Today's Shave: Number Ten on a Personna Super Blade

Today I went for a very close shave because I'm teaching an evening class and didn't want to have much of a shadow at that time.

I don't really wear a tie when I teach.

The shave began with my Personna Super (lab blue) blade with nine shaves already done. It went into my c.1948 Gillette Tech for the first pass with the grain of my beard. I used all oblique strokes in an anti-raking stroke pattern. The outcome was an acceptable standard shave: looked good but not rewarding to the hand, no wounds, no irritation.

Then I transferred the blade into my Weishi 9306-F imitation Super Speed razor, re-lathered, and took a second pass against the grain except, of course, for my upper lip, which I shaved cross grain. Again this was with oblique strokes and an anti-raking stroke pattern. The outcome was a close shave, with no wounds and no appreciable irritation.

The spirit moved me to go for the gold and take a third pass with the 9306, with oblique strokes in an anti-raking pattern. So I lathered for the final time. Though this pass was again entirely against the grain, many were coming from slightly different angles under my jaw line and on my chin to get the closest possible result.

The shave was close, but I did get a solitary weeper near my right cheek and some post-shave irritation which quieted down after less than an hour. (If I did a three-pass shave every morning, my face would soon become rather raw.) My after-shave skin treatment was a splash of witch hazel prior to cleaning up my razors and blade. After that I applied a splash of my tea-tree after-shave lotion, which has that very pleasant citrus bouquet. I capped the shave with a generous application of the Canadian-made three-in-one men's moisturizing lotion that I got at Dollar Tree (for a dollar, of course). The nice thing about this lotion is that it dries smooth, not sticky, and has no fragrance to overpower the delicate lingering reminder of the tea-tree lotion.

Happy shaving!