Phoenixkh: An Old Man's Continuum....

[Mr. Shavington]

I'm still musing... wondering.. pondering... my Wolfman purchase coming up in the next few weeks. I had it settled in my mind until I saw @BradWorld 's WRH3 handle. I looked at the most current price list and noticed, it isn't available in Bronze hollow. I emailed Tara and she got back to me in just a few minutes. She said, they've been making the WRH3 in hollow Bronze with the matching stand for a while now but hadn't had a chance to update their price list on their general site.

As it stands now, I'll be ordering what @Mr. Shavington has: the WR2 head .95 gap along with the Darwin handle in Basic Polish Bronze and adding a second handle and stand: what @BradWorld just posted on his thread, the WRH3 90mm handle but hollow with matching stand... all in Bronze. If I didn't know @Mr. Shavington loved this Wolfman offering, I'd never consider ordering something this expensive but we are shaving brothers.. what he likes has worked flawless for me, with that one exception. <eg> I love the Athena, the Blutt BR-1 1.20 and Rocnel Elite.. all recommended by @Mr. Shavington. I love them all... I'm confident this Wolfman offering will give me the same results...12 hour shaves that are comfortable, smooth and close.

I'm letting some of my favorite brushes go to fund the expenditure. I'll miss them... but that's how life goes.

Ha! I know exactly what’s going on here. You can’t hide it from us.

You’re already thinking of your second Wolfman. You’re thinking you’ll get a WRH3 handle this time and then you’ll have to buy another so you can get the Darwin handle you always wanted. And you’ll justify it by saying you can leave a Lambda Athena AND a Wolfman to each of your sons - they’ll remember you twice as fondly that way. And Mrs. Kim (the female variety) was pleased about you selling some of your stuff, so you figure you’re off the hook and you have carte blanche again to buy more razors.

 

[Phoenixkh]

Ha! I know exactly what’s going on here. You can’t hide it from us.

You’re already thinking of your second Wolfman. You’re thinking you’ll get a WRH3 handle this time and then you’ll have to buy another so you can get the Darwin handle you always wanted. And you’ll justify it by saying you can leave a Lambda Athena AND a Wolfman to each of your sons - they’ll remember you twice as fondly that way. And Mrs. Kim (the female variety) was pleased about you selling some of your stuff, so you figure you’re off the hook and you have carte blanche again to buy more razors.

I do have carte blanche with my wife. But I can honestly say.... I'm not thinking about a second Wolfman or I'd be buying a Stainless Steel hollow WRH3. I am going to be buying both handles in Bronze to go with the WR3 Bronze .95 head, however.... just in case I want a lighter handle.

 

[Guido75]

O look…that handle goes really well with my first Athena…but now my Athena handle is sitting idle…ow…what to do? Now where did I leave that email address of Tara again??

 

[Phoenixkh]

O look…that handle goes really well with my first Athena…but now my Athena handle is sitting idle…ow…what to do? Now where did I leave that email address of Tara again??

LOL, Guido.... I think people are getting to know me too well here.

 

[Phoenixkh]

When I don't shave for 8 days, my journal drops down to page 3. LOL

It's been sort of a tough week but I'm much better today.

It was an interesting shave today. I tried the Blutt 1.2 after using its little brother, the .86 last shave. As you know, this psoriasis thing shows up on my face from time to time and always if I let my beard grow. I clipped off the long whiskers earlier today with my hair clippers, got a 6000K row in, then showered and shaved. Normal routine but after three passes, while doing touch-ups, I got tired of the Personna USA (2) not quite getting as close as I wanted. I stopped and changed to a Wizamet for the touch-ups, initially but noticed the sound feedback and went ahead and just did a quick, light 4th pass. Perfect.... whew.

I'm pretty sure my less than stellar skin condition contributed to this poor start. At least, I got there in the end. I haven't had a problem with the USA Personna blades.... not sure exactly what's going on, if anything. I certainly don't blame the Blutt BR-1 1.20. With the Timeless Ti Crown handle, it still handles and shaves like a dream. So not as comfortable or relaxing as usual until the final pass. The Post Shave was relaxing. All's well that ends well.

The SV 2.0 Faux Turtle Shell Manchurian was wonderful, as usual. The Canada Shaving Soap provided enough lather for 4 passes. My face is smooth and the shave was close.

All in all, a wonderful shave. I feel normal again.

 

[spacemonkey42]

I am sorry to hear about a tough week, glad to hear you feel normal again. Here's to better days ahead!

 

[Eric_75]

Kim, I appreciate you, my friend.

 

[Phoenixkh]

Thanks to you both.

 

[APBinNCA]

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but the problem with the Pesonna blade may have been because of using the hair clipper on your face, the way that it mangles hair. The blade may not have been able to get a good hold on the hair. It would have been a good time to practice slow, methodical full beard removal and your face probably would have been better for it! There is no better feeling than removing overgrowth, however it is accomplished.

 

[Phoenixkh]

That's actually the good news, then. It means my next shave will definitely be better.

 

[Phoenixkh]

Unfortunately, the next shave.. today's.. wasn't better. I've heard you get a dud blade now and then... I've seen people suggest 1 out of 100. In any event, I used the Green Cult 2.0 razor with a USA Personna Comfort Coated blade and it wasn't smooth or comfortable, but I did get a close shave. I would say "All's well that ends well" but it caught me off-guard a bit. I used the USA Personna blades every other shave or so with stellar results, so I'm guessing this was an anomaly. I'll go ahead and use it with a Nacet I just loaded today and note the difference, though I should probably just use a different Personna. The Nacet's just showed up today so I'm a bit anxious to try one.

Same products as usual with the exceptions of the razor and brush.

Pre-shave: PAA Cube 2.0 in the shower; PAA Tube 2.0 before the application of the lather
Bowl: The Timeless Blue "Modest" shaving bowl
Brush: Elite Razor's lovely Bloody Basin Jasper handle with one of his Premium Manchurian bulb 26mm knots. When I first used this brush, I thought it might be a bit too soft for me. But my wife encouraged me to use it again before I added it to the brushes I had selected for sale a few days ago. I changed my mind... soft tips... and just a hint of scrub. Just a tad less than the SV 2.0 Manchurians, but I could still feel it in a very nice way.
Razor: The Green Cult 2.0 Level 2
Blade: USA Personna Comfort Coated
Post-shave: Metro gel, Hyaluronic Acid, Neutrogena Hydro Boost Gel-Cream

This little foray changed my plans to use my ATT X1 next. Oh, well... I'm sure I'll recover.

 

[desertcat]

The Nacet's just showed up today

Will be interested to hear your take. I'm also new to Nacets and will be trying them soon myself. In the meantime I hope comfortable, easier shaves are in your future...

 

[Phoenixkh]

Will be interested to hear your take. I'm also new to Nacets and will be trying them soon myself. In the meantime I hope comfortable, easier shaves are in your future...

It should be interesting. I hope I have the success with them some others have here. There's always that YMMV thing.

 

[spacemonkey42]

Nacets and Perma-sharps are my favorite blades. They are very sharp and hold a good edge for four 3-pass shaves. But you also know that I've been challenged by the aggressiveness of the Green Cult.

You've got this, @Phoenixkh!

 

[Phoenixkh]

Thx for your encouragement, SpaceM. I had two amazing shaves with it using a Wizamet. I'm sure I'll figure out what's going on... but it might take me a while.

 

[Guido75]

Excellent write up Kim! Very helpful in blade description and brush selection for future days.

Guido

 

[Mr. Shavington]

Sometimes every shave is perfect and you think you you are totally in control. Then sometimes you get a worse shave or a string of them and it seems like you aren’t as competent as you thought. Who knows what causes it - change in skin condition? Weather? Stress? Diet? Maybe you’re doing something different and not realising?

I suspect what is important is that you are always learning how to overcome these things and your bad shaves become a lot better than your bad shaves used to be. But you probably still get bad shaves from time to time, at least relative to what you expected.

 

[Guido75]

your bad shaves become a lot better than your bad shaves used to be

So beter bad shaves then? Kidding! I think you hit a point here in that there are so many variables in play here beyond even the gear we use that determine the result of a shave. I personally keep a journal for that very reason (a paper one - the B&B one is the narrative of the paper one) to find out if there are any common threads between shaves so I can hone in on what I can do to improve the shave. With better combinations, longer prep, slicker lather, more time, etcetera.

 

[Phoenixkh]

I couldn't agree more. I have an analytical mind (OK... I'm anal about a lot of things. ). I like to get to the root causes of things, but in this case, though I will try to determine if the blade is the culprit, I'm going to relax about it. Stuff happens. I still got a close shave in the end. I know it isn't the razor itself... so it's one of the other variables listed or a combination of several of them.

 

[Mr. Shavington]

So beter bad shaves then? Kidding! I think you hit a point here in that there are so many variables in play here beyond even the gear we use that determine the result of a shave. I personally keep a journal for that very reason (a paper one - the B&B one is the narrative of the paper one) to find out if there are any common threads between shaves so I can hone in on what I can do to improve the shave. With better combinations, longer prep, slicker lather, more time, etcetera.

Yes, I think I do mean better bad shaves. I’m sure my bad shaves are also a lot better than my good shaves used to be.

What’s your journal telling you so far? Any clear threads that run through your best shaves and are absent from your bad ones?

Thinking back, I suspect my breakthroughs included:

• Using glycerine soap for my pre-shave wash
• Smearing some in-progress lather on my beard so the stubble doesn’t dry while I’m still working on my lather
• Spending longer on lathering and adding more water so it’s still creamy but it’s just about to start running down my neck
• Learning to use a lighter touch with the razor
• Learning that my hair growth direction isn’t what I think it is in some small areas - and sometimes the growth direction changes
• Moving away from aggressive razors and learning that mild razors can be just as efficient if you are better at keeping the angle and using less pressure
• Learning that razors which make the blade edge rigid work much better on my tougher stubble against the grain and allow me to cut better with less pressure
• Not settling for a good enough shave, but rather demanding a certain shave result and experimenting with different things until I can reliably get the result I want without irritation. If I get a less closely shaved area or irritation somewhere, I specifically plan to do something different there next shave - I learned much faster once I determined not to accept imperfection and keep doing the same thing
• Discovering the joy of witch hazel, which surely does nothing at all but has become my favourite part of the shave

Any of that similar to your experience, or anything different?

I also like to use mild razors but sharp blades and my own aggressive, home-made shaving techniques, which I avoid talking about because they are surely unwise and I don’t want to be responsible for anyone else’s injuries. It just works well for me, the way I want the shave to end up. But don’t try this at home.