March Madness
Barbasol and Barber Blade Edition
Planned Day Twenty-Five



Have a great evening and a Super Sunday!

I take it one step further. Three and done is my normal rule. Even on blades I know can go longer I typically toss them after three shaves. As you said, no time for mediocre when it's so easily and inexpensively avoided.

I am a dedicated right hander myself. I often consider my left hand dead to me. It's good for typing and a few other things but otherwise it's useless. However, even I have learned to shave with that hand including with Artist Club and straights. No easy feat there! You are correct - practice, focus on technique and know that by the end of your first 30 days you won't believe how fast you've learned and become competent!

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Traditional Japanese straights require that the same side of the blade be used on both sides of the face, thereby necessitating the use of only one hand for the entire shave. I've done that, using a pain stick in place of the required kamisori, and it is a challenge and quite cool to be able to pull off. However, I learned that changing hands does help with some angles and makes it a bit easier, even if the learning curve was a bit high at times. When in doubt - it's your shave - enjoy it your way!

March 25, 2017

Razor: F2 Gillette 195 Adjustable
Blade: Gillette Rubie Platinum Plus (3)
Brush: Razorock Plissoft 22
Cream: KMF fragrance-free

At this point, my face is mostly back to its normal shape with just a bit of lingering swelling from the abscessed tooth. That means it's a good time to break out the Fatboy.

I have to admit that it felt good to shave with that nice, solid piece of hardware after a couple of skipped days and a couple of shaves with the Mach 3. Everything went great right up to the end of the second pass. I was setting up for a last couple of strokes under my nose when I turned the razor wrong, caught myself with the blade tab, and ended up with a nick that took surprisingly long to stop bleeding.

Interestingly, DW took the nick in stride and acknowledged that, since addressing her PTSD and moving from soaps to creams, she is able to accept my wet shaving hobby. Her only admonition was that if my health ever gets to the point where I have to go on something like Coumadin, then it's time to pack in the old-school razors.

March Madness & Spring Cleaning!!

March 25

Razor - Fatip Piccolo
Blade - (1)
Soap - Stirling Sandalwood
Brush - Vie Long 10601 The Pony
Post - Alum

A bit of a change in routine tonight. After throwing my two cents worth on what type of brush is the scritchiest (that would be a 25/75 horse), I realized I hadn't touched my horse brush in ages. It's a 35/75 and very nice and scritchy too. I do enjoy that sensation. So, let's see what it will do with one of the new soaps I've been using. I chose the Stirling sandalwood, and in keeping with aggressive shaves loaded a Ladas into the Fatip.

Here's where the routine changed even more. Not only did I grab the Pony, I also bowl lathered. I do that maybe twice a year. Normally it's load the brush and face lather. But, while loading the brush I saw the lather building nicely in the wooden bowl I keep the sample puck in, so I switched over to my now empty VDH bowl. It didn't take 30 seconds to get a rich and abundant supply of really fantastic lather. I then applied it with more of a painting than swirling motion, which horses do very nicely, and was honestly really amazed at how slick it was. Incredibly so. One of the best lathers I've had this month.

The Fatip made quick work of things with the Ladas and it was extremely smooth for two full passes and touchup. The lather for the second pass was just wonderful to apply. The brush really loaded well and carried the lather without any problem to where I needed it. I had enough left over to shave a couple more times.

Finish was a near-BBS and I used my newfound angle from last night to work my left nick into shape faster than normal. A great diversion to grab the horsey and I need to remember it's here more often!

Hope you're having a great weekend. Not a great day at work and......if North Carolina loses tomorrow I will have missed the entire Final Four. The shave tonight was needed!

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And never stop never stopping.

Don't worry you will see improvements soon and they will come quickly. I use my right hand only for DE shaves and both hands for straight razors. Using both hands will steepen the learning curve but will be well worth the effort.

Not posting much this week, it has been unsusally busy at work but on the positive side my women is in town. Heading the the airport for 6 days in the motherland.

Happy shaves to all.

Fantastic picture Doug.

March 26 (Sunday ) - Gem focus
Gem 1912 SE / Gem PTFE ( 4 )
Red Alluminati Envy White brush
Proraso White soap
Alum and Supply Provision Arenella Coast postshave balm

I didn't bother shaving the last couple days, which gave my face a chance to heal up and also left me with a good stubble to test the Gem SE.

A good lather from the Proraso White that the Alluminati worked well into the underbrush on my face. This brush really is a pleasure to use -- good backbone so it doesn't splay wildly but also soft tips so no scratchiness and it doesn't hog lather. A big tip of the hat to Jared @PickledNorthern for recommending this brush in these threads and to @clint64 and others for giving supporting endorsements to the Envy White knots. I splurged on this brush on you gentlemen's say-so and I will never regret doing it.

The shave: I did one pass diagonally on my cheeks and neck and XTG on my chin and upper lip. The Gem 1912 produced a loud velcro ripping sound everywhere -- and the stubble was gone. I didn't bother with followup XTG or ATG passes or any buffing today. Even so, I would rate my shave at a solid DFS-. Far better than I ever got with an electric without a lot of buffing and resulting skinburn. Today I had no nicks or weepers and zero irritation as shown by the dead quiet alum.

The Arenella Coast balm was a pleasant moisturizing finish. It sort of smells like spicy, Mediterranean sea coast. I have the matching shave cream but haven't yet tried it so I was curious about the scent. Nice.

nice write up and congrats on the results.

Quick newbie question: I believe you are indicating that you are on day 4 and have lots of Velcro sounds.

Is it pulling?
Is it time, for you, to change blades?
How often do you change blades?

Even after 2 months of DE shaving I find myself second guessing if the blade is done.

Tanks for the insight

Congrats on such a nice brush. I am pleased that you like the Envy White knot. You did a wonderful job describing the knot and its attributes.

The Gem Razors just make that sound. I would guess he has a lot more mileage in the blade since many people get at least 7-10 shaves out of a Gem PTFE coated blade.

I am glad you like the brush. Nathan Clark does awesome work, and the Envy knots are a top performer. It is a pretty safe recommendation.

If I were you, I would just toss them out after two or three shaves. From the way you talk, your beard sounds a lot like mine. I CAN get four, usually, but five is always a downhill thing, and day four is never as good as day two. I pitch at three. Every time. Plus, when I got to really appreciate a GOOD shave, there is no way I was going to accept SAS or CCS over saving a penny's worth of used blade.

They are just too cheap. You like Astras, which can be had for $.08 a piece. At 3 or 4 cents a day, I would just completely eliminate the question.

A beautiful shave this morning. What a nice way to start a Sunday. Route 66 never fails to perform
SOTD
Route 66 Sweeney Todd Soap
B-400 Brush by Tom
Henckels Friodur 72 1/2
Lucky Tiger
Ogallala Bay Rum, Sage and Cedar
Have a blessed Sunday!

March 26, 2017​

Cobra Classic
Feather Pro (1)
Brothers Bristles with Tuxedo Synthetic
Fine Italian Citrus
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A start to a new week so I am changing out the hardware and software. Since razor for the week will be the Cobra Classic and was used previously this month. The brush for the week will be a Brothers Bristles brush with a Tuxedo Synthetic knot. The Brothers Bristles handle was made by our fellow TSD member @Tdmsu . The handle is beefy with a solid feel. Being made of solid aluminum helps keep the weight down. I received the Tuxedo knot as a gift from another TSD member and installed it in the BB handle. The knot is soft with sufficient backbone. The soap for the week will be Fine Italian Citrus. The scent is a blend of citrus, florals and musk. Being a sucker for citrus, I have wanted to try Italian Citrus but it was no longer available. When I received notice that production of the aftershave and soap was restarted, I immediately bought both.

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, sans-serif]The BB Tuxedo was a joy to use face lathering. It has a touch more backbone than last week's plisson knot. The Tuxedo knot does appear to be more dense which helps with the backbone. The knot does have a significant glue bump which makes the free loft much shorter which further increases backbone. SInce Fine soaps are shipped in a box, I grated the soap and used an empty soap container. With a wet but well shaken brush, the Italian Citrus was easy to load and lather. I am talking Route 66 or MdC easy to lather. I found the soap to be exceptionally slick with good post shave feel. The citrus scent was prevalent during throughout the shave adding to the overall enjoyment. The Cobra is more efficient than the Mongoose. Two passes, XTG and ATG, had the baby within sight. A splash of water on my neck combined with the residual slickness of the soap, allowed me to catch the little guy. Overall an excellent shave that was just better than my normal results. I finished off with a splash of Fine Italian Citrus. As the aftershave drys down the musk and floral notes come forward to mix with the the citrus making the scent even better. I hope everyone has a great Sunday. [/FONT]

I am going to just suspend the brush reviews for a few more days, maybe the week. I have had company for days, and haven't had time to do them any sort of justice. I have meetings for a few days this week, and may also end up out of town. Not like it's a big deal, just letting you know I haven't given up on them.