Nothing improves technique and confidence as much as shaving with a pain stick.

This is very funny.

Sorry about your shave brother, you kept at it way longer than I would have. My hat goes off to you

At least I got a few awards out of todays butchering if nothing else...

I have been dabbling with straight razors for months. A Saturday here, a Sunday there with one pass and a DE cleanup, etc. I haven't been fully into the Darkside and haven't even earned any cookies. My Mayhem is going to be Straight Razor shaves only. I even have a two night business trip scheduled where I will check a straight in my luggage. A safety razor will not touch my face in May.
I have an early morning 30 mile bike ride scheduled in the morning so I did my first straight razor shave tonight.
Maybe I should have bought something other than a spike point razor. I have three shave ready razors and they are all 5/8 with a square tip. I have two matching bloody spots right in front of my earlobes. Of course my wife walked in right after I finished and snickered when she saw blood running down both sides of my face. I then proceeded to tell her about my focus and she is obviously convinced I've lost my mind
On the up side, this razor gave me a very nice two pass shave. I did one WTG and one XTG and stopped at what I consider a DFS. I will not be chasing BBS until I can get a consistently nice shave without blood
This razor was honed by Glen and I'm using the stop that was PIFed to me by Adam. This is a sweet setup and I hope I don't ruin the edge with my rookie stropping skills. So far, so good.
This is going to be fun!
SOTD
PAA Big Shave Soap
Doug Korn Synthetic Brush
Drygulch Leather Works Strop
Otto Deutsch Hans Razor
Styptic Powder
Alum
Thayers Witch Hazel
PAA Big Shave Splash
Happy Mayhem!

Blood by each earlobe, you have earned your cookies.

Even though I've never tried a pain stick, I definitely feel your pain. You make me feel much better about my run-in on Friday with an overly aggressive DE. Here's to better luck tomorrow.

Wow. My hat is off to you for finishing the shave. I am not sure I could have. I hope you heal up quickly.

Congrats on a good start to your May Focus.

Yippee! Oatmeal Raisin please

Thank you!

05/01/2016
Gem 1912 Damaskeene
GEM PTFE (9)
Elite Razor “Tres Amigos” Ironwood Beehive with Envy White
TSD Yin Yang
Witch Hazel
Folsom & Co Capri
Whipped Shea Butter

​

A wonderful relaxing shave with the Gem this morning. The blade is tugging some so this might be the end of the line for it and the 1912 weekend shaves. As usual the TSD soap was easy to lather and I really enjoy the citrus lavender scent. Finished with a splash of F&C Capri and I am ready for a peaceful Sunday with the family. I hope everyone has a great Sunday.

I really want in on the MayHem. This will be fun. I used to do something like that with soaps, now I can incorporate everything. My thought is though, that I will only choose a half dozen blades or so, I don't want 20 open blades I don't want to use laying around half the month. Everything else is open season. Awesome idea!


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I had been prepared to say that I was not going to participate in MayHEM, but then I thought about it a bit and realized that I've been thinking about informally doing what could be considered a soap/lather focus anyway, so I guess I'm in. Currently, I'm looking to focus on three main soaps:

- Marvy
- Williams
- Arko

The Marvy was an impulse buy from a local beauty supply store. I've tried it a few times with no overwhelming success. Williams is something of a standard and I've been playing with it for a while with some success, but not to the degree that I hear it is capable of. The Arko stick is from a recent PIF and while I understand it to be easy to lather, I'm especially interested in looking at it for an upcoming trip at the end of the month.

That brings us to today...

May 1, 2016

Razor: Aristrocat Adjustable
Blade: Gilette Platinum Plus (2)
Brush: VdH Boar
Soap: Marvy

After the issues with Friday's shave, I decided to let my face rest for a couple of days. Went back to baseline today with my birth quarter Slim. The Platinum Plus blades are a recent acquisition as they have only recently appeared in some of the local Walgreens. I actually like them, though I think I still prefer the GSB. That said, though, they represent the best blade that is widely available at a B&M store.

As for the Marvy... since the last time I tried this soap, I did a bit of research to see how to better approach it. From early experiments, I knew my best results came from a well-hydrated puck, loaded from a fairly dry brush. Since then, I resoaked the puck as it had dried out and cracked and them moved it to its own microclimate (i.e., closed container). Initial loading of the brush went well. Face lathering seemed to start well, slowly adding tiny amounts of water though the lather still seemed on the dry side. On the final attempt at adding water, either I got overzealous or pushed past some limit because I went from too-dry lather to a dense foam. (Not the not-enough-soap froth you get from a dry puck, more like dish suds.) Nevertheless, I forged ahead with the shave and got a decent CCS with a minor bleed where I reopened the worst of Friday's wounds.

The hydration issue seems to be my biggest challenge with the Marvy soap. I almost seem to run into a precipice between not enough and too much water in the lather. I think my next step is to try and lather in the bowl with the soap rather than face lather in the hopes of keeping the soap/water balance longer. I do wonder, though, since this is a soap primarily sold for use in the barber trade- WWaBD (What Would a Barber Do)?

A quick note on my soap container- At my local ShopRite, I picked up a 4-pack of Rubbermaid TakeAlong Twist and Seal Food Storage Containers (1.2 cup). The are slightly smaller than my VdH bowl and the perfect diameter for a puck of mug soap such as Marvy or Williams. Ridged on the outside for easy handling and deep enough to (I think) lather in.

Happy May!

Benchmark day is today, Shave Den Sunday Style. GSB and the Fatboy! Pics later.

Razor: Bunny V3
Blade: Schick Injector (6)
Brush: "Tres Amigos" Desert Ironwood w/Envy White
Soap: TSD Iced Barber Shoppe
A/S: TSD Iced Barber Shoppe

I will finish with the Bunny V3 on Tuesday then mail it out to the next recipient.
Then I will work with Route 66 soaps for the month of May. I'll use different brushes and see which one produces the best most consistent lather.

I will be shaving in the evenings since my work day got a half hour earlier. Work starts at 5:30am now. I'll kick off the month this evening with a random drawing of suck 3 soaps, 6 blades and a parker style shavette. If I can't handle the blades in the shavette then my backup will be a soviet plastic handled DE loaded with an assortment of Russian Blades. I'll be using the VdH Boar brush. I'll go more in depth when I get off work in a few hours. I'm on a very late lunch now.

I've been using one for nearly 3 months straight. You should be fine.

Remember the beer can kamisori I made? "Hey y'all give me that beer and watch this?"

That was one fine looking razor!

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SOTD May 1, 2016
Injector/SE Focus
Shave Den Sunday



Prep: Warm shower
Blade: GEM Blue Star
Razor: GEM Featherweight
Brush: Satin Tip 'The Purest' synthetic
Lather: TSD Almond
Post: Alum, Witch hazel splash enhanced with Aspen, TSD Aftershave milk, Nivea sensitive balm
WTG, touch-up

Today's shave was.....meh. Not all that good. Just one little weeper and can't tell yet about irritation, but it was just not an enjoyable shave. The initial lather was too wet and thin. I should have washed it off and started over, but I didn't. I palm stropped the GEM blade and it did not feel smooth. It was tuggy which was exacerbated by poor lather.

I got through the first pass and lathered for some touch-up. That lather was better but the blade continued to disappoint. Then I rinsed with ice water (that felt good!) and tried alum for the first time. I rubbed the stick around and felt a little heat in a few spots, but nothing bad. I policed the area some and then rinsed with ice water again. My skin felt very tight and dry after that rinse. It wasn't a pleasant feeling. So I went ahead and went with my normal routine of witch hazel enhanced with some Aspen after shave, and then tried TSD milk. After further policing of the area but skin just did not feel good. There was some stinging feeling and it felt dry and tight still. So I went with Nivea balm like normal. It's finally starting to calm down and feel okay.

Not a great shave overall. But we can't win them all! I'll reset tomorrow and it'll all be okay.

I hope you all are having a great Sunday!