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Sunday, April 24, 2016

Sunday Against-Grain Update

I shaved this morning with first-pass against-grain strokes except on my upper lip, which were cross grain. I used a fifth-shave Personna red-label blade in my trusty Merkur 33C.

In some areas I did a second-pass equivalent of combination against-grain and cross-grain strokes. On average I'd characterize the shave as the equivalent of a two-pass shave -- even though I was using a regional-shave approach.

The result was mixed. It was a fairly-close shave, but not as close as yesterday; but to compare apples to apples, today's shave used fewer razor strokes. In terms of skin insult, the weeper count was up to about 6, although I would partly chalk that up to lingering insult from yesterday. Also I was a bit heavy handed due to my focus on trying to get a good one-pass shave, and as a result, though I stroked slowly, I found myself pressing just a bit, which is always not the best of ideas.

I'm going to return to this against-grain approach on another day, when my skin has fully recovered. At that time I'll really focus on a lighter touch.

Happy shaving!



2 comments:

  1. I've noticed when shaving on oil that ATG can help a moderately pitched edge avoid the skin, especially below the jaw. It kind of rides on stubble instead. I think you picked the right DE razor for such a maneuver.

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  2. I haven't had a weeper in over three weeks. Two things that I have done differently is change the shaving cream and soap that I use and increasing the thickness of the lather. I changed from my mixture of VDH and Cremo Cream to Nivea cream for sensitive skin, Arko Moist Cream and tha Arko stick. never have been a fan of the smell but they face lather thickly and this seems to provide a better cushion against the blade. I also use the Merkur 33C along with the Personna Red, Gillette Silver Blue, Rapira Platinum Lux and Voskhad all with very good results. I know that you use your own soap mix, but I was curious if thickening the lather would produce a more gentle shave that would buffer against the blade.

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