Flask's newbie adventure

[flask28]

I saw this section of the forum and figured now, at the beginning of my wet shaving adventure, would be a great time to start a journal to track what I've been trying.

18 months of shaving with a gifted cheapy Van Der Hagen kit and have been loving it in comparison to the cheap disposables I'd been using. It included a butterfly razor, a sample size of soap, a bowl and some synthetic brush I can't identify. It's been fun to learn the basics of wet shaving with that kit and I found I'd been bitten by the bug. I finally ran that soap low, which forced me to go out an look at the wet shaving market and figure out how to take the next step.

Then I found B&B, learned a bunch and met some friends. A local member has lent me a RR Lupo DC and a nice selection of blades. I have a container of RR Mudder Focker soap and a puck of Mike's Natural Barbershop that I received recently from family - My niece liked the label of the RR soap and my sister (a soapologist herself) knew of Mike from the local Soap scene here in Portland.

I've made an order with P.A.A for some unscented CK6 and a Peregrino synthetic brush, hopefully next week I'll be able to shave with a whole new level of gear.

My first impressions shaving with the Lupo DC, a Gillette Platinum, this no-name brush and the Mike's Natural was....relief! lol. I was worried I was going to kill myself with the Lupo and was surprised to discover it wasn't that much different than using the cheap butterfly from the kit. Well, it was different but no more difficult. Easily the best (closest, most effective) shave of my life. Although it wasn't until recently I've been using a slick soap, the correct blade angle, doing WTG and ATG passes, etc.

Other than the inital closeness of the shave, what has really surprised me was how not stubbly I was on day two. More than good enough to go to work without shaving again. That's unheard of in my experience and I'm starting to feel like that's the biggest net gain I'm seeing with the current upgrades in soap and razor so far. Well worth the effort.

Looking forward to my next shave tomorrow!

 

[thombrogan]

Thank you for starting a journal and sharing your experiences with upgrading your gear, upgrading your technique, and upgrading your gear again!

 

[flask28]

Third shave with the member-loaned Razorock DC this morning. After the second pass I had more cleanup work to do along the chin and the left side than last shave. I think I was going a little fast and using too long of strokes compared to last time.

Now that I'm paying more attention, I'm realizing I'm having trouble keeping the correct blade angle during ATG neck passes. I had to re-lather the neck twice tonight because I could tell I wasn't making good cutting passes. Towards the end I got it together and it was feeling better. Practice, I suspect.

Speaking of lather, I used Mike's Natural Barbershop, I puck I got and threw in a old tin I found in a drawer somewhere (after cleaning it), and this was the 3rd shave with the Gillette Platium blade. No sensation of dragging or pulling with the blade yet, I'm super curious to see how long this blade lasts. The lather was super foamy, then I added too much water to compensate, so I added more soap...it got a little out of control and I had lather all over the sink at one point . Eventually I sort of just left the bowl and got the lather consistency dialed in on my face. My bowl lathering technique needs a lot more work!

The random brush I can't identify did it's job, it's about 18 months old at this point. Is it a cheap badger brush? Synthetic? I can't tell . I can't wait to get the new brushes in that I've ordered from P.A.A and Razorock. The two bowls of Mike's unscented came in today. The soap hording begins!

 

[flask28]

A box from P.A.A. arrived today:

I shaved tonight with the new Peregrino and my first impression was, wow this is soft. Followed quickly by, wow, this is HUGE! I wasn't sure what size my kit brush was and from my reading I kinda assumed it was 24mm, since that seems to be a "standard" somewhat.

Uh, no. It's waaaay smaller than this 24mm peregrino. And stiffer, scratcher. Honestly, it was a big adjustment at first to change to a brush so soft. Seemed harder to use at first, I wanted to push harder on everything at first...until got the lather going and started painting my face. That sure felt nice! Much more pleasant than the old brush. It didn't help things that it took me a bit to dial in this CK-6 lather, I put in far too much water at first. I typically have used the brush to add water to the bowl but this brush moved A LOT of water, far more than I expected. But the lather in the second and third passes felt perfect, incredible really. Perhaps I just wasn't patient enough to build it well for the first pass.

That being said, I'm experiencing more post-shave irritation with this evening's shave. Same Lupo DC, but the brush and CK-6 were new, vs the Mike's Natural I've been using. The ATG pass with the .95SB side of the razor felt like it went bad in a few places. I'm also just now figuring out that ATG means different things on different parts of my face. Which is wild!

This is the fourth shave with this Gillette Platinum blade too, maybe that's pushing it? Next shave I'll use the same kit but a new blade and see if I've got the same irritation level.

 

[MaineYooper]

Welcome to the Journal and Diary Section! Great reads and looks like some nice PAA stuff landed! I love the CK-6 Scentsless soap. I only use scent-free products for personal and job reasons and have tried many unscented soaps over the years. The CK-6 formula is one of the best! Also, been eyeing that brush so, thanks for making me eye it more!

 

[flask28]

Welcome to the Journal and Diary Section! Great reads and looks like some nice PAA stuff landed! I love the CK-6 Scentsless soap. I only use scent-free products for personal and job reasons and have tried many unscented soaps over the years. The CK-6 formula is one of the best! Also, been eyeing that brush so, thanks for making me eye it more!

Thank you for the warm welcome!

Like you, I have a very scent-sensitive workplace, I've seen some men and women get sent home because of the whole "you could smell them in the elevator 20min after they'd left" thing. I have the Mike's Natural unscented and now this CK-6 unscented and they are both great! Not that I have a ton of experience to go by, but I'm getting great advice from B&B, so far everything I've tried has been a home run.

I would like to try to explore scents more in the future, but modestly. I'm probably going to make some huge sampler order from Sterling and P.A.A in the future to help me evaluate that step and find something that's not, like, HERE I AM! lol.

 

[MaineYooper]

yeah, it's probably best to not be THAT GUY! I had a district manager like that, great guy but way too much cologne!

 

[flask28]

Yesterday I met again with the amazingly generous, experienced and funny local B&B member whom I pretty much have to call my shaving sensi at this point. This is the 2nd time and it was twice as fun and interesting. I’ll check with him to see if it’s fine to give him credit by his username – he deserves it but I want to respect his privacy as well.

In my reading about soaps and aftershaves, it was clear to me that scent is something that’s both very hard to describe and particular to each person. I just have to really smell something in real life to know if I’m going to like it or not. I’d communicated such to him earlier in the week and when I arrived he had an whole array of the “classic” aftershaves and soaps to check out.

I almost fell out of my chair when he showed me – most everything I’d been curious about was represented. Arko, Tabac, a few Bay Rums, a few Clubmans. I was able to figure out that I’m not ready for musk or spicy heavy scents yet, which was interesting. Musk was hard to me to pick up at first but once I did, all of a sudden, it was all I could smell anymore.

So that presentation right there resolved a ton of S.A.D. issues for me, which I’m so thankful for. We talked a long time about aftershaves, zippy, vs bitey, alcohol vs witch hazel. Now I want to brew up my own snakebite! No not really. Kinda.

He also had a few new DE razors to check out. Two P.A.A. long combs, which were very interesting. That’s a lot of comb! Sounds like they’d be comfortable. He also had a variets of vintange TTO razors there, an Aristocrat, Slim, Superspeed, Tech and this amazing Senator in the original super deluxe travel kit packaging. All of these were in great to excellent/mint condition. Some were lucky finds he said, some where normal users he had replated.

I was “turning in” the Lupo DC he loaned me, which I loved, and we decided on a 60’s Slim and a TTO SuperSpeed. So I can check out the classics. I’ve been really interested in trying a Slim, in fact have almost bought one off fleabay a few times but resisted.

Funny enough, a work friend and I have been chatting and he’s sort of a shaving guy. He just dropped of a RR Gamechanger .68-P and a Big Bruce brush for me to try out! It’s gone from nothing to one razor to to a veritable treasure chest of razors and I haven’t purchased anything yet. The shaving community is something else, quite the brotherhood.

I decided to shave my two day growth last night after a shower, I used the GameChanger, a Rapira Platinum Lux blade I was given, Mudder Focker soap and the Big Bruce. Figured I’d go with an RR theme since I could!

The whole production was a lot more work, honestly. That brush does not love the smallish stainless bowl I’m using, first off. It was fine with my starter small (like 16mm) brush. Tougher with the 24mm P.A.A. brush but downright a pain with the BB. Time for a scuttle!! Lol, perfect excuse to buy something. I’m thinking about the P.A.A one.

The shave itself was interesting. It was a lot more work to get to the same level of shave than with the Lupo. I braved three passes this time, something I did once with the Lupo and paid the price of my pretty rough patch on my neck. In general though I didn’t feel I needed a 3rd pass with the Lupo. On the other hand, when I was done I dare say the shave was noticily better. Especially my chin – a LOT better. I’d been struggling with chin-work in general but the GC just nailed it!

And zero irritation, nips, zings – nothing. I hesitate to call a shave perfect, but this was perhaps my most successful shave to date. But it took longer, for sure, than the Lupo shaves. I’m now considering trying a sharper blade in the GC.

I’m learning a ton every shave now. The Big Bruce is different that the P.A.A. in that it’s bigger and, I’m not sure softer is the right word. It’s like I almost didn’t even feel it, just the pressure of it on my face. It was a little odd at first, but for the first time I stopped really even noticing the feel of the brush on my face, it sort of disappeared. Which is probably the best a brush can be, right, doing it’s job without you even noticing it.

 

[MaineYooper]

You are having a great journey! I have found our community to be very generous, and to have it happen in person is truly unique, in my experience! Great reports!

 

[flask28]

I’ve had some time to muse on the last shave. I think I had two issues going on: The lather was too dry for sure. I’m still getting the hang of CK-6 and these quality Synthetic brushes obviously. And having a good sense of a “slippery” lather rather than painting on a foamy Santa beard.

The other issue I’m sure was technique; I was having trouble keeping the right angle with the GC on my neck. In hindsight I was going for BBS that led to too much pressure.

The following shave I decided to change it up. I loaded the Gillette SuperSpeed Gillette Platinum and lathered up the CK-6 with the smaller P.A.A. Peregrino brush. Concentrating on the building the lather this time, I got it much slicker – less foamy.

This shave was great, I “thought” about angle less and used the feel of the blade on my face to guide my hand more. Two passes with one little nick that disappeared immediately. The other thing I thought about was not chasing BBS this time, those little patches on my neck no one can see and I can only feel if I rub by hand ATG are fine, leave it alone.

The SuperSpeed felt very similar to the GC to me, lighter in the hand for sure, perhaps a little less efficient than the GC. The smaller head of the GC seems to make the chin passes a little easer but not much. I do like the TTO, I’ll say that. I took out the $8 drugstore Van Der Hagen TTO I started with and compared it to this SuperSpeed for a bit. The VDH is lighter and the mechanism feels a little smoother. There’s less metal in the baseplate too, perhaps for more flowthrough? Or, more likely, because it’s cheaper. I’m going to have to try a ½ VDH ½ SS shave before I return this to the PDX Shaving Library (ie, a local B&B member).

Today I shaved with the GC and the Rapira again. I wanted to revisit that last GC shave, but I went back to the Mike’s Natural soap that I was more familiar with. Great shave!!! BAM, the GameChanger nailed it with a fantastic two pass shave that was surprisingly close to BBS.

It’s like hitting a baseball, you can’t do it if you’re thinking too much. Well, and are trying to shave with a Santa beard lather. I did experience some what I think people call “chatter” around my chin this time, which threw me off some. Seriously, I’m not sure about this Rapira blade. I’ve had just great luck with the Gillette Platinum’s, not so much with these.

I’m still trying to keep the feeling of the Lupo in mind, which felt a little like using a lightsaber compared to these. I’m getting great two pass shaves with these “less efficient” razors, but I’ll admit to missing the .72 open comb side of that Lupo DC. That’s felt more sharp and smooth than anything so far.

I should start keeping a ranked list as I evaluate these razors. Tough to do while I’m developing my technique – I’m sure this ranking will be a moving target as I start to like things I didn’t like before. But for now, if I had to buy today:

• Lupo DC – the .72OC side – Gillette Platinum blade
• Gillette Tech – Gillette Platinum Blade
• Lupo DC – the .95SB side – Gillette Platinum blade
• GameChanger .68SB – Rapira Platinum Lux
• Van Der Hagen TTO – Astra Platinum

Hmm. Definitely need to try a different blade in the GC, I’m seeing a pattern here. Lol.

 

[flask28]

I'm doing some lunchtime shaving research, I'm been thinking about tomorrow's shave with the Slim. I found a TON of B&B threads on guys talking about what Slim setting they use. Of course! Here's an example.

It's all over the map! As I should have expected. Some guys have never moved it at all, some only use 9, some almost killed themselves with 9. Bunch of guys say 3 won't even cut anything, some guys won't go above 3. Many do the first past with a higher number and the 2nd pass with a lower one, I'm thinking I'll try that first.

I didn't shave this morning, ended up working from home today. So tomorrow morning I'm thinking of doing two passes, the first on 7 and the 2nd on 5, just as a place to start. Thinking about going with an Astra blade for this, but I'm loving these Gillette Platinums so much I'm tempted to use one of those.

 

[Guido75]

Great to have you on board. Nice descriptions on your experiences.

Guido

 

[flask28]

The Slim adventure was a total success the other day. The 7 pass got pretty much everything in the first pass, the 5 pass almost felt like polishing. The Gillette platinum/Slim combo gave a 7/10 smoothness shave - Way good enough. I used my Big Bruce brush and Mike's Natural Barbershop. I like the Slim! I feel like I'm going to have one of those as a permanent member of the stable. It wasn't quite a smooth as the mild vintage SuperSpeed, but it was a lot better at wicker removal.

I'm so lucky that I'm getting the chance to try so many razors before I make a purchase decision.

I created the lather the way I normally have, I scoop an almond-sized chunk into a stainless bowl and go to town. I've been thinking, however, that in comparison with some pics of lather I've been seeing here my efforts have lacking. I seems to veer from too foamy to thin gruel.

For this morning's shave, I decided to try to load the brush from the bowl. I used the P.A.A. Peregrino and Mike's Natural unscented. An aside on brushes - I like the Big Bruce more than the Peregrino, but that's pretty relative. I like them both a lot more than the cheap kit brush I started with. It's mostly the handle of the Peregrino - it's huge and a bit uncomfortable to hold. The knot is a tad on the floppy side compared to the Big Bruce, but not like floppy. I think I may try replace the Peregrino with a Muhle STF at some point (the next Contributor Brush, perhaps?), but I think my next brush will be a boar of some sort.

Back to the lather. I discovered the loading the brush from the bowl first, rather than scooping into the lather bowl, made the lather build MUCH easier and far more successful. Hmm. I figure that means I haven't been using enough soap in my scooping method? I'm trying to use a gram or so, seems like a lot. For some reason I prefer the scooping method, even though I suck at it so far. I'm going to keep trying!

Over the last two shaves I've also figured out that I don't want to push the brush into the bowl as I'm whipping it but rather keep the tips more parallel with the bottom of the bowl. Seems like that gives the lather a place to build up. Before, it just seemed to stay mostly in the brush and veer between soupy and foamy.

Today's shave also brought back the RR GameChanger .68-P, this time loaded with an Astra SP blade. MUCH BETTER!! Far more smooth than loaded with Rapira Platinum Lux and seemed just as efficient. The two passes were easy and confidant this time and resulted in a great shave.

I was also a little more liberal with the Clubman AS. Ah!! There's the burn!! Ok, I wasn't using enough before.

Dialing in the quantities of software is sort of a thing. I'm having a good time figuring it all out though! I really like this GameChanger, I'm thinking this may be my Every Day Shave razor. I'm musing on the 68OC plate, rather than the -P. Or maybe an .84? The .68 blade gap really seems to do a great job with a 1-3 day growth. I liked the OC side of the LupoDC a lot, that's what has me thinking about the GC .68OC as one of the "final three" for my Shaving Second Age (DE Shaving).

The Third Age will likely be SE razors, then maybe I'll evolve into that highest form of shaving, the straight! I figure I'll have to throw some real money around by the straight era so I'm trying to resist building a whole drawer of DE's right now.

 

[flask28]

A lot has happened since my last entry. I’m going to have to summarize most of it! Lol. Feels just like a work email.

I have to start with another ode to the B&B community. There are so many knowledgeable, friendly and generous people here. I’m finding it difficult to be at the receiving end of so much generosity and warmth, actually. I’m trying to remember my other hobby communities and how it’s an evolution. You start as a newbie and get lots of help, then mature into a senior expert and help the newbies. I guess it’s just that it’s been a while since I’ve been a newbie at anything.

I’m looking forward to paying the B&B community back by being an active participant on the forums and helping other members when I can. And eventually seeding some of overabundance of gear I’m sure I’ll have to fresh shavers.

A B&B member reached out with a PM after a thread discussion about wet shaving while traveling and ending up making me an offer I couldn’t refuse for his lightly used Razorock Bruce synthetic brush. Free!! I received the package yesterday and discovered he’d included a 40’s SuperSpeed.

Wow, right? It’s in great mechanical shape and just needs a little cleaning love. He included a note (letter, really) with a lot of details about how to clean up a razor – and great advice on how NOT to do it. Plus he included “a few” blades to try, ha. Like 10 different boxes of blades!

I’m beside myself. The SuperSpeed I’ve been loaned could be my favorite every day razor of all the ones I’ve had the chance to try so far, so to be unexpectedly given one was BEYOND fantastic and cool and amazing. And I’m looking forward to the light restoration project. It’s been soaking in a water/dawn mix all night and I’ve got a toothbrush ready to go.

It was funny, it was a while before I remembered the Bruce brush was in the box too. I can tell I’m going to like it more, even, than the Big Bruce I have now as a home shaver. And it’ll be fantastic for travel. At first inspection, I’m digging 24mm vs 26mm for sure. I like them both, but the smaller brush seems a little more controllable. I have the Bruce Set now!

Speaking of vintage razors, my local shaving mentor was traveling over the last few weeks and while poking around somewhere found a Slim in good condition for $10 that he picked up for me. WHAT?!

I now have my own Slim (soon) and SuperSpeed, the very two razor’s he gave me to try after the Lupo. Of course, his examples are pristine – these 50-80 year old razors both look brand new to me. Especially this Slim. But I love that I get to work on these new-to-me vintage razors and tease out their luster, that will really make them feel like mine.

Here's the borrowed SS on the left and my new SS on the right. You can see that my Shaving Sensi's example is fantastic and in like-new condition. I've given the one on the right it's first soaking in Dawn and warm water and a toothbrush session.

I've still got some dirt in the handle I'm trying to get out. The top of the plate looks fantastic but the bottom has some corrosion/rust I think.

A very, very cool project.

It also looks like my work friend may just “permaloan” me this GameChanger .68-P. I’ve spoke with him a few times at this point and he loves his Rex and Wolfman so much he had completely forgotten about the GameChanger he lent me. Told me to ask him about it again in a year. So. Since the SuperSpeed and the GC are in the same ballpark efficiency-wise (but with very different feels) I’m thinking about getting either the 68OC or the 84OC plate for it.

That would give me a great stable of DE’s. The SuperSpeed as a default, an open comb GameChanger for heavier growth, and the Slim to have fun and play with. Most importantly, all these razors have great stories with great characters attached to them. Plus, I feel (well, have read and heard from many) these represent high points (sorta) of vintage and modern design. I think I’ve landed on my DE razor stable for now. I can take some time to really learn these, find the perfect blades for them and work on my lathering skills. Which still are not awesome.

Then…jump into SE’s! And then straights!

 

[flask28]

I've finished a quickish review of all these PAA samples. Let me say first I am VERY inexperienced in colognes, aftershaves, or the general idea of going with more than scented deodorant. I feel I need to point out I have an uneducated nose.

Maybe that's why I'm not really bonding with too many of these. I didn't know what to expect really, what would I like? Turns out I like citrus and not floral. I like woody and light musk, but don't like leather (that's a surprise, I love the smell of my leather gear). I like some bay rums but not others, which seems weird.

Future Fiction is the big winner here, followed closely by Atomic Pumpkin. Frost Byte is pretty interesting and I'd like a heavy methanol soap/AF set, but I'm not sure if this is it. I think I'd like to try a Sterling Glacial in that category.

I'm trying to decide where to get the next batch of samples. I was thinking Declaration Grooming or Stirling. I have a B&M on the way so I'll be able to check out omnibus.

Here are some short notes on my reactions to the PAA samples. I tried hard not to look at the website descriptions, although a few times I had no clue what I was smelling and had to check.

Soaps

Frost Byte
Strong! Super minty, bordering on medicinal. Sharp and clean smelling.
if I'm in the mood for menthol

Future Fiction
Strong scent. citrus first, then a barbershop soapy smell.
I like this a lot

CaD
Mild scent. Bergamot, but it faded fast to a light Arko vibe

Cavendish
strong scent. Sweet pipe tobacco, strongly, but something else underneath - citrus maybe?

Atomic Pumpkin
mild scent. Bay Rum with a very nice cinnamon cider thing happening.
not every day, but I'll use this every October for sure


Cologne Samples

Speakeasy
Mild scent. I can't ID this, but I think of perfumed baby powder
smells like my mom's bathroom

Good Vibrations
strong-ish scent. Darkly floral, rich. I like this and I normally don't do floral

Clubguy
strong scent. Pinaud Clubman! Perhaps more refined than the real thing, less strident
I frequently use Clubman as an aftershafe, this is MORE Clubman

Dapper Doc's
Strong scent. Sweetly floral, but cut with something vaguely melon? dark melon. lol. What am I even saying.

Hotel Cecil
mild scent. wow, hard to describe. Hits me as "perfumey" at first but mellows darker. There's vanilla in there but that's not the strong note.

Tombstone
Strong sent. Similar to the leather conditioner I use for my boots, but after a moment a floral baby powder rears it's head

Rustler's Ridge
Strong scent. Vanilla! Strong vanilla, not what I was expecting at all from the name, lol. It darkens, maybe musky, after the first hit.

Droid Black
Strong scent. Not sure what I was expecting, but it wasn't a initial blast of fruity citrus. Nice! I think some vanilla creeps in later. It's got more of a cologne's sharp vibe after a while

Sci-fi Lime
Mild scent. Lime, lime, limey lime. Not sharp, a pretty mellow lime. There's something there smoothing it, not sure what, but the limes of the future smell like lime it looks like.

Diver Down
Strong scent. Strong hit of cinnamon, pretty spicy

Ciderhouse 5
Mild scent. Apple cider and pine or something woody. not as sweet as you might think.

Gondolier
Mild Scent. A spicy citrus with strong floral tones in there too.

The Beach
Strong scent. 80's Coppertone suntan oil, wow. I couldn't figure this out so I had to cheat and look it up on the PAA website. But as soon as I saw the description it hit home what this oddly familiar scent was, the smell of teenage summer.

Doppelganger Grey
Mild scent. I know these doppelgangers are recreations of colognes, but I don't remember which, nor would the name mean much to me anyway. This is nice, a little musk forward but moves towards a fresh almost citrus or fruit thing. (looked this up later - Creed Aventus. Sounds expensive)

Shave Chaser
Mild scent. A not too sweet vanilla first, then something sharp and dark at the same time. Hmm. Maybe musk?

Doppelganger Gold
Mild scent. Citrus for sure, with floral and something woody.

Chocolate Bourbon
Strong scent. This is chocolate caramel, bam. done.

 

[thombrogan]

Really hoping you are or will be a novelist after reading your reviews of those scents.

 

[flask28]

Really hoping you are or will be a novelist after reading your reviews of those scents.

Thank you!

So kind of you say that, it's so challenging to describe smells and (until I joined B&B) something I rarely, if ever, have done. It felt pretty out there, adding this to my journal. I was worried I'd get a "Uh, flask, you couldn't figure out what grape smells like?" response or that I'd declare my dislike for something that 99% of members love and be shamed for it

 

[flask28]

There were a lot of firsts in today’s shave

A few days ago I was introduced to the greatness of boar brushes, via an inexpensive Omega I was given. My experience is colored only by the PAA Peregrino and RazorRock’s Big and not big Bruce brushes that I currently own. Super soft synthetic brushes with largish handles. Well, the Bruce isn’t big. A nice medium size. And until today the favorite on the shelf.

This small boar, the handle customized with O-rings for a softer, firmer grip, is really a revelation. I wasn’t sure what I was expecting from a fresh boar, based on my reading here. Something like steel wool, perhaps? Lol. Something to endure until it broke in, which would be 30-60 shaves away.

My experience was quite the opposite today, I very much enjoyed the “soft firmness” of this Omega. Not what I’d call scratchy at all. A little scratchy, maybe. I realize that’s a fine distinction but I feel my readers here will appreciate the difference.

I was so timid with it at first, positive I was going to scrape my face off. After a few moments, I burst out laughing. It felt great! What the heck?! It was firm, a nice resistance that is a huge contrast with the synthetic pillow clouds of the Big Bruce and the Peregrino. I suddenly understand, physically, the idea of different knot backbone strengths.

The smallness of the handle was also a big concern at first - it looked like a grape in my banana hands - was another surprise. A small handle feels really precise! It felt like a switchblade compared to the baseball bat handle of the Peregrino. But the knot splayed enough to not make lathering feel like face painting with a crayon.

(It's still wet here, I pulled it off it's stand for this photo)

The shave adventure factor was kicked into Indiana Jones levels by the other two firsts I experienced: Using a shaving “stick” for the first time, using Proraso for the first time and my first attempt at a face lather. Loved them all!!

I can see why so many B&B’er face lather. Quick, easy and effective. I felt like I had no idea how much I was applying. Turns out I didn’t - and applied A LOT! Omg. I had to add so much water to get it slick, yet still managed to look like Santa at a few points of the shave. Plus I was using this boar brush too, so everything felt new and strange and interesting.

Proraso Green is nice! My first menthol soap, forgot to mention that too. It seemed very mild to me, a pleasant subtle coolness.

The Slim on 3 felt like a old friend. Comfortable and friendly, easy to get along with. I do notice it does not clear lather quite as well as the SuperSpeeds. For obvious reasons, there’s a lot more going on under the plate on an adjustable. But I love the balance and the handle of the Slim.

I should mention I’m using my own personal Slim now, the borrowed razors have been returned to the local Razor Library, my shaving mentors place. Well, sort of. The wing-tip superspeed I liked so much has been put on a long term loan program, so it came back to the den. Somehow I ended up with a 2nd 40’s style SuperSpeed too, he pulled a fast one there. "For your first PIF" lol - he and @BradWorld are cut from the same cloth it seems. My new-to-me Slim was one he found on a recent adventure. He's cleaned (via ultrasound!) it and gave it a once over for me, it's in as almost as good condition as the example he loaned me.

The "new" razor checkout from the library from this visit is a Gillette Tech - That's on deck for the next shave.

So HUGE shave day for Flask - feeling almost overwhelmed (relatively speaking) by all the new experience and having what I thought I knew so drastically shifted around in a single shave.


Fun stuff!

 

[Guido75]

Excellent PAA write up and review!

Guido

 

[Rosseforp]

I've seen some men and women get sent home because of the whole "you could smell them in the elevator 20min after they'd left" thing.

I worked the second shift in a small machine shop and could always tell when the Boss' wife had stopped by in the morning some 5-6 hours later.
Did I mention this was a machine shop with all sorts of smelly cutting oils and such?

I'm been thinking about tomorrow's shave with the Slim

I found the sweet spot on my Slim by first starting out on #1 for the first shave, then bumped it up a click on each successive shave until I found the most comfortable setting, which for me is #4.

Nice journal, keep us informed of everything new and used, it's all good.

~doug~