Sort of straight and narrow

I purchased a Parker SRB shavette this week.   It takes replaceable blades.  I thought I wanted to give a try at shaving with it and see if straight razor shaving might be something I want to do.

I realized that I likely wouldn't want to do a complete 3 pass shave with the Parker, so I kept my Merkur 34HD handy.  I prepped up with a warm face wash and started soaking my brush and the Stirling Glacial soap.  I also soaked up my puck of Van Der Hagan glycerin soap to help cut down on the menthol eye burning. 

It worked!  I made a good lather in the mugs and painted up my whiskers.  I opened up the Parker and got going.  It really wasn't as hard as I expected.  I was fairly tentative but did not open any gaping wounds or cause any weepers.  I had absolutely no issues with using my left hand to shave the left side of my face.

After pass 1 with the Parker, I picked up the Merkur and finished up the shave in easy fashion.  I completed the whole shave with an application of Captain's Choice Cat O 9 Tails.  The combination of ice cold Glacial and the sting of the Captain's Choice made for a wonderful face feel.  I really liked it.