SoS: June 23, 2014 - June 29, 2014

Shower of the day. Yep, I'm doing it.
Body wash: Old Spice Zanzibar
Shampoo: Dove Fresh Clean
Cologne: Ed Hardy Skulls & Roses
Pomade: Axe Clean Cut Look Pomade

 

Dovo 55 Fritz Bracht
Muhle synthetic brush
Proraso pre shave
Me Siroco soap
Lea shave stick
Aubrey North Woods AS
Lea AS balm

 

6/29/14

Prep: Shower and wash with Stirling Barbershop
Lather: Tiki Set Sail vegan (scuttle)
Brush: Vie-Long Lord Randal mixed hair
Razor: Gillette New razor
Blade: Astra SP (1)
Post: Captain's Choice Lime

2 pass face and 2 pass scalp made me wonder why any razor needed to be made after Gillette came out with the New razor. It is the finest I have shaved with, ever. Soap had plenty of lather for the full skull treatment, twice and could have likely done 1 more, but why?

Have a blessed Sunday!

 

co-starring...

°Astra Superior Platinum
°VDH

Tonight's episode...

"BBS"

 

Sunday, June 29, 2014

Prep: Warm shower, Cetaphil Lotion
Razor: EJ DE89 Head w/ Weber Classic Handle
Blade: Voskhod (1)
Lather: Arko Stick
Brush: VDH Boar
Post: Witch Hazel
Aftershave: Pinaud Clubman

I have done a really lousy job of recording my shaves lately, but I'll do better. I didn't shave yesterday, but 3 easy passes today gave me a fantastic BBS shave with absolutely zero irritation. This is the first time I've used the Arko Stick in a while, but it did a terrific job.

Have a great day!

 

My first SE shave. Ever.
Gem MMOC
ASR Carbon Steel
Simpson Duke 3
RazoRock XXX
Floid Blue

I'd like to offer my sincere apoligies to every SE user that exists in the world for not listening to you long ago. This was probably the best shave I've ever had. Hands Down. I know some consider the MMOC very aggressive but I found it the opposite, it was loud feedback-wise but very comfortable and extremely efficient. There's no real need to dial in this razor to shave properly and it was a jaw dropping and eye opening experience for me. I think I'm converted...

 

Rerun of a Rerun Shave...

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Yes, this is the same shave as yesterday, hence the same photo. There was one difference between yesterday's shave and this version. The same blade used yesterday was used again but this time with a Twinplex stropper.

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The results were a smoother shave than yesterday. It seems that the Twinplex provided a smoother overall stropping than the Kriss Kross. This blade on day two shaved better than the blade on day one which shaved better than the one on Saturday which was straight from the box. In fact this shave was a 3 pass DFS which was much more enjoyable than the previous two shaves. Note how the advertisement discussed using the stropper on brand new blades ... hmm.

 

I've got both a Kriss Kross and a Twinplex but they didn't seem to do much when I tried them. The stropping surface on the Kriss Kross seems quite hard and dry but I couldn't figure out how to get it apart to attempt conditioning it. The Twinplex is easy to get at but I'm not sure what to use other than leather conditioning products.
Any idea how to get good performance out of one of these (ok, blades are cheap, I don't really need to strop them) or do you just need to find one in excellent condition?

 

You need to find stroppers that are in excellent condition. Both my Kriss Kross and TwinPlex units are almost mint. On the Twinplex you really need to strop about 20 to 40 times because the older carbon blades need a lot more work to get them back in order. I have been told not use leather conditioners because you don't want the leather to be slick while trying to strop.

 

SoS - Sunday, June 29, 2014

Hot shower
Prep: Homemade PSO
Brush: Vulfix 374 Super Badger
Cream: TOBS Eton College
Razor: Merkur 38C
Blade: Shark Super Stainless (1)
Post: Thayer's Cucumber WH
Aftershave: Ogallala Bay Rum w/ Limes & Peppercorns

The first time I tried a Shark blade I tossed it after the first shave because it was dull from the start. This time the blade gave me one of my best shaves ever. Go figure. I guess it pays to revisit products that you didn't like on the first go around. I learn something new every day.

- Don

 

Razor: GEM MMOC
Blade: Treet+ GEM (8)
Brush: Muhle Black Fiber Synthetic
Lather: Mitchell's Wool Fat
Post: Omega balm

Excellent DFS shave. No irritation or nicks.

 

@GDCarrington: Sorry that this is a little Off Topic, but i am very interested in the Twinplex Stropper...looks very nice. I found one on Ebay in very good condition,but there is mentioned "only for Gillette Type"...i can use it for almost all blades,or? Would it make sense to buy and use it?

Thank you.

 

It is only designed for "Gillette" style double edge blades.

If you were going to start using carbon steel blades it is a good buy. If you want it as a collectors item it is a good buy.
If you want to use it on modern (Generally year 1963 and forward) STAINLESS STEEL blades then the answer is no because stroppers are designed to work with the softer carbon steel and they do not work well with modern blades (except the Treet Carbons).