Greetings fellow Denizens...

Pics and discussion for those doing a 30 DAY RULE or 30 DAY FOCUS in June 2015...here we go!

Please read the above provided link to @GDCarrington and his guidelines. He explains the concepts and such in detail. His suggestions early in my foray into DE greatly improved my shaves by focusing my efforts. This thread is completely inspired by his guidelines, ideas and methods. Thanks to Gary for all he contributes to TSD!

If you are new to TSD, Welcome Aboard! Thanks for hanging out with us. If you are joining in again, welcome back! Let's have a blast working on some fundamentals, and learning more about our gear and ourselves. Direct chatter and topic wandering is highly encouraged. I also encourage all to quote posts when in discussion so we can all follow along.

I hope everyone learns a few things, makes a few friends and has a great time. See an SOTD weekly thread if you want an example of how this thread might work. Feel free to introduce yourself to the group and relate your experience with wet shaving. All razor types are welcome here!

The housekeeping-

These are the rules. Follow them.

So let's do this...I opened it now for general prep and discussion.

To Newbies: Welcome! TSD is participation driven... you should probably be on SOTD too! It is central to the goings on at TSD. Feel free to jump in and post pics there too. They love pics. Coming up with unique interesting pics daily in June is an implied challenge.

Lots of good reference found >here<. If you are new to TSD, please go back and click that link...it will help you make sense of our acronyms and chatter.

Have fun, follow your plan...Great shaves await!

Warmest Regards,

Chris

Hi guys! I am Chris, and I am back for another Rule. I have been traditional shaving for almost a year, and I love it. I am spending this year undoing my RAD by learning every razor I have. This month I will be using Williams soap for sure, the rest is undecided.

Will I love the Williams or hate it?

Razor options:

Cadet OC
New to me Schick injector

Or maybe a surprise dark horse or two.

A month with Williams will put a spring in your step and a twinkle in your eye. Or, well, not so much. I'll be watching to see how you make out. I did manage two weeks before thanking the shaving gods for the end of that phase. I still have the Williams puck I used....waiting for the right time to offer the flaming sacrifice. Oh, and thanks for another month of Rule/Focus. Love it!

I will be doing a 30-day focus as I have a variable in my setup. My Parker SR1 came with five Shark blades, and I fully expect to be trying a few others during the month of June. This is my first attempt at traditional style shaving since twice trying DE years and years ago, and my very first stab at straight razor technique. Maybe stab is not the right word to use here. I have watched numerous videos and read countless articles, so I believe I'm ready to get going without causing too much damage. In fact, I'm going to get my first shave in here as soon as I'm done with this post!

I will be using the following:

• Parker SR1
• Blades will be variable
• Taylor of Old Bond Street Sandalwood Shaving Cream
• Escali badger brush
• Old Spice aftershave - though this may switch over to Aqua Velva Ice Blue during the next month.

The next 30 days will be spent trying not to die at the hands of my shavette (reasonable goal if there ever was one), start to develop some sort of technique to build upon, map my hair growth, and develop good habits that create a good lather. Initially I will only be doing the areas below my sideburns down to the jaw line and eventually progress onto my cheeks. The rest of the shave will be completed with a...cartridge razor. Don't hurt me! It's only temporary!!!

May went by VERY fast so here we are with June a couple of days away. I'm going to spend the month on the World Tournament of Blades - Russia vs. the World! No great challenge here, unlike the past couple of months. However, I hope to narrow down my blade preferences into a semblance of order. I currently have eight Russian blades that I consider my top eight and I also have four non-Russian blades that I like very well. In order to do a tournament approach I've added four more non-Russians to the list to make it an even bracket. Here are the blades.

Russians
Voskhod
Rapira Swedish Supersteel
Rapira Platinum Lux
Gillette Silver Blue
Sputnik
Sharp Star
Ladas
Nacet

Non-Russian
Kai - Japan
Super Max Platinum - India
Bic Chrome Platinum - Greece
Super Max Super Platinum - India
Treet Platinum - Pakistan (Replaces the Lord Platinum in the bracket...that blade SUCKED today)
Personna Lab Blue - USA
Derby - Turkey
Feather - Japan

Each blade is paired up against a single competitor. And, the order is simply right down the line, so.....the first bracket is Voskhod vs. Swedish Supersteel, Platinum Lux vs. GSB and so on. I'll advance the winner to the next level until I determine my favorite Russian. Same for the non-Russians. The bracket is attached. Hopefully you can read my writing. The final two days of the month will pit the Russian vs. the Non-Russian for the favorite blade of all. I will reuse each winning blade through each bracket, so a maximum of 3 shaves per bracket winner. For the final I will use a brand new Russian and a brand new non-Russian.

Criteria - Sharpness, Smoothness, Irritation, Result. So, a blade that scores a 1 for sharpness on a scale of 1-5 with 1 being sharp, 5 dull, and a 2 on smoothness, 1 on irritation (meaning none) and a 1 for BBS would have a score of 5. Low score in each dual wins and moves on.

Supporting equipment. Razors - EJ DE89L, RazoRock TTL, '46 Aristocrat, '59 Flair Tip Superspeed. Soaps - Arko, Proraso, Tabac, MWF. Brushes - Vie-Long 12750, Omega Pro 48, VDH Boar. Each pairing will use the same razor, soap, and brush for an even comparison. I will be changing gear with each pair, though, just to keep it interesting for me.

My motivation for this is to help decide which blade I really prefer. While I love the Voskhod I feel there are a few in there that may have a shot at unseating it as my favorite. I have actually paired them in a way that has the potential of bringing the right challengers together....but I may be surprised at the result at any stage! My secondary motivation is to enjoy some great shaves for a month while I finish getting set up for kamisori shaving which is currently my plan for July. I still need a strop and need to get the kamisori honed.

Thanks to all for a great MAYhem and here's to RUSSIANS vs. THE WORLD! in June.

​

Welcome Matthew! Glad to see you get started. It sounds as if you did some homework!

You are attempting to learn multiple skills. They are prep, lather, shave and postcare. They all work in concert to provide that great shave experience! I suggest you practice lather building. Great shaves await!

I started my 2nd attempt at straight shaving last month and made some progress. This month my focus will be using a SR and getting to a point where I can do 3 passes without irritation and DFS. With a DE I'm am 4 pass shaver even with a 2011 R41. I have a 4 day biz trip, I doubt I'll bring SR but maybe my Feather shavette.

My target is 4 SR shaves a week, I am daily shaver. I saw how helpful this thread was in May so it's time for me to join in.

First shave complete (let's pretend it's June 1)! It went better than I had expected. The lather needs work - I noticed it drying out fairly rapidly and found myself having to touch it up. I made a second lather and it was better than the first having used a touch more water. I think I was so concerned with using too much water that I ended up using too little.

Using my Parker SR1, I began with WTG just below my sideburns to my jawline. I started at too shallow of an angle and worked my way out until I knew I was at the right angle. As expected from my research, the angle is very shallow indeed when done properly! It was amazing to not feel any pulling of the hairs as the razor cut right through them. It took a few moments to get my grip comfortable, but it didn't take long to find a good starting point that worked for this shave. Things were going so well that I proceeded on to a portion of both cheeks. I found that a little bit more difficult following the contour of my face, so I stopped there and will stick to that for a few shaves.

Results: Zero cuts, zero razor burn, slightly better results than a WTG shave from a cartridge razor. A very relaxing and comfortable start - the scent from the sandalwood cream was excellent! I noticed less razor burn with the cartridge razor from using the cream as well, so my first impression of it is great.

What I learned: Lather needs work - don't be afraid of the water. When I added more on the 2nd batch, the quality of it improved greatly though was still a bit dry and lacking. Grip, grip, grip. This will come with practice, but once I master my grip then following the contours of my face and neck will be that much easier. One comment about the SR1 - I wish it had a bit more weight to it, as I feel something a bit more substantial would be easier to manage.

TOBS shaving cream is a great product but as you noted it requires more water than one would think. Try adding the water a little at a time as you build the lather. This should allow you to get the water/cream ratio dialed in. I found that even doing a practice lather and purposely adding water until the point that it was way to much allowed me to judge how much room I had for error. Good luck this month. I'm looking forward to following your progress.

I may try a blade focus for the month. I will be traveling the last half of June (well, in a hotel at a workshop) and driving to Lincoln, Nebraska, so blades will be an easy variable to experiment with. I may go all synthetic this month to give a comparison between my TGN synthetic and the Bodyshop synthetic in my dopp kit. I'll dig into the magic shoebox of blades and see what I can come up with. I do have some that I have not tried yet.

Love the tourney idea. Top seed from Russia is the Voskhod!

Keith, I'll be starting my second month of straight focus. Look forward to learning with you!

June will be more straight shaving but the focus will also be in producing a great lather with Joanna's creations. If you haven't had a chance to try some of the shave den soaps, I highly recommend you do!

I hope to continue the 'consecutive use straight razor ordeal process' in June.
I think I'll do "Five in June: A six-Day Journey with Each Razor" which will allow me to squeeze one more razor into the month.

The Big Five...

Count me in for June!

Thanks to @GDCarrington for the great explanation of the 30-day Rule / Focus and to @Bama Samurai for facilitating this effort each month!
I will be joining as a one-month newbie to traditional shaving, so this will be a 30-day rule for me. The objective of course is technique.

My tools:

Pre-Shower Prep: Lucky Tiger Lemon Cleansing Facial Cream
Morning Hot Shower
Prep: Pre-Shave Oil - The Art of Shaving
Soap: Arko
Brush: Omega Pro 48
Razor: Gillette Tech “Fat Handle”
Blade: Gillette Wilkinson Sword Stainless (India)
Mustache/Beard Trim: Schick Golden 500
After Shave: ?

I’ve chosen:
- Omega brush because it's my only brush.
- Arko because my newbie brush technique finds it easy to build a good lather.
- GilletteTech - because I’ve gotten used to it this month.
- Wilkinson Sword Stainless - because I’ve tried it and it didn’t hurt me! Plus it’s the one blade that I have enough to last through the entire month!!

I am hoping to be able to mix in a variety of after shaves to try a few that I haven’t before. I believe that though the effect on my skin may vary with different aftershaves, the technique of my shave isn’t affected by this variable. Yes?

I’m an everyday shaver during the week, but a bit sporadic on the weekend. I will attempt to do more weekend shaving during this month.

Looking forward to the experience.

Cheers!
- RT

Absolutely!! Though it has some competition coming up

Welcome aboard. The tools you've chosen are great and should allow you to work on technique without issues. I think it's a great idea to mix up the aftershaves. It will not interfere with concentrating on technique and will provide some variety during the month.

I am looking forward to your posts this month.

June Open Comb Focus

I will use each of these razors for between 6 or 7 shaves. All razors will be used with Triad SS handle so that I can better judge the differences between the heads.

Razors:
Top left to right Gillette New Long Comb, Gillette New Deluxe 15mm Red & Black
Bottom left to right ATT with M2&R2 plates, Glillette Old Type




I'll rotate thru soaps and brushes daily but will repeate the exact rotation with each razor. I'll start up the June focus either Sunday or Monday.

Welcome aboard!

Welcome aboard!