The Wanderer's Journey

[AimlessWanderer]

Erasmic today. Nice two pass shave.

I'll let you guys imagine the rest of the twaddle needed to bulk this out to a regular sized post.

 

[thombrogan]

I'll let you guys imagine the rest of the twaddle needed to bulk this out to a regular sized post.

It was a difficult shave. As the lather went into a minimally aerated solution, the cacophonous din of arguing neighbors — the Senegalese-born expert on Ulster-based conflicts and the 23rd generation Sheffielder ophthalmologist bickering constantly on the merits of saffron in roux — was an unwelcome distraction. Concentration waned and a merengue-like lather was birthed. Unacceptable!

Al reached into a wicker basket labeled “harmony” and withdrew a drop forged claw hammer by its navy blue, neoprene handle. The verbal warfare lost all but its physical sensations as the red mist clouded Al’s vision. The Erasmic; normally ashamed of its existence for not being ARKO!; wafted through the air urging Al to avenge its bubbly fate.

With a terrifying “snuh,” Al’s front door gently opened and the hallway was a mix of pointless banter, anger, and the tink-tink-tink-ping of Al’s snazzy trainers. Had vengeance and the Reaper found themselves entwined in singular, human form? Was the circle of life and reincarnation to receive a jumpstart and the neighborhood hedgehogs to receive too much food for their meager requirements?

At the heart of the vortex, Al’s sense of timing fled. It was not unlike when one tries remembering whether a crush was developed on the late Bea Arthur before or after finding out she used Spyderco brand folding pocketknives. In that timeless moment, the claw hammer may as well have been an Ikon SBS razor as it felt inappropriately unwieldy. The urge for quiet remained, but obtaining it through force was entirely undesired.

“If you’re not talking about Kashmiri saffron, you may as well ladle bat guano in your roux, cretins!” Al shrieked to birth the silence he craved. Starving hedgehogs eyed him with awe as Al sauntered back to his abode, ears assuaged and hammer unbloodied.

As has happened with the wackier not-ARKO! soaps in his collection, the Erasmic settled to a proper lather if a bit towards room temperature.

A monotonous pocketa-pocketa of twisting, threaded metal encased an old-stock Wilkinson Sword blade with a cocoon of Edwin Jagger DE3D14 proportions bringing the reader to post 3781 in “The Wanderer’s Journey.”

 

[Dovo1695]

Brilliant!

This would be an amazing backstory to a film noir "House Hunters" episode. Please tell me there's a screenplay that begins with the line: "He's a historian specializing in Ulster-based conflicts, and she's a 23rd generation ophthalmologist. Their budget is $1.2 million dollars..."

If that screenplay doesn't exist; someone has an obligation to write. You are that someone Thom...

 

[thombrogan]

Not me, Nick. Al’s the writer. I’m a mere mortal that lucked into the majesty of ARKO! shave soap.

Forgive my clunky prose. I was trying to shay the ophthalmologist was the 23rd generation of a family living in Sheffield. Not that that nearly two dozen parent-to-child introductions to eye medicine had occurred. That’s better than my intended description.

Anyways, no need to expand the story more if our intrepid protagonist was skipping his third pass. Longer stories are for closers.

 

[TinyT]

Not me, Nick. Al’s the writer.

 

[AimlessWanderer]

Edwin Jagger Aloe Vera today. Two passes. I seem to be settling back into shaves which are "good enough", and don't need to be perfect. All three lather options I have right now, are certainly good enough, with the Aloe Vera being barely scented, and the Felce Aromatica and Erasmic offering a change should that get boring. I don't seem to be reaching for post shave treatments that option.

Another way of saying it, would be that I'm enjoying simple hassle free shaves. I do have options to make a shave interesting or challenging, where there is something to "achieve". They don't appeal at the moment, and I'm enjoying ease, simplicity and familiarity.

 

[AimlessWanderer]

Quick shave today, under three minutes.

Mug soap, Kent brush, two passes. Nacet blade isn't prickly anymore, but is starting to labour a bit. Cold water rinse and a squirt of EdT finished the job.

 

[AimlessWanderer]

The Veryspendy Felce Aromatica was certainly slow to wake up today. Not Martin de Cakeface level, brush burn inducing slowness, but certainly hesitant, and I had to lean in with the brush heavier and sooner than I'm comfortable with. Maybe this soap is less conducive to the wet soap and dry brush technique for loading.

Two and a bit passes today. Three passes means I have to start skipping days, whereas two passes allows for daily shaves should I choose to. However, two passes can leave a little too much stubble on the right hand side of the face. A little bit of diagonal work can help find the happy medium between the two.

The three lather options are working well, which is good, as it will be some time before there's a change. Once Erasmic tube is finished, and St James of London cream is opened, the only periodic change will be the samples/small portions, probably every two to three months, assuming I use the three options equally. The mug soap and cream will likely remain unchanged for well into next year.

However, I think I'm more likely to binge on one or other of the options, only falling to the other two when that one gets weary, or if I simply think I ought to use one of the other two, to reintroduce some hydration back in. Either way, the trio of options will be quite static. I won't be introducing a fourth though, as I know that will be more options than I want to face. Sample sized portions will therefore remain one of the options indefinitely, so that some change of line up is always on the horizon, and can be brought forward to just a few weeks with continuous use.

 

[AimlessWanderer]

Wonky brain day. A quick "running late" type shave.
Zero prep. One pass shave. No post shave.

Mug soap with Maggards brush, which is the wrong pairing, but worked anyway, and final shave with the Nacet. I should have changed it after the last shave, but forgot. A Wilkie is in for next time though now.

 

[AimlessWanderer]

It's sooo nice to get a Wilkie back in the razor. The main role of all my other blades, is to keep reminding my why I like the Wilkie so much. Couldn't stop at three passes, even if that does mean I need to take tomorrow off.

Mug soap used, with the correct brush this time. Boots Freshwood aftershave to finish. It doesn't matter how cronky the health feels, if I can muster up the coordination for a full shave, as all seems tolerable in the world after a shave like that.

 

[AimlessWanderer]

There was just enough stubble today to have another shave. Just two passes, with a little diagonal touch up work, which should leave me something to shave again tomorrow should I choose to. Erasmic cream this time. No post shave needed or wanted on the face, but I opted for a squirt of cheap EdT on the upper chest.

A cheap, quick, simple, and wonderful shave.

 

[AimlessWanderer]

Felce Aromatica today. Bowl lathered.

I don't like the slow starts when face lathering with this soap, so I took it to the bowl first. That made lathering with it much more enjoyable. Performance wise, it seemed to work better on my standard first two passes as well, although I now have a Wilkie blade in the razor, so I couldn't be 100% certain that all the improvement was attributable to the lather.

As such, I decided to do a third pass. That does mean that I probably won't be able to shave tomorrow, but I wanted to see how the lather performed on the most challenging pass. It was OK. I've certainly had better, however the skin did feel very nice afterwards. Also, it was only when starting to type this post, I realised that I hadn't consciously noticed the scent at any point during the shave.

So a great shave was had, but I still think I can have shaves this good without paying the asking price for that soap. I don't think I'll miss it when the sample is finished. Not because it's lacking anything, or gives anything I don't want, but because so many other soaps are of the same standard, and yet kinder on the waller.

 

[AimlessWanderer]

Shaved again today, but the autopilot was drunk. Or unplugged.

Went back to a wet brush start on the Felce Aromatica, but for some reason I picked up the Kent INF1. Way too much lather. It got worse after that. I did the second pass first, then did the second pass again, and on the third pass which was only half a pass, the razor didn't know where the heck it was meant to go.

Zero leakage. Zero irritation. DFS finish. Not bad at all for a totally inept shave.

 

[AimlessWanderer]

The main problem with a consistent shave set up, is there's no a great deal to say in your shave journal...

Mug soap kit today. Two passes. Great shave. Finished off with a little Bulldog Original moisturiser.

 

[AimlessWanderer]

Slightly tuggy first pass on today's 7am shave, but the second pass was very good. The lather clumped somewhat in the rinsing mug, so I might not have had it quite as wet as it should have been. No detriment to the post shave feel though, which only needed a quick squirt of EdT to round it off.

 

[AimlessWanderer]

Erasmic cream used today, and not many shaves left in the tube, so it won't be too much longer before there's a change in the line up. Although it's a toss up whether this or the Felce Aromatica will be due for replacement first. Probably the most middle of next month for both, at a guess.

The Erasmic will be followed up with the two London Oatcake soaps/creams (the maker calls them soaps, but I use them like creams). They both need using up before I open the big jar of St James of London Black Pepper and Lime. I haven't yet decided what will replace the Saponificio Varesino sample. Lots of options to choose from there, 10 mug soaps and 8 samples. I want something that will give contrast to everything else that will be in play.

The barely scented Aloe Vera mug soap should easily last the rest of the year. I almost bought a replacement yesterday for the Italian Lemon puck I wrecked, but figured that would be somewhat premature, given that the other eight mug soaps already in the stockpile will each last a year or more.

This German Wilkie doesn't seem quite as sharp as usual, but it's doing the job just fine. They have always varied a little bit over the years, and it's still within the parameter range I expect, though a little more towards the smooth end of the scale. Still a very good shave though, and the excess lather gave the goatee a good shampooing too.

 

[AimlessWanderer]

Mug soap and cheap aftershave were the only changes today. Still the same two vertical passes, with an additional few diagonal swipes on the right hand side of the face.

As I rinsed everything when I'd done, I noticed the little dish of bar soap oddments out of the corner of my eye. Instead of slinging them out, as I'd done for so many years, I'd been putting them in this dish with a view to possibly making a franken-soap out of. No further thought had been put into it than that. Today though, the idea gained an additional tier of thought.

They're bar soap chunks, so they sit with lots of air gaps between them. The samples I have would fill those gaps. I usually get about 20-25 shaves from one of the samples, but it doesn't take me that many shaves to decide if I like it or not. Rather than persevere with a sample that's OK, but I'm not particularly enthralled with, why not dump it in there?

In fact, there's the black plastic shaving mug which is kind of surplus to requirements at the moment. I could use that for dumping everything into.

Bar soap fragments, and samples I'm bored with, could all get dumped in there and gradually accumulate. Eventually, once it's filled up a bit. That can take the place of the mug soap (i.e. use that when the soap has finished, and before I open the next).

I certainly don't need to. I have enough soap that I don't need to be scavenging the last crumbs of bar soap. It just seems to make more sense than flushing them down the loo, or sending them to landfill. After all, that's what a lot of the old timers used to shave with, the dog ends of the household soap, dumped in a mug. I've certainly had plenty of great shaves with simple bar soap too. I'd also get through the remaining samples a lot quicker, and move onto my stash of tub soaps sooner.

Hmmm. Food for thought.

 

[thombrogan]

That’s what I just did with a sample and two nub ends of a shave stick and a sample. The full-sized sample was larger and softer than the nub ends, so the brush preferentially takes from it for now.

 

[Dovo1695]

I certainly don't need to. I have enough soap that I don't need to be scavenging the last crumbs of bar soap. It just seems to make more sense than flushing them down the loo, or sending them to landfill. After all, that's what a lot of the old timers used to shave with, the dog ends of the household soap, dumped in a mug. I've certainly had plenty of great shaves with simple bar soap too. I'd also get through the remaining samples a lot quicker, and move onto my stash of tub soaps sooner.

I've been shaving with a bar of Yardley for the whole month of April. It's a tallow based soap, costs $1.00 for 120g at my grocery store, and Yardley has been making bar soap since 1770. Good stuff. Here is the ingredient list for Yardley. It's not too different from a lot of shaving soaps. A lot of bar soaps are detergent based these days though, so it's worth reading the ingredients if you have sensitive skin.

Sodium Tallowate, Water (Aqua), Sodium Palm Kernelate or Cocos Nucifera (Coconut) Oil, Glycerin, Fragrance (Parfum), Tallow Acid, Coconut Acid, Petrolatum, Sodium Chloride, Butyrospermum Parkii (Shea) Butter Extract, Buttermilk Powder, Titanium Dioxide, Tetrasodium Etidronate, Pentasodium Pentetate

 

[AimlessWanderer]

I've been shaving with a bar of Yardley for the whole month of April. It's a tallow based soap, costs $1.00 for 120g at my grocery store, and Yardley has been making bar soap since 1770. Good stuff. Here is the ingredient list for Yardley. It's not too different from a lot of shaving soaps. A lot of bar soaps are detergent based these days though, so it's worth reading the ingredients if you have sensitive skin.

Sodium Tallowate, Water (Aqua), Sodium Palm Kernelate or Cocos Nucifera (Coconut) Oil, Glycerin, Fragrance (Parfum), Tallow Acid, Coconut Acid, Petrolatum, Sodium Chloride, Butyrospermum Parkii (Shea) Butter Extract, Buttermilk Powder, Titanium Dioxide, Tetrasodium Etidronate, Pentasodium Pentetate

Ingredient lists don't make much sense to me, to be honest, Nick. I give them a quick check to make sure there's no menthol, and that's it. I figure that if bar soaps are good enough to wash my face with, I'm unlikely to have any adverse effects from shaving with them. There's remnants of Imperial Leather and a couple of cheapo Aldi soaps in the dish. All of which have been used for face washing, and I've had shaves with at least two of them already, when they were larger bars.

The latest soap I put on the bath is a Wright's Traditional soap. I don't recall ever trying that one for a shave