I’m back (with a new twist)

Discussion in 'General Shaving Talk' started by Troy M, Mar 24, 2021.

  1. Troy M

    Troy M Prep: Mephitis mephitis musk

    Hello gents and ladies! I’ve not frequented the board much over the past few years but find myself with a new challenge. I became a single man after 30+ years and realized I needed to up my personal grooming if I wanted to get back in the “game”.

    I’ve pretty much had some sort of facial hair since I was about 19 with just a few sporadic moments of full face shaving, generally not more than a week or two at a time. Over the years, that facial hair, whether mustache, van Dyke, full beard or some combination thereof has gone from a manly dark brown, to salt and pepper with dignified streaks of gray to mostly salt, with very little pepper. So I had been keeping the goatee/Van Dyke trimmed pretty closely to make it appear more blondish.

    My girlfriend teasingly complained about how scratchy my face was if I didn’t shave every day so this week while we staying in a mountain hostel for a midweek ski trip, I decided to go ahead and shave off the closely trimmed whiskers. I only had my travel throwaway double bladed plastic fantastic razor and it took multiple goes to take it all down. A few smooches later, she declared it quite nice, so that set me up to continue on the full face shave habit.

    My girlfriend is younger than me, so losing the white whiskers helps keep public perception of me being a dirty old man down a bit and I like that.

    We do travel quite a bit by car, so I’m looking for recommendations for a good synthetic travel brush and maybe soap or cream ideas. I have plenty of DE razors and think a simple fat handled Tech or one of my Gillette New razors will do well for travel.

    What are your ideas about a travel brush or cream? I’ve been pretty much on a “no look, no buy” for about 4 years so have been out of the game. I look forward to hearing your advice!


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  2. Troy M

    Troy M Prep: Mephitis mephitis musk

    Oh and for what it’s worth, my everyday brush is a RazoRock plissoft.


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  3. Lancre

    Lancre Well-Known Member

    Welcome back, Troy!

    To some extent you can't go wrong with any of the synthetics offered by any of the usual shave shops, e.g. Maggard, IB, Stirling, WCS. My current favorite is the Simpson Trafalgar T2. They also have a smaller T1 and a larger T3. I find that it has a bit more backbone than any of the other synths I've tried.

    Hmm. Traveling by car, you don't need to worry about TSA reg, but bulk & weight are still factors. If you face lather, maybe a stick of Tabac or a tube of Proraso. If you bowl lather, toss a collapsible dog dish and a Stirling sample or two into you dopp bag.

    Have fun. If you get near a decent shave shop, take the GF in with you and have HER advise you.
     
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  4. Troy M

    Troy M Prep: Mephitis mephitis musk

    Thanks @Lancre. My travel shave kit is a Gillettish double blade plastic fantastic (which I use in the shower to shave my head 2-3X a week), an older and well broken in Omega boar and about a quarter of a stick of Darby - which takes some work to make a decent slick and lasting lather. I've not used Tabac or Proraso creme, but have heard about them. It's hard to soak that boar long enough in the shower to really soften it up and then I have to worry about it drying after being stuffed back in the dopp kit (but I live in Colorado, the land of 1% humidity, so water dries up here). I have a badger that dries relatively quickly and a Vie Long horse that stays scratchy for ever, but finding a smaller synthetic is my best bet.
     
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  5. Troy M

    Troy M Prep: Mephitis mephitis musk

    [​IMG]
    Tried out part of the “travel” kit. New Fendrihan synthetic, Proraso cream and the Proraso AS. Used my Standard Aluminum razor with a Rapira Super Stainless on day 3.


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