Learning to shave - all over again

[wazabees]

Shave 22

Not the best light in the bathroom, but I tried.
As you can see, I didn't forget my razor after all!

Today's shave;
Rockwell 6S with plate 4, fresh Astra SP blade
Haslinger schafmilch soap and Wee Scot brush
Floïd vigoroso aftershave

Four days growth easily mowed down. The Haslinger soap is absolutely amazing. So slick and comfortable, providing great protection. One pass WTG and a second pass XTG. I could have continued, but decided to leave it at that. A very smooth and comfortable shave! No nicks, weepers or irritation and hardly any sting from the alumn bloc. The Floïd aftershave was very cooling as I've come to expect. Very happy! [emoji106] [emoji3]

 

[wazabees]

Shave 23
Yesterday's shave was pretty much a carbon copy of the shave the day before. Haslinger schafmilch is still awesome. This was a morning shave and only 1 day's growth. I find the shave rougher when the whiskers are really short. I noticed I was close to getting some razor burn so I backed off and ended the shave after a second pass. First pass WTG, second pass XTG. Today my face feels pretty "stubbly" so I'm going to try another shave today, this time with a fresh Astra SP blade. I've been wondering if using plate 5 would make any difference, but I'll hold off on that too.

 

[wazabees]

Wow! Talk about lack of updates. I haven't stopped shaving though! And I've kept somewhat of a record of my shaves. Yesterday I had my 32nd shave. I started DE shaving 117 days ago and that makes my average about 3,6 days in between shaves. My goal is still to shave more often, about every two days, but I'm not quite there yet. So! A quick summary of my last 8 shaves...

The things that don't change between shaves:
- Rockwell 6S razor
- Wee scot brush
- Haslinger Schafmilch soap (face lathering)

Shave 24 (August 11th)
Used a fresh Astra SP blade and plate 4 for the 6S. Nothing to report, really! A nice shave, finished with Floïd Vigoroso AS splash.

Shave 25 (August 14th)
Switched blades. Used a fresh Polsilver blade this time, and I also went with plate 5 for the 6S. A fantastic shave, easily mowing down 3 days of stubble. No clue if the plate or the blade made much of a difference though. Finished with Vigoroso again.

Shave 26 (August 18th)
Used a fresh Polsilver blade again, and plate 5 again. Easily removed 4 days of stubble. More Vigoroso. I just love the smell and the post shave menthol chill!

Shave 27 (August 21st)
Still sticking with plate 5 and second shave with the Polsilver blade. I got myself a socially acceptable shave this time and finished with Myrsol lemon. Great smell, but not as cold as the Vigoroso.

Shave 28 (August 26th)
Today I had one of those rare morning shaves. I started off with the same Polsilver blade (3), but it didn't feel right. It was too tuggy. So, after shaving my right cheek, I decided to switch the blade for a fresh Polsilver. I got a much better shave after the switch. I am however thinking of switching back to plate 4 also. Plate 5 may be a bit too harsh for me. The shave didn't last very long and by the evening I was very, very stubbly. Maybe I was thrown off by having to switch blades mid-shave. Finished with Vigoroso.

Shave 29 (August 27th)
Yup. Shaved again, even though I'd shaved the day before. Unheard of! Almost anyway. This time I switched blades again and went with a super sharp Feather blade. I also made the switch to plate 4. I had a wonderful shave and because of that, I got cocky. The shave just felt so smooth I figured I could go against the grain, no problem. But there were problems, and I gave myself a razor burn on my neck. Ouch! Oh well. The Feather blade certainly hadn't scared me off, but now I needed some time to let that burn settle down. Finished with Vigoroso and applied some soothing balm before I went to bed that night.

Shave 30 (September 1st)
Plate 4 again and Feather (2) again. I went for a 2-pass WTG and XTG shave. Very, very comfortable and no irritation, nicks or cuts this time. A DFS for sure! Applied some Vigoroso as usual and enjoyed that chill.

Shave 31 (September 5th)
A cold water shave this time! Plate 4 and Feather (3). A cold but really nice shave. Got pretty close too. 3 passes, WTG, XTG, XTG and cleanup. I went with a new AS this time, the Floïd Black. The aftershave had a strong smell which lasted a while. My other half found it too intense so I washed my face with soap and cold water and applied Myrsol Lemon instead. I really missed the menthol from the Vigoroso, I got no menthol from the Floid Black. Apparently, I'm a menthol head...

Shave 32 (September 10th)
And we're all caught up! Plate 4 and Feather (4). Another cold water shave! An evening shave this time. Nothing special to report! Just a very fine and comfortable shave without any nicks, weepers or razor burn. Then a generous splash of Vigoroso to wrap it all up! I'm very impressed the Feather still felt really sharp on this fourth use. Happy days!

My shaves still leave a bit of stubble behind, but I'm really not comfortable going against the grain. As usual with BBS; suddenly it happens.

Phew! Sorry for the wall of text. I'm really getting into DE shaving. I'm not changing things very much at the moment, just making sure that I don't use any pressure and that I'm careful. What I do change around a bit are the blades I use to shave and the after shave. I'll stick with plate 4 for the time being and we'll see what happens once I feel the Feather has been "used up". I'll probably try either Astra or Polsilver again. I do have plenty of blades left in my sampler still, but they're not going anywhere.

 

[wazabees]

Did I mention that I love Vigoroso? Like, a lot. And I've slowly been working my way through the first bottle. What do you do when you run low? You get more!



And did I mention that I also love Haslinger? I'm nowhere near finishing that first puck I started. But being me.. I've prepared for when I do run out. Same procedure as with the Vigoroso; get more!

View attachment 687774

 

[wazabees]

Yikes, it's been a while. Still DE shaving. Still have that wee scot brush and the 6S razor. To be fair, not a whole lot has changed over the years! I even decided to grow out a beard at one point (January this year). I lasted maybe 5-6 months, and then I was off to the local barber (last week) to get a shave and a haircut. I still have my goatee, but.. I've missed DE shaving.

I had to do some shopping. Nothing exciting, but to my delight I noticed Stirling products in EU stores. And they have products with menthol. Glacial citrus shaving soap is on the way. As well as a new brush from the group buy here on B&B. I foresee some more soaps and AS splashes in my near future...

 

[wazabees]

Focusing more on the enjoyment of shaving rather than going through the motions of shaving, like I've been doing for a long time, leads to new shinies. And today's mail-call was awesome.

Now I just need to figure out what to try first..

 

[wazabees]

Okay, I feel a random wish to journal my shaves here, in addition to the spreadsheet I'm keeping. So, here goes.

I've been away from DE wet shaving for a while. The pandemic made me a bit lazy, and I accidentally grew a beard. Don't ask me why. I hadn't done it before, so why not! The issue with that is that I didn't take particularly good care of it. So I went full scruffy cave-man. Long story short, I went to the barbers, removed most of it and left a circle beard. Then I wanted to get back into wet shaving after a long break.

I've also been shaving using a Rockwell 6S on plate #4 with a Feather blade for a long time. I wanted to switch that up too, and try some new soaps, blades, razors, brushes - the works. To keep track of all the things I try and to narrow down my main preferences, I made a spreadsheet to keep track. Because why not? I'm 7 shaves in since I started keeping track, and I'll add the info here as well.

Why? I want to find my (for now) preferred razor blades, razors, soaps, aftershaves, brushes, technique and so on. The following posts will be my recent shaves. Enjoy(?) and comment if you feel like it!

 

[hangblague]

Good! Show us you spreadsheet sometime and watch out for those accidental beards. They can jump out of nowhere.

 

[wazabees]

May 25th '21

Razor: 6S, plate #5
Blade: Feather (?)
Brush: Wee scot
Soap: Stirling Glacial Lemon
Post: Alum + Stirling Glacial Lemon splash
Rating: 3/5

So, I decided I wanted a new razor, just because. Someone here suggested I try my 6S on plate #5 so get a feel for a more efficient razor. So I did. Fairly harsh shave, I'm really not used to plate #5. Irritation on the right side of my neck, otherwise I got away with it fairly clean. Ended up with a DFS. This experiment will run for a little while, then I will try plate #6. Going with a fresh blade for my next shave, as I didn't switch when I changed the plate, nor do I know how many times I'd used the blade before.

 

[wazabees]

May 29th '21

Razor: 6S, plate #5
Blade: Feather (1)
Brush: Wee scot
Soap: Dr. Jon's Hydra
Post: Alum + Hey Joe Acid Melon
Rating: 3.5/5
Last shave: 3 days ago

Decided to try the steep angle shave that I’ve read about on here. It was a bit freaky. The handle was nearly touching my face at times, and I was applying a little bit of pressure. The whiskers went. The shave was smooth. No nicks, no blade skipping, no weepers and no irritation. Freaking awesome.

The soap was a bit finnicky. Not sure it really provided enough protection during my shave, so I left a bit of hair behind on my neck. On my right cheek, I went ATG as well, with a steep angle. All in all, decent shave.

 

[wazabees]

June 2nd '21

Razor: 6S, plate #5
Blade: Feather (2)
Brush: Men-Ü synthetic
Soap: Phoenix Artisan Atomic Age Bay Rum
Post: Alum + Hey Joe Acid Melon
Rating: 4/5
Last shave: 4 days ago

Great shave! There’s some stubble left as it felt like I was getting sore, but hey. No nicks, cuts, weepers or irritation.

Started with a quick shower, then whipped up some lather in a bowl using a synthetic brush this time. I've been face lathering for a long time using the Wee scot now, so changing it up a bit. I have to admit the "Synthetic summer" thread was a bit of a catalyst. So much so that I went and ordered a few more new brushes. The rabbit hole is so deep.

Anyway, this bay rum smells goooood, but you can mainly smell it in the jar, so I wish it was a bit stronger. Got the lather going fairly quickly, just added a little bit of water. First use of this soap, and the lather was very slick and comfortable. It was a bit tricky to remember keeping a steep shaving angle, but I didn’t do too badly. There is a little bit of stubble left on my neck. All over, very very good shave.

 

[wazabees]

June 4th '21

Razor: 6S, plate #5
Blade: Feather (3)
Brush: Yaqi cola
Soap: Chiseled Face Cryogen
Post: Alum + Chiseled Face Cryogen splash
Rating: 2.5/5
Last shave: 2 days ago

Yikes, this was a step in the wrong direction, which left me with a harsh shave today. Not sure that the soap is cutting it, it’s possible it wasn’t slick enough. Or maybe I didn’t whip up the lather properly. The soap is only a year and a half old.

Didn’t have a shower this time (also potential reason) but washed my face with some Cube 2.0. Whipped up some Cryogen in the lather bowl using the Cola synthetic. I added some more Cube 2.0 as a pre-shave. A contributing reason to my harsh shave is potentially that I applied too much pressure. It’s not good this, changing too many variables. Anyway, I ended up with two weepers on the right side of my neck. The rest of my face is pretty good, some roughness in places, but overall a socially acceptable shave. This will be the last shave from this blade. I briefly caught my nail when shaving left handed, while stretching my skin. No damage to my finger, luckily.

 

[wazabees]

June 6th '21

Razor: Gillette Slim
Blade: Feather (1)
Brush: Yaqi cola
Soap: MdC Lagrume
Post: Clubman Gin mixed with some Snake Bite
Rating: 4/5
Last shave: 2 days ago

Fantastic shave with a razor I’ve avoided for a very long time! Set to click #7, and loaded with a fresh Feather blade. First I rubbed some Cube 2.0 on my face and then a hot towel (just with hot tap water). I whipped up some MdC soap in my shaving bowl until I had lather with a nice sheen to it. Applied a hot towel again and applied the lather with the Yaqi cola synthetic brush. First pass was WTG as far as I recall. The razor felt a little bit rough but it went pretty well. A fair amount of stubble left over. More lather and a second pass XTG. Just fine again, and not much stubble left, so I went for a cleanup pass.

I think I saw a tiny weeper, but don’t quote me on that. After rinsing my face with cold water, I didn’t see a need for the alum. I applied Clubman Gin mixed with Fine Snake Bite (for that menthol chill) and enjoyed a very nice and warm scent. Overall, a very nice shave. I did not change the aggressiveness between shaves, but I’ve seen some do it. Rubbing my hand ATG on my neck, I can feel I didn’t get super-close. It’s an area prone to irritation, so I didn’t want to push my luck… DFS I’d say.

 

[wazabees]

June 8th '21

Razor: 6S, plate #5
Blade: Gillette Nacet (1)
Brush: Yaqi cola
Soap: MdC Lagrume
Post: Alum + Stirling Glacial Lemon
Rating: 3.75/5
Last shave: 2 days-ish ago

Back to the Rockwell. But wait, there's more. I've seen many sing the praises of Gillette Nacet blades, so I had to try for myself.
Put some warm water on my face, rubbed on some Cube 2.0 and then a hot towel. Took the tower off, prepared the lather and applied a second hot towel. It felt pretty good! On to the shave…

The Gillette Nacet blade felt surprisingly smooth. Like, very smooth. I think I saw a tiny weeper on the right side of my neck, which is now officially declared a problem area. For the rest of my face though, damn. Pretty awesome! Went WTG for round one, and I think XTG on round two. After that, freestyle. Maybe that’s what messes me up at times, and I should just go for a second XTG. I did my best to keep a steep shaving angle, and for the most part it went pretty well. Not a whole lot of sting from the alum. But the after-shave. Holy ####, freezer burn... which I really don’t mind right about now as it's a hot day. I do however think it may be drying out my skin, so I’ll go grab some balm. I ended up with pretty much BBS on my cheecks and a DFS on my neck. Can’t complain! Whipping up the lather was surprisingly simple. I didn’t add too much water to it, and it was super slick. The smell is amazing too.

No picture today.

 

[wazabees]

June 11th '21

Razor: Lupo .95
Blade: Gillette Nacet (1)
Brush: Yaqi cola
Soap: Stirling Island Man
Post: Alum + Stirling Island Man balm
Rating: 4/5
Last shave: 3 days-ish ago

Same procedure as last. Washed my face with some warm water and Cube 2.0. Then hot towel. The prepared the lather, the razor, etc. Then another hot towel, before lathering my face.

And today is the day we try a brand new razor. The Lupo .95 with a new Gillette Nacet blade. So, technically, that makes it a new razor and a new blade to me. AND a new soap.. Anyway! I went with the angle I found and went to work. The razor is very nimble and felt a fair bit lighter than the 6S. The first pass went without incident, pretty much. It felt smooth, and there was no biting or anything. Then I went for the second pass, XTG. Also went fine. When I shaved the right side of my neck, it felt reasonably good, but it felt like there might be a bit of irritation in my future.

I went for a second pass, XTG. I don’t normally do that, so I don’t know why I did today. I normally do WTG, XTG and cleanup. The second XTG went smooth – no issues. In my infinite wisdom, I also decided to push the envelope and do some areas ATG. That’s where I was rewarded with a tiny weeper on the right side of my neck. Not really anything to write home about. As I’m sitting here typing, and touching my face, I conclude with a DFS+. It could’ve been better and it certainly could’ve been worse. I need to get to know the razor properly before I can judge it accordingly. I’m only a few shaves in, since coming back from a full beard.

A few observations. The Stirling soap smelled nice, it did the job. The balm smelled like – very chemical and medicinal. I ended up applying a thin layer of Stirling Glacial Lemon to try and at least have some enjoyable scent. Note to self: try paying more attention during the clean-up pass. And don't push your luck.

 

[wazabees]

June 13th '21

Razor: Lupo .95
Blade: Gillette Nacet (2)
Brush: Yaqi cola
Soap: Razorock Black Bay
Post: Alum + Clubman Gin, extreme menthol edition
Rating: 3.5/5
Last shave: 2 days-ish ago

2 days since my last shave. I can’t see. Menthol.

The razor felt pretty good in the hand. I’m struggling a bit with the steep angle on this one as I’m worried about pushing too hard. I’m not entirely sure about the blade either, so I’ll switch blades for my next shave. Then I’ll go try Feather, which I’m used to from the 6S.

Black Bay soap – What the hell? It’s green and it’s gritty and it smells funny. Kind of like moss. I did not like this and I did not get any bay rum vibes from this at all. I mean, look at it! It looks like hardened pesto. I found a photo of a full-size tub in the auction archive here on B&B and it's not nice. It was also weird having green tinted lather.
I added a fair bit of water to the lather, so it was pretty wet. It did seem to provide decent protection for my face though.

I ended up with pretty much BBS on both cheeks and a SAS on both sides of my neck. Not much irritation to my skin, except for the right side of my neck, which was probably a little bit annoyed from my previous shave. The alum bloc confirmed this.

Aftershave – well damn. I added menthol to the Clubman aftershave yesterday and it FREEZES. Tears galore. It still smells great though. The menthol sting has mostly dissipated from my face, but is still clear and present on my fingers. @Rhody was absolutely correct in calling it a small bottle of fire...

And (some of) the menthol that went in to that tiny bottle. I may have created a monster. I will obviously use it again, but probably not during winter.

 

[Rhody]

June 13th '21

Razor: Lupo .95
Blade: Gillette Nacet (2)
Brush: Yaqi cola
Soap: Razorock Black Bay
Post: Alum + Clubman Gin, extreme menthol edition
Rating: 3.5/5
Last shave: 2 days-ish ago

2 days since my last shave. I can’t see. Menthol.

The razor felt pretty good in the hand. I’m struggling a bit with the steep angle on this one as I’m worried about pushing too hard. I’m not entirely sure about the blade either, so I’ll switch blades for my next shave. Then I’ll go try Feather, which I’m used to from the 6S.

Black Bay soap – What the hell? It’s green and it’s gritty and it smells funny. Kind of like moss. I did not like this and I did not get any bay rum vibes from this at all. I mean, look at it! It looks like hardened pesto. I found a photo of a full-size tub in the auction archive here on B&B and it's not nice. It was also weird having green tinted lather.
I added a fair bit of water to the lather, so it was pretty wet. It did seem to provide decent protection for my face though.

I ended up with pretty much BBS on both cheeks and a SAS on both sides of my neck. Not much irritation to my skin, except for the right side of my neck, which was probably a little bit annoyed from my previous shave. The alum bloc confirmed this.

Aftershave – well damn. I added menthol to the Clubman aftershave yesterday and it FREEZES. Tears galore. It still smells great though. The menthol sting has mostly dissipated from my face, but is still clear and present on my fingers. @Rhody was absolutely correct in calling it a small bottle of fire...


View attachment 1281252

And (some of) the menthol that went in to that tiny bottle. I may have created a monster. I will obviously use it again, but probably not during winter.

View attachment 1281253

Thanks for the update great to see you lived to tell the tail! Great sep up bye. Love that brush / handle.

 

[wazabees]

June 15th '21

Razor: Lupo .95
Blade: Wizamet super iridium (1)
Brush: Yaqi cola
Soap: The Goodfellas Smile grape/blueberry solid soap
Pre: Cube 2.0
Post: Myrsol lemon with a dash of Snake Bite
Rating: 4.25/5
Last shave: 2 days-ish ago

2 days since my last shave. Approx

This was a pretty good shave! I did my little prep work before my shower, like pressing some cuttings of The Goodfellas smile soap into a shaving bowl, ready to be lathered. Next time I’ll add a little bit of hot water to the bowl so the soap can soften a bit more, as there was some residue after my shave. I used Cube 2.0 as a preshave this time, rubbing it against the grain. The grape and blueberry scent from the soap was pretty subtle, but definitively present. The lather I got from it was, imho, pretty epic. I don’t know if it was the soap alone or if the Cube 2.0 that assisted, but it was super, super slick. I could’ve easily done two passes on one application of the lather. Anywho, I did my first WTG pass. The blade also felt really smooth, more so than the Nacet. It could be a fluke, so I’ll shave with it again in the Lupo, and I’ll try it out in my 6S as well.

The second pass went just as smoothly as the first one, and I went into a clean-up pass. BBS cheeks and DFS neck. I was absolutely sure my neck would be very irritated after this shave, and I’m happy to report that I was wrong. The alum bloc gave a bit of sting on the right side of my neck and a bit on my left cheek. I rinsed off the alum with some cold water and applied some Myrsol after shave. As it’s getting hot, I had to add a bit of Snake Bite to cool it down. All in all, a fantastic shave. I look forward to my next one! And that will determine if I get a 250-pack of Wizamets or two. The soap is already on my wishlist…

 

[wazabees]

June 18th '21

Razor: Lupo .95
Blade: Wizamet super iridium (2)
Brush: Yaqi cola
Soap: PAA Atomic Age Bay Rum
Pre: Cube 2.0
Post: Stirling Glacial Lemon
Rating: 4.5/5
Last shave: 3 days-ish ago

Had a pretty good shave yesterday. Washed my face, and then a hot towel. Rinsed off, prepared my lather and added a little bit of Cube 2.0 to my face. Lathered up and off I went. The Bay Rum scent is awesome from this soap..

The shave felt superbly slick as well. Maybe not as slick as the hard soap from Goodfella’s Smile, but still very good. This is however yet another example of me not minimizing the variables. 3 days of stubble instead of 2 days of stubble. I'm not sure it matters too much.

The Lupo .95 and Wizamet SI (2) mowed down my stubble as if it wasn’t even there. Smooth shave with good sound feedback from whiskers being cut. No tugging, no pulling, just a smooth shave. I didn’t feel any irritation at all after my first WTG pass, so I went for an XTG pass. Still no issues at all. I then decided to do my cleanup pass, which is usually where I'll mess up and get some irritation. Not this time though, and my neck is smoother than it has been for a good while. All in all, a DFS, even on my problematic neck.

 

[wazabees]

June 20th '21

Razor: Lupo .95
Blade: Wizamet super iridium (3)
Brush: Yaqi cola
Soap: ML Shaving Supplies Cool Orange
Pre: Cube 2.0
Post: Alum bloc
AS: Hey Joe Acid Melon
Rating: 4/5
Last shave: 1 day, 18h .. ish ago

No real prep this time. Just a quick face rinse with warm water and applied some Cube 2.0. I decided on a new soap this time, and it was really, really good. The soap is made by Matti Lindholm and it's been "curing" on my shelf for the past two weeks. Matti told me that it wasn't quite ready when he sent it, but I could still get it and finish the curing at home. Today I took it for a spin. While whipping up the lather, it smelled like someone was peeling oranges just below my nose. There was a slight menthol chill as well, but nowhere near the Stirling Glacial stuff. It was easy to generate a luxurious lather which was very slick. Matti is a Youtuber, and there have been a couple of other Youtubers who tried his soaps and said they were excellent. Obviously I had to try for myself.

The first pass went fairly smooth. I felt a tiny bit of resistance, so maybe I should’ve replaced the blade. I continued on anyway, with XTG and then cleanup. To be fair, a lot of the cleanup is ATG. I was rewarded with a DFS, though there is a bit left on the right side of my neck, if I brush my fingers ATG. That’s perfectly fine though. I was aiming for comfort and not BBS. I’ll get an accidental BBS sometime in the future, but chasing it will most likely leave me with irritated skin. Today though, no irritation, nicks, weepers or irritation.

The alum bloc told me that I was borderline irritated on my neck, so I’m happy I didn’t push it. It’s a hot day (for us in the Nordics) with a balmy 29°C/just over 84°F, so I felt a need to add a bit of extra chill to my AS, hence the Snake Bite. The Acid Lemon smells so good, and I really wish it’d linger for a bit longer, or that they made a cologne. Right now, just about 4 hours after my shave, my face is still silky smooth and well hydrated. It's surprising I didn't have to use any moisturizer, and I'll credit either the soap or the AS for that. Maybe both?

Speaking of warm weather, I feel for everyone in California and other places with extreme heat. I hope you all have very good AC units. Stay safe, and drink lots of water.