A forum request reminded me of my long-forgotten plan to make a single YouTube video, demonstrating my modern interpretations of the Gillette slide, Williams lathering -- probably not the cruder points of basin washing. It occurred to me that I could skip the lighting arrangements by going outdoors, taking advantage of the Memorial Day blooms for atmosphere.
And, this morning, that my skin texture has been somewhat degraded lately. I'm good enough for local display, but is this really what I would want immortalized on video, for all time? I'd be tempted to blame the SS-class blades that I'm still burning through -- a Cloud even struck blood on my moustache the other day. The last 5% of my performance grade might well be characterized as identical to the product selection challenges faced by a relatively insensitive, soft bearded shaver! Would my beard even be visible? Could I be mistaken for an enthusiastic youth?
Probably not. :) And I did think of a good visual demonstration for tension vectors. I'm finishing my shave with a Noxzema (cold cream) cleanse to deal with the self-consciousness. But ultimately, I think I will have to decide exactly how deep I want to shave on a daily basis.
Not Incommensurable
Classic shaving met neotraditional shaving on reddit, the past couple months, and I'd like to think it was mutually beneficial, unlike my time as a novice at badgerandblade.com. Now that I've gone to the trouble of mastering DE shaving, that is... which, ironically, was only possible through patent disregard of most of the information available on the internet. I found the current generation of struggling shavers quite receptive, and tried to narrow it down for them similarly.
The trolls were utterly the same, incapable of development; but I think it's fair to say they aren't fooling many people into thinking that cartridges shave as well as a straight or safety razor. "The truth can never be told so as to be understood, and not be believed."
The gem in the dialogue for me, this time around, was this interaction with /u/CAMEL_HUMPer. Doesn't there seem to be something fishy about the way he drew me out? I know a guy who lives on Camel's Hump -- a central Vermont landmark mountain, featured on our state quarter -- who once tried to help me with my shaving. Perhaps he is helping me still; for suddenly, I found myself translating the sliding stroke paradigm into "pressure and angle" terms. I wouldn't have thought it possible!
Sliding lowers the threshold of angle and pressure at which the cut is initiated. Less pressure toward the skin, lower angle: less skin damage.
Everything I write is gold, of course. My prose rose to apothegm quality when inspired by one of a few online acquaintances I found hanging out there, /u/FrugalShave:
The knowledge is culturally extinct. There is no Gungan city... just a lot of Jar Jars.
Waning Of The Weishi
Another reject from the bucket under my sink, Weishi 9306-H, received the broken-in Personna blade for a face-off with the Super Speed clone I selected for my doomed flea market efforts, Yingjili 8206-M. Actually, the comparison was an afterthought; I just wanted to know how my new technical prowess would reflect on the much too mild Weishi. So the Weishi got fancy IB soap, while the Yingjili got Williams, next day.
You don't want to be going for BBS with a Weishi. It left extra length on every reduction pass, and had to be pushed hard to reach the sweet spot right above the hair root, resulting in a cartridge-like burn (but a much closer shave, at least, for having the freedom to select the correct cutting angle). With better options coming from the same factory in China, and already taking its place in sets like the Dorco Prime, it is high time for the consistently criticized, overly-mild shaver to get out of Dodge.
The Yingjili, you may recall, was never intended for the western market. The name is Chinese (maybe some kind of pidgin, in the last two syllables) for "English." A marketing slogan, "Trust the English," referred to the razor design. The finish is a bit rough, with casting lines, but I think the fewer parts might actually make it more durable, especially for the price. And it has a truly old-school, brushed aluminum handle. It's developing world stuff, for sure, with a fair bit of wavy blade. But how does it shave, in the hands of an expert?
Pretty damn well, I'm proud to say. Where the Weishi excavated skin, the Yingjili gently brushed away, its considerable blade flex making the razor sing loudly. I had to scrub pretty hard for my BBS, but the alum prickled instead of searing, like after the Weishi shave. A splash of Dollar Tree "Fresh," and I was good to go, no dry shaving required.
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