SOTN Tuesday, Nov. 24
Something unusual (for me) tonight.
Yesterday we drove off for an overnight stay, the first in at least a year or two, I think, so
I threw together some stuff in my dopp bag.
As it turned out, I was not in the mood for shaving last night nor this morning, so tonight I had two days growth. Always a treat to shave after skipping a day, right?
Just to make it more challenging, I decided to try shaving with
only the stuff I had taken with me yesterday, just to see if I had made a wise selection.
The starting lineup:
prep - shower with Caprina Fresh Goat’s Milk with Shea Butter bar soap.
Okay, this is already a departure from my plan, since I did not have any Caprina with me on the trip.
razor - Started with the Canadian Pre-War Fat-Handled Tech. Note that it has an inverted base plate in the photo. This meant that I could leave a blade in it without having an exposed edge bouncing around in the bag.
blade - Shaverboy Super Stainless (18)
brush - Stirling 2-Band Synthetic in a pill bottle. It was the perfect size.
soap - stickified Tabac Original - I mashed it into an empty jumbo-sized glue stick push-up container.
What is conspicuously absent is the lather bowl (because it didn't go on the trip), so it's face-lathering for tonight. Good thing I had brought the stick soap.
At first I didn't have enough water on the brush and the lather was turning pasty on my face. Dip tip and I was good to go.
Halfway through the first pass I determined that the blade was toast. It wasn't even doing a good job of scraping the lather off. It was probably mostly an issue of old age, but perhaps storing it in the razor with the inverted base plate had something to do with it because the edges were up against the base plate. Normally it degrades more gradually and I don't toss it until after 20 shaves.
So, I broke out a new Shaverboy blade (which I
had brought with me) and put it in a Gillette Slim (which was
not on the trip) set to 3/9 for the rest of the first pass and all of the second pass, then up to 5 for the final pass.
Much better now.
It was such a treat that I decided to swap out the D20 die counter for a D12, like this one -
- and toss them after 12 shaves.
At less than 8¢ a blade (tax & shipping included), I think can afford it.
post - warm water rinse, DSA “Pure & Natural” alum, cold water rinse.
I did not need the Clubman Jumbo Styptic pencil (far right).
aftershave - Italian Barber's Amici splash, in the yet-to-be-labeled spray bottle.
music - streaming "Radio Ndeke Luka", out of Central African Republic.
I'm really liking the music.
BBS results in the end.
I will have to fabricate a leather one-size-fits-all razor head cover for any future trips.