I did a six month report back in December, and thought I would follow up. I've switched from the Merkur Progress to a 37C slant as my regular razor, and I've had a minor bout of brush acquisition disorder. More English soap (TOBS Jermyn Street and D.R. Harris Arlington) has crept into my den, though Valobra and Speick are still my favorites with MWF, Proraso white, and Cella filling out the rotation. I find I have better results sticking with a soap for a week or so at a time, particularly since I enjoy rotating through the new brushes.
The quality and consistency of my shaves have continues to improve. I'm using the four pass shave pattern described here. I've gained confidence that just executing the pattern properly will lead to a good result. With the pattern fixed the three most important things are angle, angle, angle. There is continued learning, but it is more like fine muscle memory. I reminds me of practicing scales and exercises on a musical instrument.
Early on I noticed that there was always a weak link. As I started to figure out my blade angle I realized that my lather was a problem, and as I figured out more about lathering it seemed that my prep needed work, and then there was figuring out more about the details of my beard growth pattern and so on. Now I see it is a continuing cycle of finding smaller weaknesses. For instance, lately I've noticed differences in the consistency of my lather in the later passes.
My biggest lessons learned in the past several months are:
The quality and consistency of my shaves have continues to improve. I'm using the four pass shave pattern described here. I've gained confidence that just executing the pattern properly will lead to a good result. With the pattern fixed the three most important things are angle, angle, angle. There is continued learning, but it is more like fine muscle memory. I reminds me of practicing scales and exercises on a musical instrument.
Early on I noticed that there was always a weak link. As I started to figure out my blade angle I realized that my lather was a problem, and as I figured out more about lathering it seemed that my prep needed work, and then there was figuring out more about the details of my beard growth pattern and so on. Now I see it is a continuing cycle of finding smaller weaknesses. For instance, lately I've noticed differences in the consistency of my lather in the later passes.
My biggest lessons learned in the past several months are:
- With a light touch four passes are no problem
- I can go back to the puck or the stick whenever I want during a shave to improve my lather
- A slant is not the vicious aggressive face slashin instrument that I feared. Particularly with the 37C my shaves are more comfortable and less prone to angle error than with any other razor I have used.
- When have trouble deciding on your favorite brush, you have a good rotation.
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