My second DE shave

For my second shave, I used my 1954 Gillette Super Speed with a Derby blade. As I stated in my last post, my first shave's lather wasn't even close to being good enough and I figured it may have been the soap, being that it was brand new and was very hard (therefore not being able to sufficiently "charge" the brush). I then found in the book that some people found soaking the soap in hot water while showering helped. So I tried this today.

WOW! What a difference! As soon as I drained the soap bowl I could see how much softer the soap was and that it came away on my finger easily. This made very quick work of building a voluminous lather with the same brush I used yesterday. I now realize (including re-reading the book on lathering) that it is a good thing to have the lather develop into the brush (I had thought maybe this was a problem yesterday). The difference today from yesterday was that having the lather develop into the brush didn't hinder lather being readily available at the head.

So, good lather in brush ready, I lathered my beard and started with the razor. The Super Speed (SS) felt good in the hand and possibly easier to maneuver than the Vision. I would equate this to being more the fault of my technique on blade angle and such still not being refined enough for the Vision. The Vision, being so massive comparably, seems just a tad intimidating. The head of the SS was also quite a bit smaller (lower profile) which probably made it easier to work on the upper lip, but the Vision did a fine job on my upper lip too... just different technique.

Today was a lesson in patience... being that I didn't have enough. The patience of which I speak is patience for achieving a BBS shave without razor burn and nicking the heck out of oneself... but it could also have something to do with the Derby blade in the SS. Only time and experimentation will tell. Without someone experienced there to see my technique, I have no idea if it's my technique or the blade (or even the lather for that matter, but the lather seemed pretty solid... trying shaving cream for lather will help me figure this out too). Back to patience though, my reason for saying this is because, instead of making full passes and sticking to just one way (i.e., With the grain (WTG) only in all areas of the face to start, then across the grain (XTG) only in all areas, possibly another XTG from the opposite direction, and then stopping for now instead of going against the grain (ATG) and being okay with some stubble left in the end) I found myself trying to get every last stubble. The result was a LOT of nicks and a bloody neck. ;-)

Again, some of this may have to do with the Derby blade in the SS, the fact that I still had some shaving bumps on my neck from previous shaves that never went away, and even some (much less now) ingrowns, or possibly my prep still isn't enough or the lather isn't quite right. Only time will tell, but even with all of this being a somewhat negative result, compared to the perfect shave, it was still WAY better than what I could have hoped to achieve using cartridges and trying to shave on back to back mornings. Plus, I do have to give some of the end result to my post shave prep, using a styptic pencil and a toner spray before aftershave balm.

All in all, not bad.

Equipment list:

• 1954 Gillette Super Speed
• Derby blade
• Aloe Vera Edwin Jagger shaving soap (soaked in hot water while showered)
• Edwin Jagger Super Badger brush
• Styptic pencil (for the nicks)
• Toner spray
  
• Art of Shaving Aftershave Balm

In future Shave of the Day posts I may get more detailed in my passing methods, but today was too sporadic to try and list them. ;-)