Subtle Elements of a Good Shave

Piggy backing on my previous article, I will share that this morning I had a very good shave: close and comfortable, despite the following things:

• No shave brush
• Eighth shave with the blade
• No warm water used
• Fairly minimalist pre-shave prep

What I did do that made for a good foundation for the shave, were the following things:

• Rapira Platinum Lux blade, which seems to be fairly compatible with my face -- especially after a handful of initial shaves and daily post-shave oiled-palm stropping
• Vintage c.1948 Gillette Tech razor -- often a good option, in my opinion
• Pre-shave cool-water face wash with sensitive-skin bath gel

Little things that made a difference, I think, include the following:

• I used an ever-so-slightly smaller blade angle with the razor. Let me explain: every razor has a range of effective cutting angles, within which the blade can have a larger angle in relation to the skin surface, or smaller angle. Within that range for the Tech, I used it at the smaller end of that blade-angle range, making less of a scraping cut and more of a slicing cut. This effect is enhanced when one uses oblique strokes.
• Even though I did not use a shaving brush to make lather and simply face lathered with my hands, the soap (my own proprietary formulation) was effective. This despite the flat, non-fluffy lather of a hand-lathered soap. Though a deep, fluffy lather does not provide the mythical cushion, its real benefit is that a deep, fluffy lather does help to slow the drying of the soap layer at the skin surface. So when a flat, non-fluffy lather is on the beard, its all-important moisture content will decline fairly quickly. To counter act this, one simply re-applies moisture with the free hand as one progresses through the shave addressing those areas that have been lathered for a longer time.
• Rather than robotically making a given number of passes, instead I lathered only once and shaved my beard in regions, using the minimum number of strokes and directions needed in each region to get a close, safe shave. I have mentioned this technique a lot in the past month or so and you can read (click here) about this regional uni-shave.
• I should also mention (as I have many times before) that I now routinely use an anti-raking stroke pattern, which you can read about (click here).

Really, my shave today was remarkable: nearly baby smooth, next to no irritation, no wounds -- incredibly rewarding to the hand, especially after applying both a balm and moisturizer that have no residual stickiness or greasiness. Hope your shave was as good as mine.

Happy shaving!