30 Day Rule/Focus, May 2025. All Are Welcome!

Thanks Joe.

 

Stuff happens, but you still got a super straight shave Joe.

 

thank you Joe.

fine straight zazor shave Joe.congrats on your 1300th sr shave.

 

Thank you Joe.

 

Hello there,

Great first post, and welcome to TSD @Skimmer776.

Another fellow Brit here, I use a flannel with most of my shaves... My humble advice I can to you is first and foremost 'ADD NO EXCESSIVE PRESSURE TO THE RAZOR,LET THE WEIGHT OF THE RAZOR & BLADE DO THE WORK,YOU JUST GUIDE IT OVER YOUR STUBBLE. Equally important is to practice your technique, this is the secret to traditional wet shaving, by doing this you will gain your shaving confidence. "technique trumps tools".

"I taught myself to shave the lather from my ugly face, rather than the stubble"....This will help to reduce irritation. Get yourself a sample pack of DE blades to find which is best suited to your skin type.

Don't worry too much about anyone else's opinion....Try not to expect too much too soon and be on a obsessional quest to get a perfect BBS shave with each shave.... Nobody is standing on the other side of the mirror making biased judgements. The face you're shaving is your own, and you don't have to satisfy anyone but yourself. The wonderful thing about traditional wet shaving for me is that there are so many good products out there and there literally is something for just about everyone....The vast majority of my own shave set ups are very inexpensive, which work perfectly for me....Last but not least try doing one WTG pass at first and omit the alum in your post shave for a while until your skin gets accustomed to this way of shaving. Enjoy your new shaving experience.

Yours- Barry.

 

Thanks Joe. Proraso products are great.

 

Well, you did a great job on it, Gary!

 

Fresh blood! Excellent! Welcome to the 30DC!

(Btw, actually bleeding during your shaves is strictly optional and frankly discouraged...)

 

Well, whatever works, works. And if a ritual reliably leads to successful and enjoyable shaves, then why tamper with it?

I suspect that your preshave cream might trap the hot water on your face for longer than just a splash of water that quickly runs off. It stays in your whiskers while you prepare your lather and that extra time helps soften them. Anyway, that's a theory.

 

Another great shave and pic, Gary!

Incidentally, that background poster is really interesting: Gillette explaining to store owners the strategy behind "sell the holder cheap and soak them repeatedly for the blades"...

 

It's a great soap. Especially if you like the smell of northern pine forests...

 

Great first post! Frankly, one brush, razor and soap that you know how to use is really all you ever need. The rest is pure self-indulgence.

For the blades, there is some variation between brands and models, so you may have to experiment to find the best one for you. Also, some blade coatings work better than others for some people. I know that in particular, some people have a sensitivity or allergy to some coatings - platinum is a common one - and can't use blades that have those coatings. Some of the shaving supply places sell blade "sampler packs" - one tuck each of several popular blades - so people can try several to find one they like before buying a whole bunch. You may want to try one of those.

John

 

So I guess by now you probably know which side of the straight razor blade is the sharp one?

 

All good advice, Barry!

 

Thank you John.

 

Wednesday May 21 (morning) - Monotonous May

I am sticking with my declared plan of a Rule this month using this setup for every shave (hence "Monotonous May"):

Prep: Hot shower with Aleppo olive oil and 20% bay laurel oil soap (traditional anti-acne)

Razor: Matte black stainless steel Supply 2.0 injector with "nick-proof" SE comb plate / Supply White Label (house-branded Personna)(2)

Soap: Stirling Scots Pine Sheep

Brush: Semogue SOC cherrywood fitted w/ APShaveCo 24mm Tuxedo synthetic knot

Lather Bowl: None

Post: rinse, alum, rinse, Stirling Scots Pine splash

Last shave: Sunday May 18 (morning) - 3 days ago

The setup:



A good basic shave today.

The synthetic whipped up a decent lather from the very slick Stirling mutton tallow and lanolin soap. Then my usual two passes gave me a DFS. First pass, WTG everywhere and second pass XTG on the face and diagonally sort-of XTG on the neck.

Alum was a bit warm in spots - especially on the neck - but nothing too major. There were no visible nicks, blood spots or razorburn.

The splash provided a pleasant finish.

Hope everyone has a good week!

 

"Frankly, one brush, razor and soap that you know how to use is really all you ever need. The rest is pure self-indulgence".... This is very true John. Great advice.

 

thank you so much John.

 

thank you John.,yes sir,gillette's age old business strategy..

 

awesome sheep shave and pic John.
i am thinking about getting the Electric Sheep set..,which i believe is more citrus scented,but the scots pine sounds fantastic..