Controlled Traction

The NEW LC, with a broken-in Baili blade, wasn't having any of my skin-avoidance strategy. I quickly found the blade digging in, and below the jawline, I just gave up and drove it home. The alum burned on my neck, and it was a little blotchy, but I couldn't really complain -- it made for an unusually even BBS.

I certainly wasn't going to let up for Mother's Day: today, of all days, Mom has to be reminded of that fat baby-face from 1969! With a hot shower and some oil, I braced for impact with hair softening serum and Williams, and brought that blotchiness up around the corner. (And skipped the alum.)

Even with the high-tension, low-angle attack that this razor favors, ideas continued to consolidate. You'll notice I haven't yet promoted "progressive reduction" to the Canon of Dogma, and I don't think I'm going to. Even an electric takes off a little bit of the hair at a time. We're all just struggling to say something else, I think.

What that thing is, is "controlled traction." By varying the attack just enough to re-engage hair, you can keep below the threshold where the stratum corneum gets amputated. For some lucky bastards, that corresponds to square strokes WTG, XTG, and ATG. Some other lucky bastards don't even have to control the pitch of the razor.

And if I want to keep going, after I've reduced the hair to skin level, I still can. I really felt like I had to plump the skin up with cocoa butter (my first thought was moisturizer, I'll admit), and it still looks alot shadier than it feels. I whacked one of the old weepers under my nose. Mom probably won't be impressed, anyway, but I have done my duty.