December Focus
The Twelve Blades of December!
Hard to believe we've almost put this year to bed. Wow. Where did the time go? But, here we are and as a gift to everyone here I'm offering up my shaves with twelve blades that have never touched my face, randomly paired with twelve of my DE razors. Two shaves with each setup to finish on Xmas Eve. So, sit back, get the fire burning and enjoy what I hope is an enjoyable month of further proof Technique Trumps Tools. I hope for that....my expectations aren't as optimistic.
December 7
Razor - Razo Rock TTO
Blade -
View attachment 85120
(1)
Brush - Omega Pro 48
Soap - TSD Lanolin Bay Rum
Post - Cold water, Alum, Nivea
I'm just going to start this by posting the following.........
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Now that the expectations are correctly set, let's begin. Monday and Tuesday are now my days off. So, I moved my head shave from Sunday to Monday. And that apparently upset the shaving gods. As well as every other god in the neighborhood, given how this day has gone. Set up for the head shave as normal, Merkur 23c, Astra SP(2), VDH Deluxe soap and boar brush. Notice, no Feather SS involved this week, so nothing deadly in my hands. Started above and around my right ear and everything seemed ok. Getting the usual result, no problems, no worries. Went to the left side, lathered around the ear and on the side, got the side done and went to go around the ear, starting at the neck and coming up as always and......I have no way to explain it other than to say instead of the blade coming around the ear as I turned it, it instead just slid straight toward the top of my head. I felt the blade slicing its way merrily upward right behind my ear. Never had that happen before. Ever. I stopped, grabbed my wet towel and put pressure on while I grabbed the hand mirror. Removed the towel and there it was. About a 3/4 inch slice bleeding nicely. Just merrily sending a red stream down my neck. How in the world......I really don't know. I'm thinking maybe as I went around the ear with my hand I didn't have quite enough pressure on the head of the razor and it slid instead of turning. Whatever, the damage was done. Took a 10 minute break with a cold compress, seemed to be mostly stopped so continued. Now, normally the Astra SP is very smooth and effective. Every stroke after that seemed jumpy or just wasn't as close as usual, or missed a spot. Simply a terrible shave. I had to go back over spots to the point my entire head was clearly irritated by the time I was done. The cut was mostly stopped, but I was as red as a beet all over. Sheesh!
Ok, not a great start. Hit the shower and found that the result on the head shave was atrocious. I ended up grabbing a cart just to smooth it out. It's still not a great shave but workable. Time for the face. Today's selection, the RazoRock TTO with the Dollar Platinum blade. Vidyut Metallics in India makes this blade and they also make the Super Max line so usually pretty solid. Lather was the Pro 48 and TSD Lanolin so great lather and the shave started out feeling very aggressive. Which, I know, the RRTTO is a more aggressive razor. The blade seemed to work fine, though, not really uncomfortable and I got a pretty good result from it. The aggressive feel seems more the razor's issue than the blades. And, as I went for the second pass I noticed that one of the scuttles on the razor looked different. Now, I've used this razor before on a number of occasions and never noticed that before, but clearly the cutout is not even on one side of it. I don't think it affects the shave at all, but it left a bad taste in my mouth for the razor. It's never been a total favorite, but that kind of quality control issue, even if just cosmetic and only visible to the trained eye, lessens my enthusiasm for them. Oh great, first a cut on my head, now my mood is taking a hit. Finished the second pass and was at DFS. Did a third pass neck only just to clean it up and go high level DFS and called it a day. Alum was pretty quiet on my face and neck. Just rinsed my head again with cold water and checked. The cut wasn't bleeding so that's a positive. I found myself, though, just in an overall bad mood after that. Between the fouled up head shave and the discovery on the RRTTO.....I should have gone back to bed.
But no, had to go get a prescription filled. Common medicine, easy to get except CVS didn't have it in 5 different locations I tried. And, when SWMBO and I tried to pay for lunch at Denny's the girl swiped the card wrong which ended up setting off a fraud alert at the bank, causing them to freeze my card until I got it unlocked on the mobile app. The only good news? Dispatch today from the Cartel. Maybe the day is salvageable after all. Here's hoping my Monday's off don't follow a pattern!
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