Quest for less technology

[blethenstrom]

Evening shave (Friday)
Razor: RazoRock GC .68-P
Blade: Rapira Platinum Lux (7)
Soap: VDH (x+4)
Brush: unnamed synthetic brush
Aftershave: Clubman Pinaud
Rating: 7/10, DFS--
This blade is done! Left stubble and I was had some irritation. For the most part this blade is ok. I could use it for 5 days, but after that questionable.

Evening shave (Saturday)
Razor: RazoRock GC .68-P
Blade: Asco Orange (1)
Soap: VDH (x+5)
Brush: unnamed synthetic brush
Aftershave: Clubman VIBR
Rating: 9/10, BBS
Nice and sharp blade. Zipping across my face. No issues. Smooth and comfortable.

Morning shave (Monday)
Razor/Blade: BIC Sensitive disposible
Soap: Edge Shavign Gel
Brush: N/A
Aftershave: Gillette Balm
Rating: 8/10, DFS-
Quick trip for the holiday and I didn't feel like dragging all the things with me so I went light and took the disposable. It was a respectable shave, but not as close as normal with my DE. I was kind of sloppy. Still smooth and comfortable. No irritation.

Evening shave (Monday)
Razor: RazoRock GC .68-P
Blade: Asco Orange (2)
Soap: VDH (x+6)
Brush: unnamed synthetic brush
Aftershave: Clubman Whiskey Woods
Rating: 10/10, BBS
Fantastic shave! Smooth as glass. Very comfortable. No issues at all.

Just had a short trip to visit my daughter, son-in-law to be and my grand-daughter. It was a very nice spur of the moment trip and well worth it. These are the type of trips that I value shaving options and not making things too complicated. We were driving, so I could have brought all my normal things with me, but for some reason I didn't feel like it. I threw my disposable and a can of gel in my bag and I was good to go. On Monday morning I just had a quick 10 minutes shave with the BIC sensitive and I was good to go.

I still have to take out the BIC metal out for a spin. I did get some a while back and they are sitting in my shave drawer at home waiting for me. I do like it's brother the BIC sensitive and the cool thing is that you can get those pretty much anywhere. At least I have a fall back if I am found "stranded" without shaving gear. Also it is my carry-on-only shave gear.

I tried those orange/white BIC sensitive many years ago when I didn't do DE shaving and I remember that I would cut myself to bits with them. I guess that I was not used to having a single non-pivoting blade. It certainly takes more skill with one of those than the multi-blade cartridge razors. I remember my dad using the BIC ones, from time to time so there is some nostalgia there as well. For decades all I used was an electric razor so I never really had to think. Shaving was just something you had to do. I can say for certain that after developing some skill with a DE razor and then going back to a fixed head disposable is easy. Yes it is very light compared to a DE razor, but that was a breeze to overcome. Now the disposable razors are not as comfortable to use as a DE razor, but they will work.

I guess now my next step into the minimalistic shave would be to try regular bath soap or other things as shave lubrication. I guess this would be more of a preparedness test incase I am stranded without proper things somewhere. I feel a bit scared of this one, but maybe I am overreacting. I know there are several people here on B&B that is using regular bar soap as shave soap on regular basis. Also, it seems like it was a fairly common practice in the by gone times. We will see when I build up my courage to try.

 

[blethenstrom]

Evening shave
Razor: RazoRock GC .68-P
Blade: Asco Orange (3)
Soap: VDH (x+7)
Brush: unnamed synthetic brush
Aftershave: Stetson Cooling Moisture
Rating: 10/10, BBS
The blade is feeling very smooth and comfortable. Completely eventless shave. No complaints.

I read a lot of talk about MWF soap dropping it's tallow based formula and also others dropping tallow as their main ingredient. It has been interesting to follow along since I am a bit of a soap maker myself. Please note I just make soap for my own household and some of my local friends. I think the main claim is that the price of tallow has gone up quite a bit since other industries are using it as well to make other products. I agree with that assessment and that it is not for the reason of making a vegan soap. Strictly speaking MWF is still not vegan without tallow since they use lanolin as well and that is still in the new formula. Do I personally think that tallow is the end all be all ingredient in a good shave soap and that you cannot make a good shave soap without it, no I do not think so?

There is a bit nostalgia with the old traditional soaps and their performance have been proven over decades and generations. Maybe the soap was used by our father and grand father and it has sentimental value to us. I can understand that too. I think the reason that tallow was used so heavy in the older formulations was because there was no other real good alternatives to it that would yield a good shave soap. This coupled with that a lot of the "newer" oils/fats that make for good shaving soap takes more processing and the technology to extract it took some time to develop.

Through my adventures into soap making I have also found that tallow is on the more expensive side of the fats. Lard (rendered pork fat) for example is much cheaper. One of these days I will try to make a lard shaving soap, but I do think that I have to add a bit of stearic acid to it still though to get it where I want it. That brings me to the discussion of stearic acid, which is a natural choice to substitute tallow for.

Pure stearic acid is a refined product and can be refined from several sources, but the most (im)famous one is Palm Oil which really adds to a lot of deforestation. This has also become a big controversy. However, there is one source, that I know of, that is plentiful and readily available and that is high in stearic acid and that is fully hydrogenated soybean oil. It is also referred to as soy wax even though it is not technically a wax. At least here in the US we are an enormous grower of soy beans so there is abundantly available. The interesting thing is that regular soybean oil only contains about 5% stearic acid and 11% palmitic, but once it has been fully hydrogenated it is 87% stearic and 11% palmitic! This is very much usable in shave soap and I do not hear too much about it's use in shave soap, but I would not be surprised to see more of it as we move along. I have not personally tried it yet in a shave soap, but I will definitely try at some point.

 

[blethenstrom]

Evening shave
Razor: RazoRock GC .68-P
Blade: Asco Orange (4)
Soap: VDH (x+8)
Brush: unnamed synthetic brush
Aftershave: AV Classic
Rating: 8/10, DFS
The shave and the blade was good, but I was extra careful since I am nurturing an ingrown hair on my jawline. Therefore, I ended up with some stubble left. I will switch to my .84-P plate for my next shave. I can tell that I need a bit more efficiency.

I am trying to use up my Van der Hagen shave soap in a 3017 manner. It is a soap that I am not super fond of, but as I am using it I am learning more and more how to handle it. How it behaved and acts with more and less water etc. I guess the moral of the story is that I need to switch between products less frequently so that I have a chance to learn the ins and outs of the product better. I believe that rotating too much between products will hinder learning a product thoroughly.

 

[thombrogan]

I believe that rotating too much between products will hinder learning a product thoroughly.

That’s my downfall.

 

[blethenstrom]

Morning shave
Razor: RazoRock GC .84-P
Blade: Asco Orange (5)
Soap: VDH (x+9)
Brush: unnamed synthetic brush
Aftershave: AV Musk
Rating: 10/10, BBS
Fantastic shave. Smooth and not a trace of irritation. Did change to my .84-P plate for a bit more efficient shave and it sure delivered.

 

[spacemonkey42]

I love my 84p as well. It shot up to the top grouping in my den

 

[blethenstrom]

I love my 84p as well. It shot up to the top grouping in my den

Yeah it is really great. I still do like my .68-P plate especially for starting out on a fresh sharp blade, but then go to the .84-P to finish it up. Maybe over time I will be able to stay with the .84-P and no switch needed. We will see.

 

[blethenstrom]

Afternoon shave
Razor: RazoRock SLOC
Blade: Asco Orange (6)
Soap: VDH (x+10)
Brush: RazoRock Hive 24
Aftershave: Clubman Pinaud
Rating: 10/10, BBS
Blade is holding up great. Still smooth and sharp. This blade will easily last me 7 days.
I decided to take out the RR SLOC for a drive today. I have not been using it much yet. It sings when you shave with it. Loud of audible feedback. It certainly worked well. Made me smooth.

I broke the cardinal rule to change only one thing at the time but I have had a couple of brushes in my drawer for a bit that I have not tested out yet. I took out the RR Hive 24 brush. It is a synthetic brush. I seem to like them the best so far.

I washed up the brush with some soap and then I went to town like normal. I loaded it for like 20 seconds in the VDH soap and applied to face. It built a nice lather very quickly and I think it did so quicker than my old noname brush. The handle is a bit shorter so that will take a bit to get used to.

 

[Jay21]

The RR SLOC is a nice razor.

 

[blethenstrom]

The RR SLOC is a nice razor.

It seems like it is. It is probably even a bit more efficient than my RR .84-P.

 

[blethenstrom]

Evening shave
Razor: RazoRock SLOC
Blade: Asco Orange (7)
Soap: Homemade bath soap
Brush: RazoRock Hive 24
Aftershave: Clubman VIBR
Rating: 10/10, BBS
The blade is a winner! It finished the test with flying colors. It feels and performs just like Big Ben SS and I guess that is not a surprise since both are made by Lord and are uncoated. Just one tiny weeper on my upper lip. No irritation. Very nice shave.

For some unknown reason I have been eyeing my homemade bath soap on my sink for a while and how it would be to shave with. Now I have read several threads here on B&B on the topic of shaving with regular bar soap and people always are wondering why and that they would never try it etc. That is perfectly fine, but I like to be prepared if I get put in a situation where I have to shave and have very limited things. You would be seen as a prepper if you did.

However, I have just such a situation happen to me just before Thanksgiving 2022. I was still electric shaving then, but it could just have happened to me these days. I was on a business trip with some of my colleagues and we were on the way back home. I had my carry-on and my personal item, which was my laptop. They had very little overhead space so I was forced to check my carry-on bag. Flight was delayed and then eventually cancelled and we were rebooked on the flight the following day. However, they would not release our bags to us. They did put us up in a hotel. I literally had nothing but the clothes I wore with me. My colleague got a razor at the front desk in the hotel, but I did not get one since I was not a wet shaver by then and I probably would have done more damage than good with it. However, these days I would have and I would have used the room bar soap and probably had at least a decent shave. My point is that we should not and cannot be afraid to improvise when the need arises. We should try to practice these situations at home so that we are not so fearful of them when they happen. You know they will.

Anyways back to my shave. I rubbed the bar soap like a shaving soap stick all over my face and used my brush to work up a lather. The lather was easy to make and it seemed nice and slick. I did my 3-passes without much problems. However, the lather does dissipate very quickly and has to be reapplied often, but that was not that big of a deal. My homemade soap is lard, coconut oil, olive oil, shea butter so not a shaving soap formulation by any means, but it worked. Could I use this if this was all I had? Absolutely, and it gave me a very nice close BBS shave. Would it be my first choice in a shave soap? No!

It does stir up thoughts in my little head if I could formulate a bar soap that would be a good dual purpose soap for shaving and bathing. This would probably be a bar I would use only while travelling since you have to make some compromises with the formulation. I will have to think about that.

Another thought that I had while using this bath bar of soap was the type of lather and how close of a shave I had. The lather was rather thin and if I remember right @AimlessWanderer suggested that a thinner more watery lather does give a closer shave. I think that he is right in that and I will have to experiment with it. Maybe I am loading my brush with too much product and too little water.

I have more work to do on my travelling emergency shaving methods and I will probably experiment some more with bar soaps and maybe even other things and see how well they shave. There may be some blood letting involved, but it is all in the name of science.

 

[blethenstrom]

Evening shave
Razor: RazoRock Game Change .68-P
Blade: Treet Platinum (1)
Soap: VDH
Brush: RazoRock Hive 24
Aftershave: Clubman Whiskey Woods
Rating: 7/10, DFS
This blade out of the gate felt really great, but it seemed to leave me some stubble. I had a hard time getting a really close shave. Maybe this blade wants to be in a more efficient razor than my GC .68-P. I will try it with the .84-P plate tonight and see if there is a difference. Nice and smooth though and no irritation of any kind.

I really hope that this blade pulls it through for me. I bought a pack of 200 of these untested. All because the price was right at $11 for 200. We will see as the week progresses where it falls. I can already tell that it will be serviceable, it is not tearing me up at all, but just not as close yet as I have gotten accustomed to.

I am in trouble, with the LOTH that is! I just ordered some fairly benign things from a*son and as a throw-in item I added an Lord L6 razor to test out as my travel razor. It was a completely natural thing to do. She spotted the order and asked me about all my razors and if I didn't have enough. My side of the sink has probably about 5-6 razors laying out. That is not bad is it? I do have a few more in drawers though. Maybe I just need to limit the exposure and keep them packed away and only have out the one I am currently using. I have been fretting this day would come, when she notices....... any advise would be appreciated.

 

[thombrogan]

tl/dr: Don’t lie to, outwit, or fight with your wife. Feel the desire to buy stuff you know don’t need and let it pass

long version:

You already have all the best razors several times over. You’ll always want more because of idle curiosity and the overwhelming Fear Of Missing Out (dying inside from capitalizing “of)” as well as troves of razors you either didn’t know existed or just didn’t exist until now.

Feel the desire and let it ebb away. If you still have the desire for said razor or it now becomes a desire for a splash, soap, blade, or brush, you didn’t fully feel your desire. I have fourteen brushes and armies of everything else from not doing this.

From what you’ve written, it reads like your wife is concerned you’re losing yourself in an orgy of material acquisitions - a self-destructive behavior.

It’s very easy to feel defensive about such observations. Feel defensive about it towards we interweb randos if you must, but be open towards both the person who truly wants you to live your happiest and best life and towards yourself. Lie to us. Make cutting comments to us. Don’t lie and don’t look to win against your better half and try not to lie or outwit yourself.

I also want a Lord L6 (and Pearl K2 and the head of a Mühle R89 and a Blackland Vector OC and a Fatip Lo Storto Originale and two PAA Filaments and latest Zomchi and Feather ASD2 and Popular and DX and a short handled Yates and a Tatara Masamune Nodachi and many smol brushes from AP ShaveCo and Simpson and…) while having a shameful horde of better built razors so I know the temptation.

Forgot to add so many more razors to that list and a repetitive and outlandishly expensive array of pre shave products to that list

 

[blethenstrom]

tl/dr: Don’t lie to, outwit, or fight with your wife. Feel the desire to buy stuff you know don’t need and let it pass

long version:

You already have all the best razors several times over. You’ll always want more because of idle curiosity and the overwhelming Fear Of Missing Out (dying inside from capitalizing “of)” as well as troves of razors you either didn’t know existed or just didn’t exist until now.

Feel the desire and let it ebb away. If you still have the desire for said razor or it now becomes a desire for a splash, soap, blade, or brush, you didn’t fully feel your desire. I have fourteen brushes and armies of everything else from not doing this.

From what you’ve written, it reads like your wife is concerned you’re losing yourself in an orgy of material acquisitions - a self-destructive behavior.

It’s very easy to feel defensive about such observations. Feel defensive about it towards we interweb randos if you must, but be open towards both the person who truly wants you to live your happiest and best life and towards yourself. Lie to us. Make cutting comments to us. Don’t lie and don’t look to win against your better half and try not to lie or outwit yourself.

I also want a Lord L6 (and Pearl K2 and the head of a Mühle R89 and a Blackland Vector OC and a Fatip Lo Storto Originale and two PAA Filaments and latest Zomchi and Feather ASD2 and Popular and DX and a short handled Yates and a Tatara Masamune Nodachi and many smol brushes from AP ShaveCo and Simpson and…) while having a shameful horde of better built razors so I know the temptation.

Forgot to add so many more razors to that list and a repetitive and outlandishly expensive array of pre shave products to that list

Thank you for those thoughtful words. Nah it was just a normal comment from her. Nothing serious. Yes I do have what I need and I do not need to try out that one razor. My razors are just fine the way they are. Maybe I should just remove all those razors I have in my wish list to lessen the urge to "accidentally" slip one in on another order.

It is funny that the other day I put all my shave stuff together in a couple of plastic totes to organize it better and even though I have been only at this for 6-7 months or so it is amazing the stuff I have pulled together. Seeing it together makes it all real. when it is spread out a bit it doesn't look that bad. I think I am over my worst SAD symptoms for now..

 

[thombrogan]

My Bride emptied a plastic tote for my stuff. When I reluctantly agreed, it was so sad that it had so much without even including the razors and soaps from the creepy side of the basement.

I doubt you would harvest the organs of strangers to buy more toys, but wrote what I wrote as both an “In before the ‘but what about hur shooz en pursis’ and ‘have it shipped to a private mailbox’ comments” and instructions you might use and I sorely need.

 

[blethenstrom]

My Bride emptied a plastic tote for my stuff. When I reluctantly agreed, it was so sad that it had so much without even including the razors and soaps from the creepy side of the basement.

I doubt you would harvest the organs of strangers to buy more toys, but wrote what I wrote as both an “In before the ‘but what about hur shooz en pursis’ and ‘have it shipped to a private mailbox’ comments” and instructions you might use and I sorely need.

Well that is easy to avoid. She does not have an overabundance of shoes nor handbags, at least not that I know of hmmmm. She is a very practical person. The problem is me and my potential hoarding issues. She tosses and I keep.

 

[thombrogan]

That’s my story, too.

 

[blethenstrom]

That’s my story, too.

I do recognize though that I would be in a horrible state, if she was not there setting me straight from time to time.

 

[spacemonkey42]

Fortunately my wife has been very supportive of the hobby, and that I have to do it anyway. Two things I am doing that help... First is a compact storage system, you can fit quite a few in the plastic organizers, even doubling them up in the slots. If one kept the boxes and all it would be a closet full. Second, she plays along with the soap scents. I ask for her ratings and preferences. Sometimes when I read scent descriptions to her she tells me I have to order that one. To which I say, "yes ma'am!"

 

[gpjoe]

My enemy is the solicitation emails...you know, when you submit your email address to get that 20% discount on you're first order?...then get a weekly email teasing all of the stuff you didn't know you needed?

Those.