February 2019 30 Day Rule/Focus Pix & Discussion

Wonderful photos, Clint! Thanks for sharing. Glad your trip was good!

 

Yesterday I said that Stephan Bay Rum A.S. would be great to use on a Mt. Everest expedition. Today, I'll say-use Stephan on the ascent, Stoylin Spice on the descent. The opening brief burn from the latter won't be felt in the cold Himayala winds. Besides, you'll be smelling great heading down to Base Camp(well, and beyond, of course). Even after a smaller amount of application of it this morning, the burn still appeared. A little dab'll do ya.

 

Looks like a great trip, Clint! Have a safe flight back to Atlanta.

 

Congrats on a good first shave.

 

Carl...congrats on a great shave. Looking forward to hearing about more. Clubman and William.....you are doing good!

 

February 18th
Razor: Timeless Bronze SB
Blade: Gillette 7:O'Clock Super Stainless (3)
Brush: WWB/Envy Supreme White
Pre-shave: Stirling Mentholated
Soap: B&M Bay Rum
Stirling Bay Rum witch hazel
PAA Star Jelly unscented
AS: B&M Bay Rum

Good morning!

Absolutely wonderful shave to start the day! I did a completely unnecessary full fourth pass. Things were going so well I didn't want to stop. BBS with the slightest tickle from the alum.

Have a great day my friends!

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Way to go Carl! I get great results from the Williams , it provides good slickness for the razor to glide over and you dont need a whip cream lather to have a good shave. Looking forward to seeing your progress on here.

Great shave Dale.

 

4 passes? You were really getting into that shave Jim.

 

Thanks. I've never really paid much attention in the shave section of stores before getting interested in this quite recently, but in that short time, I've been surprised by the many places that carry Clubman and the extremely few that carry Williams or any shaving soap. Even the places that have a safety razor and blades for sale, no soap. Somehow that wasn't what I expected.

I found the Williams at a supermarket in Asheville two weekends ago. Didn't expect to see it there, but when I did, I got the (wrong) impression it must be not that hard to find.

I do almost all my non-grocery shopping on Amazon, so not really an inconvenience.

Carl

 

Yup, four passes. The fourth was just a wtg that didn't cut anything. The soap was good and slick and smelling nice along with plenty of time with today being a holiday.

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You got lost in the moment haha. Enjoy your day off today Jim .

 

Good morning guys! I just completed shaving my 2 day stubble. In keeping with my "firsts" theme I decided to use only VDH Shea Butter. I brought out one of my Aust's and did one WTG pass. I did not cut myself, but it wasn't a good start. Using the Shea butter was fine when I was using my DE razors, but not so with a straight. I continued with the shave by lathering my face with Stirling's Sandalwood via my Rockwell brush. I redid the WTG pass and added the ATG and XTG passes. Did some minor touchup to finish. Achieved BBS without incident. Ended with witchhazel and then the Clubman AS.
Result 97 = A+
Gentlemen, have an awesome day!

 

Thanks, Patrick. I hope you have a good day as well.

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Congratulations and Welcome Carl.

Enjoy the journey, you've earned it.

 

Congratulations, Carl, on an excellent start on your road to better shaves! Possibly even cheaper shaves if you stick with the perfectly good setup you have started with and don't get sucked down the various brush, razor, soap and aftershave rabbit holes that so many of us blindly dive down...

 

Monday February 18 - Favourites February shave #6?!!!

Rockwell 6S on plate 3 / Rapira Swedish Supersteel (1)
Supply Co Silvertip Fiber synthetic 24mm brush
Arko shave stick
Alum and TSD Bay Rum Milk Aftershave and Thayers WH

I haven't been doing too well on the daily shaving this month. My last shave was last Monday, I think, so I had a week's worth of stubble to whack. I decided on a shave stick and was going to use Palmolive. However, when I blindly grabbed under the sink, I ended up with the pill bottle with the Arko stick in it instead, so that's what I used. Either is fine...

Favourites February is both easy and tough, because I have 12 brushes and 15 razors in my "ready - to -use" racks, and 11 of the brushes and all of the razors are "favourites". I can grab anything at random and have a "favourite" in my hand. Same with the numerous soaps and aftershaves I have -- anything that I really don't like has already gone out the door or into the garbage, leaving only various grades of "favourites". Thus, Arko instead of Palmolive was perfectly fine for a "favourite".

I backed my Rockwell 6S down one plate from 4 to the 3 I used to use all the time. Either gives me a good shave but I find 3 just a touch pleasanter without any real loss of efficiency. So back to 3 it is. I have a couple sample tucks of the Rapira blades, just as I did with the Sharp Stars. I found the Sharp Stars gave me a sharp but slightly rough shave and crossed them off my list of blades to buy. The Rapira by contrast are both sharp and smooth. Today was no exception -- two easy passes removed the hayfield and left me DFS without any drama. Then the TSD Bay Rum finished it off with a great scent.

One thing I noticed -- I got a fair amount of burn or tingly feeling from the TSD Bay Rum milk aftershave today. I don't get that sensation from the Lavender, Vanilla or Sandalwood versions, so I think it must be the Bay Rum EO that causes it. I did notice that my palmful of aftershave was thicker and greasier today than usual. I hadn't used it for quite awhile, forgot to shake the bottle before dispensing, and I think the ingredients may have separated slightly with the EO floating to the top and giving me a double or triple dose of it. I later shook the bottle and tried applying a bit more -- no burn...

After I was finished my shave and admiring my DFS smooth face, I noticed that I had zipped along today so quickly that I had missed a couple small patches of visible whiskers in the crease beneath my nose and just along my jawline. I took a leaf from @wchnu Fuzzy's playbook and applied a bit of witch hazel to use as a moisturizer for a buffing pass. The stray whiskers were all removed without incident that way, leaving me with a true DFS DFS.

Hope everyone had a good weekend and are heading into an excellent week!

 

We don't do that do we?

 

I’m with you on that. I haven’t found a DE that won’t give me a good shave. Straights are a different story.

 

Congratulations, Carl. It only gets better from here on.

 

February Focus

Stirling Wintergreen~~Stirling 24mm Finest~~Portland 1905~~Florida Water (mentholated)~~Stirling Glacial ASB
SR #27
I took a page out of Jeff's @Yehuda D playbook this morning and made it a true menthol Monday.


The menthol level in the Stirling Glacials is high, but not uncomfortably so.
I simply have to take care to not get the products too close to my eyes.
Stirling was the main-player today and aside from the Wintergreen soap, the 24mm finest
rocked it out. Every shave den should have this brush amongst its ranks.
It almost difficult to believe that this knot is only 24mm. It works almost as large as my old
30mm CH3 Manchurian, which was a beast.
But the beauty of this knot is that it is SOFTER than the $485 (2014 rate of exchange) Simpson.
Had a good stropping session with the Portland. It's a nimble fellow.
The scales are simple; the pins are tight and the edge is sharp.
What more can one expect?
Good skin-stretching for the first downward pass, completely eliminating the need to make a pass across the jaw bone.
Nice results on the neck area.
Once again, BBS on the jaw-line and above, DFS everywhere else.
I am calling these shaves successful.
BTW, the lanolin-rich Stirling left my face smooth and soft---well-hydrated, even though there
is coconut oil way down on the ingredient list.
The mentholated Florida Water packed a punch, followed by an uppercut
by the Stirling Glacial ASB.
TKO.​