MAYhem 2018 30 Day Rule/Focus Pix & Discussion

Wow, the competition is fierce this year!

 

Thursday shave

Actually, it is two shaves, one social shave Wednesday night then my normal work shave Thursday morning. There are just scraps left of the AoS and it will fall in the next 2 shaves or just 1. I did a super lather with MdC and that worked out great. The Futur is a great razor, I love the feel. In support of the Mayhem, I loaded it with a Feather, my first time to use a Feather in this razor. Open for 3 passes and then dialed down for the last.

In the spirit of finishing items off today was the last day for a Speick AS and Layrite pomade.

Irritation A Closeness A+

Razor: Merkur Futur (Feather)
Brush: 30DC LE
Soap: AoS tallow + MdC
AS: Speick AS, Edwin Jagger ASB
Scent: Chanel Cuir de Russie

 

Nope!!!! No pics and it didn't happen.... Just saying. Loving the FW love though.

 

Fatip Day#4. Back to the normal routine thankfully.

Impressed with the longevity of yesterday’s shave given it was not my full routine. Evening time saw me still “acceptable”.

There’s something about this razor I’m really starting to like. It’s efficient simple and delivers. Alum today confirmed I’d not gone too harsh too.

"J hooks" (I'm sure there's a shaving term for this but damned if I know it) are easier than the Futur because the head is less bulky and I found the Futur had a tendency to weepers on these which the Fatip does not. Then there's longevity of the shave, although my face feels the same straight after the a shave with the Futur....12 hrs later I have to say the l'il Italian is a little bit better.

The above may be driven by me getting better at this but there's little difference between me now and a week ago. All kit remains the same and I've decided to drop my usual Wednesday "use a different razor" day and stick with this one as it deserves a full workout for the month..though I do reserve the right to change my mind.

 

Gem Clog Pruf
Gem Stainless (4)
Semogue BC Texugo
Arko Stick

Day 162

Shave didn't suck

 

Great shave and photo Keith. The Layrite is some good stuff.

 

May 3, 2018
OneBlade Genesis V2
Feather FHS
30 DC LE with Tuxedo
Fine Italian Citrus Soap and AS

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Up and moving early this morning. The 30DC LE whipped up the Italian Citrus into a wonderful lather with little effort. Since I had a new blade loaded I went with a two pass shave starting ATG followed by XTG. After touch ups along my jawline and lower neck, I managed to catch the little guy. A BBS shave on a workday is a rare occurrence for me. A splash of Italian Citrus aftershave and I am ready for a busy day. I hope everyone has a great Thursday.

 

TimBreeze? It sounds like something I'd expect from a certain Canadian company known for it's coffee and donuts.

All things considered, this actually went pretty well for using a random substance from a tube labelled in a foreign language. I imagine there are worse substances that could have been in there.

 

Great report and photos, Keith! That Layrite looks like an interesting product - strong hold but water soluble if I read the tub right. Are you going to replace it?

 

Two days into MAYhem and no posts from the 2017 MAYhem Man of Steel was making me worried. Hopefully you were just busy in the Redneck Engineering Lab coming up with some sort of questionable device and/or preparing for some sort of stunt shave.

 

Great report and a wonderful photo as usual, Clint. Love the different perspective of the 30DC LE brush. Even though I now know you cheat and create the photos semi-professionally ahead of time, I have to admit they're great photos.

 

I'll echo Fuzzy, Chris. I want to see photos of the resurrected Gem Featherweight. Sounds like a good score, although not on the same level as the Joris razors.

 

Well, this morning my SE shave was relatively uneventful. So much so, in fact, that after a stroke or two I blew through my shave with reckless abandon. (Lately I have gotten into the habit of shaving ridiculously fast and in long sweeping strokes, which probably is bad, but a lifetime of ritual is hard to break, and the results are solid, so WTH.) Anyway, using this technique with the SE was drama free, but did cause a bit of irritation after the fact and some mild feedback from the alum. At some point, it’d probably be worthwhile to jump in on an SE focus, just to slow down and dial things in a bit. Either way, a perfectly acceptable shave with a new utensil is in the books.

 

@KenH, great report. Sounds like you are mastering the Fatip and getting consistently good shaves now. Especially if you are now able to get away with various kinds of buffing strokes now. I think "J hooks" IS the shaving term for one of them, btw.

Dale @PanChango -- "shave didn’t suck" is a succinct way to summarize it but sounds vaguely less than positive about the experience. Something go slightly wrong with the shave, or is this just a rather "blah" morning for you?

 

Good to hear, Randy. Once you have the basics of ride the cap, no pressure, and tighten the skin down solid, they translate across to almost any kind of razor. I wonder, did you feel the Gem SE was slightly big and a bit clumsy to maneuver around your face at first, or did it just fall into place as another razor?

 

Chuckling now, I think of it that way but was struggling for a name.

 

SOTD May 3, 2018

Prep: Cold water and Stirling mentholated pre-shave soap
Blade: Personna
Razor: Schick G1 injector
Brush: Zenith B02 boar
Soap: Jeeves of Hudson Street Bay Rum
Post: Witch hazel, Pitralon Classic aftershave

Continuing with soap reduction on the Jeeves Bay Rum. Great soap. The Zenith boar whipped up some incredible and slick, yogurty lather. The G1 easily swiped it away. Much more comfortable than yesterday's shave with the E2. Nice and easy all around.

@Screwtape - anxiously awaiting your shave with the plastic blade holder. Some good Mayhem stuff is happening here!

Enjoy your day!

 

Just one of those days where I was rushing around a bit. I just did one pass.

Not the best, but it didn't suck.

 

At the moment, I definitely prefer, the smaller, more nimble DE, as my shaving technique now uses long fast strokes, kind of like a racecar driver on a winding mountain road, and the SE doesn't lend itself to that style so much, but I really didn't find the SE awkward. A bit bulky, perhaps, but not uncomfortably so. In fact, I was able to shave above my lip in N-S passes without too much issue. The S-N pass under the nose required me to go at steeper than ideal angle, but the S-N pass cleaned things up just fine.

 

That Chernobyl brush is cracking me up Neal. I don't think you could find a sorrier tuft of hair if you tried. I even considered making some kind of "junkyard gear" Shavey category for it, but decided instead to give the first nomination for the "Best Shave with an Item Least Suitable for Shaving" to an item actually originally designed for shaving. I'm sure in the gulag, this passes for shaving gear, but I don't think anyone here will deny that the brush is completely not suitable for shaving. Cheers, congratulations, and don't forget to give Boris his toupe back after MAYhem is over.