Monday morning October 16 - repeat for practice Fatip Grande / Topaz Platinum (2) Semogue Owners Club cherrywood boar brush Reef Point Espresso soap Alum and Lucky Tiger. (and styptic pencil) Yesterday's shave with the Fatip Grande was excellent except for my lather. It was skimpy - another screwup with the SOC boar brush. So today I repeated the shave with the same setup. After soaking my brush and then squeezing the water out of it, I loaded the soap. I loaded for about twice as long as yesterday. I then examined the brush and only the tips seemed to be soapy. I decided the problem might be that the brush was now too dry for this fairly dry and hard soap. So I dipped the tips in my water bowl and went back to loading. This time I noticed much more "action" in the soap tub and the brush was soon white with loaded product nearly to the base of the knot. When I lathered in my bowl this time - trickling in extra water a couple times as I whipped - the result was at least three passes worth of slick creamy lather. It seems that the SOC boar brush needs more water and a LOT more soap than I am used to loading onto my synthetics or badgers. But when properly loaded, the result is great lather. Yesterday I did a single pass to mow a couple days of stubble. Today I was shaving a daily trim but I did my normal two passes. First pass is diagonal on the face and ATG on the neck; second is XTG everywhere. The result was a superb BBS. The only fly in the ointment was a small weeper near my Adam's apple on my first pass and another under my lower lip on the second. The second was just a tiny bit of bloodspotting but wouldn't go away even after the rinse, alum rub and second rinse until I lost patience and hauled out the styptic pencil. The alum otherwise showed no signs of irritation anywhere. I finished off by turning myself into a giant orange with the Lucky Tiger. Overall, I would call this one a near epic shave, to borrow a phrase from @Keithmax.
Thank you. My youngest daughter has hip surgery on Wednesday so I know I will be very busy over the next couple of weeks. Since I had the time on Saturday so I cheated and took 14 SOTD photos.
That's not cheating - it's good planning! Hope everything goes well with her surgery! Keep us posted.
I absolutely love the B&W photos. The Bigelow Cream is some great stuff. I really didn't care for the Proraso soap but the cream just seems to work much better for me. Gorgeous brush. Wonderful setup and photo Charlie. Great to have you back. Great looking photo. Great work on sticking with the brush and figuring out the issue.
I hope everything goes well with her surgery, Clint. I'll be praying for you and her and the rest of the family.
have gotten worse Thank you guys. She has a Labrum Tear in her right hip. Over the last year, she has been a real trooper living through a lot of pain while trying all the possible solutions short of surgery. If anything the symptoms and pain level have gotten worse. She put the surgery off until this week so she could enjoy Homecoming. The surgery itself is outpatient but the recovery will last from 6-12 months with at least 2-3 months or more on crutches. We appreciate your prayers.
I've used both COB & Proraso Green. I give a slight edge to COB. Which is funny considering Proraso makes it
I didn't love the smell of Clubman the first time I used it, but it grew on me. Now it's a regular part of my rotation. I feel the same about Florida Water. It took a little time to "acquire the taste" for them. I'm right there with the rest of the guys, praying for your wife, Clint.
Thank you, Gents. I have often changed my opinions on scents greatly after using them several times. Gentleman and Unconditional Surrender come to mind as two that I was ambivalent about initially and became favourites.
I've been trying really hard to thin the herd and weed through the fruits of my RAD, SAD, BAD issues, but it isn't easy. I got several new soaps in, and in trying to reduce duplicates, I have taken several pucks and put them in the "On the Trading Block" section of my shave den. This morning, trying to pare down razors, I decided to shave with a Shick Krona that I bought 6 months ago, but have not yet tried. Dang it! Despite the mild nature of this razor, I enjoyed shaving with it. I really gotta get rid of some stuff. Well there's always tomorrow...
Thank you Randy for the thoughts and prayers. I did have a pretty good day. The last of the tax returns are completed. Whew. A bit of time to catch our breath before we get into the year end drama.
No this is my youngest daughter Maya. She is a senior in high school and will be going to university next year. My oldest daughter Asha and I were visiting universities for her PhD program.
Of course. You mentioned checking out Graduate schools when you posted your travel pics. It's coming back to me now... hiking in West Virginia as I recall.
I get confused half the time myself. In the end I just hope she gets some relief from the pain. I would like her to be able to begin her college journey without lingering pain if it is possible.
