June 2019 30 Day Rule/Focus Pix & Discussion

We're not.
Good shave, Danny.

 

Best I can come up with offhand is "judicate", meaing 'to judge'. "Adjudicate" is more popular, but 'judicate' is a real word.

C

 

Oh, that's a good one too....I agreed on a Swahili word the other day, but judicate is in our own language, which may win over.

 

June 4th

Proraso PS Red
Tabac SS
Semogue OC Cherrywood Boar
Gillette Slim (L1)
Gillette SB
Proraso AS Red

Hadn't wielded a DE since April 30th. Easy 2 pass DFS+. No drama. The Gillette pairing is simply predictable perfection.

First time using Tabac. Funny, spell check doesn't try to correct it. The Boar and Tabac, another great combo. Nice slick and creamy, but a little thin on volume (probably my lather skills).

Have a Terrific Tuesday everyone!

 

Thank you guys. My week has been pretty good so far. Somewhat hectic but I expected that to be the case.

 

Great shave and photo Danny.

 

Great picture, Blair!

Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk

 

Much better shave this morning....I could SEE what I was shaving with. The pleasant wood scent of the Agadir aftershave was cut off a bit by the absence of the Agadir gel, but that's OK. In fact, I'm going to try the aftershave with the Lumberjack soap(from The Soap Exchange) next. I',m sure that will be a good match. As it is, the scent is still there. Rise is a safe enough foam to use...nice and neutral.

 

June Focus

ASW Old Virginia~~Morris & Forndran 2XL Blonde Badger~~Detroit National Cut. Co.
SR #100

I finally made the proverbial milestone.
When I look back on this journey, some things come to mind, which I would like to share with
any curious "Dark Side" shavers.
Challenges:
1) The Grip. I know, one would think this shouldn't be an issue, but for me, it was.
2) Non-dominant hand usage. I did start to train my left hand for about a month before starting with a straight.
(I think you could mos def use only your dominant hand, btw.)
3) Blade angle. I had to completely rethink the "ride the cap" mentality. Such a flat angle does NOT work with straights.
4) Skin stretching. I used to get away with "shave faces" when using a DE. Skin stretching facilitates a better straight shave.
5) The "set-down". 99% of blood drawn was from setting the blade on the skin and NOT beginning a stroke immediately.
6) Short strokes. Ok, I used short strokes and buffing with DE shaves, so this wasn't too challenging.
7) Lather. Butter cream not only is not your best friend, but is a quasi-hinderance. Thinner, wetter is better.
8) The Chin. For the first half of this journey, I sported a goatee. So when I shaved it off, it was like starting from the beginning.
9) Straights are sharp and their blades are exposed. Learned that the hard way.

10) Stropping. Not as easy as it looks in videos or on TV. Nicked up my first strop pretty good. (Yes, I was warned, too)
11) Maintaining the edge. OK, I am still being challenged in this subject. I don't devote enough time to it, to have
become proficient yet. Hopefully, sooner rather than later.
12) Even after 100 shaves, the BBS continues to be elusive on the neck.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
So, how was shave #100
Answer: Far better than shave #1
I am going to no longer keep a running total of straight shaves. I am also going to mix in more often a DE shave.
Last comment: I don't know why I waited so long. Straight shaving looks "scary"...and it is at first,
but their are a lot of great straight shavers right here on TSD, who are very generous with their time and
resources and to all of them, and you know who you are, I would like to give a big shout out and thank you
for your support along my way. You all made it more enjoyable...MOS DEF!
​

 

Very Nice.

 

How about your soap&A.S. choice? I mean, I see it's Asylum, but what's the Old Virginia fragrance like?

 

Congrats hitting the century mark, Joseph!

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Excellent photo and shave Blair.

 

Congrats on completely the 100th SR shave. I have really enjoyed following along with your progress.

 

Cheated on Arko for Tabac Tuesday. I also decided I'm going to use up all my sample size aftershaves before using any of my bigger bottles again, so I finished up with Stirling Sharp Dressed Man today

 

This razor was already on the bubble, it is a nice but just a notch below my favorites.

Congratulations and excellent write up, great advice for the new straight razor shaver.

 

Old Virginia is a very nice tobacco-scented soap.

 

Thanks, fellows. I have enjoyed the journey so far, as well.

 

Sounds like a good plan.

 

Congratulations, Joseph!

Not quite 30 years ago, exactly once, I bungee jumped from a 200 ft boom. (I was much less in tune with with my mortality back then.) The scary part of it? Going up. Watching the ground fall away as the boom lifted the platform. Serious butterflies. But the actual jump wasn't really scary. Straight razors were kind of like that for me, to a lesser extent. Working up to it was the intimidating part. Once I actually picked up the blade for the first time, it wasn't such a big deal.