April 2017 30 Day Rule/Focus Pix & Discussion

Excellente! You're gonna love it.

 

Just beautiful, Mark. I hope you're doing well!

 

The B&B traveling slant arrived at my house this evening, prompting me to get locked and loaded for tomorrow. It is ready and waiting to go for tomorrow's shave with a new Astra SP, aided by lather to be made using a mix of my remaining TOBS almond and coconut samples to be whipped up by my newly (today) reset razorock silvertip synth in my Wild West Brushworks custom handle. I'm saddled up and ready to yell yeehaaw! (Well not really but you get the picture).

 

Me: I got a new razor in the mail today for Mayhem, where we all shave with questionable stuff.
Mrs. Drygulch: Please tell you friends to stop daring you to do stupid human tricks where you could hurt yourself.
Me: Oh, come on. This is an actual razor. It's not like they dared me to tape a razor blade to my finger and shave with it.
Mrs. Drygulch: Why would you even mention.... Did you dare them to do that??!!!

Anyone else getting excited for Mayhem?

 

Mark! I love the brush!

 

Did you get the look again? And, did you also her to hold your beer while you went to get some duct tape and razor blades?

 

Yes I got the look. When I laughed at her, she asked me to share the look with the 30DC.

 

This actually made me guffaw out loud! Be forewarned that I promise no more than a light scraping on my cheeks with the maniacal Samurai blade shard. However, I do have a dangerous implement inbound as we speak. I'm hoping all the duct tape and vegimite shaving stunts will keep everyone distracted long enough for me to use it as decor and not have to actually shave with it. You know, kinda give the bathroom a Chili's TGI Friday vibe, which I'm sure my wife would love.

 

Have fun with the Slant. Is this your first time using one? I had a Merkur 37C for awhile, and it was a fun razor to use. Back then, I only used Feather blades, and it gave great shaves.

 

Adam, did you point out the crimp in the handle/blade holder? That's a safety feature designed to hold the blade in place, a fine example of Japanese engineering.

It appears that you only have 3/8" of blade exposure. That's another fine safety feature. The blade can only sink that far into your cheek before the blade holder prevents it from digging in further. This should prevent permanent damage to nerves and other important subcutaneous structures.

Have you decided whether to shave with the blade end or the handle end?

 

Yeah, I've stayed primarily with the Superspeed and just made the jump to the slim recently. Hadn't planned on taking the focus off road yet, but the pass around was closing down and I wanted to give it a shot. The consensus I'm hearing is if you have consistent shave technique, the transition to the slant is not as significant as it would appear from looking at the gnarly twisted head. Either way, in for a penny, in for a pound!

 

If you're getting good shaves with your SS and Slim, using the Slant will be no big deal. It's an efficient whisker cutter, as it uses scything strokes. You can achieve the same effect with the razors you have if you use the "Gillette Slide." I look forward to your impressions of the Slant versus your other razors. Slants are cool looking razors, and they're very handy for scaring onlookers.

The Gillette Slide:



Diagram showing the same cutting effect using either the Gillette slide or a slant bar razor:

 

only time I "soak" any soap is when I shake the brush dry right over it.

 

Have fun with that straight. Are we giving odds on how long before you have joined the darkside and actually shaved with that?

 

Another gorgeous brush. Between you, Doug and Andrew, you have me looking for new brushes.

 

Great looking brush.

 

So tonight's daily shave.... was pretty good.

For the new soap I selected a somewhat local (but known) soap from Sudsy Soapery, the Almond and Vanilla. To start off with I'll say it had a nice strong scent. From the moment I took the lid off to when I started lathering it up.

As for lather, I soaked the synthetic brush and went to work, before transferring to the mug. I think I had a bit too much water, but it didn't perform any kind of disappearing act on me.

One ATG pass, then a half pass on the neck and jawline, followed by some Witch Hazel touchup. I am definitely a fan of witch hazel for touch ups. Just feels soooo good. I haven't used any other aftershave products, and my skin feels nice. Plus the alum doesn't scream that much.

Final grade... solid B.