Praying for your mom and your family.

I have been so busy today that I neglected to post this morning. It just took me a while to catch up on this thread. We are a talkative group.
Travel SOTD
Ogallala Bay Rum Shave Stick
AoS Pure Badger Brush
Jacob Ray El Diablo Razor
Skin Bracer AS
Have a blessed Sunday!
My wife is a Skin Bracer fan. It's a keeper.

Hope everything goes OK with your mom.

The E is ingenious, and maybe the design pinnacle of the series.

Schick G was really the razor that opened my eyes to the need for/value of skin stretching. After that, straights were only a small leap of faith. If one can master the stretch and the wide open geometry of the early Schicks, the fine motor control is adequate for handling a straight. This is not to say it will be without mishap, but the early injectors punish bad technique almost as badly as open blades.

If open blade razors did not exist, I'd definitely be using either a Schick G/J (my only Schicks) or the 59 FB on nine.

Why?

Because they are extremely well balanced razors, and their aggressive nature with wide open exposure allows more control over the shave.

Eventually, open blade or hyper aggressive safety razor shaving leads to less irritation overall. The reason for this is that milder razors let the user get away with imprecise moves that, while only necessitating post shave balm in DE world, would be disastrous moves in open blade world. This leads to the adoption of a very deft touch and feel for the blade bevel itself, produces accurate shaving from an angle and pressure standpoint, and prevents deep and unneeded exfoliation on a daily basis (razor burn).

Love Schick Injectors.

Back to the foolproof combination again; Mühle Rocca plus Personna Platinum Chrome. One thing I learned this month is that this razor / blade combination works great for me. Quite a surprise, since the PPCs don't really stand out in the other razors I use.

February 20 (Monday) - equipment focus - Fatip #2

Fatip Grande / GSB (2)
Surrey Premium Badger (aka The Dustmop)
The Eternal Tub of TOBS Avocado Cream ( croap )
Alum and Thayers Witch Hazel Original and Nivea Sensitive Balm

I think the Surrey would be a good little brush for whisking dust off camera lenses and computer screens but consider it nearly useless for shaving. Not worth either selling or PIFing to someone else. However, today it dawned on me that I could pull the unsatisfactory badger knot from the rather nice turned wood handle and replace it with my spare Maggard synthetic.

Before doing so, I used the Mop one final time. Naturally it turned in a superb performance, whipping up gobs of lather and face painting excellently while held in the old "barber grip".

The Fatip gave me another good close shave today, although I don’t think the GSB felt quite as smooth as the Voskhod. Once again, the razor felt controllably aggressive. I did get a tiny weeper at the corner of my mouth but it was closed by the cold water rinse even before the alum. The alum was needed to seal a couple bloody spots at the base of my neck though where I took off a couple skin tags.

I used the Nivea balm as well as the Thayers alcohol-free tonic and everything is good. Whether it will be good tomorrow after I run the Topaz Platinum in the Fatip is another question...

Very nice looking gear Chris. Music is an amazing release and a good way to find out how little you know no matter how long you have been playing. There is always someone much better than you.
"If music be the food of life play on, stop no more tis not pleasing to my ear."

Excellent way to start a week amigo.

Paul,
All the best with your mom. I will hope and pray for a speedy recovery.

Feb 20th - awake from my Veg coma

Last thing I recall was trying to wash off the Veg. I awoke in my bed. All I smelled was the faint scent of baby powder and diapers. No, I do not have a child of diaper age. I think it was what was left of the Veg. I survived to shave again.

All kidding aside, I can see where scents draw from memory. For me, the scent was very baby powder and some floral. I do not know if any citrus was there. maybe I could not detect it. For me, that scent is only tied to memories of taking a pee. Anyone who thinks first of peeing as their first memory of a scent is not going to like it.

The odd thing is that I wore the scent until bed and the wife never made a comment. In fact, she persisted to snuggle. Now the question remains, if there is benefit reaped from the scent, could I endure it?? That will need to be answered in the future.....

Feb 20th - Voskhod day 3

Merkur 34C HD
Voskhod Teflon
Homemade preshave
Stirling SDM
Alum
AOS Unscented Post Shave Balm
​

Today was the third day with the Voskhod blade. Yesterday resulted in a shave that kept me extremely smooth all day. My wife even commented how unusual that was for me. The shave was excellent. Even this morning, I had the lightest stubble I have ever had.

I started with more water to help shorten the time to lather the Stirling. this worked well up to the point where I went just too far. The lather was a little wet. It gave excellent glide but less cushion than I like.

Rode the cap and rechecked often for proper angle to maintain that sensation. Held the razor by the end with a very small contact area in an attempt to keep pressure light. To me it worked. Did 3 passes: WTG, XTG and ATG. I ended up adding some more soap before the ATG. I got the cushion I was looking for. This is one thing that is great about wet shaving. It is easy to just add water or soap to tune. Cannot do that with a can.

Razor glided like it was a new blade, especially on the last pass. It felt so good, I even did extremely short strokes and managed to go ATG on the chin. Normally unheard of for me. I leveraged the technique of riding the cap and the fact that the chin angle changed. I did not try to follow. Instead I would let the blade come off while cap remained in contact. This kept the shave area small and allowed me to gently shave the chin ATG.

Results: Alum was stinging. but I got a DFS+ to near BBS. If it wasn't for the lack of touch up pass, it would be BBS. Not sure if the soap is irritating me or what. Face was red even though I used very light pressure and rode the cap very well. I never felt scraping going on. In fact, the razor glided so smoothly that I am tempted to do a 4th day with the blade. My fear is that Stirling is irritating my face. I may go back to AOS and see if the irritation lessens. I hope that is not the case. I really like the slick feeling it gives me and I have 7 more samples to try.

Wishing you all the best with you Mom.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Feb 20, 2017

'52 Canadian Tech w Astra SP (3)
TGN synthetic/mahogany handle
Stirling Barbershop (sample)
Thayers Unscented/Nivea Sensitive Balm



Day 6 of the humble Canadian Tech focus. Day 3 of the Astra. Great Lather this morning, and a nice 3+ pass shave. This brush is really becoming a favourite. I ordered the knot as a throw in on a badger/boar order to justify the shipping and I find myself getting excellent lathers from it, albeit with a little different technique. Had to do a little more touch up than usual, but I didn't shave yesterday, so that might be the culprit. One small edge of mouth weeper that didn't even survive the Thayers. Nivea to finish as we're a little chilly this morning.
After 3 days of the Astra, I'd say with that admittedly small sample size, that the Voskhod may be a better fit for me in the Tech. On to the Polsilver tomorrow.
Have a great day all. To all my COTUS friends, enjoy your holiday today if you get one!

All the best to you and your mom Paul.

20 February 2017 Presidents Day Blade/Focus Shave

Good morning my fellow Americans!
Blade: Gillette 7 o'clock Green
Razor: Parker 99r
Brush: Omega 10098
Soap: Route 66 "Rum Runner"
Pre: VDH Shave Butter w/hot towel
Post: Hot/Cold water rinse, cold towelx2, Dominello Vitali Calming Post Shave Moisturizer
A/S: Clubman VIBR
Prop: "Spirit of Gettysburg" by Lenox
This morning's shave was fantastic. Great lather, which smelled out of this world, great blade and if I do say so myself pretty good technique. The 3 day growth fell swiftly and since I had the time and inclination it was a traditional three pass shave. BBS. Nuff said. Have fantastic day everybody!

Excellent picture.

Great photo. The Rum Runner is very nice!

February 20, 2017
Mongoose B2 with Triad Ti
Feather Pro Super (9)
Rubberset 400 #3 with WSP HWM
Route 66 Rum Runner
Captain’s Choice Bay Rum

​

Late posting due to a very busy morning. I overslept slightly and was worried about making it to physical therapy on time. Mornings like this are where the Goose and a good soap pay huge dividends. I managed to shower, shave, police the area and dress in under 20 minutes. Just as important, the shave was up to my normal standards. I hope everyone has a great Monday.

Thanks Doug!

SDM is a scent that has bothered some people in the past. In fact, I think he reformulated the fragrance a bit at one point for that reason. I would try another scent. Not Sandalwood. Or Hot Apple Cider. If those are scents you have.