Shave of the Day x 2

Today's Shave

Just moments prior to writing this, I took a fresh Shark half-DE blade, corked it with two strokes in a real cork, and took a 1-1/2 pass shave with my barber-straight razor, my Parker PTB. The PTB is Parker's push-type design, which is used by many barbers. The push-type design can be a bit tricky to load the half-DE blade until you get proficient from practice, and I suppose that discourages many hobbyists, who may not be patient enough with the instrument to become comfortable with it. However, I love my push-type razor. Parker makes this design with both black or white scales. Other manufacturers also make push-type barber straights.

If you may lack the patience to load push-type barber straights, there is always the fan-loading design, which Parker and many other manufacturers offer. I've included some Amazon links below for the Parker razors, but you can use those to navigate to Amazon and then search for any product that you like including other barber straights.

  

I, personally, like the lightness and resulting excellent feedback of the push-type designs: the PTB (black scales) and the PTW (white scales). Preferences vary, of course, and some may like the heft of the heavy, all-stainless, fan/clasp design of the Parker SRX. Lighter clasp-type designs from Parker are the SR1 and SRB, which have plastic scales.

   

Deviating from my normal routine, today I started with my left hand shaving the left side of my beard -- as opposed to my normal habit of starting with right hand doing right side. I started on the left today just to ensure extra caution with my left hand; normally when I start with my right hand I can sometimes get excessively confident and then make some stupid error.

I used all downward strokes today, and the half pass was primarly on my under-jaw, upper neck, and chin areas.

Baby-smooth outcome? Ha ha, hardly. But a comfortable shave good enough for the day ahead, and rewarding in the technical accomplishment of another straight-razor shave without incident. I capped the shave with just a splash of common witch hazel that had peppermint and menthol added. I may add a splash of after shave for some pleasant man scent.

Yesterday's Shave -- Beware Hungry Shaving

Yesterday I used my vintage straight razor and had a similar shave to today's. I did make a couple of minor errors creating very subtle linear cuts, which disappeared with application of styptic and remained invisible throughout the day and after.

(For those of you who are interested in a premium, American-made, traditional straight razor, I've put a link, above, to one of several offerings from Parker. Their traditional straights all have the same high-quality blade but vary in the type of scales. And by the way, the seller offering Parker products on Amazon has an excellent reputation for customer service and customer satisfaction. I know this because I've dealt with them several times, and they've always been extremely responsive to my questions and issues.)

I did have an excuse however, for my mediocre shaving technique. I was extremely hungry during yesterday's shave -- so much so, in fact, that the hunger hormones circulating through my system created a bit of a tremor in my hand. This is not the ideal circumstance when shaving from the high wire without a net.

Because of that situation, I ended my shave after only one pass. I was relieved to get through without serious incident. There is a lesson in this, which is don't shave when extremely hungry.

Back from Europe

I didn't announce it, but I've been MIA from this blog for a couple of weeks due to my visit to several northern-European capitals: Helsinki, Stockholm, and Copenhagen.

Because this included plane travel between all the cities, and I only fly with carry-on luggage, so therefore I could not bring any removable blades or vintage straights, so I used disposables with either one or two blades in the razor head. (I find that more than two blades in a disposable razor is overkill.)

Also consistent with my light-packing travel philosophy, I only brought a small piece of shave soap, which I face lathered with my wet hands; I did not bring a shave brush.

Despite my Spartan shave kit, I was not the ugly American because I was never scruffy and unshaven.

Happy shaving!