NOV 30 Day Rule/Focus Pic&Discussion Thread

Planned Day 16 - 16 November 2015

No Variation November!




Utopia 3-piece
Gillette Silver Blue (16)
L'Occitane Plisson Synthetic
Proraso Red
Alum
TSD ISZ AS Splash under the Veg

Will check in later after the shave!

Have a terrific Tuesday!
​

 

Thanks, Clint and JR! I had intended to use less water to begin with, but I wasn't careful and ended up with too much. I was surprised it soaked it all in. That shot was after I had painted the lather on my face. I appreciate you pointing me to that thread. I'll take a look tonight.

 

I can't say I ever used any. I learned to shave using Williams and a brush and kept with that except for my Army days when I used whichever of these I could find

I only branched out to different soaps and creams in the last few months. I mainly face lather but I sometimes Bowl lather for a richer lather or a super lather.

 

November 14 morning & 15 evening

Feather Artist Club SS
Feather Professional (5 & 6)
Semogue 830
MdC scented
Two passes plus touch-ups
Thayer's Lavender witch hazel, unrefined shea butter, and Fine L'Orange Noir

Goals
Further develop my two-pass shave technique by practicing the basics
Break in and get more experience with the Semogue 830
Get more experience with MdC

My routine this month has become WTG on the first pass and ATG on the second pass. I have more control of the razor going ATG rather than XTG. DFS+ shaves have become the norm, with slightly better results when I take extra time. I still require a lot of touch ups around my mouth, chin, and under my nose. Duration between shaves is about 36 hours, as I've been alternating between morning and evening. Shaves with this set up have been very good, but they require a great deal of concentration. I'm convinced that a two-pass BBS is achievable with more practice.

Stay smooth!

 

While it looks intuitive to ride the slanted portion of the cap, I have found the razor cuts a little easier when you drop the handle just a touch. Plus it makes the razor glide so much better. Flat against the face it almost wants to suction into your face.

 

There is a thread on The Shave Nook over 33 pages long on how to lather Mystic Water soap. If you can ever figure it out, the performance is really top notch.

 

Thanks Clint, I was going to check out the other forums. I did a search for Mystic in the titles in our soap threads and it helped, but not as much as I'd hoped. They have lathering guidelines on their website that I tried to follow, except that I scooped up some of the soap and put in the scuttle and left way too much water on my brush before starting. You can go here to see what they suggest: http://www.mystic4men.com/
Check out the sidebar labeled "Lathering advice from the experts... A tutorial provided by my customers"

 

if you wanted to experiment with canned cream/foam, you might want to begin with Barbasol. You'd get support on that from Babe Ruth and Knute Rockne, but they aren't available for Q&A. I do like the Rise Foamy I have now.

 

Thanks I checked it out. It was pretty much pulled from the thread I talked about. The biggest difference from most other soaps is how slowly you have to add water. I can load and lather it from the puck pretty well. Since I face lather exclusively, I have found it much easier to use Mystic Water from a shave stick. I am in the process of using up some of my soap inventory before reordering. My goal for 2016 is just to have my top preforming brands on hand. Mystic Water is one that made the cut. Like everything else, YMMV.

 

Great, so that is the method I will be attempting tomorrow.
Thanks for the guarantee Clint!

 

No guarantee RT. Like everything else it's YMMV. In using the Mongoose for 165 shaves this year, I've just accumulated quite a few little tricks in getting the most out of the razor.

 

Thanks for your insight Clint! I think I will go with a face lather tomorrow. I'll scoop out some soap and spread a thin layer on my neck and start with a damp brush and add water slowly. I started reading the Shave Nook thread and it does seem to be a bit tangled. I'm seeing posts that seem to be following up on what someone said, but I couldn't find the earlier post to get the context. I did see your post about face lathering though. That's what I've been doing most of the time over the last couple of months, so I'm very comfortable with it.

 

NOVember - NO Variation

November 16

Razor - Feather SS AC Pain Stick
Blade - (6)
Soap - Mitchell's Wool Fat
Post - Cold Water, Alum, Nivea

A new week dawns. Monday morning and it's cold, raining cats and dogs and just a miserable St. Louis November day. Welcome to our world. Well, it's about time for a change I suppose. One thing is the same though, another day with the Feather SS as the second half of the month starts. Still with the BoSFat too. I do find myself staring more at the Wolf Whiskers brush that is as yet unused. It's broken in, ready to go, just waiting for the month to change. (sigh)

So, off we go. BosFat for a great lather as always now and into the first pass with the Feather. This is really amazing to me how automatic this has become. I'm setting the blade down exactly the same way now, same place, same technique and it's producing a great first pass all over. Re-lather and approach the second pass which tends to go between another WTG and XTG with a lot of diagonal work involved. Finish is very nice but some touch up needs to be done on the neck. This has been where I've made some mistakes but all's well today. No blood and no worries. Alum still burns pretty good where I touch up but I got a very nice DFS, working toward BBS when it happens. I'm not pushing for it, just have the feeling it will eventually show up.

Good way to start the week and it's out the door to spend the day getting soaked and chilled. Gotta love fall on the Mississippi!

 

Nov 17 Focus shave 17

Day 3 with Arko and back to the puck. I need to put this in a bigger container, the lather just goes everywhere. Testing it with a straight again. Today's lather was good but not as good as the past 2 days. Shave was without incident except for one smaller weeper. Some light sting from the alum and the shave was not as close as I expected but DFS.

Irritation B+, closeness B+

Arko puck
Thater 3 band bulb
PRC Western Kami
SRD strop
Speick AS
Edwin Jagger ASB
Hermes Terre d' Hermes

 

I agree two pass BBS should be possible with this razor. I'm thinking that I may even wander into one by the end of the month but I'm not pushing for it. Just letting it happen. And, extra time is definitely a help with this thing. Nice to see the same kind of progress occurring over there!

 

I have been behind over the weekend. I would have voted the straight! What's the worst that could happen, right?

 

I'm also getting nice DFS but refuse to push it. I'm just trying to improve slowly. I learned the hard way not to rush things with this razor. BBS will come.

 

I swear this wet shaving thing is a constant learning curve. I learn something new everytime, tonight's lesson, beer and razors do not make good friends. It feels like I fell asleep on the beach and only forgot to apply sunscreen to my neck.

 

Yeah. Artist Clubs really don't like being rushed.

 

Discretion over valor....

Are you building lather in the tub or face lathering?