GC.68OC, GOLD GRANDE, YAQI CHROME MELLON - A JOURNEY

[JoWolf]

We'll never see that again.

I‘m not sure Mike. When I started working my job in the Steel Mills 1969. Dave an old dude laughed with glee telling me how he was paying off his 6% home mortgage. He guaranteed me that mortgage rates of which mine was around 19% was the new normal. My last variable mortgage in 2006 bounced around 3>4%. Dave was long gone. Never say Never.

Reaching the point where electrics start to overtake the Internal combustion engine. Gasoline pricing at that point will start to decrease. Who knows what the drop will be, but it will be a drop.

 

[Esox]

I‘m not sure Mike. When I started working my job in the Steel Mills 1969. Dave an old dude laughed with glee telling me how he was paying off his 6% home mortgage. He guaranteed me that mortgage rates of which mine was around 19% was the new normal. My last variable mortgage in 2006 bounced around 3>4%. Dave was long gone. Never say Never.

Reaching the point where electrics start to overtake the Internal combustion engine. Gasoline pricing at that point will start to decrease. Who knows what the drop will be, but it will be a drop.

I hope I'll never see another mortgage. That much at least is behind me. As for all electric vehicles on the roads, I'm not sure I'll be alive to see that day. They want to get every penny out of pertro products for as long as they possibly can.

 

[JoWolf]

I hope I'll never see another mortgage. That much at least is behind me. As for all electric vehicles on the roads, I'm not sure I'll be alive to see that day. They want to get every penny out of pertro products for as long as they possibly can.

Regardless of what the Petroleum folks want. Battery capacity/ distance. The only thing holding back electrics. I see more of them every year in the hood. I‘m rural so I also see horses.

 

[Rosseforp]

Regardless of what the Petroleum folks want. Battery capacity/ distance. The only thing holding back electrics. I see more of them every year in the hood. I‘m rural so I also see horses.

I got a Chevy Volt a few years ago. Has a 1.4 liter gas powered 4 cylinder generator and a battery. Best of both worlds. No matter what, most of our electricity comes from fossil fuels, and most likely will for a long time. Who knows, maybe powered by Element 115.

doug

 

[Esox]

Regardless of what the Petroleum folks want. Battery capacity/ distance. The only thing holding back electrics.

The future is in electric vehicles. GM had the best electric vehicle technology in the world in the 1980's. Someone in Detroit, not employed but contracted by GM, developed the batteries. GM brought out the EV1 and if you dig deep enough you'll find GM sold that battery technology to Texaco.

Who knows, maybe powered by Element 115.

 

[JoWolf]

January 28​

Twelfth fixed-four weekly shave. Three days to scratch off January. Sabbatical success continues. Ground Hog soon to meet Boar Hog.


Grande & Feather
Zenith B-35 Boar
Saponificio Varesino Tundra Artica

Fixed four Fridays. A seven day growth seems to have lost a bit of length. Beard training? Big boar is gaining softnesses. Beautiful soap and lathering pleasures. I am refining skin stretch/flattening and expanding it to the head shave. The concentrated effort slowed the shave down considerably. Strokes became more deliberate. Allowing me to lighten pressure, closeness and comfort improved. In my shave experience. Highest efficiencies achieve highest comfort. The Grande & Feather felt like they found an overdrive gear. Not faster, a comfort glide kind of smoothness. Excellent face and head shave.

I will continue to work on refining skin stretch/flattening. A larger than expected improvement. I enjoyed my one pass shave slowing down. I played with lather more than I needed to.
Exploring shaves continues to be fun and enjoyable.

Happy Shaves Gents

 

[JoWolf]

Minimalism Back to the Future


2022 is my third year in B&B, DE shaving, and my return to minimalism. Entering DE shaving from carts I was a minimalist. I had a badger brush, a Harry’s razor and two or three soaps.

A Kaleidoscopic expansion of many wet shaving products and equipment was needed to get to a Fixed Four. That took two and a half years. No one can try everything. Finding best suited products and equipment for my shave was rewarding and fun. Early DE shaving brought excitement and adventure always moving toward shaving efficiency. The three pass face and head shave was reduced to an ATG Single Pass Shave.

Sensitive Skin. My non existent pre and post shaves were introduced. Refined they are the biggest part of my shave in time and prep. They allow and support consistent very close, very comfortable shaves.

Minimalism to me is about Efficiency, more than anything else. My shaving experience has been. Highest Efficiency always delivers Highest Comfort. My goal. On going refinement. Stroke Count.

A good efficient vehicle is the cornerstone. Comfort morphing into luxurious shaves is the trip plan.

My Fixed Four Kit

My fixed four shaves are weekly. Four shaves for January. 48 shaves to go for 2022. I continue to explore and refine my shaves. Reducing Shave Strokes. Minimalism.

 

[JoWolf]

February 4

Thirteenth fixed-four weekly shave. Fifth 2022 shave. Sabbatical success continues.

Ground Hog was benevolent with a swing and a miss. Another winter storm roars past with intermittent sun and a few light flurries.

Grande & Feather
Zenith B-35 Boar
Saponificio Varesino Felce Aromatics

Skin Stretching/Flattening my main focus. Big Boar enchantment continues. Slowing the shave down. Contemplative smooth, gliding, strokes. Withdrawing blade to skin pressure. Strokes screaming towards weightlessness. Slowing a one pass shave down has improved closeness and comfort in my stroke. As they say everything worked as well as last week only better. I have given up the one pass on my neck. Two lighter passes provide better closeness and comfort. Face & head continue to remain single pass. I guess it’s a hybrid one pass or something shave. Most important it was an enjoyable, comfortable close shave.

I will be finishing the Felce Aromatica this year. First item to be replaced next year. The sabbatical will still hold strong with two SV tins left and 47 shaves to go for the year.

Happy Shaves

 

[thombrogan]

screaming towards weightlessness.

That’s a very awe-inspiring phrase, John.

 

[JoWolf]

That’s a very awe-inspiring phrase, John.

Yes Thom, I hear the screaming in my head when I get too close. Redirecting the scream to technique. Trying to lighten a Feather.

 

[JoWolf]

February 11

Fourteenth fixed-four weekly shave. Sixth 2022 shave. Purchase Sabbatical, success continues.

Grande & Feather
Zenith B-35 Boar
Saponificio Varesino Cosmo

Shaves improving in a steady fashion of comfort and enjoyment. A Seventh Day Shaver is starting to suit me. I have always tried to maintain a dogma within my shaves. Minimalism and a Fixed Four absolutely dogmatic. My path to happiness.
My effort to lighten a Feather continues. Shaves are closer with a higher level of post skin comfort. I did use alum on my neck and face. Slightest warmth on my largest sensitive neck area. The head shave remains a single pass. Skin flattening improved closeness with above average skin comfort. Alum not required on the head shave. The fixed four kit is returning dividends, my touch has lightened. Skin comfort is the best I’ve had. I have had six great shaves this year and look forward to the remaining 46.

Happy Shaves

 

[AimlessWanderer]

While I am glad you've found what works for you, John, I couldn't do it. The fuzz would be far too annoying for the second half of the week. I can stretch to five days if the health is rough, and I simply don't trust myself to shave safely, but day three or four is normally when I start feeling the need to get rid. Although, having such a frizzy beard might mean I get the dreaded beard itch sooner than others might. Do you apply any mid-week balm or anything?

 

[JoWolf]

While I am glad you've found what works for you, John, I couldn't do it. The fuzz would be far too annoying for the second half of the week. I can stretch to five days if the health is rough, and I simply don't trust myself to shave safely, but day three or four is normally when I start feeling the need to get rid. Although, having such a frizzy beard might mean I get the dreaded beard itch sooner than others might. Do you apply any mid-week balm or anything?

Al my face and head shaves are so radically different since starting DE. The first two and a half years finding what worked best for me took a lot longer than I ever thought it might. Last six months following were all about skin care. At that point two things happened I quit feeling whisker itch and pain with hair breaking surface at 36 - 72 hrs. The fixed four refined and continues to refine my light touch. Increased refinement led to increased closeness, with improved skin comfort. The seventh day growth that I shaved today was pretty reminiscent of a five day growth with carts and my DE shaves first year. Five was as long as I could ever go with Carts and seldom did. Nobody is more surprised than me.
My pre shave and post shave routines are INTENSE. Big time. I have only moisturized and used Hyaluronic Acid mid week if skin sensitivity has been noticeable. Only once this year, in my case, and it was very slight sensitivity. The weather was also sub zero which increases dryness. My Shave has morphed into Skin Condition. It took me three years to realize that. Sensitive skin dudes MUST shave according to Skin Health. Not whisker length. My best skin health is seven days. I have tried 3-4-5-6 and 7 is my number for best skin comfort. My shaves have never been as close or any where near the skin comfort I enjoy now. I have always been a BBS Freak even before I heard or knew what the acronym meant.
Better Kit- Better Shave Products- Better and improving Technique. For me. All heavy weights but it took much time and effort to gather them. Time spent on refinement is only possible if your Kit etc. has that room for expansion. An example Al. I used Vito’s exclusively for one year. An excellent soap for an entry level soap. SV is a vast improvement with less lathering involved and better performance across the board. When your soap feels and acts slow it will effect your outcome. What I am saying Al. I could not improve my shave without the wholesale changes to products and equipment in the last half year. Pre and post shave skin routines being the biggest.
I continue to make changes and adjustments in my shave based on improving skin health.

 

[AimlessWanderer]

John, please don't think I am trying to diminish your achievements, or the time and effort you have invested to identify and realise those targets. I'm just looking at it from the perspective of someone with a different beard and skin type, and in my case the growth (on the face, I've never shaved the head) would be the factor that diminished skin comfort for the second half of the week. That's why I wondered if you needed to do a mid week hair treatment (for want of a better term), to stave off any itch or irritation until the skin was ready to be shaved again. However, it sounds like the regrowth itself isn't particularly problematic for you over a week, so you can focus on skin, and not have to concern yourself with hair.

 

[JoWolf]

John, please don't think I am trying to diminish your achievements, or the time and effort you have invested to identify and realise those targets. I'm just looking at it from the perspective of someone with a different beard and skin type, and in my case the growth (on the face, I've never shaved the head) would be the factor that diminished skin comfort for the second half of the week.

However, it sounds like the regrowth itself isn't particularly problematic for you over a week, so you can focus on skin, and not have to concern yourself with hair.

It isn’t about hair Al. It’s about skin. When I improved my skin health the whisker problems disappeared So Hard it is like I never had them. My comfortable skin is new to me. It was always about skin. My comfort remains the same from shave too shave. No itch. No whisker pain, just comfort.
Al my skin now from shave day to shave day does not feel or look the same. Especially feel. That all started when I got pre and post routines sorted out with Visible and tactile results.

That's why I wondered if you needed to do a mid week hair treatment (for want of a better term), to stave off any itch or irritation until the skin was ready to be shaved again.

Interesting Al. I certainly did do skin treatments and rejuvenations mid week. Year one and the beginning of year two. Once I started with better post shave routines I was able to cut back. Once I got my pre shave finally going, with an already good post shave. Two things happened skin itch and pain disappeared with whiskers breaking skin. (This is a skin not a whisker issue) The four day too seven day itch or beard discomfort completely disappeared. Solely based on pre and post shave improvements.
I want to be REAL CLEAR on improvements AL. The regular skin products like Nivea and a few others all front line good products. I dumped everyone of them in the garbage. Not because they are not excellent products. They did not work for me. Al believe me I am not a Fan Boy. Nor will I pimp products.
The first SV vegetal products I used. There was a noticeable difference in the extreme for skin comfort. I even thought it might be a one off or something. After about three or so go throughs with the vegetal there was no doubt. Vegetal was my friend. Few labels without SV have survived. Hyaluronic Acid and Witch Hazel everything else got dumped.
Al it is a matter of finding what you need and what works best to improve your skin health. I hope it doesn’t take you two and a half years to find the right stuff. I mean when you put it on you should feel a significant improvement immediately. That’s the way it went for me. IMHO shaves are more about skin comfort than whiskers. I have sensitive skin though. Everything above is a laugh for normal skin dudes.

 

[AimlessWanderer]

Interesting.

For me, optimal skin care, is not making things any more complicated than it absolutely needs to be. The best prep for me, is water. That's it. Any more than that, and I risk softening skin as well as hair, which leads to generating problems that wouldn't otherwise be there. Same with post shave. Rinse with water, and pat face dry. Don't over egg the pudding. I went through a clogged pore spell a couple of times last year, and it was all caused by my skin absorbing too much crap that it really didn't need. Once I went back to basics, ditched the soap I'd been using, and abandoned the unnecessary post shave stuff, all the problems went away.

Bear in mind that I have been DE shaving with minimal product usage for 30 years already. I just wanted to see if adding a little something would make things even better. They didn't. They had the opposite effect, and I had to go back to product minimalism for my skin to be at its healthiest.

Nowadays, I will use post shave things occasionally, and sparingly. Anything - aftershaves, balms, moisturisers - can cause me problems if I use them too often when they are not needed. Occasionally they can be beneficial, dependent on my general skin condition at the time, but most of the time nothing is needed - and so nothing is exactly what it gets. My skin is sensitive, but in a very different way to yours. It's not sensitive to the mechanical action of my shaves, but it is sensitive to pollutants. Especially menthol, which gives me something approaching chemical burns.

Going "No Poo" led to a dramatic improvement in my scalp health too. For years I had been plagued with occasional bouts of scalp sores. Ditching shampoo, and just keeping the scalp clean with bristle brushes and simple rinses, made a world of difference. I'll occasionally (usually once or twice in summer) use a small amount of a clarifying shampoo to strip out excess oils, if a little extra help is needed.

Sounds like we're at opposite ends of the spectrum as to what our skin needs to be happy and healthy.

 

[JoWolf]

Interesting.

For me, optimal skin care, is not making things any more complicated than it absolutely needs to be. The best prep for me, is water. That's it. Any more than that, and I risk softening skin as well as hair, which leads to generating problems that wouldn't otherwise be there. Same with post shave. Rinse with water, and pat face dry. Don't over egg the pudding. I went through a clogged pore spell a couple of times last year, and it was all caused by my skin absorbing too much crap that it really didn't need. Once I went back to basics, ditched the soap I'd been using, and abandoned the unnecessary post shave stuff, all the problems went away.

Bear in mind that I have been DE shaving with minimal product usage for 30 years already. I just wanted to see if adding a little something would make things even better. They didn't. They had the opposite effect, and I had to go back to product minimalism for my skin to be at its healthiest.

Nowadays, I will use post shave things occasionally, and sparingly. Anything - aftershaves, balms, moisturisers - can cause me problems if I use them too often when they are not needed. Occasionally they can be beneficial, dependent on my general skin condition at the time, but most of the time nothing is needed - and so nothing is exactly what it gets. My skin is sensitive, but in a very different way to yours. It's not sensitive to the mechanical action of my shaves, but it is sensitive to pollutants. Especially menthol, which gives me something approaching chemical burns.

Going "No Poo" led to a dramatic improvement in my scalp health too. For years I had been plagued with occasional bouts of scalp sores. Ditching shampoo, and just keeping the scalp clean with bristle brushes and simple rinses, made a world of difference. I'll occasionally (usually once or twice in summer) use a small amount of a clarifying shampoo to strip out excess oils, if a little extra help is needed.

Sounds like we're at opposite ends of the spectrum as to what our skin needs to be happy and healthy.

Absolutely Al. The longer I have explored shaves of other gents the differences often vast. I had an aversion to pre and post products for most of my shave life. It is all new and recent to my shave. It took me three years to find my happy spot. I feel very lucky to be here. Now just refine. The shaves are very relaxing and enjoyable.

 

[Rosseforp]

I hope it doesn’t take you two and a half years to find the right stuff. I mean when you put it on you should feel a significant improvement immediately. That’s the way it went for me. IMHO shaves are more about skin comfort than whiskers. I have sensitive skin though. Everything above is a laugh for normal skin dudes.

What is interesting for me John, is that since my retirement 2 1/2 years ago, not only has my shaving schedule been changed, but also my environment. We used both mineral and water based cutting oils and coolants in the machine shop so there were the mists in the air, plus handling the parts.

There was both tissue and hand lotion at every workstation. It took me a while to notice the skin on my hands and arms drying out because I was no longer applying lotion all day long, and my face because I was no longer shaving on a regular schedule.
I'm now in the process of using lotions more frequently and using different bath and hand soaps, similar to what you have been going through.

doug

 

[JoWolf]

What is interesting for me John, is that since my retirement 2 1/2 years ago, not only has my shaving schedule been changed, but also my environment. We used both mineral and water based cutting oils and coolants in the machine shop so there were the mists in the air, plus handling the parts.

There was both tissue and hand lotion at every workstation. It took me a while to notice the skin on my hands and arms drying out because I was no longer applying lotion all day long, and my face because I was no longer shaving on a regular schedule.
I'm now in the process of using lotions more frequently and using different bath and hand soaps, similar to what you have been going through.

doug

I would say it took me more than a half a dozen years to find a balance in my retirement. I had about five great years and than got hit with Rheumatoid arthritis. I change and react to my arthritis. I am still able to schedule and keep most appointments. Stabilizing and scheduling my shave has been an interesting trek. I probably put a greater effort into it because of my arthritis. There can be an upside and nice when it happens. I love retirement.

The search for so many right things, more often than naught a long hard grind. It has only since being a B&B member that I even knew I had the problems I had. Learning to shave all over biggest hoot ever.

 

[JoWolf]

February 18

Fifteenth fixed-four weekly shave. Seventh 2022 shave. Purchase Sabbatical, success continues.

Grande & Feather
Zenith B-35 Boar
Saponificio Varesino Tundra Artica

Todays shave I have gone too a Two Pass ATG face shave. Adding the second pass eliminates all but a few buffing strokes. Luxurious lathering extends an excellent trade off with improved closenesses. Head shaves remain ATG Single Pass. Skin flattening has improved head shave closeness. My strokes vary markedly in pressure and speed. Three completely different skin zones requiring technique adjustments in speed and pressure. Fixed Four presenting challenges in refinement. Chasing excellence.

Sub zero temperatures this week had me slathering on moisturizer over my sensitive neck skin areas. Prioritizing skin health elevated my shaves in closeness and comfort. Staying the course. “Diventare completamento.” Predictability, repeatability ”Lusso”

I love my shaves and wish they were more often. They feel so good. Friday afternoons my favourite part of the week. Relaxation and comfort start with a pre shower. Post shave incorporates skin nourishment and increases skin comfort. A disinfected oiled Feather blade, locked and loaded into a gleaming, polished Grande. Waiting…….

See you next Friday, Happy Shaves