The Wanderer's Journey

[Raven Koenes]

Then there is the best brush in the universe.

I have a rabbit hole brush collection, but this is the only brush I want to use. It's brought me to being a minimalist despite having an enormous collection. I'm inspired to buy all the Evos for their differing handles. The knots are all the same, so I'm not really buying a lot of different brushes. That sounds like a plan.

 

[AimlessWanderer]

Brush swap.

The Simpson Trafalgar T2 has been evicted from the bathroom, and the Kent INF1 has resumed its rightful place. I used it with the Goodfellas Smile Italian Lemon today, and got a very nice shave. I loaded the same as I ended up doing with the T2, by wetting the soap, not the brush.

The Trafalgar has proved itself as a capable back up brush, with a wide range of products, but the Kent INF1 and 22mm Maggards synthetic are still the favourites for daily use. Behaviourally, the Trafalgar T2 sits somewhere between the two, but I still prefer the Kent for hard soaps, and the Maggards for soft soaps and creams.

If I remember, I'll use the Maggards next time I use the London Oatcake, and compare the amount of lather yielded with that, as opposed to the Mixed Midget, using the same amount of soap. I'm not entirely sure what to expect, but wouldn't be surprised if the Maggards yielded a little more.

 

[AimlessWanderer]

If I remember, I'll use the Maggards next time I use the London Oatcake, and compare the amount of lather yielded with that, as opposed to the Mixed Midget, using the same amount of soap.

I remembered!

I'm certainly getting less lather with Oatcake than I do with St James or Erasmic. However, there was enough for three passes today, using the Maggards 22mm synthetic, which is more than I was getting from the Mixed Midget. Of course it was blissfully smooth on the skin too.

I only did two passes though, even though the third was available. It was clear that the blade was struggling a little, and so I opted not to chase against the grain. I put in a fresh blade after two, and walked away. A Rubie was drawn at random from the tub. I didn't think I had any of those left, but there's several mystery Gillette blades in there, sporting plain white wrappers, so who knows what others may be lingering in there.

Not my closest shave, particularly on the right hand side of the neck, but tomorrow is another day. I didn't feel like relathering again and going against the grain on my first pass with a new blade. I didn't use a post shave yet, but I think I will, as my face has been left feeling a little itchy.

 

[Esox]

I didn't feel like relathering again and going against the grain on my first pass with a new blade.

 

[AimlessWanderer]

View attachment 1214684

If I'd used it yesterday, the first use of the blade would have been on the third pass of a shave, and that would have been a mistake.

 

[AimlessWanderer]

Klutz-tastic shave just now.

I decided to soak the Midget for about 30 mins before using, and as I've begrudgingly accepted the lather yield is disappointingly low with the London Oatcake, I scooped about 1.5m into the lather bowl. I've discovered that loading, scraping the brush against the side of the bowl to empty it, then reloading again, helps to ensure that no soap has been collected that isn't being "worked" by the bristles, so I did that a couple of times, before worryingly clattering the ceramic lather bowl down too heavily. I winced in anticipation, but no breakage.

Lathered up for the first pass, and just about got it ready to save, when the brain cogs came out of mesh, the Midget left my hand, and painted a huge white splodge down my teeshirt with more lather than was on my face, before splashing into the sink.

Ok. Warning heeded. Spatial awareness is way off today, so we're "shaving by braille".

I reloaded another millilitre or so into the bowl, and reloaded, with more clattering of ceramic on things that ceramic shouldn't be clattered against. Razor angle was absolutely all over the place, so no muscle memory/autopilot either. A quick glance around to check there was plenty of loo roll, and I knew where the alum block was, in case I needed to plug a leak, and then proceeded with caution. Every pass taken, and every area shaved, was done as though I'd never used this razor before. On days such as these, assuming any action is automatic and can be done without conscious thought, is a mistake.

Three passess taken. No breakage (that I noticed) and no leakage, but plenty of worrying clanking noises on the objects around me throughout the shave, razor, mug, lather bowl, the works. Some redness on the neck when I'd finished too, but no weepers seen. No real discomfort either, and the brush only kind of felt maybe 25% scritchy today. The scritch level feels of the same severity, but on a smaller area of the brush, if that makes sense.

Despite the neuro issues, the result is quite decent, and I'd say this is the best the Midget and Oatcake has felt so far, so there's definitely improvement happening. There was a slight itchy post shave feeling again today, but it could have been a lot worse. I was alsousing a fresh Gillette Rubie, which is not one of my preferred blades. A smidgeon of Arko Nem Yoghurt & Blackberry was used to finish off. It's close enough, that I can probably give tomorrow a miss if the gyroscope and targetting systems are still haywire.

All part or the rollercoaster, and I've done enough laps on it, for days like today to feel very familiar.

 

[AimlessWanderer]

Seven hours later, and seemingly a little more coordinated I decided to check all ceramic items have survived te clattering, and thankfully they have. The serving of Oatcake in the pewter dish is nearly finished already, so a decision will need to be made in the next few days as to what to replace it with. Do I go for more Oatcake to keep the Bow Legged (Ω) Midget in play, or replace with Malt 'n' Myrtle, or Berry Fields O' Blair?

Not decided yet.

Surprisingly, the face is still very nearly BBS all over, so it was a particularly close shave. As a reminder, too close a shave, or stubble that retracts below skin level post-shave, can lead to nasty ingrowns for me, but there's no sign of that today though. A very good result considering the challenges.

The Midget has continued to bloom too, and is now the widest brush I have. I'm not sure how to feel about that I bought it specifically because I wanted a small brush, and now it's wider than my Trafalgar T2. It does make me glad I didn't buy something bigger though.

 

[Chan Eil Whiskers]

Interesting challenges, Al, not that I understand them much at all, and very interesting efforts to do and accomplish in the face of them.

It's also interesting to try to think about how I'd approach what you deal with.

Happy shaves,

Jim

 

[AimlessWanderer]

Interesting challenges, Al, not that I understand them much at all, and very interesting efforts to do and accomplish in the face of them.

It's also interesting to try to think about how I'd approach what you deal with.

Happy shaves,

Jim

I barely understand them myself, Jim I have however learned the signals, and have developed management techniques for some of it. If all else fails, reboot the brain. Essentially, go to sleep for a few hours, and hope I wake up in a better state. "Have you turned it off and on again?" It's surprising how often it works.

 

[Cal]

"Have you turned it off and on again?" It's surprising how often it works.

Better than Ye Olde "drop it on the floor from a great height."

 

[AimlessWanderer]

Better than Ye Olde "drop it on the floor from a great height."

Yeah, that might smart a bit! Thankfully, when I do lose one of my battles with gravity, it's from a height of lessthan 6ft, so long as there's no stairs involved

 

[Chan Eil Whiskers]

I barely understand them myself, Jim I have however learned the signals, and have developed management techniques for some of it. If all else fails, reboot the brain. Essentially, go to sleep for a few hours, and hope I wake up in a better state. "Have you turned it off and on again?" It's surprising how often it works.

Amazing solution. One which many don't understand (which is okay) and/or try for themselves.

I'm impressed, Al.

Happy shaves,

Jim

 

[TinyT]

Al, just had my first shave with the MWF you sent me. Great soap, great shave, thanks!

View attachment 1215289

RR Lupo
Omega 10066
Voskhod (3)
Proraso Green preshave
Mitchell's Wool Fat

2 passes, N-S, shoulder to opposite ear on neck

I've read lots about how difficult MWF can be to lather. A damp brush on the dry puck, I made sure to load a bit extra but I have to say I found it no harder to use than any other soap I've tried. Easier than some. The scent is mild but pleasant. Once lathered I'd go as far as to call it an unscented soap. But this is a nose that finds Tabac to be a delicate, floral delight.

Last shave with the Voskhod I was a touch tentative, it being a new blade and all, but maybe I've been holding back a bit lately anyway. Tonight I used a little pressure, firm enough to maintain a consistent angle throughout. In an effort to get my neck closer (I've still not mastered that area) I used considerable pressure. Same for the clean-up along my jawline. The MWF provided superb protection. I never felt like I was about to hurt myself. After rinsing and drying I noticed a few hairs in the right hand corner of my mouth. I dabbed a bit of lather on, swiped with the Lupo and paused to admire the thin stream of white liquid soap as it made its way to the edge, then dripped off my chin. It looked just like milk.

The Omega 10066 is now broken in. No bristles came out, it held enough lather for the whole shave and felt nice on my face.

Fantastic post shave feel, nice close shave, damn fine soap. A rival to Tabac? I should cocoa.

That's all for now. Ta-ta.

 

[AimlessWanderer]

Al, just had my first shave with the MWF you sent me. Great soap, great shave, thanks!

Good to hear

 

[AimlessWanderer]

Roughly 43 hours growth, and a largely hassle free shave. The Kent INF1 and Goodfellas Smile Italian Lemon provided the lather, and the Jagger and Rubie removed it again. I'm still not a fan of that rather prickly feeling blade, but I will persevere for now.

Two passes taken, not super close, but close enough. Certainly good enough to count as a DFS. For the first time in what seems like a few months (but probably isn't), I finished with a splash of Boots Freshwood aftershave lotion. I've been left after a few of the recent shaves with a slight itchy feeling on the face, and today was the same. The alcohol based Freshwood took care of that.

I've noticed that I might be shaving into the ends. Of the moustache slightly, so I'm going to be trying to intentionally stop short of that area for a while, and see how dense the growth is. That adds an additional level of challenge to the shave. My goatee is very close to being the width of my mouth, with just a clim connection to the upper lip growth and of course the tache goes a little way beyond that, so theres a slightly undercut area either side of the mouth, between tache and jaw.

Deepening that by allowing the tache wider,is made trickier by the lenght of the ends of the tasche, which gets matted every which way my brush and lather. Were it a short tache and beard, it would be a relatively easy outline to maintain, but the length and matted splay of both, adds to the challenge of shaving up to the base of hairs, which are matted down over the target area.

When I let the goatee be as wide as the tache, like what some call a circle beard, but grown longer, it was a lot easier to negotiate. I'm not quite sure how manageable this will be, as I inadvertently shaved the area I should have been avoiding on the left side today, in a failed attempt to figure out where the razor should be passing, but I'll be giving it a try over thenext month or so. Effectively, I'm trying to leave a shaggy 'T' shape, with a slighty wider top than at present, but with the added difficulty of not being able to see the area in question below the hair and lather, so I have to kind of imagine what I'm trying to shave around.

 

[AimlessWanderer]

I used up the last of the London Oatcake Overgrowth serving this afternoon, with the help of the Mixed Midget. I got a reasonable shave from it, but I had overhydrated the mix slightly, so any deficiency in properties were my fault. The pewter dish needs a good clean out, and then I think I'll be refilling it with some of the Wickham made Gentleman's Groom Room Berry Fields O' Blair.

Two bristles were lost in today's shave, and of course some scritch remains. The scritch wasn't helped by me having made the lather rather lean on density. I'll not be putting any more of the Oatcake out until I've finished off the tube of Erasmic that's in there, then I'll just put the tin in. It seems unnecessary to spoon it into one dish, only to spoon it back out into the lather bowl as needed. I'll stick to putting soaps I load directly with the brush into the pewter dish, and treat the two Oatcake products the same as I do with creams.

As such, that leaves just two tub soaps in play - the Berry Fields and the Malt 'n' Myrtle, both from Gentleman's Groom Room - so I might allow one of the new tub soaps into the mix shortly. Here are the options in the soap drawer (old pic).

As Berry Fields is already in play, I'll not start another of the Wickhams. That then leaves me with two P&B options, the TFS Dracaris, and the Razorock The Stallion. I've got until I use up the imminent Berry Fields serving to decide which. These are all the portionable tub soaps I have, as I believe the other box in the wardrobe is all mug soaps, spare Erasmic, and shave sticks. Oh, and the bar of Ach Brito Mogno.

 

[Esox]

I count 16 soaps there Al. I have 16 on my shelf too! One, CC 45th, is basically finished I just dont have the heart to use the last bits yet. You have more soaps than me!

 

[AimlessWanderer]

I count 16 soaps there Al. I have 16 on my shelf too! One, CC 45th, is basically finished I just dont have the heart to use the last bits yet. You have more soaps than me!

Here's the box in the wardrobe. I have way more than you, Mike.

The difference is that mine is predominantly a stockpile of unopened stuff. The products that are open, are the four soaps we trialled together, one mug soap, one cream, and shave sticks which I use for travel... or did when being away from home was possible. The aim is to get down to three tub soaps that I serve portions up from, one mug soap, and one cream (plus shave sticks in the travel washbag).

You have sixteen (soon to be fifteen) in play, and I'm aiming to go down from six to five products open, with only three options available to me at each shave. I can't face having too much choice available. I like having options, but not too many. If I had to pick from over a dozen soaps every shave, I'd go loopy

Now I've classified (in my own mind) the Oatcake stuff as cream, that means I've got three open when I should have one, and two tub soaps open when I should have three. That should all remedy itself over the course of this year though

 

[Esox]

I miss the scents of the Mahogany and the other, I think, Oatcake one I cant remember the name of but smells like green. I really miss that scent.

 

[Cal]

If I had to pick from over a dozen soaps every shave, I'd go loopy

... and here we have Al insinuating that he's NOT loopy.