Shaving

After reading a little blurb in a recent Playboy; yes, I do read the magazine as opposed to just looking at the pictures, they had a mention in there about straight razor shaving. After looking on the internet to find cost, how to's and whatever else may have been useful, I decided to go for it.

Which means I bought the necessary items to start using a straight razor to shave with. This includes a razor, a strop and a kit that included a mug, brush and shaving soap. I actually bought two razors, one stainless steel and the other carbon steel, just to see if which one would be better. I did read things online about stainless being hard to sharpen or strop and that the carbon steel if not tended to properly, can and will rust or tarnish.

Now after several shaves under my belt and after learning the proper way to strop; which including watching some rather lengthy and boring videos on the web, I am sort of getting the hang of it. Read into that as I haven't cut my throat yet. My only problem area is my neck, I cannot seem to be able to get a smooth shave there to save my life, always seems to be a little rough afterwards. Re-lathering and shaving only seems to exasperate the level of irritation to my skin, but I hope in time I will either find the proper way to do it or just live with it and leave it be.

Since starting this, I did make a couple of changes. I started using an aftershave lotion and face moisturizer so as to not have such an extreme level of irritation that I would normally feel. Also, I got some different shaving soap, the Burma Shave soap, just was too much like regular soap and not helping in the ways of shaving. The new soap I got I originally noticed online, but after a trip to my local Walgreens for aftershave, noticed everything in said Playboy that they recommended. Which really is a bonus, as I have never noticed these items in this Walgreens ever before and I have purchased a many shaving items from them over the years.

Oh, the new soap is made by Van Der Hagen and is a deluxe shave soap. This soap is much better than the Burma Shave soap, doesn't dry out my skin and actually softens the hair more than the other.

So far this is much better than using a safety razor, less irritation and no need to buy anymore cartridges or disposables. One thing to note, this is not for someone that needs to hurry to get ready for something, this is a process that needs to be taken a little slower so more time is obviously needed, especially when you are just starting out. The last thing you want to do is end up cutting yourself really bad or end up missing patches of hair because of a rush job which ends up making you look like some homeless person or mental patient.