For some months now I’ve been making the point that after a certain skill level is achieved in gourmet shaving, one can expect to get really great shaves from just about any “kit” (assuming that you aren’t plumbing the depths with some really nasty combinations, as I have been known to do in the effort to challenge my own hubris!).
It struck me today that this position can only be tenable if we first define what constitutes “a really great shave”. It also struck me that my own definition these last few years may in fact have been somewhat too elastic, if not outright wrong! I can remember many “great” shaves that nevertheless carried with them a little bit of irritation or redness – but so long as a smooth and not too painful face resulted, I took this as an occasional vagary of the process itself; inevitable given the nature of what we are doing by scraping a microthin steel blade across human flesh.
I realize now that I must revise this position by stating that a great shave must not only result in a smooth face, it must also be free of any irritation and temporary disfigurement, i.e. redness, bumps, cuts, etc. I’ve certainly had many such shaves in the past (the majority perhaps), and so now realize that raising the bar in this way constitutes a terrific challenge to achieve the same result all the time! Add to that the pleasure that comes from the acoutrement itself – the various soaps, creams, blades, balms, etc – and you have the makings of a truly great shave.