View attachment 218171
SOTD 02/17/20
So today is the day for my first shave with the repaired Rex Ambassador. The blade now sits evenly and symmetrically with the new top cap. I will admit to bit of trepidation since the last time I used the razor it left my dome and face in pretty bad shape. A friend at TSD who has recently mastered the razor suggested starting low and working one’s way up. Matt Pisarcik, the razor’s developer said that the majority of his users shave between 2 and 3 on the dial. Since I am starting with an essentially new razor, I decided to start at 2. I like a lot of blade feel, but will put that off until I learn the razor’s sweet spot. I loaded a Voskhod, a blade I trust for testing a new shaving tool.
I began with the usual cold water rinse followed by the PAA Cube Preshave Soap. I then lathered up with MWF, my soap focus for the month. I rode the cap at 2, but was not satisfied with the closeness of the shave, so I dialed up to 3 which seemed to provide an acceptable level of efficiency, not quite as close as I like, but this outing was dedicated to relearning the razor. The first WTG pass left me with a fair bit of roughness in the usual areas and slight roughness everywhere else.. Rather than buff I chose to concentrate on gradual whisker reduction. I reapplied the PAA Preshave soap and relathered with MWF and began a careful XTG pass, again riding the cap throughout with particular care on the dome.
For my third ATG pass I dialed down to about 2.5, reapplied the PAA Preshave Soap and MWF and worked my way through the shave carefully. I ended up with two very slight weepers. One on the right side of my head and the other just to the right of the Adam’s Apple, both of which resolved after my cold water wash with the MWF brush squeezings. A test with the alum block revealed heat and slight stinging at each of the weeper sites. Witch hazel application followed and I finished with Fine Accoutrements Snake Bite AS Splash. This was a very different result than my last use of this razor. I’m happy with this decent three pass DFS. There’s light at the end of the tunnel. I’m going to continue with this razor until I reach the bloodless BBS level, if possible. I feel cool, relatively smooth and quite refreshed.
RAZOR: Rex Ambassador
BLADE: Voskhod
PREP: Cold water rinse followed by a scrub with PAA’s Cube Preshave Soap before each pass
BRUSH: Viking Silvertip Badger
SOAP: Mitchell’s Wool Fat
POSTSHAVE: Cold water wash with brush squeezings followed by Thayers Lavender WH and finished with Fine Accoutrements Snake Bite AS Splash
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