DEC 30 Day Rule/Focus Pic & Discussion Thread

So true. So true.

 

Absolutely! Especially since you instigated the whole thing. lol

 

I would say you qualify.

 

December, 2015 Focus Summary

This month I focused on shave soaps. Until early November, I had used creams almost exclusively. My goal was to get better at lathering different soaps and see which ones I really liked. I decided I’d stick with the New LC loaded with Rapira Super Stainless blades. I also ended up staying with my Vulfix Super Badger throughout the month.

I had three one day deviations from my setup:
I shaved once with the Proraso Sandalwood cream, once with a Gillette Super Speed Flair tip before I sent it to my Brother for Christmas, and once with my Christmas gift: my new Phoenix Double OC.

I worked with 6 soaps:

• Mitchell's Wool Fat – 8 shaves, 7 BBS, 1 near BBS, 1 shave with irritation during touch up. The shave with irritation was one of the 3 face lathers. The near BBS was a face lather also, using the Super Speed intended for my brother.
• WSO Signature – 5 shaves, 4 BBS, 1 near BBS. The near BBS was my first of the 3 bowl lathers. It was near BBS because I ran out of lather and chose not to make more.
• Stirling Margaritas in the Arctic – 4 shaves, 3 BBS, 1 near BBS. No irritation. All bowl lathers.
• Pre De Provence – 4 shaves, 3 BBS, 1 near BBS. No irritation. The near BBS was my first of the 2 face lathers.
• Strop Shoppe Baker Street – 6 shaves, 3 BBS, 3 near BBS. No irritation. All bowl lathers. One of the near BBS shaves was with the Phoenix Double OC.
• Mama Bear's Soaps Black Code type – 3 shaves, 2 BBS, 1 near BBS. 1 shave with irritation during touch up. All bowl lathers.

With the assistance of several members of the 30 day crew, I was able to develop my skills so that I could consistently achieve a nice slick lather with all of these soaps. Half of them I did both scuttle and face lathers. Over time though, I realized that I like using the scuttle better. It keeps the lather warm and gives me more to work with. I’m not sure which soaps I will eventually use regularly, but I am drawn to two at this point: The Mitchel’s Wool Fat and the Strop Shoppe Baker Street. Both generously provided by @clint64. Thanks @clint64!

I hope everyone has a wonderful New Year! See you in the January 30 day thread!

 

Happy New Year Chris!

Happy New Year Clint!

 

MWF definitely deserves a top spot, IMHO.

 

Well, let's wrap up December. I began with the 12 Blades of December, switching to 10 in order to get the straights in. No truly horrible shaves on those blades, and I'll take all the credit for that. My technique is obviously so strong that I can shave with a rusty beer bottle lid and get a DFS. Ok, so maybe not so much. Clearly the blades weren't as bad as a few I've found though the Chinese ones still tend to under perform as a group.

As far as straights go, the W.B. Speed Rabbit is a great little razor. Thanks to @Drygulch for conning me into taking on the Soviet and including the bunny with it. The Soviet, dubbed the Soyuz 1 - let's just say it's a proud addition to my collection of unique things to look at. Horrible razor in its present condition though, again, if push came to shove and shove came to fist fight, I could get a shave out of it. So Technique continues to overcome even the most defective piece of crap I have yet to try.

Wrapping up the entire year - what a ride eh? We started last January just a bunch of guys seeing if we could improve our shaves and ended up with a growing group of guys who have more fun than we should and have advanced our skills and love for the hobby part of this exponentially. I'm stoked to see more new faces logging on for January 2016. I really think this coming year will see even more join our merry band and I know our connections will continue to grow both in number and in personal friendships. Wouldn't it be great if we could have a weekend sometime in, oh, say, August, to try and get some of us together to meet? (Wait, did I just see some foreshadowing?)

Happy New Year to all and thanks for a great year. I'm humbled to be a part of this group and hope you have had as much fun and learned as much as I have!

 

I agree whole heartedly!

 

Hi guys. I've been away for several days with limited access. I did manage to keep to my focus of using my birth year and quarter razors. It was fun but I look forward to using some of my favorites in the coming month.
Happy New Year!

 

So I'm getting really frustrated. As I continue my journey on wet shaving, I've added new things to my Arsenal. I started with the following
A.
Weishi razor
Dorco blades
AOS sandalwood trial kit
Badger brush (kit)
Proraso green croap
Proraso white preshave cream

I've added:
B.
1956 Gillette red tip
Astra blades (green)
Traders joes shaving cream (kit)
Traders shaving balm(kit)
Traders synthetic brush(kit)
Witch hazel
And wifey just bought me merkur long handle.

Now when I first started I used the weishi razor, dorco blades and the AOS KIT. I got ok shaves starting with hot shower, soaking brush, using pre shave oil and shaving cream. Occasionally I would only use preshave oil after watching a gentleman pitching village barber oil. I would get nicks and stuff and one time I got what I consider bbs. I got excited and wanted to continue with wet shaving. I added proraso after my trial size kit was used up. And since then I have got a few good shaves and lately bad shaves. I switched razors... Blades .. Cream or croap.. Brushes.. I noticed lately that I'm getting bumps and burn..

I'm close to throwing in the towel.. I really was hoping with the two new additions to the razors and the new Astra blades I was going to get better shaves.. ( I was blaming dorco and weishi) I watch videos and read the tutorials..

 

Pick what has worked best for so far and stick with that for 1 month. Once you have things down pat you switch things in and out to your hearts content.

If you are always changing it is hard to figure out what you are doing wrong. Also some blades will just not work for you, the only thing you should consider changing is a blade sampler. From the sampler pick the best blade and then stick with it for a month.

Bumps and burns usually come from too much pressure and/or bad angle.... or ATG. So until it is better skip the against the grain pass.

Try all this and after one month of consistency using the same items your shaves will improve greatly. It took me a while to get DE shaving down.

 

What worked for me was my first focus. Pick a razor and a quality blade and work on technique for a month. Practice, practice, practice with the same gear. Use very little pressure and learn the best angle.
Prior to doing this myself, I was using too much variety and having problems similar to yours. I am now in my seventh focus month. Each month focused on a different aspect of shaving. These months have improved my technique to the point that I no longer have any irritation and enjoy my shaves immensely. Hang out in this thread for awhile and things will get better. Good luck!

 

Jump over to the January discussion. We'd love to help. We all bled a lot and had a bad time at the beginning, we all got discouraged at times. By the end of January it will all be better.

 

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