Peripheral Hydration

For perfect shave trial #8, I tried to put baking soda where it couldn't do any harm. I began with a quick oil cleanse, to lay down the first barrier. I then face lathered Stirling, but swept as much of it as I could back into the brush with circular strokes. I sprinkled a damp cloth with baking soda, folded it up carefully, and filled the cloth with water, lightly half-squeezing it out to dissolve the powder. I soaked with that for a minute, then rinsed, and reapplied lather to shave. As my Personna blade is noticably worn, I gave the Weishi 9306-H a shot.

The hair was indeed hydrated well, as evidenced by a good range of effective cutting angles. Where most people would shave XTG, I shaved ATG at a low angle, and only went steep on the final pass ATG, which used the fine "crema" of Stirling that I squeezed from the brush. The cheeks were completely devoid of hair afterward, with the midline nearly so, but the neck just acceptably smooth. Again I had to rely on strict discipline to stop repeating strokes, as the full smoothness did not come until after the dry down.

I think this will be my final update of the neotraditional approach. As for the wet rice paper effect, it was still slightly visible, but not nearly as extensive, mainly appearing as white spots, which I guess are pores. Alcohol aftershave made the classic finish, and having written this, I'll go back and apply some sort of moisturizer.