Special Rainbow

One of my 7 yr-olds asked if she could "shave" this morning. The kids each have their own nylon brush and a discarded razor from my many dissatisfying purchases, in this case a Nanjie TTO. I was going to argue that women only shave their legs, but that sort of BS doesn't hold up with Milly. She selected KMF-VDH lavender scented croap, made it thin in the bowl I let her borrow, and put it all over her face. I came back and whipped it up for her. More than an hour later, I borrowed her brush to use the same lather myself. (How's that for long-lasting?)

Before shaving, though, after dropping the kids at school, I looked over the "Angles and Perspective" page to begin figuring how to shoehorn in what I've learned about using blade flex, and found it also dated in terms of extended blade use. The Rimei entered its fourth and probably final week today, and is starting to skip if I'm not careful. But I was able to take some advice from my own disquisition and gain a surprising new perspective from today's shave: one where I'm not so special, after all.

Loosening the Super Speed mechanism a bit, as usual, I let the razor find its own pitch by using a twiddly grip, which is not my habit. This follows logically from the angle convergence I've noted as blades wear. Since the edge is more obtuse, trying to use the bottom or top side in an extreme pitch technique, utilizing only half of the edge, simply reverts to a moderate angle, where only one half of the edge is effective on the hair. With respect to the skin, shaving at a moderate angle is when the standard "no pressure" advice kinda makes sense, because the edge is at its most burn-threatening opposition.

It was suddenly clear to me why a dull blade is the most dangerous, in inexperienced hands: the effective pitch changes. Ironically, though, I found myself using a technique which I myself learned to loathe through early, bad experience with sharp blades and anchor-style razors.

It highlights a difference between "sensitive" and normal shavers. I think most of us who have escaped from cartridges know that the label is basically false. Our skin is more susceptible, not just overreacting to the same damage normal shavers sustain. You can't fix it with a special balm.

I'm going back to a firm grip tomorrow, because my skin is still a bit warmer than usual having done this. On the other hand, it is reassuring to have found some tiny sliver of common ground. It's just unfortunate that for me, it requires post-graduate level work to understand what a satisfied cartridge user is able to acquire in DE shaving kindergarten.