NOV 30 Day Rule/Focus Pic&Discussion Thread

SOTD
November 16, 2015
Prep: Hot Shower. Axe Energizing Face Wash Boost
Razor: Grafco-Merkur 3-Piece Open Comb
Blade: Personna Lab Blue
Lather: La Toja
Brush: RazoRock Plissoft
Post: Thayers Cucumber WH. Gold Bond Ultimate
Aftershave: Gingers Garden Aventus
La Toja. Man I love this soap!! It just works. The Grafco-Merkur OC is fantastic! This razor is no doubt the most effective OC I've ever used. GG Aventus WOWSER! Smells excellent. Very soothing. Healing.
Never let the things you WANT
Make you forget the things you HAVE!

 

Great write up. Just to pass along a tip on lathering Mystic Water. While it is a very thirsty soap, it performs much better if the water is added slowly as you go. Doing this and finishing with paint brush strokes makes the lather much thicker and allows the lather to hold up better.

 

@Bill_F ... That mystic water soap can be a challenge. Like clint said, slow water incorporation. It looks a little thin in your lather shot.

Here is a thread that might help...

http://theshaveden.com/forums/threads/5-guys-3-soaps.44773/

 

On the survey, I'm still tied at the bottom. I hope to at least beat out the "cookie" vote.

 

Are you the cold bowl, dry shave or, canned foam?

 

My shave today was much like yesterdays except that I played with the lather some. I started with a warm almost dry brush and loaded the Proraso White for what felt like forever. I then wet my face and loaded my face up with a very thick paste like amount of soap. I then dipped the tip of the brush in hot water and face lathered it in. I repeated the adding water and lathering like a chipmonk on speed 6 or 7 times and when I was done I had gobs and piles of thick creamy very wet lather it has amazing glide and seemed very protective. I'm calling it the Arko effect. I decided to test it out so I went for a XTG pass with the cheapo shavette. The hair on my neck can't make up its mind which way to grow so about half of it is growing at about 90 degrees difference from the rest and its scattered thoughout the growth. So my normal WTG hits those half at a XTG. Well I didn't think about it too much when I cut it off today so I picked a poor direction to cut XTG. Those crazy hairs got cut on the first pass ATG. The blade didn't like that so it dug and irritated me just a bit on the neck. I rinsed off, thought about the styptic, saw that there wasn't any blood leaking right then and relathered. I put down the hurt hinge and picked up the SS. I managed an ATG pass and called it for the day with no touchups. Other then the hurt on the neck it was a DFS. I washed off my face with a warm cloth and then started cleaning up the razors and brush before I did anything with aftershave. I looked back up into the mirror and saw blood on my neck. I searched and searched and found a tiny line where the razor had dug a bit. I guess the scrubbing of the washcloth pulled it the rest of the way open so I applied a lightning like dabbing of styptic then rinsed with cold water and finished up with the Gillette fusion intense cooling Balm. It hurt understandingly on my neck for a bit then eased off.

The GSB was on shave 2 for the shavette and shave 4 for the Superspeed. I'm going to try getting the shavette to 3 and the SS to 5 then trading them both out at the same time so its easier to keep track for myself.

I'm not a fan of how heavy the handle is on this shavette. It wants to twist in my hand so I end up tightening my grip then applying too much pressure to my face sympatheticly. I also really don't like the Gillette Balm. The feel is nice but the smell reminds me of school locker rooms, overly strong and a formless sweet smell that doesn't really smell like anything. My fiance likes it so I'm trying to use it up so I don't have to smell it anymore. She will except it running out before she will me throwing it away.

Its chilly today so I intend on staying inside where its warm. I wish you all safety and happiness today.

 

Monday, November 16, 2015
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Schick Adjustable Injector
Schick Injector II #1
AMACK4 Lights 24mm
Sterling Glacial Obsidian
Alum, Black Ice Witch Hazel, Unrefined Shea Butter
Krampert’s Frostbite Aftershave

Excellent close shave today. Enjoy your week!




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November 16th SOTD (Shave 8 of this focus)
Two days' growth
Preshave: Hot Shower
Razor: Pre WWII Fat Handle Tech
Blade: Voskhod (1st shave)
Brush: EverReady 100T with TGN 22mm Synthetic Knot
Soap: Eufros Dama De Noche
Postshave: Cold Water Rinse, Alum Block, Thayer's Witch Hazel
Aftershave: Jabonman Dama de Noche Balm (w/ Menthol)

Used the same soap and aftershave for two shaves in a row. I never do that. I am really liking the Jabonman/Eufros stuff. I wanted an excuse to use a straight today, but you all gave me the better advise of using the safe method with the Fat Handled Tech. Used the Tech and got an automatic two and a half pass BBS. No cuts, and I look good in my suit today. Now I have two more shaves to get out of this blade this month. I guess I will live if I only get one Straight Razor shave in November.

 

November 16, 2015

No Variation NoVember
This No Variation month is perfect for me to learn skills with new-to-me equipment.

Razor: Mongoose B3
Blades: Feather Artist Club Professional (3)
Soap: Saponificio Varesino Manna
Brush: Omega 31025 Scarlatti Boar
AS: Changes at will. Today: Myrsol Blue

Trying to return to work today after my accident, as well as getting back to my regular weekday shaving routine. If I can keep it up, I think these last two weeks of the month will still provide me with enough focused learning on the Mongoose.

Two-day growth, three-pass shave. (WTG,XTG,ATG) Face-lather.



I’m determined to work with this beast and not against it. I’m getting used to its unusual (for me) weight and length. By the end of the month I’d like to get locked into a comfortable zone with it and experience all it can do.

To get there, I’m making a very conscious effort this week to find the optimal shaving angle. Today I stayed flush with the angled part of the head (or 'cap slant') on all strokes. This resulted with very efficient passes regarding whisker reduction. But by forcing myself to not perform repeat strokes and touch ups, I did not get the BBS ‘dolphin skin’ of previous shaves. My stroke coverage was fine, I did not miss spots, but apparently the last pass of ATG was not enough to wipe out all signs of whiskers as it has in the past.

My only assumptions can be is that I got BBS in earlier shaves only because of repeat strokes and touch ups - therefor I’m suspecting that the optimum shave angle will require me to drop the handle down a few degrees. I’ll try this tomorrow.

I have also noticed that this razor / blade combo is not as forgiving as all the dozens of DEs and SEs I’ve used. A slight misangled approach and it was quick to cut me without warning. This happened around my mustache / goatee. This is not a complaint, just a realization that this is a very sharp combo that requires solid, consistent technique - and I welcome the challenge.

Cheers!
RT

 

canned foam.

 

Planned Day 16 - 16 November 2015

No Variation November!




Utopia 3-piece
Gillette Silver Blue (16)
L'Occitane Plisson Synthetic
Proraso Red
Alum
TSD ISZ AS Splash under the Veg

Will check in later after the shave!

Have a terrific Tuesday!
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Thanks, Clint and JR! I had intended to use less water to begin with, but I wasn't careful and ended up with too much. I was surprised it soaked it all in. That shot was after I had painted the lather on my face. I appreciate you pointing me to that thread. I'll take a look tonight.

 

I can't say I ever used any. I learned to shave using Williams and a brush and kept with that except for my Army days when I used whichever of these I could find

I only branched out to different soaps and creams in the last few months. I mainly face lather but I sometimes Bowl lather for a richer lather or a super lather.

 

While it looks intuitive to ride the slanted portion of the cap, I have found the razor cuts a little easier when you drop the handle just a touch. Plus it makes the razor glide so much better. Flat against the face it almost wants to suction into your face.

 

There is a thread on The Shave Nook over 33 pages long on how to lather Mystic Water soap. If you can ever figure it out, the performance is really top notch.

 

Thanks Clint, I was going to check out the other forums. I did a search for Mystic in the titles in our soap threads and it helped, but not as much as I'd hoped. They have lathering guidelines on their website that I tried to follow, except that I scooped up some of the soap and put in the scuttle and left way too much water on my brush before starting. You can go here to see what they suggest: http://www.mystic4men.com/
Check out the sidebar labeled "Lathering advice from the experts... A tutorial provided by my customers"

 

if you wanted to experiment with canned cream/foam, you might want to begin with Barbasol. You'd get support on that from Babe Ruth and Knute Rockne, but they aren't available for Q&A. I do like the Rise Foamy I have now.

 

Thanks I checked it out. It was pretty much pulled from the thread I talked about. The biggest difference from most other soaps is how slowly you have to add water. I can load and lather it from the puck pretty well. Since I face lather exclusively, I have found it much easier to use Mystic Water from a shave stick. I am in the process of using up some of my soap inventory before reordering. My goal for 2016 is just to have my top preforming brands on hand. Mystic Water is one that made the cut. Like everything else, YMMV.

 

Great, so that is the method I will be attempting tomorrow.
Thanks for the guarantee Clint!