... with the Dovo Best Quality 5/8ths full-hollow
Pre-shave: Proraso white
The Cream: Executive Shaving Bay Rum
The Brush: The Guv'nor pure badger
The Blade: Dovo Best Quality 5/8ths Full Hollow
Post shave balm: Nivea for sensitive skin
The Shave:
I'm not an expert with a straight razor by any means. But I can handle one perfectly well - enough, certainly, to give myself a reasonably decent shave. But there lies the problem. It's a 'reasonably decent' shave but it's still not the kind of close, SAG shave that I always hoped I would get from a straight razor.*
The sides of my face are fine after three passes, but it's not the cheeks that are the problem. It's the jawline. I tend to find myself constantly rubbing my hand along the jawline somewhat ruefully afterwards and feeling that irritating sandpaper-type feeling that I simply don't get after using, say, a DE razor or a vintage SE. And I don't know why**.
However, having said all that, there's still something about a shave with a straight razor that you simply don't get from using a DE or an SE. It's hard to identify exactly what it is. Is it the danger element, the very real possibility of cutting your own head off if you're not careful? Is it the fact that a straight-razor shave is not the easy option, that there's a skill to be learned over time?
Or is it that a straight razor just looks so damned cool?
* Having said that, it's still miles better than the sorts of shaves I used to experience when I'd submit myself to a cheap, plastic disposable or a twenty-blade catrtridge razor - sometimes (and I hang my head in shame as I admit this) not even bothering to use even the cheap cans of shaving foam or gel I was in the habit of using. Sometimes I ... I used ... normal soap.
** Lack of skill may well be the answer here, of course. I'm perfectly willing to take that criticism.
*** Lawks a mercy! The advice out there for when and how often you should strop your straight razor varies so much. Most people seem to agree that you should strop before you shave - fine. But the advice on the number of strokes is ridiculous. Some say 40 - 50. Others say 25 - 30. Then I read somewhere that you can get away with doing 10 strokes on the canvas side of the strop immediately after a shave and then 10 on the leather side immediately before you shave. But as I was writing this I looked up stropping on a forum and the advice is different all over again and suggested stropping between passes.
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