Hey, fellas. @GoodShave was generous enough to offer a PIF that included a PAA DOC, and I was lucky enough to be drawn as the winner. Here's the original post for that PIF. GIVEAWAY! - PAA DOC/Taconic Synthetic brush/HSC Sample PIF - https://www.badgerandblade.com/forum/threads/paa-doc-taconic-synthetic-brush-hsc-sample-pif.626480/
I received it yesterday and shaved with the entire kit today using a Schick Krona blade from the Old Friend PIF that has been going on for sometime. So here's the report.
Schick Blade #3, Shave #2
Razor: PAA DOC
Soap: Hawaiian Shaving Company Kaimu Shave Soap sample (Peppermint Orange)
Brush: Taconic Synthetic Brush
Aftershave: Aqua Velva Ice Blue
So how did it go? Well, this is going to be an incomplete report for several reasons and you'll see why.
Soap - When lathering up the HSC soap, it lathered very easily and quickly and gave a beautiful head of lather. My impressions when applying to to my face were...meh. It wasn't bad at all. I just enjoy the feel of some other creams a little more, and I didn't find it as slick as I generally like. My report is incomplete because I'm recovering from COVID and I have lost my sense of smell so I can't attest to that. My kids said that it has a distinctive smell but they couldn't completely place it (and I withheld the top of the can from them to get their true impressions). I'm sure that it smells nice, but again I can't give an accurate opinion right now.
Brush - This brush has a heavy handle. It's significantly heavier than my other brush (which was a plastic-handled inexpensive brush that I picked up off of Amazon). It whipped up a good lather. It is soft while still maintaining some backbone. All in all, it did what a brush is supposed to do - whipped up a lather and applied it nicely to my face. I'm glad to have it.
Razor - Again, I feel like my report here will be incomplete. The razor did its job. I ended up with a very close, efficient shave. Several reports that I have read or heard about this razor call it a mild shave. I wouldn't disagree, but I would say that it's less mild than my daily driver, a Henson AL13 Mild. I would also say that it's more efficient than my Henson. You do have to pay attention or you'll get bit. In fact, I got nicked in 2 place - one on my neck and one on a place on my cheek that has a dimple. However, please remember that the shave report is incomplete and I don't fault the razor for those nicks for several reasons. 1) I'm new to the razor, the soap, and the brush. 2) Not only am I getting over COVID, but I'm on my last day of recovering from pink eye. I typically wear contacts, but due to having to administer drops in my eyes 4x per day over 10 days, I am wearing my glasses. So I was shaving without an corrective vision. I didn't immediately see the nick on my neck and then went over it a couple of more times when I should have left it alone (which made it worse). 3) As I said above, I didn't find the soap especially slick so I think that I got a little heavy handed trying to pull through the lather rather than letting the razor do the work. One more comment about the razor is this. I didn't find the design of the double-open comb to be revolutionary. I couldn't especially say if it was self-lubricating, but again, the entire kit was new to me. Perhaps with my other creams, I'll notice it more.
While it may sound like I did not enjoy the shave, that's not it at all. I am looking forward to another run with this razor with my favorite cream and with my contacts in. What I am impressed with is the efficiency of the shave from what some people have classified as a very mild razor.
