It’s August already and that means it’s time for a new 30DC challenge, with or without a “focus”. What does that really mean
Why would anyone want to take an aspect of their shave and repeat it over and over for an entire month? Here’s why, and I will recall for you a particular month, in which I did exactly that.
I had recently acquired a fairly “hard-to-find” razor; specifically, a 2011 Mühle R41, renowned for its ultra-aggressiveness. Indeed, I could not get through a single shave, without drawing blood. Now, I was no
to traditional wet shaving by any means,
indeed, I had been getting really great shaves for about 3-4 years, but this particular razor kicked my butt.
After spending some time participating in this thread, I made a decision to throw down the proverbial gauntlet, and shave with this razor for the next 30 days.
Damn the torpedoes---full steam ahead!
(We’ll get back to this story in a minute…first let us take care of some thread business):
Here are the “official” rules and/or recommendations for this unique and fast-moving thread:
Take one brush, one soap, one razor, one brand of blades and
use them daily for the entire month.
Easier said than done, but, if you decide to give it a go, you are guaranteed a better, closer, more comfortable shaving experience than you have
ever had before. That’s not hyperbole my friends, those are the facts. And cheering you on are the shavers, who, with a combined millennia of shaving experience, are ready to answer your questions; give you friendly advice; support your acquisition disorders
but mostly help you make your shave better and more fun.
Many of us here at TSD were, at one time or another, what I liked to call myself: “reluctant shavers”.
Oh, how I disliked shaving. I looked at it as a necessary evil. In my profession, I wasn’t required to shave unless I had an opera that evening, and even after becoming a college professor, I would only shave about once every 6-10 days. Needless to say...
I looked like a bum most of the time.
Then I watched that Pawnshop dude hawk the Micro-Touch One Blade. (I would later learn that the razor was actually a Weishi, a Super-Speed clone) I was hooked.
That was in February 2014 and I have been a daily shaver ever since, with all the trimmings and trappings that accompany our hobby. I joined TSD in March of the same year, but didn’t really begin to participate fully until about two years later. Soon thereafter, I discovered this thread and the rest is history.
Best shaving thread on the internet.
Now, there are a few disclaimers, which I am required
by law to present to you:
1) All are welcome, newbies and veterans
2) Respect each other at all times
3) Adhere to the rules of this forum
One fun tradition is to give each month a “theme”. May is Mayhem, October is OCtober, etc.
So, what to do in August…? The first two letters of the month are
AU…interestingly, you can go with AUstere or in the exact opposite direction using the Periodic Table of Elements, AU being the symbol of Gold.
Not a lot of us have gold shaving gear, but what we all do have is a burning desire to reach the “gold standard” with our shaves. So there you have it.
Choose the shave gear, which gives you the BEST shave you can get. Do you have particular razor/blade combination that never lets you down? Do you have a soap, which creates the most exquisite and sumptuous lather on planet earth? Is there an aftershave that sets you apart from the rest? This doesn’t necessarily mean the most expensive gear; we all know that a vintage puck of Williams will create a lather that is hardly rivaled by soaps costing 10x as much (well, I do anyway). It could be that user-grade Tech, which never, but
never lets you down. Or…Clubman, or even Arko
. YOUR best gear to give you that Gold Medal shave.
The most important rule, one that is not really “official”, is to share your shave experience with your fellow shavers.
Share the news of your shave. What worked; what needs improvement. Share of yourself and take interest in each other. We come together with a common love of traditional wet shaving and, while we may never come face-to-face with 99% of our members, we can “virtually” support each other and our great shaving community. We are a team of compatriots, new and old, dedicated to the proposition that everyone can and should get a superb
and more importantly, enjoyable shave.
So how did my 30DC with the Mühle R41 go? Honestly, the first 5-6 shaves were rough, but with the support and encouragement of the TSD members, the shaves improved incrementally, until eventually, I tamed that wretched beast. I could not have accomplished that without the aid of this thread.
Let's make August a shaving month for the record books, shall we?
Now it's time to shave ‘n share, my friends. Welcome to AUgust.
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