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Two Years In

My first DE shave was two year ago this week. Herein I present some weekend thoughts on my voyage so far.

I started out with a Merkur HD, a Vintage Blades Rooney 3/1 badger, Col. Conk Bay Rum soap, and a bottle of Aqua Velva I've had knocking around for years. (glass bottle if that tells you how old it was.) A sampler pack of blades, styptic pencil, and a blade bank pretty much rounded out my starter kit.

My, what a ride it's been. :thumbup1:

Although my collection is probably meager by other's standards, I have around 20 razors (all but two are vintage Gillettes), 1/2 dozen brushes, more bay rum aftershaves than you can shake a stick at, and a modest collection of shave creams with a couple soaps thrown in. My blade bank is full, and a new one is on the way from WCS.

After participating in the Highlander challenge during October, I've come to realize that while variety is great, I have over the past two years refined my choices down in some areas, most notably razors, blades, and brushes.

Razors: I find myself using one of three razors for probably 95% of all my shaves. Here they are in order of preference.

  • First in the line up is a Gillette Slim. I, of course, HAD to have a Fat Boy, and the BST provided me with one. I loved it. After reading several times that the Slim was marginally better, I braved the world of the 'bay and ended up with a great example for a very reasonable price. And found I like the Slim better. I like the handle of the Fat Boy better, but just can't seem to get as good a shave with it as I do the Slim. So the Fat Boy goes into the second tier drawer and the Slim stays in the top drawer (literally).
  • The second of the favorite is a Long Comb New with the common bar handle. Mine has no plating left on the cap; it's just the brass. The baseplate still has almost all it's gold plating and the handle looks pretty good, too. I had to have an OC for OC March in '12 and started off with a Old Type. I've got 1/2 dozen or so OCs now, SC News included, but the LC just works well for me. An intuitive shave without thinking of angle at all due to the nature of the LC design.
  • Third on the list is a Merkur Slant. Nice razor and it just flat out works well. I have to consciously change angles on this from the Slim and New, but it mows through my heavy beard with no problems at all.
  • A runner up is my birth year and quarter SuperSpeed (Y4), also in the top drawer for the very occasional use. It's just too mild for me. I end up with irritation trying to match the quality of the shaves I get with the other three so it just doesn't see much use.
  • I have very little desire for any other razors right now. One of the fancier Good Wills maybe? But then I stop to think "can it be any better than my LC New?" and I quit looking at them.

Blades: Two for almost all uses with a possible third one?
  • Astra SP. Smooth and sharp. Rarely do I experience any problems with these. I've had just one bad blade out of the 100 pack I bought that's almost gone. Good for three solid shaves. I've found four uses iffy and generally bin the blade after three.
  • Feather. Sharp. Did I mention sharp? Two days are good, the third is iffy for me.
  • Polsilver SI. I am on my second blade of a 5-pack and like them well enough I just ordered 20 more. Seems to be a good mixture of smooth and sharp and may last longer than the Astras.
  • I'll probably try new blades once in a while but quite honestly the Astra SP and the Feather work well for me in all my chosen razors and don't have any burning desire to keep searching for the holy grail of blades.

Brushes.
  • Just for reference, I started with the Vintage Blades Rooney 3/1 in Pure badger and it is nice. I tried an Omega 49 but it was just never clicked for me. Too big and too stiff. Knowing what I know now, I probably didn't have it long enough to completely break it in before I gave it away. I bought an Omega Mighty Midget for travel. I have an Omega Lucretia Borgia in Silvertip. I have a Klenzo B985 butterscotch handle RV put a nice two-band badger into that is a great brush and my usual badger choice but I have found that...
  • Semogue boars are where I'm at right now. What sold me on Semogue boars is the...
    • SOC I got earlier this year.
    • 620 because I wanted one a little smaller and with more backbone than the SOC.
    • 830 ordered tonight from WCS because sometimes I think the 620 is a little small for making lather in a bowl.
  • Although there's a nagging desire for one of the new synthetics, I've not found one in a handle shape I like. And I really think there's probably going to be a Chubby in the stable at some time, but that will undoubtedly be down the road a bit. Other than those two, I can honestly say my BAD is satiated at this time.

Soaps and Creams:
  • Over the past couple years in the last year I seem to be preferring creams over soaps. I've tried a handful and narrowed my choices down to Tabac and Proraso, red for cooler weather and green for hotter weather. I haven't (so far) found any other creams that perform better.
  • I will admit that I recently picked up a small tub of Cella and Proraso Red soaps. Only one use of the Proraso and I had difficulty in getting it to lather anywhere close to the cream version or, for that matter, as well as Cella. I shall endeavor to persevere, though. I also see a tub of Tabac in the near future.

Aftershaves and Colognes:
  • Bay Rum handles my choices 80% of the time. Monday - Thursday I use a bay rum and deviate on Fridays and weekends. Here's a listing of the BRs I have in the cupboard:
    • Captain's Choice Bay Rum (original)
    • Ogallala - everything but the double strength.
    • Layrite's No. 9
    • Master's
    • Dominica
    • Gilbert Henry, both balm and cologne
    • Krampfert's Finest Acadia Bay Rum
    • C.O. Bigelow's After Shave Balm 1401
  • Shulton Old Spice. This takes me back to my early days of wet-shaving albeit with carts instead of DEs. Having a glass bottle of Old Spice cologne (P&G) to compare it against, the Shulton is the same as I remember.
  • Aqua Velva. Again, this takes me back. IIRC, this was my original AS splash from when first began shaving in 1967 or thereabouts. Burnt like fire after using the Remington electric shaver my parents gave me for my 14th birthday. Ouch.
  • Burberry Brit Aftershave Balm. My preferred "higher end" AS. I've tried a variety of Penhaligon products and just wasn't impressed.

So, there you have it. It's been great fun for the last two years. My wife thinks I'm crazy and claims I have more "care" products than she does. Wait until she sees the replacement blades, creams, and new brush I have on the way!!!

Thanks for reading.
 
I enjoyed the documented progression of your acquisitions of hardware and software. I would be interested in hearing about the timeline of shave results also.
 
An interesting story--I wonder where it will lead you in another two years. I'd love to hear an update to your venture.
 
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