June 2018 30 Day Rule/focus Pix & Discussion

Thank you again Keith.

 

Yeah, upon reflection, Bruce, I think I might have foregone the badgers and maybe jettisoned a soap or two just to keep from getting a cat.

 

Great picture, Keith!

 

Actually, I love cats....and dogs. They're not as much work, or as time consuming as kids are, and are less expensive (Nothing against kids. We just decided early on that we didn't want any of our own.)
I was (secretly) cool with getting the cat, but I figured I'd "negotiate" and get something for myself. It paid off. Most likely, she was going to get the cat anyway.

Major upside - my mother-in-law hates animals.

 

I don't know about IC, but if we need a 30DC hose mule, I am your man.

 

June 17 SOTD:

Razor: Gillette Red Tip
Blade: Astra SP
Brush: PAA Atomic Rocket
Lather: Stirling Electric Sheep
Aftershave: Fine Fresh Vetiver
Additional Care:
Stirling Unscented PSB

It was a no shave day yesterday as I smoked a brisket on the Egg. Today's shave was fantastic with a two pass DFS. The Electric Sheep is such a great soap, it will be missed as it is almost gone, but I will add it to my buy again list.

Happy Father's Day!

 

June 'Great Shave' Focus

Pulled out the big guns for Father's Day. My kids are taking me and my wife out to dinner and since my daughter gave me the Creed as a present a while back, I just had to use this combo.
Tried to ONLY use back and forth motions with my brush---in the loading and face lathering. Oy Weh! Not easy, especially the load.
The MW is a great soap, but Michelle's older tubs are WAY too narrow to get your load on. To her credit the new tubs are nice and wide.
In the future, rather than attempt lathering directly from these narrow tubs,
I will scoop some soap out and smear it into my Aesop SS bowl.
If the soap is a rock-hard, triple-milled, such as I Coloniali, I'll opt for a boar brush.
I was able to achieve a good lather...not an exceptional lather as I usually do.
Nevertheless, the 1908 (110 years old!!!!) loaded with the Gillette 7 O'Clock afforded me a BBS shave in 3.
I was fixated on aligning the blade in the OT. Sheesh, that's definitely something that has been improved over the years.
Didn't spritz the GIT yet. I'll do that before dinner.
Instead, finished with some Thayer's Medicated WH and Nivea ASB.​

 

I would LOVE to get a Big Green Egg. My brother-in-law has one and it's amazing.

 

Happy Father’s Day guys! No job is as difficult or rewarding.

Your wife is sitting there thinking “He was going to get those brushes anyway, at least I got a cat out of it.”

It’s a shame you already have a CT, Jim. 30DC hose mule has a nice ring to it!

Brisket smoked on the egg? Jim for the win!

 

Great shave, Jim.

My tub of The Sheep is showing the ring of death, but I already have its replacement on the shelf. I love that soap.

 

I don’t really buy into the NO circular motions, I just think they are hedging their bets against domestic abusers. I agree, it would be stupid hard to load that way. I am just a lot more careful with my longer lofted badgers and horse brushes.

There was a pretty heated discussion about it on a TSR thread a while back. IIRC, Mark from Simpson weighed in even, and basically told everyone to just use some common sense, and to not beat the crap out of their brushes if you don’t want knotted up birds nests in them, and that when you send them one back for replacement that’s a snarled up mess, they’ve been around long enough to know how it got that way.

 

Good thoughts Jared.

 

-Muhle STF
-Rockwell 6C
-Stirling Electric Sheep

For a long time I have heard (unconfirmed) rumors that the Simpson synthetics and the Muhle STF are the same fibers. It has been on my list of brushes to try, but more towards the bottom, both because of price, and if they were the same darn brush, I wasn’t in a huge hurry to get another one. I have been keeping my eye out for them on BST’s, and when this XL came up at a good price, I pounced.

[ENABLEMODE]: I’m not sure if these are the same fiber that Simpson uses or not, but the performance of this brush is every bit up there with my Simpsons, and this brush has the potential to unseat my Chubby 2 as my favorite synthetic. It is taller lofted, and while it has really good backbone, the splay is more natural than either my Chubby or my Duke. It is just a fantastic brush.
I am a little “meh” on the handle. It’s got a good weight and feel, I’ve just seen better faux horn. Bucket list brush would be to have this knot transplanted into a Doug Korn Taca, or something similar. [/ENABLEMODE]

 

Sunday June 17 - somebody's basic drugstore

Gillette Trac II (3)
Jason's non - 30DC cypress badger brush
Vi-John shaving cream
Florida Water

I knew I had a few days' stubble, but I checked the thread and my last shave was on Monday. Oy! Plus I'm 160+ posts behind; I don’t know if I will catch up this time.

The Godrej I used last time and today's Vi-John are both common basic Indian drugstore creams. In fact on the tube Vi-John claims it's "Asia's largest selling shave cream". It's a pleasant citrus-smelling cream that is vegan (using a tallow formula would be commercial death in India) with coconut in it and also lanolin. Excellent performance and good face feel. I should note that both tubes are ten to fifteen years old so I am just presuming they are still being sold.

The Trac II on its third outing easily mowed down my week worth of stubble in two passes to leave me near BBS. The Florida Water capped a good shave.

 

Father's Day
Razor: Rex Ambassador
Blade: Astra SP (3)
Brush: JR 151
Pre shave: Stirling mentholated
Soap: B&M Reserve Spice
Lucky Tiger face tonic
AS: B&M Reserve Spice

Happy Father's Day to all the dad's out there! Some great shaves and photos this morning!

I did a full shave on setting 1 this morning. I really need the audible feedback on this setting as the blade feel is negligible. I did a three pass with touch up. Almost nothing from the alum. I was able to do an ear to adams apple and adams apple to ear on my neck with no redness or irritation on my neck. I need to work on my technique so I can do this with all my razors.

I hope everyone has a great day!

Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk

 

Super pic. They are a really nice looking razor.

 

Thanks Jared!

Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk

 

Happy Father's Day guys!
This is the Shick Grip from tsd raffle from @johnbeeman along with a new key full of blades . Thanks again John. The aftershave balm is a gift from my youngest daughter today and the brush was my Fathers which i restored and made my own knot for it. I feel smooth and smell good today!

 

Looks like a great start to your day, Patrick! Happy Father's Day!

Sent from my SM-T800 using Tapatalk

 

Wow! Fantastic shot!
I too, picked the REX for my Father’s Day shave. If anyone is interested in a review of the razor, I posted mine on Andrew’s REX Ambassador thread.