SOTD January 27 -February 2, 2020

[Mike R]

Monday

Brush: Rooney Stubby 1
Soap: Arko
Razor: '70 Gillette Black Handle Adjustable
Blade: Astra SP
A/S: Gillette Aftershave Gel, Sensitive Skin
Cologne / Fragrance: Lagerfeld Classic

Mike

[jgreenepa]

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SOTD 01/27/20

This is day two of the noggin recovery plan. Since I was only doing a face shave, I broke out the NOS LeCoq Cage Head. This is an aggressively efficient shaver and requires careful handling to avoid it’s bite. The Wholly Kaw King of Oud has a luxurious scent and always provides a thick protective lather which in this case was welcomed. Yours truly rode the cap very carefully using short j-curve strokes through that first pass. The PAA Cube Preshave did its job well allowing the LeCoq to do its job as well, mowing down the whiskers allowing for an incredibly close WTG first pass. So close, in fact, that my second pass required only some very careful selective ATG buffing in my regular trouble spots along the underside of my jaw, around the Adam’s apple and just behind and under the ears. A check with the alum block and my hand revealed no heat and some very slight roughness remaining around the Adam’s apple. Rather than tempt fate, I chose to end this short, delightful technical shave, and happily settled for the near BBS result. My face feels smooth, clean and refreshed.

RAZOR: LeCoq Cage Head
BLADE: Suneko
PREP: Cold water rinse followed by a scrub with PAA’s Cube Preshave Soap
BRUSH: Viking Silvertip Badger
SOAP: Wholly Kaw King of Oud
POSTSHAVE: Cold water wash with brush squeezings followed by Thayers Lavender WH.

[John Rose]

Monday SOTN

razor - Edwin Jagger DE87
blade - Astra SP (11)
soap - Fendrihan "Aloe Water" cream
brush - Stirling 2-Band Synthetic
post - warm water rinse, "Pure & Natural" Alum stick, cold water rinse
AS - Stetson Original AS Balm (so old that it separated. I just shake it up and use it anyway.)

I must say, that Fendrihan Aloe Water cream is nice stuff. I just got it today. I ordered some after having tried a small (5 ml) sample jar of it, on a Wee Scot. It was even better when face-lathered (as per printed instructions) with a full sized brush.
The scent is a subtle fresh Spring/Summery sort of scent.

[Mike R]

Tuesday

Brush: Omega 49
Soap: Williams
Razor: '70 Gillette Black Handle Adjustable
Blade: Astra SP
A/S: Dollar Store Splash - Blue / "Fresh Scent"
Cologne / Fragrance: Realm Intense

Mike

[jgreenepa]

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SOTD 01/28/20

Sorry for the delay in posting, but today is my son’s 45th birthday, and there were many last minute logistical issues to resolve. All done! Now since this was to be my first head shave in several days, I fell back on my adjustable Christopher Bradley Razor from Karve Shaving. I normally shave with the E-OC, but today decided to use the B-OC, mildest plate I own, in order to protect the tender gourd! There are still some healing areas. That dependable shaving tool coupled with my favorite soap, MWF, resulted in a CCS, which was more than acceptable given the circumstances. I changed the plate to my usual E-OC for the face shave. One careful pass to the dome and a three pass (WTG, XTG, ATG) face shave left with a very smooth BBS result for the face. I keep forgetting what a great shaver the Christopher Bradley is. I feel clean, smooooth and refreshed and ready for the festivities this evening. I’m gifting my son a Swiss Watch I own that he’s admired for years. I know he’ll be surprised, because the last time he asked about it I just told him it was staying in my will, and that he’d need to be patient.

RAZOR: Christopher Bradley (B.OC, E-OC)
BLADE: Wizamet
PREP: Cold water rinse followed by a scrub with PAA’s Preshave Cube Soap
BRUSH: Viking Silvertip Badger
POSTSHAVE: Cold water wash with brush squeezings followed by Thayers Lavender WH and finished with A&E Post Shave Serum on the dome and Florida Water on the face.

[John Rose]

Tuesday SOTN

razor - Edwin Jagger DE87
blade - Astra SP (12)
soap - Mitchell's Wool Fat Luxury Shaving soap
brush - Stirling 2-Band Synthetic
post - warm water rinse, "Pure & Natural" Alum stick, cold water rinse
AS - Brut

First time using the MWF.
I think it's my new favourite, or at least in my top three or four.

... I fell back on my adjustable Christopher Bradley Razor from Karve Shaving. ...

That is handsome-looking razor.
Is that bare brass, or does it have a coating of some sort, or just a natural patina?

[jgreenepa]

That’s bare brass. It’s developed a patina. It was shiny when I first got it.

[John Rose]

Wednesday SOTN

Shave of the Day January 29, 2020, with a new tub of Fendrihan "Charcoal" cream.

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razor - RazoRock Hawk
blade - KAI Captain Titan Mild (12)
soap - Fendrihan Charcoal cream (brand new tub)
brush - Simpson Special 1 Best Badger
post - warm water rinse, "Pure & Natural" Alum stick, cold water rinse
AS - Chatillon Lux Pure Lavender

The "Charcoal" cream is . . . strange. The scent is unusual, but not unpleasant. Actual charcoal is conspicuously absent from the list of ingredients.
It looks like J-B Weld "Steel Reinforced" Epoxy ("robot poop"?) in the tub, and the lather made from it is a weird light grey.
Even so, it behaves about like any TOBS cream.

[Mike R]

Thursday

Brush: Rooney Stubby 1
Cream: Arko Sensitive
Razor: '70 Gillette Black Handle Adjustable
Blade: Astra SP
A/S: Dollar Store Splash - Green / "Original"
Cologne / Fragrance: Bowling Green

Mike

[jgreenepa]

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SOTD 01/30/20
Apologies for not posting yesterday’s shave, but old man issues intervened, and I instead ended up with a long ride on my back to UPenn Emergency. After a day of being poked, prodded, chided about cigars, single malt scotch, eating habits, and whatever else the children in white coats felt I needed a lecture about, I’m back! Since it was late when they finally gave up and released me, I spent the night in my 51st floor condo perch with its great view. I’ve included a night and morning shot with the shave pic.

I woke up to a beautiful, sunny day for my shave, and one of my favorite razors kindly brought to me by SWMBO. My Colonial Silversmith delivered its usual masterpiece shave. This razor is simply incredible! Equipped with a Feather or in this case a Wizamet Super Iridium blade, has no peer in whisker reductions in my collection. Mike’s Hungarian Lavender provided a thick, protective cushion for what felt like an empty razor until a quick check with my right hand confirmed its inaudible, highly efficient sweeping away of my whiskers. The result was a two pass (WTG, ATG) BBS of both my healed dome and face.
I feel coool, smoooth, clean and refreshed!

RAZOR: Colonial Silversmith
BLADE: Wizamet Super Iridium
PREP: Cold water rinse
BRUSH: WCS Best Badger
SOAP: Mike’s Hungarian Lavender
POSTSHAVE: Cold water wash with brushsqueezings followed by Thayers Lavender WH and finished with Fine Accoutrements Snake Bite AS Splash

[John Rose]

Thursday SOTN
razor - '46 Aristocrat
blade - Astra SP (13)
soap - Mitchell's Wool Fat Luxury Soap
brush - Stirling 2-Band Synthetic
post - warm water rinse, "Pure & Natural" Alum stick, cold water rinse
AS - Old Spice Classic

- Still in the "honeymoon stage" with the MWF.
- The next AS in the rotation should have been Floïd Vigoroso, but I just could not bring myself to use it.

... chided about cigars, single malt scotch, eating habits, ...

At first I thought you said "chided about cigars, single malt scotch, eating babies".
Then I tilted my head up to see through the bottom half of my eyeglasses.

[Mike R]

Friday

Brush: Rooney Stubby 1
Cream: Godrej Lime
Razor: '54 Z2 Super Speed
Blade: Gillette Nacet
A/S: Dollar Store Splash - Green / "Original"
Cologne / Fragrance: Aramis Tobacco Reserve

Mike

[jgreenepa]

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SOTD 01/31/20

This morning I woke up to a relatively gray day. One of the issues with having a collection of utility objects is that as it grows, certain early favorites are pushed aside in favor of the newer arrivals. What razor should I select to shave with and close out the month? I looked at my rack of 16 daily drivers And noticed that I had been neglecting one of my stalwarts, the Muhle R41 (2011) on its RazoRock SS Barber Pole handle. In addition, my shaving creams have been have seeing little use. So I selected my Kapo fresh. I like to bowl lather my shaving creams, so I also grabbed my ceramic shaving scuttle. Jayaruh’s Custom Rosewood Silvertip Badger was my choice of brush. I cold rinsed with water and applied my regular PAA Preshave soap to head and face. My shave gang over at TSD have been on a hot lather kick with a variety of shaving soaps. So I had boiled some water, and added it to my usual smidge of Kapo Fresh with 5 drops of M-Bomb. The result was a thin, white, disappointing bubbly result. So I added a bit more cream and proceeded to lather without much change. As soon as I began transferring this seemingly nothing lather to my face and noggin, however, voila, thick, luxurious, hot lather. So this is what they’re talking about! Now the thing I know about the R41 is that besides being a highly efficient shaver, it demands concentration and focus.

My first WTG pass on my face went beautifully as I rode the cap carefully throughout. Short careful strokes cleared the whiskers right down to the skin line on my face, leaving me with an incredibly close bloodless first pass even around the troublesome Adam’s apple with only three rough spots. Now it was time for the head. I usually use long sweeping ATG strokes on the dome with my trusty Silversmith, Vector or Shake Sharp, but remembered that this never worked well with this razor. So I proceeded to use the same cap-riding short stroke technique on the gourd, with WTG short strokes, and experienced the same whisker clearing result as on the face, although it took me far longer than my usual head shave. There remained only two rough spots in the usual places, for that second pass. Usually I go ATG, but with this razor and my arthritis would be bitten. So instead I elected to go XTG, and for the first time ended up with probably one of the closest head shaves I’ve ever experienced. Returning to my face, I experienced another extremely close shave. A check with the alum block revealed heat around each of the trouble spots. Given that, I guess I would have to term the result a near BBS all around. What a great shave to end the month on. I feel clean, smoooth, coool and refreshed

RAZOR: Muhle R41 (2011) on RR Barber Pole SS Handle
BLADE: Wizamet Super Iridium
PREP: Cold water rinse followed by a scrub with PAA’s Preshave Cube
BRUSH: Jayaruh Custom Rosewood Silvertip Badger
CREAM: Kapo Fresh
POSTSHAVE: Cold water wash with Glyce Glycerin soap followed by Thayers Lavender WH and finished with Fine Accoutrements Snake Bite AS Splash

[John Rose]

Friday SOTN

razor - Long-comb New
blade - Astra SP (14)
soap - Edwin Jagger "Limes & Pomegranate" cream
brush - Simpson Wee Scot
post - warm water rinse, "Pure & Natural" Alum stick, cold water rinse
AS - Edwin Jagger "Limes & Pomegranate" Moisturizing Aftershave Lotion
additional product - göt2b glued Spiking Glue on the 'stache, to shape it into a wider handlebar than usual. Straight out and then up at the tips.

The EJ shaving cream (from a free 10 ml sample) was nothing to write home about.
The scent was unidentifiable and faint, but the lather was, well, okay.
The EJ AS lotion's (also from a sample) scent was also faint, and it was somewhat thicker and gooier than I like. About the consistency of cold cream. You need quite a bit of it to get decent coverage. I certainly don't see paying Cdn$49.50 for a 100 ml tube of it.

[jgreenepa]

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SOTD 02/01/20

Welcome to Mitchell’s Wool Fat February. This month I’ll be using my favorite shaving soap for every shave. I’ll be kicking off with my FrankenFamex which consists of a French Famex Cage baseplate, a Rockwell Gunmetal cap, and an ATT Atlas handle. The Famex is a cage head razor which is adjustable. The tighter one compresses the Cage baseplate by tightening the handle, the milder the shave. For all my shaves, I’ll be lightly connecting the handle to the baseplate as I prefer an efficient shaver.

After my shower, I began my shave with a cold water rinse and then scrubbed both face and head with the PAA’s Menthol Preshave Cube Soap, a regular part of my shave routine. Soap preparation began by salting the soap with 6 drops of M-Bomb before adding some boiling water to the Wool Fat mentholated concoction. Whipping up the result for about 30 seconds with the Viking Silvertip Badger brush yielded a very thin, bubbly, glistening brush topping which, when transferred to face and dome, blossomed into a nice, warm, thick, yogurty lather. In keeping with the successful R41 shave that ended January, I began my first WTG pass by riding the cap and using short even strokes until the razor began to sing. The Famex is one of my favorite razors because of this vibratory quality. It sang as it very efficiently sheared my whiskers off at the skin line on both face and dome.

After relathering, I confined my second pass to very light XTG buffing which had worked so well on the R41 yesterday , and discovered Madame Famex only wished to sing around my regular rough spots. These are the Adams Apple and jawline on the face and the sides and center of the back of my head. That first very careful, slow pass apparently really cleaned things up. I checked my watch and learned that I’d spent almost eight minutes on that first pass, almost double the time I usually spend. My second pass lasted three minutes and ended with an alum block check revealing no heat. I finished this exemplary, bloodless BBS shave with Thayers Lavender WH and PAA’s Mentholated Mysterium Serum. I feel clean, coool, very smoooth, and refreshed.

RAZOR: FrankenFamex
BLADE: Wizamet Super Iridium
PREP: Cold water rinse followed by a scrub with PAA’s Preshave Cube Soap
BRUSH: Viking Silvertip Badger
SOAP: Mitchell’s Wool Fat
POSTSHAVE: Cold water wash with brush squeezings followed by Thayers Lavender WH and finished with PAA’s Unscented Mentholated Mysterium Serum

[pausted]

Proraso White cream
Yaqi white synthetic brush
Muhle R89 rose gold razor
Gillette Silver Blue blade
Pinaud Clubman aftershave

[John Rose]

Saturday SOTN

razor - British Aristocrat Junior
blade - Astra SP (15)
soap - Fendrihan Aloe Water cream
brush - Stirling 2-Band Synthetic
post - warm water rinse, "Pure & Natural" Alum stick, cold water rinse
AS - Pinaud Clubman

Best shave I've had in weeks. Super close without razor burn.
The Fendrihan Aloe Water cream might now be in my top five favourites, at least.

[jgreenepa]

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SOTD 02/02/20 7:00. AM

Church meeting today that seemed to go on forever. Finally ended! Time to submit this morning’s shave report. The Fatboy Wool Fat experience today resulted in a decent shave. Did my face on 9 and the dome on 7. I know many love this razor, but it’s ‘meh’ as far as I’m concerned. I never get close to the kind of shave I enjoy. It’s definitely not part of the regular rotation. The head geometry is bulky, and the handle too short for comfortable use. It just doesn’t work for me, qualified by YMMV. I’ll probably sell it, but given the market for these razors will wait as it is in excellent condition.
The shave turned out to be a three pass CCS shave that was disappointing as I was still left with rough areas in the back of my head, and under the jawline, but after the debacle with the Rex, another adjustable, elected to leave well enough alone! I wish all adjustables shaved like my Gibbs. Tomorrow’s shave will be better.

RAZOR: Gillette Fatboy
BLADE: Wizamet Super Iridium
PREP: Cold water rinse followed by a scrub with PAA’s Preshave Cube Soap
BRUSH: Viking Silvertip Badger
SOAP: Mitchell’s Wool Fat
POSTSHAVE: Cold water wash with brush squeezings followed by Thayers Lavender WH and finished with PAA’s Mentholated Mysterium Serum

[John Rose]

Single-Edge Sunday SOTN

razor - RazoRock Hawk
blade - KAI Captain Titan Mild (13 and done)
soap - Mitchell's Wool Fat Luxury Shaving soap
brush - APShaveCo 24 mm Synbad
post - warm water rinse, "Pure & Natural" Alum stick, cold water rinse
AS - Proraso Red
music - streaming CHMA campus radio

Pro Tip: Take a plain-old-vanilla JBL Micro Wireless bluetooth speaker ($3, from the Salvation Army Thrift Store)...

... and put it in a zip-lock bag.
Badda-boom badda-bing, it's now a JBL bluetooth shower speaker. (I just figured this out tonight.)

Bonus tip: place it on a corner shelf between the shampoo and conditioner and you get better bass due to the Klipschorn effect.

[brothers]

I'll take your word for it John!