SoS: December 28, 2015 - January 3, 2016

3jan15

Excellent results today!

I changed the brush and razor from yesterday. I also used HOT water in the scuttle. I got to looking at my OLD OC from yesterday and believe the cap might be created in the middle a little. The blade looked arched and not perfectly straight and even across the comb and cap.

For the first time in a while, not just a DFS but dare I say a BBS...

NEW CC
Astra SS(4)
Black Badger brush
Bearded Jack Kentucky Bourbon
Pinaud Clubman AS

 

At 85, Billy Mennen better not be on steroids!!!

 

SOTD 12/2/16
Prep: Hot Shower/ Garnier Face Scrub
Pre-Shave: PAA Ice Pre-Shave Soap
Soap: B&M Latha Oceana
Brush: Omega Boar
Razor/ Blade: Gillette Flairtip Superspeed/ Personna Lab Blue (2)
Astringent: Alum
Post-Shave: Soap Commander Integrity Balm
Aftershave: Fine Platinum

WOW. Had an awesome shave last night. The lather was fantastic--super thick, slick, and had that sheen to it. It worked great and smelled good too. Out of the package, I didn't like the scent but it opened up a little and smelled good. Not really aquatic to me, but a good clean scent. Post shave balm worked great like always and the Fine Platinum went well with this soap. I will definitely be using this combo again. The Flairtip with a Personna was sharp but smooth and gave me irritation free shave. Very impressed with this setup.

 

My first DE shave. Here are the results and i apologize for the long post in advance.

Started my day off with a 2.5 hour cycling training indoor ride. Been under the weather so this would have occurred outside.

Dont have my shaving bowl just yet so grabbed a porcelain cup as a substitute until the bowl delivers. Pour some hot water in and let the brush sit in it.

Took a nice long hot shower and used the Nivea face wash. First time using it and it has a pleasant smell. At least to me. Definitely some thickness to it.

With the shower done i had a nice hot towel waiting. Applied it twice and then used the Poraso Pre-Shave Cream. Man that feels great! Its like the skin is breathing. Super cool feel on the skin. Loved it.

Creating the lather will take some work. I fault the narrow cup i used. It was tough to rotate in the limited space. But i worked at it and got a good lather eventually. Here i used the Proraso shaving soap with eucalyptus & menthol with the house of saxon badger brush.

Razor used was the Merkur 34C with a sample blade which came with the razor. Im waiting on my sample pack of blades to deliver from tryablade.com so had to make due with what i had. I did a two pass shave with the grain. The razor is so smooth. I had to remind my self twice not to apply any pressure. Coming from cartridge shaving it will take time but glad i caught it none the less. The blade which came bundled i wasnt a big fan of but it did a good job. I used some lather for just two small touch up spots. The proraso combo is just phenomenal. Since i keep a nice low beard i like to keep the lines nice and clean. So i went against the grain on my upper cheeks and up my hairline. My skin there is used to this and the Merkur worked perfectly!

With the two passes and touch ups done i applied a nice cold face rinse. Making sure to clean up. I then moved to using the Gentleman Jon Alum Block. It tickled a bit where my cartridge shave from last week had caused a razor burn (my reason to moving to DE as it was the last straw).

Lucky tiger after shave with aloe vera applied and then followed up with Nivea Sensitive cooling post shave balm.

For this first time i went with the grain. Didnt go across or against except for my hairline and beard line on my face. For now my focus is technique and keeping razor burn to a minimum.

When i finished i told my wife there was something really nice about the whole process. I have never taken the time to shave that way. It was relaxing and the face felt great afterwards. More to come and looking forward to trying different blades to see which works best with my skin.

A quick picture of the team minus the nivea products.

One question i had: When do you use tiger after shave vs witch hazel? I have the witch hazel delivering tomorrow.

If you made it this far thanks for reading. Really appreciate it.

A first DE shave. by CiclismoNY, on Flickr

 

Great write up. Congrats on a successful first DE shave. It gets better from here.

 

You're off to an excellent start! Beautiful setup and excellent product choices also.

 

Congrats on your first DE shave. May you have many more.

 

Reminds me of one of the first times my son shaved with me. I put some Stirling Bay Rum AS on him, as it was the only AS I had at the time, and he did one of the Home Alone takes. His mother was not too pleased with me.

 

way to go O
great start, sounds like you did the research to do it right.
persistence and some trial and error, well get you there from here.
I used witch hazel only when I get to wild on my face.(I normally apply it from a spray bottle, and let it dry up while I police up my area) then aftershave.
very good start.

 

Congratulations @OmarT it gets even better. Enjoy the ride!

 

Sounds like a successful first shave! Congrats!

 

Not even the slightest hint of a cooling effect, even though menthol is listed as an ingredient!

 

January 3, 2016

SOTD - Shave Den Sunday

My 30-day focus begins tomorrow. I just wanted to try some NOS DE blades that I received during the holiday. I won’t get a chance to use them very soon otherwise, as I’m planning injector comparisons for the first few months of the year.

I tried this blade on New Year’s Day in my birth quarter Gillette Red Tip and was impressed. I needed to try it in my favorite DE today.

Hot Shower
Soap: TSD Unscented
Brush: Ever-Ready ICS Badger Black/Lucite
Razor: Gillette New LC
Blade: Personna 74* NOS (Shave 2)
TSD Witch Hazel
TSD Aftershave Milk
TSD Acqua di Gio



The first shave with this blade was on a 3-day growth. It took me awhile to coax the blade out of the dispenser. I was impressed with the first-pass reduction that day.

Today was a 2-day growth, 2-pass shave.
This is a sharp, smooth blade even if it’s over 40 years old! Six hours later my face is soft and smooth. I have had shaves just as good though.

I think the conventional wisdom on the value of this blade was the number of great shaves one could get on a single blade - I’ve seen some claims of over 20 shaves per blade! Back when all blades cost about the same, it may have been a great value. But today, with the cost of these NOS blades very inflated, it may not be worth it with so many solid, less expensive blades out there - on a cost per shave basis.

Cheers!
RT

 

does this mean it shouldn't be used on hot humid days?

 

Planned SOTD - Shave Den Sunday

Day 3 - 90 Day Intro to SR



Ralf Aust 5/8
L'Occitane Plisson Synthetic
Route 66 + a touch of TSD M Bomb
Alum
Tsd 2x Iced FW Type AS Splash
Have a super Sunday!​

 

Hello gents, last thursday's shave, in order to end 2015 clean shaven :



- Simpsons Café Latte
- Omega brush
- Timor straight that I had to prepare for another member
- Darwin DE
- Captain's Choice Limes AS

Have a happy new year !!

 

Someone actually completed a shave with the RR successfully. My hat off to you sir. :hooray:

 

Thank you!! It took some trial and error but we got it done and it wasn't bad at all I think next time I can get a BBS shave

 

BBS-1/Nacet
Alluminati by Nathan Clark 24mm Envy White
Saponificio Varesino Manna di Sicilia

 

Sunday's Shave:

Muhle R106 w/ Ikon bulldog handle
Colonel X2L in best
Proraso Blue
Cat o Nine Tails