02-08 - The first cut…
- Brush: Yaqi 'Heavy Metal' 24mm silvertip badger
- Razor: Marianna #310
- Blade: Fromm Shaper (2)
- Lather: House of Mammoth - Hygge - Soap
- Post Shave: House of Mammoth - Hygge - Aftershave Balm
Day 2 of what is very quickly shaping up to be a horrible mistake. Yes, the regret for my overzealous and overconfident decision to Weck my face for a month straight has hit me like a two-mile long freight train in what some may well call record time.
We were off to a truly terrible start today as, when I tried to insert the blade into the razor, upon bracing it against a towel so as not to slice my hand open the small plastic tab thingy on the end (who's the straight razor historian here who can name that part of the instrument for me?) snapped off.
At first I was pissed and disappointed that I broke my toy only a day into this ordeal and after only like three shaves total with it ever, but that feeling quickly changed to despair as I began to realise how damn important that little nubbin actually is to holding the razor properly.
Oh, also, I trimmed my beard with a pair of scissors beforehand to prep it for its removal during today's shave - it just had to go as it was soaking up all the lather and was being a pain to maneuver around.
So off it went. However, I messed the $MammothMafia24 lather up again and ended up with something very thin and unsuitable for scraping a massive blade across my face. One more day like this and I'm gonna have to break the bowl out to lather in there again - I can't do 31 days of shit lather while also trying not to cut my own throat.
And cut myself I did. A nice little wedge out of my jaw just a little to the right of my chin. I think it was at least partly due to me having to employ a really weird hold on the razor due to a) my glasses being in the way and b) that missing plastic bit causing problems, and it all happened on the second pass when I thought I was well in the clear. Overconfidence is a slow and insidious killer, however, and I will now officially have to bring in a cut/blood counter. From then on, it all went downhill - I did a truly terrible number on my neck and from the second I put the razor down, the red splotches started to form all around. I had to break the alum out to stop the bleeding from the cut and soothe the razor burn, and I ended up wincing so hard from the stinging I made my gums bleed, too. Fuck it, we'll add that to the counter. The $headless challenge is getting its blood one way or another.
One thing I will say about this razor is that my cheeks and jawline (apart from the missing chunk) feel great - ultra smooth and clean. But my neck meat is screaming just below the jaw like a starving street urchin on the pavement outside of the ivory tower, so that definitely puts a damper on things.
After the shave, I tried to mend the broken plastic nub thingy with some bargain-bin super glue I found, and my misfortunes did not end there. As if to mock me, the second I pierced the tube with the detachable nozzle to allow the glue to come out it shot out of its holding cell like a volcano on Taco Bell, coating my hands in a nice helping of superglue. Fun. After dealing with that I tried to put the plastic back together, and after a while of fiddling around it did work - but it looks damn ugly and I'm half expecting it to break again tomorrow. All in all, this could have been a better day, but this is part of the journey, isn't it?
Blood counter: 2