SMF

Now that I've been using one soap every day until its all used up, after about 2 months, I find I'm close to the halfway point. Seems like it's never going to end, but it is an excellent soap, so I'll be OK with it until sometime in February! Yikes! Anyway, thinking about this, I want you guys to tell me which of the following situations does this kind of product fidelity remind you most of?

Example 1. Going to a play and finding that each actor is going to enact his or her entire character from beginning to end, followed by each of the other actors in sequence, one at a time, with no interaction between them until the last actor has finished.

Example 2. Making your menu for the following several weeks, buying the ingredients one at a time, then eating nothing but that one food for every meal and snack until it's all been eaten before moving on to the second food ingredient and eating nothing but that one until it's gone.

Example 3. Lay out your wardrobe for the next month. Instead of changing every day, you wash and dry them at night and then you wear the exact same outfit every day until the garment wears out, before picking another and doing the same thing.

Silly, to be sure, but ....? Using the same product from start to finish is exactly what I do with my toothpaste, shampoo, bath soap, talc, you get the picture. What's the difference? I can say this -- I don't know why, but it seems like stuff lasts a very very very long time when it's not getting used up from start to finish, in the name of a spicy little bit of variety. A few days ago I used a different soap than my current product, one I had never used before, and I enjoyed that single shave as much as a little kid enjoys a visit from Santa.

1 and 2. I don't open a mew tub or tube of shaving cream until I have finished what is currently open. I use TOBS in the main and it takes me about 4 months of shaving every day to finish a tub. I follow this practice with my shampoo, toothpaste, droderant, bath soap and hair gel. With shaving brushes and aftershaves I use different ones every day; it takes me nearly a month to work through these rotations. I think my practice with brushes and aftershaves differs from that with my other ablution products is because I have so many of them.

Rufus wrote:1 and 2. I don't open a mew tub or tube of shaving cream until I have finished what is currently open. I use TOBS in the main and it takes me about 4 months of shaving every day to finish a tub.

I admire your approach. I have been concentrating on finishing off the ones that have been used. It shouldn't be long before all of those are gone, then I have hopes of doing it just as you have stated above.

# 2 definitely. I'm not a dog, I can't do Insta-Meal.

Gary, I can't do what you did for the past 2 months. I'd think I was using canned goop and cartridges again. NEVER AGAIN!

I was trying, successfully I might add, to reduce the soaps in my cabinet awhile back. In a previous try at this I used Vitos exclusively for months on end and it was pure hell. So this time I selected 4-5 soaps that I rotated through each day. Every Sunday was free choice of any soap in the cabinet. If I remember correctly I was 1 1/2 - 2 years in using those soaps up, but it worked and I didn't go nuts or get bored. There were some weeks when I didn't even select a Sunday soap from the many but just used what was up in the rotation.

I really don't think about it. I use whatever I please and if it happens to be the same one day after day I'm fine with that.

I really do enjoy using the same software for days or weeks in a row (not sure I could do months, though), instead of changing it up every day. In fact, a big part of my software hasn't even been opened yet, I just keep a rotation of about a dozen creams/soaps and half a dozen lotions/balms.
I find that when you use a certain product for a couple of weeks, you really do find that sweet spot, and that's when you can assess just how good that product really is.

That's true David, at least in my case. It's not like I had a grand plan or anything but by using the same shaving soap every day I discovered making good lather from it becomes easier than if I use the same soap occasionally.

For me it is unusual to use the same cream or soap twice in a row.

But on some mornings I find myself instinctively reaching for a product somehow connected to what I had used the day before:
- same brand - different scent,
- same scent - different brand,
- same brand and scent - but use stick (if available), soap or cream, instead of what I used the day before,
- using only creams for a few days,
- using only soaps for a few days,
- using only sticks for a few days.

The drawback of that approach is that cabinets and drawers are overflowing, creams and soaps take a long time to get used up, and sometimes serious pruning is required.
If I find a product near the bottom of my drawer that I don't even recall I had, it usually means I was not impressed with it and toss it.
A few weeks ago, I eliminated this way some creams and soaps that I had bought sometime in 2006.


No deliberate plan, it's just the way it happens.
And of course, sometimes I find something I do like and just use it for a few days in a row anyway....


B.

And this is why I prefer creams over soaps,although I do have a dozen soaps and enjoy them very much.You can use a tube of cream much faster than a tub of hard soap,and creams are fairly inexpensive if you shop right.I imagine I have at least 50-60 creams,I use them all,I dislike using the same thing every shave,variety makes the chore of shaving much more a pleasure than an unwanted task,and I can say the same thing for blades and razors as well...And so it is with shaving equipment and women,"variety is the spice of life"...

'Cept the women will get you into trouble.

THREE 3 THREE

been a trumpers rose user since early 2007 and wouldnt go back and change that even if i could
clive

p.s. I save the philandering for my head haha

I've whittled the list down to a small number of favorite soaps and I can happily use the same soap for weeks at a time, if not until completion. As David said, I really get into synch with that soap.

I'm of the impression that a lot of the variety fellow wetshavers seek is in fragrances. Perfumery burns my olfactory, so I'm pretty happy to just have a soap that lathers well and doesn't hurt me.

- Murray

Squire wrote:I really don't think about it. I use whatever I please and if it happens to be the same one day after day I'm fine with that.

Same here - although admittedly, the Fat gets usually more use in the rotation than other soaps.

I use one soap or cream up before changing. However about once or twice a week I use one brushless cream until it is also used up. At least that gives me a little variety I also try to switch between soaps and creams. More variety. I thought a lot of members had given up rotations and are sticking with a single brush, razor etc. Even then blades don't last forever.

2 thoughts..
- I spend 1/3 to 1/2 my year on the road. While traveling for work, even if up to 3 weeks or more, I never think about variety. I just reach for my handy Arko stick, single brush, single razor, etc.

- At home I pretty much use one soap or cream at a time. Currently, I'm working on a puck of PdP. It's a hard soap that seemingly will last forever (I've been working on it since the summer and I think I still have ~85%). I've found myself using other stuff for a little variety, but only once or twice every so often. I think this will work for me. When I was working my way through a large bottle of KMF, I used to use a different soap or cream on Sunday mornings.

I'm a little embarrassed having about a dozen unopened soap sticks and couple pucks and a backup bottle of KMF in the drawers and so I will continue using basically 2 at a time (1 on the road) until I get my stock down to a reasonable supply.

Now brushes are a different story ... and a little more embarrassing.

Tinman, I think getting my cache of products down to a reasonable supply is one of my main reasons for wanting to eliminate the ones I have and not buying more until the day eventually comes when I actually need more! That objective is still a long way down the road, but I'll get there!

TM I consider an embarrassment of riches to be a good thing.

I've been DE shaving for 10 years now, and when I first got into it I was all about the variety. I would visit the forums and really got into it. Then after about 4 years or so I just started using the creams that I owned because I bought probably 40 or so. At that point I realized that I should probably start using them up before buying more so I could actually finish one or so. Once I started focusing on finishing up one rather than enjoying my selection each day it started to become monotonous. I stopped visiting the forums and other hobbies came up. I never quit DE shaving, but it turned back into a chore rather than a hobby. I put my soaps into a box and only focused on a couple at a time. I took a five year hiatus from the forums. Just within the last month I pulled the creams out and put them all in the bathroom and boy has it been a joy. I'm glad I'm switching back to variety, now it's a hobby again. It's great to be back.

Good to have you back Josh and yes, if it can't be fun I'd grow a beard.