What soap/cream did you use today?

Thursday April 18, 2024
Razor: Paradigm Ti Diamondback
Blade: Wizamet
Brush: Stirling/Boar
Soap: Stirling Smoky Grapefruit
AS : Witch Hazel + CFG Ghost Town Barber
Fragrance:
Consecutive Daily Shaves - # 1,989

I love the perspective in that photo Dave, and how the changing focus leads the eye.

Kilix (Joserra) palace of Minos
Shave 6

A shave comes around only once a day, so I don’t want to squander a shot at joy. Usually I reach for the gear that I think will give me the best results. This means that some of my razors and brushes get a lot of attention. I’ve logged well over 800 shaves with my Rockwell 6S razor and nearly 700 shaves with my beloved PAA Peregrino brush. They’re both excellent and affordable, and if I were to start my shave odyssey all over again, I’d set out with just these two tools.

But from time to time I like to dip into the spreadsheet to see what has been neglected. Today I zeroed in on my least-loved brush – a Zenith boar with a Kotibe handle – and a completely forgotten Micromatic Clog Pruf razor.

The brass razor had been lost at the bottom of my box of second-hand, rusty, crusty scrapers. But after giving it a lick of polish and a few drops of oil, it looked incredible. I felt like I should have been shaving with a top hat on my head. I was ready for an elegant experience.

The boar brush had been soaking in cold water in the fridge for a couple days in the hope of limbering it up a little. It’s been a lather hog up to this point, and I thought that might be due to the pristine condition of the bristles. They were just too sleek to make a nice cream. So after soaking the brush, I wiped it on a towel and then hit it (literally) with an old hair dryer. In fact, I repeated this soak & dry routine several times until the ends of the bristles split nicely.

At this point, you’re probably thinking I’m going to tell you about a most magnificent shave. Nothing, sadly, could be farther from the truth. Fact is, the Zenith boar brush still ate lather like it was its last supper, and the Clog Pruf was loud, clunky, and amazingly inefficient. So much stubble was left after two passes, I had to clean up with another razor.

The only thing that saved today’s shave was the wonderful Kilix soap by Joserra. In spite of a lousy brush and a scratchy razor, I came away with a pretty good scraping. And now, a few hours later, there is some slight burning, but no blood, and surprisingly, no beard. All this leads me to believe that in the hierarchy of shaving tools, what matters most to me is the lather. It makes up for even bottom-of-the-basket gear.
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Brush Zenith Kotibe 24.5mm boar (7) ・ Razor Gem Micromatic Clog Pruf (1) ・ Blade Gem (2) ・ Hoard 209 soaps ・ 585 consecutive shaves

And….finally something resembling a normal routine is emerging in this new casa.  I’ve found almost all my razors and brushes.  Got all my soap found and have access to most of them. And I found the blades today so it’ll be a bit less hectic going forward.  Ah, who am I kidding? I still can’t find the plates in this new kitchen.  I did get nudged out of the master bath though.  She said that’s not the case but she moved some stuff to another one for me.  Well although I still get to sleep in the same bed I’ve chosen to make a stand.  Yesterday was the stinker Midnight Stag and I gagged her with a good splash with the aftershave.  Today? Salters French Vetiver which smells exactly like a campfire in a Vetiver field.  I’ll go back to wearing stuff she enjoys too but give me one more day.