SoS: December 30, 2013 - January 5, 2014

Happy New Year!
Prep: hot shower
Razor: WW2 Gillette Khaki
Blade: Feather (day 1)
Brush: Wilkinson Sword
Soap: Proraso white tub
Passes: 3 (WTG x2, XTG)
Post: cold water
I thought I would start the new year off with a new blade, so I loaded up a Feather. It didn't really feel any different during the shave, but it did leave my face nice and smooth! I could get used to this blade and look forward to it's continued use.

 

Tuesday


Matas Sensitive face wash.
Mühle R89 coupled with Q-Ball blade (2).
D.R.Harris Arlington soap.
Vie-Long Butterscotch Edition horse hair.
3 passes, growth adjusted.
Ajanta alum.
Old Spice Original after shave and Nivea for Men Sensitive face cream.

Wednesday


Matas Sensitive face wash.
Mühle R89 coupled with Q-Ball blade (3).
Speick grated soap stick.
Noname/unbranded Pure Badger.
3 passes, growth adjusted.
Ajanta alum.
Proraso Cutting Edge after shave balm.

Two great shaves in each their way. My New Years Eve shave was supposed to be special - and it was! Some of my best gear put together for an awesome shave.
Todays shave with a hangover felt very fresh. Much needed

 

Wednesday morning, January 1, 2014

Schick E2 Injector with Schick blade,
Semogue 1305 boar bristle brush,
Arko shaving soap with hot water lather,
finish with cold water rinse for a CCS!

 

SOTD Wednesday 1-1-2014 HAPPY NEW YEAR!

9/16 Torrey Wedge, Hollow Point
Proraso PSC
Erasmic SC
GT G4 Scuttle
Semogue 820 Boar
Dickinson's Witch Hazel
Nivea Replenishing ASB
Florida Water Cologne

 

6/8 Gong
Klar Klassik
homemade boar, Omega knot
I'd been struggling with this edge for a couple of shaves, it just didn't have the sharpness it should have had despite a couple of touch ups. After yesterdays mediocre shave I looked at the edge with the loupe and noticed a shinny edge (not bevel). So apparently at some point during my touching ups I must have rolled the edge slightly. I dulled the edge on glass and brought it back from the bevel up. Excellent shave this morning. I haven't used the loupe to look at an edge in a while, cocky maybe, maybe a bit arrogant, but I was starting to doubt the hone. I picked up this barber's hone a while back and I really like the edge off it. I seen one review on it and the "expert" said he though it was around 12,000 k. I think it's less but will demur to the expert. At any rate, I get a very nice feeling shave off this hone and was about to move on to try others, probably unsuccessfully too. So the moral of my story is "don't jump to conclusions" especially if your not paying attention. Happy New Year and have a good one.

 

That red Lucite brush is the cats meow!

 

Razor: Toggle rhodie
Blade: Feather
Brush: Simpson's Chubby
Soap: Floris
Asb: Castle Forbes
Edt: Floris Special No.127
Happy New Year's Day everyone

 

Happy New Years Gents!

Decided to skip the morning shave and just veg in front of the TV most of the day. Hope everyone has a great day today.

 

Wednesday, January 1, 2014 - Happy New Year!

Prep: Warm shower, Corn Huskers Lotion
Razor: Weber PH
Blade: Voskhod (3)
Soap: Stirling Orange Chill
Brush: Omega Travel Brush
Post: Witch Hazel, Corn Huskers Lotion
Aftershave: British Sterling

This wasn't the best way to start the new year. I had a very close, but uncomfortable shave. I think I have discovered that I have an intolerance to menthol. The Stirling Orange Chill is a wonderful soap, but it has a lot of menthol. To me, it is just as cold as Margaritas in the Arctic, but is orange scented instead of lime. It performs flawlessly. My problem is that the menthol raises tiny bumps on my face by the time I get to my second or third pass. Unless I use a very, very light touch, the bumps are easy to nick resulting in several weepers.

I'll have to do more testing to make sure that menthol is the problem. I'm hoping that it isn't because half of my soaps and creams have menthol. I had noticed this problem about a week ago and quit using creams and soaps with menthol. No bumps and I got great shaves. Today was the first time in about a week that I have used a product with menthol. The bumps only last about and hour or so, but that doesn't help when I'm shaving. Also, the menthol seems to leave my face with big red splotches. They go away fairly quickly, but I'm still thinking this is a reaction to the menthol.

Have a great day!

 

New Year's Day

CeraVe facial cleanser
Barrister & Mann unscented soap
Oscar11 custom brush with HIS knot
iKon ShaveCraft razor
Iridium Super blade
Cold rinse, CeraVe lotion

Great lather from the B&M soap and the big Oscar11 brush. I have enjoyed the shaves so far with my Christmas ShaveCraft razor and my go-to blade, Astra SP. Today I put in an Iridium blade. A couple of years ago, when these blades became unavailable, I bought up a fair stash at unreasonable prices. In blades, YMMV applies even to myself - I really didn't like the shave with the Iridium blade today. The shave with the bargain Astra blade yesterday was much better! Sigh...

 

Prep: Hot Shower
Razor: Boker 6/8" Silver Steel Faux Tortoise Shell, '85 Super Speed
Blade: Red Personna (2)
Brush: Semogue Italian Barber
Soap: Stirling Orange Chill
Post: Alum, RazoRock AS wax

First Shave of the New Year. With recent tips from 3Drew101 I tried to hone 1 of my straights with my water stones for the first time. This straight was a gift and was not shave ready. My father and I tried to hone it twice before with his "Wicked Edge Sharpening system" but failed get it to shave ready status. Began shaving with it. It is pretty darn sharp but not 100% there. I think I may have to send it out just so I can start using it regularly and work on honing my other straight. So I did 3-4 stroked on each cheek, realized it wasn't sharp enough and switched to the DE. Pretty good shave, redness at my problem area but no discomfort.

 

Thursday:

L'Oreal Men Expert Facial Wash
#6 Horsehair
Super Speed/Permasharp day 4
Egyptian Palmolive Menthol SC
444 AS Balm
Osage Rub AS
Dolce & Gabbana EdT

Our weather forecast is a temperature of -23 C but that ain't gonna stop me from enjoying my menthol, and enjoy it I did. The Egyptian version of Palmolive Menthol cream has the same great lather and arctic freeze as the Italian version, the 444 balm delivers unbelieveable moisturizing in addition to its fabulous cooling effect and that Rubby Dubby Doo put the "icing" on the cake. What a super shave!

 

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Dove Men's Face Wash​

Proraso Green Shave Cream​

Frank Shaving Finest Badger​

Schick M Adjustable​

Schick Stainless Steel​

CWR​

Thayers Cucumber Witch Hazel​

Family Dollar Old Spice AS​

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The Frank Shaving finest badger face-lathered the Proraso Green SC easily. Two passes and touch-ups on the neck with the Schick M adjustable left me near BBS. After a cold water rinse and some Thayers Cucumber WH I finished off with some Family Dollar Old Spice after shave. Nice...​

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Gillette LC New
Personna Lab Blue
Omega 80265
Tet-a-Tet SC & ASB

 

Thursday

Proraso Sandalwood soap face lathered with Omega 49
Ikon Slant with Astra SP (2)
3 passes, cold water splash and finish with Pinaud Vanilla

 

Merkur 37C
Voskhod (d1)
Arko - Face Lather
Tweezerman
Dickenson Witch Hazel
Master Musk

 

6/8 Wusthof
Tabac SC
homemade brush
dab of Gold Bond Medicated Body Lotion
Nice shave this morning, smooth and close. The cold, dry winter air is getting a little tough on the face so it's balm time.
Have a good one.

 

Thursday

Prep: Hot Shower-Stirling Bath Soap
Soap: Cella Brick
Razor: ’66 Gillette Slim “6”
Blade: Polsilver SI (2)
Brush: Omega 10066 Boar-24mmx54mm
Aftershave: Shulton Old Spice

WTG-XTG-ATG (adjusted angle for my beard a bit)

I continued with the “Old School” theme to start the year. I broke out the Cella brick. My Omega boar quickly whipped up some great “almond croissant” lather in no time. What a great slick, smooth, close shave! I finished up with original Shulton Old Spice in my “new” Flying Cloud” OS bottle. I am a 3rd generation Old Spice user going back well over 60 years.

Bob

 

Thursday:
hot shower
Homemade PSO
Gillette Slim 2 passes (9)
TopCare (3)
VDH boar
Savon a barbe Vetyver soap
Thayer's unscented with aloe
English Leather cologne splash (sample)

I was all ready to go at it with the straight again but looking in the mirror revealed the carnage from yesterday's first attempt so I decided to use my new Slim that I picked up over Christmas that arrived back home in the mail earlier this week. It still had the generic (TopCare) blade in it I picked up at a Winn Dixie store that gave me 2 good shaves already so I left it in for one more run.

First time with the Savon a barbe soap and I couldn't be more pleased except for the large amount that went down the drain from my thickly overloaded brush when I was finished. A very nice scent and a terrific buttery lather with minimal effort. Any time I make a lather like this I tend to describe it as "buttery" because it reminds me of spreading soft margarine from a tub or frosting a cake with a big wide spatula in creamy sweeping swirls. It always makes my brush look like a flower that's ready to bloom after I get done covering myself with the creamy frosting. Too bad nobody makes a shave soap that's edible.

Two good passes for a very good shave and finished up with a sample of English Leather. Tried the English Leather Black the other day and probably like it better but I think I could use this every once in a while.