Okay so since I've started this law enforcement gig I've had
to be clean shaven and shave pretty much every day, since I never know when
someone going to call that requires me to run out the door with my vest and uniform
in tow. I don’t know about you guys but I’m one of those unfortunate blokes who
has an extremely fast growing and tough beard, and sensitive skin. That being said I will bleed for
hours if I use the ol’cheapo Bic razors 20 to a bag for 5 bucks (man I wish I
could use these). I've used the Mach whatever number and they are usually a
little better but still give me pretty bad razor burn, and it’s usually not a
very good shave.
Well about a month ago someone mentioned
the old fashioned double bladed safety razors. I started doing a little
research, and figured why the hell not? Well I went ahead and found one
that was a reasonable price Merkur Model 180 Long Handle,
after ordering that I did some more poking around about how to actually shave
with it, that lead to finding razors. Let me tell you apparently you have to
find the brand of razor that works for your face, so I found the largest verity
pack amazon sold at a reasonable price. Oh and you can’t forget your shaving
soap, from what I read this matters too, everybody said to avoid the ol' aerosol
can of doom. So about 100 bucks later I've got a shaving set.
Last night
I received all my goodies, so while dinner was simmering in the pan I broke out
the shaving soap and began experimenting. I took me about 20 minutes but I had
the lather pretty much figure out. Make brush damp, load brush with soap, wet
brush, swirl in palm until its rich and creamy, and apply to face with brush.
Fairly simple, smells great feels even better. Menthol is defiantly nice feeling, and smells
good. While I’m eating I figure out how to load the sample blade into the
razor, examine the cutting edge and where it lays, and how I should be holding
the razor to my face. After all why not try the blade that comes with the razor
first?
So,
this morning I pop out of bed on time if not a bit early jump in the shower
scrub myself clean, dry off, and stand in front of the mirror while working up
my lather….my shaving soap lather…perv. So here I am standing in front of the
mirror with this perfect rich lather on my face hot water running and my razor
in my hand. Hardest thing I've done in a while is put this thing against my
face and start dragging. I have to say though once I got the hang of small
short strokes without putting pressure on the razor against my face things
seemed to be great, until I got to my chin. Wow it is really hard to shave your
chin; this is definitely going to take some work. I managed to get out of the
chin problem area without bleeding but once I got to my neck the most sensitive
place I shave things got a little hairy (forgive the pun). Of course by the
time I get here I’m feeling pretty good and I seem to decide to take my long
strokes again, and of course the razor fills with hair and starts pulling. This
causes little nicks that bleed a bit but no worse than I was getting with my
old razor.
Surprisingly
enough it only took me about 5 more minutes to shave, it’s much smoother and
more comfortable than my previous shaves. I think a lot of this has to do with
the shaving soap. I also think once I get the technique down my neck will stop
bleeding, and I’ll pretty much be going just as fast as I was before. And in
the long run it’ll be cheaper too, most expensive blades I've seen so far is
like 30 bucks for a hundred verses the 30 bucks I was spending on 8 refills. So
all in all I feel it was worth the 100 bucks to try it out. Who knows maybe one day I’ll get around to
trying a straight razor. Until next time…
