Manscaping

I've decided to spare you the pictures (sorry, ladies).

It is the dull blade's final duty. I do my shoulders and the back of my neck whenever a blade goes dull. It doesn't even require lather. The hair is easily picked off dry, at a steep angle. I think it's because on the neck, the hair is relatively fine, and on the shoulders, relatively sparse compared to beard. Thus, the edge cannot pulled into the skin.

The art consists in defining a natural-looking contour around the deltoid muscle, then bringing the line of the trapezius downward, taking the limits of reach into account. Although my shoulder hair grows in an even mat right down my back, divided only by the spine, I  make it mirror the chest pattern instead. A little peninsula near the armpit brings natural and unnatural borders together, completing the illusion.

Thus my outstanding physical feature -- broad shoulders -- is emphasized, without denying my ape nature.

Today it was a Feather in my new Long Feng "Dragonfeng," DF-813. I had tried to save the Feather with some newspaper stropping, but it was rough going. Maybe I shouldn't have hedged my bet with the Schmidt R10, and gone with something more forceful. But I'm horribly sick with whatever the kids brought home, and that damn blade already got too much of my lip.

I like the Yuma clone so far, though it is horribly crude. I had to compress the handle in a 4" C-clamp to put the cap on its hollow end in place. The edge of the top cap might need some filing. Can't wait to see what it can do on my beard.