I'm new to The Shave Den as well as my experience with wet shaving. I have to say I LOVE IT! I literally cannot wait to get my morning started by spending time and enjoying my shave. It's difficult will all of the choices and combinations of razors, blades, creams, soaps etc to remember which combination gave you the best shave. Is there a log available to keep track of your shaving history? If not would you find it beneficial? I was thinking of creating a spreadsheet with point values that would compute a score for using particular combinations like (blade used) (brush) (razor) (cream or soap) (pre shave oil Y or N) etc. etc. etc. based on the points i.e 1-10 the spreadsheet would calculate an average score and determine the best combinations? Useful or waste of time? Heres my gear
Welcome to The Shave Den!!! This site has a built in Log-"Shower or Shave of the Day"-you can find the main link for it here: http://www.theshaveden.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=16. It's a "sticky" so it's a permanent fixture and you can go back any time you want to re-visit your previous shaves. I frequently make comments on how much I like a razor/blade combo. There is an informal rating system-5 blades being the best shave ever. This is a daily diary/blog that many of us use on an absolute daily basis. I started contributing once in a while but found that I really like reading (and viewing pics) of what others were doing and started sharing mine daily. Submitting pictures of your gear there is highly encouraged-shave porn to some of us. Again, welcome to the Den and we'll look forward to seeing your daily posts.
I make pretty regular posts in the "Shave of the Day" threads that Danny mentioned. I could go back through the old ones and probably find what I used on a given day. I also keep a list of all my razors, brushes, brands of blade, and brands of soap in an rtf document, and put a check mark (option-V in Mac OS-X) by each the first time I use it. Not really interested in keeping track of all the combinations, just whether I've used something or not. Other people might be very interested in quantifying things using a spreadsheet. If it interests you, do it! ::lam
I don't keep any kind of separate log, but I use the SOTD mentioned above. There was a period when all I had on hand were Derby blades that I wasn't keep track of my shaves, but now that I have a variety of blades on hand I like to keep track of how many shaves I'm getting out of my blades.
Good for you! That is exactly how I felt after I started wetshaving. It is a good thing when a chore is transformed into a pleasurable experience. IMHO, recording shaving observations is time very well spent. There are so many blades and soaps out there, and quite a few pre-shaves and aftershaves. How else is one to remember all the details of each? My hypothesis when starting wetshaving was that if a good blade was used in a good razor with a good soap and good brush, the result would be a good shave. The better of any or all of those elements, the better the shave. For this reason, I write down observations in a small notebook, but do not keep a log of each day's shave. The notes include the shaving characteristics of each blade brand used, how various soaps and creams rate, along with whatever else seems useful. Accessing the information in a notebook is a little more convenient for me than entering it into the computer.
