and I hope that some of your new 'converts' at work stop by here as well.
Regards,
Gordon

marsos52 · Post by **marsos52** » Fri Feb 25, 2011 5:23 am

nice to hear this,,

live and learn as they say..

marc

SRD · Post by **SRD** » Fri Feb 25, 2011 5:32 am

Welcome back to the fold Bobby. Glad it's working out for you.

bobbyseal · Post by **bobbyseal** » Fri Feb 25, 2011 9:14 pm

Thanks everyone. It's nice to be back in the community. I got my Truefitt and Hill soap in yesterday. I seem to get a good lather the first time around. But pass 2, the lather seems to dissipate. I'm wondering if it's hard water.

JayTrek · Post by **JayTrek** » Fri Feb 25, 2011 9:57 pm

Bobby,

Welcome back.

Enjoy and continue to bring your friends along.

desertbadger · Post by **desertbadger** » Sat Feb 26, 2011 1:22 pm

You have seen the light!

Regards,
David

brothers · Post by **brothers** » Sat Feb 26, 2011 2:27 pm

bobbyseal wrote:Thanks everyone. It's nice to be back in the community. I got my Truefitt and Hill soap in yesterday. I seem to get a good lather the first time around. But pass 2, the lather seems to dissipate. I'm wondering if it's hard water.

Bobby, thanks for coming back to SMF. I may be misunderstanding you in one regard. Do you have the T&H cream or the hard "Luxury" soap, that's giving you a problem with dissipation?

I have hard water at my house also, it only affects soaps, and fortunately, not creams, specifically T&H. I use distilled water when shaving with a soap, and it makes a huge difference.

If it's a cream that's dissipating on you, I think you probably either used too much water or not enough cream, 90% more likely not using enough cream. No matter whether it's a cream or soap, you might want to try using more product next time and see if it makes a difference. Let us know how it works out.

bobbyseal · Post by **bobbyseal** » Sat Feb 26, 2011 3:17 pm

I bought the T&H luxury shave soap. I've always used the creams before. I am not sure why I decided to change. Just seemed like a neat thing to try. I'll probably switch back and forth. It's fun to try new things out.

Distilled water? How do you go about warming it up? Do you rinse the razor and your face with it as well? Or is it just for making lather with the soap?

brothers · Post by **brothers** » Sat Feb 26, 2011 3:33 pm

I warm the water in a scuttle in a microwave. I use tap water on my face and for rinsing and cleaning up. I only use the warm distilled water to soak the brush and make the lather.

The distilled water was a big breakthrough for me. I'd been under the impression that I didn't really like any of the popular soaps because I thought the lather they made was just mediocre. Trumper's soaps were really making me angry. Then I got a gallon at the grocery store and it made those soaps come alive.

jbc · Post by **jbc** » Thu Mar 17, 2011 8:07 am

Excellent tail, want a challenge to hone your skill further. Try a straight, I have two and use them off and onlet me tell you its 95% the same thing, need to learn to keep the razor in a V formation.