Slower Shaving Strokes

This morning I noticed for the first time that I tend to make relatively quick shaving strokes. This is consistent, I guess, with my personality. I'm not the most patient person in the world (I'm working on it), and even in competitive games such as tennis, I tend to push to end points quickly -- often more quickly than I should. (I tend to win more matches when I focus on playing patiently.)

Not surprising then, when in a moment of mindfulness (like a good Zen master), I noticed that my strokes with razor against face could be moderated a bit.

So I took today's shave using strokes that were not slow, but were of a more deliberate pace; certainly they were not my usual quickness.

I found that the moderate-speed strokes just might allow the razor to work more efficiently, getting a bit more whisker in each swipe. Not surprisingly, I also created fewer wounds. My level of post-shave irritation was relatively low, but not significantly different that what I would get with quicker strokes.

Today's shave was a brief return to my Merkur 33 razor from a more-than-week-long use of the mild-shaving Dorco Prime razor and its cousin, the Weishi 9306-F. Tomorrow I'll return to the TTO razors, and will continue to apply more patience with my individual strokes of the razor. I will report my results in my weekly shave summary on Saturday.

Happy shaving!