... with the GEM Micromatic Clog Pruf single-edge razor
The Pre-shave: Proraso (red)
The Brush: The Guv'nor Bure Badger
The Shaving Cream: Extro Bay Rum
The Razor: GEM Micromatic Clog Pruf SE
The Blade: GEM by Personna
The Post-Shave: The Bluebeards Revenge
The Shave:
I received the GEM Micromatic Clog Pruf SE razor last week and despite my current rule about not trying out any new shaving hardware until the new bathroom is finished* I found myself on Friday evening standing in my makeshift shave den, in front of a sink that you honestly really couldn't drown a mouse in, with my new razor** in hand, ready to go.
I'd been given advice on one of the many Facebook shaving pages and had watched enough shaving videos relating to GEM and Ever Ready SE razors*** to know that the angle and technique when using this type of razor is different to DE razors. The idea is that you hold the head of the razor flat to the face so that the handle's pointing out, then slightly tilt the handle down until you find the biting point for the blade and away you go. I thought I was doing this. Clearly, I wasn't. I think muscle memory from all those DE razor shaves had kicked in. That's not all that kicked in – so did discomfort and bleeding. So much so that I abandoned the shave after one pass and applied alum in an effort to stop the streams of blood trickling down my face. I hadn't had a shave quite as bad as that since I'd started wet shaving and had sliced my face up with a shavette. It would have been easy to blame the razor itself, but reading through some forums and checking on YouTube proved that I wasn't the only one to have made the angle mistake and so accepting that the bad shave was down to user error I decided to shave with it again the next day**** and do it properly. Which brings me to Dave's Shave Of The Day # 17.
This time round I slowed right down, and checked my angle before each stroke of the razor. It took a while but I completed a three-pass shave without any more facial wounds and am now, as I write this, looking forward very much indeed to shaving with the Micromatic once again. It's a wonderful razor and will take a bit of practise to get it exactly right, but there again that's one of the appealing things about wet shaving, really, isn't it? Trying something new, slicing your face up but then going back and doing it again until you get it right*****. Fabulous.
* It still isn't finished. But let's not dwell on that. Frustration and screaming anger are such negative emotions, aren't they?
** Of course, it's not actually new as it dates, I believe, from some time in the 1940s. But it's new for me.
*** I have an Ever Ready 1912 on its way to me as I write this. Ebay is a wonderful source of vintage razors. I got the GEM for a great price from a seller in the States. Unfortunately the postage and customs charges were quite hefty but it was worth it. The Ever Ready is coming to me from inside the UK and, including postage, I'm getting a vintage razor for an hilariously reasonable £13.
**** Rather like falling off a bike then immediately getting back on and riding it again so as not to lose confidence. Not an entirely obscure comparison as my face, after that initial shave, did rather look like it had been in a bike accident.
***** Actually, I've tended to find that on the occasions where I've tried a new razor and had a less-than-brilliant shave with it, initially, the second shave has been completely the oppposite in terms of facial wounding and/or smoothness. This has only not been the case with one razor, which I won't nme because of good manners. No matter how much I try it I simply can't get a good shave out of it.