Preamble - Forgive the first post, I intend to keep these short, but the first included a bit of back story and catching up.
At 28 years old... it would seem odd not to be shaving with the latest 5 blade, twin cab, double holly, super sonic Blade contraption. This is now known as the latest Gillette fusion pro glide 3-in-1 battery operated thing-a-ma-job...
I threw in the towel on that!
So let me bring you up to speed... with a short tale.
About a year ago I got involved in a web site called "the art of manliness" which I have found to be a nice change of pace to what is normally found on the internet. Amongst other fascinating and life altering things found therein, I stumbled onto blog post regarding wet shaving. That is, shaving with old fashion double edge razor.
Fascinated at first that this practice was still being observed, I became even more intrigued when I learned how many people not only shaved this way, but praised it for its superiority over cartridge shaving. With many reasons being cited, the one that caught my eye was the increased level of control it gave the shaver, thus leading to less irritation while achieving closer shaves.
My face could not handle an against the grain shave with the cartridges, at least not when attempted in the matter in which those commercials lead me to believe. Razor burn was a way of life so I opted for change.
FAST FORWARD 1 YEAR
The passing fancy was gone, still shaving with my fusion, a friend called me and we got on the subject of shaving. "dude I bought a double edge razor" he tell me. We go back and fourth and he wont shut up about how much he enjoys shaving now.
So I was in again. I searched ebay for a week looking for my white whale... I wanted a Gillette Fat Boy. An adjustable razor produced in the early 60's and is a fan favorite by most DE shavers. They weren't cheap ($60 to $100 for one you were willing to place on your face) so I had to wait as I did not have this kind of money.
Then I found it, $32 bucks later for the razor, $5 for some blades at the drug store and I was off to the races.
My first DE shave was a bumbling mess indeed! With my FatBoy clicked into setting 1, and my face plastered with Nivea Shave Gel, I was ready to get the BEST SHAVE OF MY LIFE!!!!
Of course, things went a little different. Setting 1 wasn't what I had hoped so I cranked it up... setting 2 (Big Step... I know). Still nothing, I went on like this until I landed at setting 6. Now THIS felt like a shave. I could feel that blade coursing on top of my skin and I was thinking, "Boy this feels close, this is going to be a GREAT shave."
Not so fast young Skywalker!
My face was a wreck, the shave sucked, my neck was covered in the plague for days... it must have been the Gel! So I bought a brush and shave soap...
I have been continuing on this path for weeks... typically finding myself with stubble and razor burn. Occasionally I have been able to eliminate at least one from the equation, but I cannot seem to locate that magic place where I get my face as smooth as glass without the burn.
So lets take a journey together. Follow along with me as I chart my progress in learning how to shave like Grandpa did it.
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