What's new

September 2022 Gentlemanly Restraint Until Month End (GRUME)

Don't you worry.
I ditch EVERY blade after one full beard and head shave.
Tried to use some blades for a second ride, but they were always bluntish/tuggish.
I guess @LJBraaten and me are shavers at the other end of the spectrum.
Worse still: a Feather rarely reaches the end of my full shaves.
As far as Feather blades are concerned, I have a seat next to you. This blade is a "two shaves and out" sort of blade for me (solely shaving my face). These two shaves are nice, though.

It is way beyond my imagination how anyone can do 10/20/30... or even 100+ shaves with this exact variant of blade. 🤷‍♂️
My personal record is IIRC 27 shaves with a Wilkinson Sword. Boy, these final shaves really sucked. For the the sake of OBIF I literally pushed myself to end of the month.

But hey, everyone's face (and level of skin irritation tolerance 😉, ) is different.

Happy shaves!
 
Date:28.09.2022
Focused participations:28/30 Days in GRUME (formally out at 3.3% but no new purchases)
271/271 in 365 days of shaving (100%)
Other participations:Steep Angle Shaving Alliance
Shave of the Week Society
Razor:Gillette NEW Flat Bottom
Blade:Personna Red Israeli (3)
Brush:Kox Blue Synthetic
Soap:Haslinger Sandelholz
Bowl:Kox Enamel
Preshave:Cold splash
Proraso Green preshave
Postshave:Cold face wash
Chanel Allure (Balm)
Passes:WTG | ATG and touch ups
Efficiency:9/10 (15 minutes)
Quality:9/10 (minor weeper)
Comfort:8/10 (comfortable)
Effectiveness:8/10 (DFS+)

I was planning to use my KCG razor originally when I remembered I had promised to shave with the Flat Bottom to note any differences from my NEW LC. It was a hard comparison to be honest - they are very similar. I do give a nodd to the NEW LC for just that little more smoothness. My NEW Flat Bottom is an amazingly efficient shaver and leaves me with more sensitive skin post shave than I get from the NEW LC. End of the story is that inspite my intentions I am actually very happy with this razor addition!:thumbup: The Common Bar Handle is an improvement for the Flat Bottom though. I feel I somehow have more control over my razor.

In keeping with SWS spirit I have held the rest consistent througout. And I have added some sort of new routine. Post shave I squeeze out my brush as usual, but rather than straight to rinsing I first use the residual soap as face and neck wash. This actually prolongues my post shave feel - liking it very much - at least with Haslinger. Haven't tried this with other soaps yet.

The Chanel balm is a combination of aftershave and balm in one and provides a cooling yet tingling sensation.

Almost at the end of GRUME September. Officially out, but no other acquisitions since. Plenty of soap and blade temptations, but remained at poise with myself.
 
Timeless Ti .95 SB/Bic Chrome Platinum
Rudy Vey with a Shavemac knot
Clubman
Electric Sheep 🐑 soap



Very nice shave and not much hair that needed to be removed after yesterday's shave. We are on the water here in Florida but about 7 hours away from the hurricane that is hitting areas around Tampa Bay. We are praying for those that are being affected by this storm.

20220928_062417.jpg
 
Don't you worry.
I ditch EVERY blade after one full beard and head shave.
Tried to use some blades for a second ride, but they were always bluntish/tuggish.
I guess @LJBraaten and me are shavers at the other end of the spectrum.
Worse still: a Feather rarely reaches the end of my full shaves.
If you sent me all your discarded blades I’d never have to buy another one! 😁 Actually, I have around 120 now, so I may be set for life. 😉
 
28th day of GRUME
First Week, 5th day in SWS

Gillette Super Speed
Nacet blade (26)
Proraso white sensitive cream
Big Bruce brush

Het Guys!
It is a chilly morning in my neck of the woods! And that is a good thing after a hot and mostly dry summer. I am wearing an old flannel shirt- a personal rite of the Fall season.

Yesterday my wife and I went to our granddaughter's Junior High school. The boys are not very good at playing football, but the girl's dance team was great! We are a small extended family but show our support for each other.
My knee was much better yesterday, but I still had to walk slowly to get to the bleachers and it is still sore today.

I am in the habit of squeezing left over lather out of the brush into a trash can liner (yeah, its not a pretty sight!) to avoid clogging the sink drain pipe. There is some runny water still left in the knot when I am through. That is telling me I am not doing a good job of mixing the soap and water. Yesterday I thought about wetting just the tips of a synthetic brush and see what happens but I forgot this morning and wet the whole knot. I shook the brush several times and thought there was not much water in the brush when I started mixing the lather. I have some other ideas to explore, but any suggestions are welcome.

The Nacet blade has completed 26 shaves but I had to work slow and easy to get the job done. @LJBraaten wrote a quote over a month ago about trusting the razor to do its job. I wish he could find and re-post what he wrote. I trusted the razor and used light strokes and didn't repeat strokes in the same area. In the end, I had a very close shave (3 passes) with no irritation. With that said, I plan to retire the blade at the end of the month. I have proven to my satisfaction that technique and improving skills count more than the tools.

I am really enjoying SWS! I don't think I would be enjoying the Proraso cream and razor as much if I had used them just one day and moved on to a different combination.
Good Day!
 
I am in the habit of squeezing left over lather out of the brush into a trash can liner (yeah, its not a pretty sight!) to avoid clogging the sink drain pipe. There is some runny water still left in the knot when I am through. That is telling me I am not doing a good job of mixing the soap and water. Yesterday I thought about wetting just the tips of a synthetic brush and see what happens but I forgot this morning and wet the whole knot. I shook the brush several times and thought there was not much water in the brush when I started mixing the lather. I have some other ideas to explore, but any suggestions are welcome.

First an update on my knee. I watered the yard, took out the trash and went out to the mailbox. Thankfully, my leg is doing good.

I wanted to share a little experiment I did a few minutes ago related to my post quoted above.

I used a synthetic G5C knot and only soaked 1/2 inch of the fiber tips (instead of soaking the entire knot) before building a lather. After getting sufficient lather in the tips, I slowly started developing the lather in a bowl. I was careful and light handed to keep most of the lather/soap in the lower portion of the brush.
Based on this little idea, I had a very consistent and controllable lather. I was impressed when I squeezed it out into the trash bin; there was no runny mess-just a consistent quality lather!

Conclusion- maybe we don't have to always soak much of the knot prior to use. There may be a little concern with boar brushes. I think I read somewhere on B&B where a guy used this technique and never mentioned broken bristles.
 
Got back home from holiday earlier today.

I didn't purchase anything shave-related this time.
Usually I buy some blades when I'm here, but I already have more than enough.

And todays shave:

IMG-4801_DSC_4798 (2).JPG


Gillette Rocket HD
Perma-Sharp Super (1)
Hans Baier Silvertip
Palmolive Shave Stick
Fine Platinum

Still in
 
SOTD #25

What an interesting shave today's turned out to be.

I'll lead off with mentioning this was my first attempt ever at reconstituting a previously built shave cream/soap.
A little water on the brush tip and away we went on a marvelous excursion.

Beautiful shave, as though I never had to pick up where I left off...
  • No Pre-Shave
  • *SV 70th (SOTM)
  • Adam Grooming's Pure Badger
  • *Mühle R89
  • *Timor (8)
  • Kiehl's Blue Astringent
  • Florida Water Splash
  • No Post-Shave Balm
* SWS
F8198189-E5DA-4DBD-8DD4-864294D37681.jpeg
 
Last edited:
Top Bottom