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Back in grade school I had a teacher who asked us to write out the step-by-step directions for making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, and then the teacher followed each set of instructions literally, to the letter. As in, "take a piece of bread" meant he ripped apart a sealed bag of bread to get a piece of a slice, because the instructions didn't spell out untwisting the bread twisty and reaching into the open bag to to remove a slice of bread. "Spread jelly on one piece of bread" meant dumping out the entire jar of Smucker's Concord Grape, though I argued, then as now, that it could also mean doling out a single molecule of jelly.

The lesson, of course, was that it's really, really hard to accurately and properly describe how to do something so that someone with no idea how to do what you're telling them to do can follow your directions and pull it off.

I bring this up because back in February I wrote an article about wetshaving that became a live segment on the Today Show, and I recently printed out this article and sent it to my brother, along with a vintage Schick Injector, some new Schick blades, and a tub of Nancy Boy shaving cream, after he'd complained about his Mach3/Lab Series brushless cream shave.

I tried really hard to make the step-by-step instructions for wetshaving with a safety razor, a shaving brush, and traditional English-style shaving cream as easy to grok as possible, but as always, there's writin' and there's doin'.

Two shaves into his Injector, my brother complained he couldn't get his neck and mustache area shaved as close as with the Mach3. Now, anyone who's tried moving from a modern pivoting multi-blade razor to an old-school safety razor knows it takes a week or so, at the very least, to get as good a shave as you can with a Mach3, and then after that the shaves get progressively better and better. But it does take time, and practice.

It also takes following directions. And if you read my article, you read things like:

"Remove your brush from the water, hold it upside down until water stops pouring out of it, and then you’re ready to apply the cream." (except that the lather will then be too thin and runny -- you should really give the brush a flick or two to get the water/cream ratio just right)

"Mainly, that means slower, more careful strokes, and guiding the razor’s head over your skin WITHOUT PRESSING DOWN. Let me say that again. WITHOUT PRESSING DOWN. AT ALL." (except that you kinda sorta do need to press down a little bit, if you want a close shave)

In other words, shave exactly like I wrote you should and you wind up with a ripped off chunk of bread with an entire jar of Smuckers dumped on it.

I had to tell me brother that he could go ahead and apply a bit of pressure with his Injector, and that he should try shorter, repeated strokes under his nose, and diagonal passes under his chin. In other words, he should try the little tips and tricks I picked up myself after I wrote the article. I'm sure there will be more.

At this point, it's hard to remember what it was like the first time I brought a Merkur HD up to my Musgo Real slathered face, after years of shaving with the Mach3 and the Sensor, and nicking the sweet bejesus out of my chin, upper lip, cheek, neck, et al. You get some wetshaving under your belt and you forget how different this way of shaving is from the typical modern guy routine.

So I'm trying to rewind back to my first few safety razor shaves, so I can help my brother get through his first week till he dials it in on his own. It's also a good excuse to email him my latest Google Video finds.