Phase 1: Lather
Get your stull together! Your brush, cream, oil and a nice bowl.
STEP 2
Run that brush under some hot water! Soak up all
those bristles. Don't be an idiot and pour boiling water on it either. Get it all nice and hot. Tap it off a little bit. Keep it moist but not dripping wet.
STEP 3
You're going to want to put about a nickle sized amount on the brush now. Keep the tube clean and wipe it on the brush. This saves product and keeps the tube cap neat and tidey!
STEP 4
Start swirling the brush around in the bowl. Above, this is after about 3 solid swirls.
Start mixing....
Get all those bristles saturated and covered with your lather.
STEP 5
Your product should look like this. Nice and smooth and fluffy. It's not too watery and not to thick.
STEP 6
Put that brush in the bowl and get ready for the next phase.
Some people like to keep their lather as hot as possible. I set it on a hot washcloth throughout the next few steps.
Phase 2: Shave
Well now that we covered how to make an awesome lather; lets get the ball rolling! Our bowl of lather is sitting in a sink of a few inches of hot water wrapped up in a hot wash cloth. We want to keep the lather nice and hot. Get an extra large wash cloth and heat it up with some hot water. Wring it out a bit and wrap it around the parts of your face you expect to shave.
This does a few things.
Hydrates the skin
Softens the hairs
Remove the washcloth and apply a few drops of you favorite preshave oil. Work it into the skin and assure a solid coverage. This stuff is awesome. It lubricates the skin and softens up the hair a bit too.
Begin to apply the lather with the brush. Work it into the skin and really pant it on. You want to assure all the hairs get covered.
Now that your face is hot, covered in oil and lather its time for the razor! We are going to conduct 3 shaves. With the grain, accross the grain and against the grain. These are to only be done in this order! THIS ORDER ONLY!
Grip the razor, place it again your skin. Don't pull the skin with the other hand, that is a misconception about shaving. Try it if you want to know why you dont do it.
Bring the razor down SLOWLY without applying ANY pressure. Listen for the "pops"
Conduct another stroke downward on an unshaved piece of skin.
The razor will glide smoothly. Adjust the angle until you get a solid "pop." This is the hair cutting. DO NOT APPLY PRESSURE AND DO NOT SHAVE OVER UNLATHERED SKIN
One stroke means one stoke. Because after the stroke THERE IS NO LATHER LEFT.
Working around the top of the mouth can be tricky. GO SLOW. WITHOUT APPLYING PRESSURE.
Rinse the blade between strokes. One stroke, rinse. You've got two blades. Alternate.
The chin is a bit tricky. Feel for the pop of the hair.
The neck is usually the easiest. Just feel for the "pop" DO NOT APPLY PRESSURE.
Next. We completed 1 with the grain shave. You could stop here and not look like a street urchin. But you'll still get a 5:00 shadow.
Across the grain time! You should be lathered up and ready to roll. Start anywhere. I start on the check. Place the razor against the skin.
One slow stroke WITHOUT APPLYING PRESSURE.
Keep working along.
One side of the face complete.
Here's where it gets tricky. Against the grain time!. You should be lathered up and realy to roll. Place the razor on the skin.
Slowly run the razor up the skin. Don't apply pressure. One stroke per area. Listen for the pop. Adjust the blade angle as necessary to attain the perfect "pop."
Working the cheek.
One stroke, one area. Complete the entire face.
Why don't I apply pressure like I do with my normal piece of shit razor?
The blades you are shaving with are sharp. I'm not talking sharp like your grandpas hunting knife, or that knife in your kitchen drawer. These blades are sharper than ANYTHING you can buy commercially. In fact, many places that produce them have two production lines. One lines goes to the surgical world, the other for shaving. These things are so sharp I can't give justice to them in words, you'll just have to see.
So why do I only do one pass per area?
Becasue you don't have any lather on the area after one pass. It'd be like shaving without any lather numb nuts!
Do I need to conduct an against the grain shave?
Nope! In fact just a with the grain and across the grain shave is MORE than enough for most people. If you're like me and don't feel like shaving every day, against the grain buys you this time.
What about all those fancy after shaves?
Repeat after me. After shaves are SHIT. They are SHIT. They are also a MAJOR contributer to shaving bumps and acne. Imagine if you would for a second a wet sponge. Now throw a handful of sand on it. The sand sticks. Now take a sry sponge. Throw a handful of sand on it. Doesn't stick right? Well If you keep your face wet all day with some lotion type shit, all kinds of things are going to stick to it. Dirt, bacteria and spores of all kinds. These are the things that lead to infections redness and bumps.
If you must use aftershave, put that shit on at night before you go to bed.
Are there any post shave concoctions I can use?
Get a good post shave tonic. Save that expensive aftershave shit for the metrosexuals and pansy men.
