Update: I made a video showing me shaving my head with a shavette. Unfortunately my camera turned off in the middle, so it’s in two pieces. Enjoy! 🙂
I wrote the information below, before I created the videos. There is still some valuable information down there, so don’t forget to read through it!
Tonight, I decided to shave my head with a shavette. Lately, I have been using my Dovo shavette, since I have been to send my straight razor out to be honed. I will be using The Art of Shaving, shaving cream, along with a badger hair brush too apply it. I bought the shaving cream and badger hair brush along with a preshave oil and moisturizer in a set. I typically don’t use the preshave oil when I’m shaving. It does reduce friction and make it easier to shave, but I don’t like to get my hands all oily.
Here’s a picture of me. I know, I know. I should be smiling. Unfortunately, I don’t have one of those ready made smiles. Don’t worry though, I’m pretty happy. That is just my “game face”.
The first thing I do when I am shaving my head is I wet my hair in the sink. I took a picture, but you can’t really see that my hair is wet since my hair is pretty short. Since I use a badger hair brush I wet the brush before I wet my hair, to allow the hairs to absorb the water.
I’ve read on different forums where people will let their brush sit in water for 10 minutes prior to shaving. I don’t do that because I am too impatient to wait ten minutes. I haven’t really noticed a difference allowing the brush to sit in water for ten minutes.
After I wet my hair I use the badger hair brush to apply the shaving cream. This time I used some shaving cream I got from The Art of Shaving. I just swirl the brush around in the shaving cream. I will usually add a tiny bit of water to the shaving cream container to make it easier to get the cream on the brush. After I cream on the brush I apply it to my head.
Here’s a picture of the back of my head lathered up. Typically, the back of the head is harder to lather because you can’t see it. I have a small mirror I bought at wal-mart that I use to look at the back of my head to make sure I covered everything. I also use when shaving to make sure I have shaved all areas on the back of my head.
The next picture is a picture of my first stroke. I typically like to shave the right side of my head. I start from the middle of my head and move towards my right ear. I end the stroke at the crown of the head. If I’m using a mach 3, I will just do one long stroke. Since I’m using a shavette, I use shorter strokes until I get to the crown of my head.
Here is a picture showing how I hold the shavette razor to shave my head. Right now the shavette is in my right hand and I am shaving the right side of my head. I will continue holding the razor like this until I get about half way down the side of my head.
This picture shows the point at which I change the position of the razor. Instead of moving the razor towards the back of my head. I now move the razor down towards my ear.
In the next picture note the change in the razor position. As mentioned before I am now moving the razor down towards my ear. This is still the right side of my head. I am still holding the razor in my right hand.
I shave the left side of my head exactly the same way as I shave the right side of my head, with the only exception being that I use my left hand to hold the shavette. I decided not to take pictures because I thought it would be redundant. The next two pictures show the back of my head and what I have left after shaving the front and sides of my head.
Notice how on the one side I actually got quite a ways back when I was focusing on the side of my head. When I shave the back of my head I start at the top and move down towards my neck. I tend to use long strokes, that way I miss less hair. I will also tilt my head forward in order to stretch out the skin at the back of my neck which makes it easier to shave. I was home by myself when I was shaving, and it was too difficult to take pictures of the back of my neck while holding a razor.
Here is a picture of the front of my head after I’m done shaving. If you look closely you can see some dead skin from a sunburn I got about a week ago. This brings up a great point: if you shave your head put sunblock on if you’re going to be out in the sun. One of the most painful sunburns you can get is on your head. Trust me on this. It’s easy to overlook if you’ve never had your head shaved.
Here is a picture of the back of my head after I was finished shaving. There is a little bit of irritation. Also, you can see a zit I cut while shaving. Sexy, I know ;).
After I’m done shaving I’ll dry my head off and I will apply moisturizer. I really like The Art of Shaving’s moisturizer.
