How long can you go and not use the same combination?

[zethreal]

I've noticed that I have kind of fallen into a steady ritual of using the same soap, razor and blade every day. While there is nothing wrong with it, I wanted to mix things up in my day. I'm going to make a list of all the soaps, blades, razors, brushes and aftershaves that I have and set up a schedule of when I change between them.

Just a rough idea on what this means... I have 3 razors, 3 blades, 3 brushes, 6 aftershaves and 20ish soaps. That means that I have 3240 combinations. Shaving every day, that's almost 9 years. I know I'll never get through it ( as I will definitely be adding more of all the items ), but it will help me be sure that shaving always stays new.

I'm going to have some order to it to make sure I get through everything. I plan on cycling through them in this order: soap, blade, razor, brush, aftershave. I'm going to keep track of it via google docs & will post a link to that file once I get it created.

Who else wants to join me in my attempt to try all possible combinations of the razors, blades, brushes, soaps & aftershaves that you own? It'll be fun!!

 

[Cynomys]

You've really opened up a can of worms here as there could be some rather complicated statistics involved. For instance, if someone has a boar brush that is only used with soaps and not creams. Or if you have both DE and SE razors in which case not all razor/blade combinations are possible. In other words, it is not as simple as multiplying the numbers together to get the total number of combinations.

 

[heybatter]

I'm not sure if I did this right but based on 12 creams, 5 soaps, 15 aftershaves, 3 razors, and 12 blades I came up with 1,533,939 combinations(when order does not matter)....

http://www.mathsisfun.com/combinatorics/combinations-permutations-calculator.html

 

[zethreal]

It isn't always, but it is in my case. I have a boar that I normally only use with 1 soap, but I've gotten good lathers with just about every soap/cream I've used it on... I just prefer my badger. The badger just doesn't cut it on that one soap.


If someone does have it & wants to do the math, they can hit me up with what they've got via PM

 

[Ollie4ISU]

Mr. Spock would have an aneurysm trying to figure that out for me......

 

[Jordy]

Thats quite the combinations for making shaving new everyday.

 

[zethreal]

I'm not sure if I did this right but based on 12 creams, 5 soaps, 15 aftershaves, 3 razors, and 12 blades I came up with 1,533,939 combinations(when order does not matter)....

http://www.mathsisfun.com/combinatorics/combinations-permutations-calculator.html

not really... it's [soaps & creams] X [brushes] X [razors] X [blades] X [aftershaves]

So in your case it'd be 17 X 1 X 3 X 12 X 15 = 9180 ( I combined both soaps & creams because I don't see you using both... you'd use 1 or the other, so they're essentially the same ).

Thats quite the combinations for making shaving new everyday.

Yeah. I figure I'll use the same combination for the life of a blade, since that's the shortest lived element. I occasionally have kids running around the house, so I can't just go leaving blades out.

 

[heybatter]

"So in your case it'd be 17 X 1 X 3 X 12 X 15 = 9180 ( I combined both soaps & creams because I don't see you using both... you'd use 1 or the other, so they're essentially the same )."

Good point, I hadn't thought about that.

 

[Cynomys]

I'm not sure if I did this right but based on 12 creams, 5 soaps, 15 aftershaves, 3 razors, and 12 blades I came up with 1,533,939 combinations(when order does not matter)....

How did you come up with that number? If we are only interested in the number of unique combinations, no restictions (like a particular balde which is used only in one of the three razors), then the number of combinations is (12 + 5) x 15 x 3 x 12 = 9180. Still, that it about 25 years at one shave per day. Oh, and do you have only 1 brush?

 

[j_fro]

But did you can lather in different ways as well...and use alum or not...

 

[heybatter]

How did you come up with that number? If we are only interested in the number of unique combinations, no restictions (like a particular balde which is used only in one of the three razors), then the number of combinations is (12 + 5) x 15 x 3 x 12 = 9180. Still, that it about 25 years at one shave per day. Oh, and do you have only 1 brush?

I used the link in my OP. Obviously incorrectly though...

 

[celestino]

i thought we were already doing this! Hee hee. Enjoy the variety.

 

[Shave_Rat]

It gets even worse if you do add in the uberlather options of mixing a cream with a soap... which I do on a fairly regular basis.

 

[Boro62]

juss curious, what if he super lather's?? doesnt that make it even more interesting

 

[Boro62]

It gets even worse if you do add in the uberlather options of mixing a cream with a soap... which I do on a fairly regular basis.

lol great minds think alike

 

[PFP_Dad]

Lets see, if done correctly:

73 razors X 1 blade X 16 soaps/creams X 4 aftershaves X 7 brushes = 32704/365 days = 89.6 years.

I guess I'll never know which combination is best...

 

[zethreal]

Lets see, if done correctly:

73 razors X 1 blade X 16 soaps/creams X 4 aftershaves X 7 brushes = 32704/365 days = 89.6 years.

I guess I'll never know which combination is best...

Sounds about right. Want to play along?

 

[Lion and the Fox]

Mindboggling!

 

[Mandina]

Amazing numbers! And more OCD: I devised a rotation schedule for my 20+ soaps and 6 (including occasional miscellaneous) brands of blades, as I use some soaps and some blades more than others but want to ensure that I use everything from my substantial stock. I've done this during late-night periods of either writer's block or grading endless numbers of student essays--the latter of which can really drive a person into the OCD abyss!

 

[JCinPA]

Two razors
two blades
6 brushes
7 creams/soaps

lessee (takes off shoes to count), I think that's 168 days. It would be over 4 years if you added after shaves to the mix.