Monday December 15 (very early morning) - Do Whatever You Want December
Prep: Hot face wash with Aleppo olive oil and 20% bay laurel oil soap (traditional anti-acne); followed by ice cold water pre-shave face rinse
Razor: Matte black stainless steel Supply 2.0 injector with "nick-proof" SE comb plate / Supply White Label (house-branded Personna)(6)
Soap: TOBS Lavender shave cream (croap)
Brush: Simpson's Chubby 2 Synthetic
Lather Bowl: None
Post: rinse, alum, rinse, TSD Sandalwood Shave Milk splash
Last shave: Wednesday December 3 (evening) - 11 days ago (?!!!!)
The setup:
View attachment 306486
The temperature has been well into the deep freeze here for the last week. I find that even a very short stubbly beard helps cut the windchill on the face when the temperature drops below -20C and the wind starts blowing. However, it warmed up all the way to -10C today, so time to shave again.
As planned, I am repeating my setup throughout this month. With one exception today -- I used TSD Sandalwood instead of Vanilla or Lavender Shave Milk for the finish.
Overall, I got the same excellent result as for my last few shaves.
I also established to my own satisfaction that -- after the temperature here drops to between -20 and -30 C -- turning the sink tap all the way over to cold provides not a "cool water" or "cold water" shave but a "freezing ice cold water" shave. Uhmm, no. There are limits...
Two passes of the razor had me back from an 11-day scruffy short beard to cleanshaven. First pass was WTG everywhere and second pass was XTG on the face and ATG on the neck. I find that two passes gets me to DFS that is not quite BBS. A third pass
would get me to BBS but also usually results in mild razorburn. DFS is quite good enough.
Once again, I paid special attention to skin stretching, especially on my neck. The result was a very smooth shave with no nicks, blood spots or razorburn. The alum was completely silent at the end.
The TSD splash provided a pleasant finish with a bit of moisturizing for the current dry cold weather. I did notice that the TSD Sandalwood Shave Milk lacks only one characteristic compared to my Lavender, Vanilla or Bay Rum versions -- in the years since I bought them all, it is the only one that has lost most of its fragrance.
Hope the week goes well for everyone!
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