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An Unexpected Journey: A Newbie's Walk In Wet Shaving
- Thread starter Blade-meister
- Start date
Dave in KY
Shave Newbie
Don't ya love how the Cadre Party just moves indiscriminately to different journals sporadically ???
Good stuff everyone and yeah it's funny how the party moves from different places. Perhaps I gave the wrong impression on my last journal entry. The Proraso did take me by surprise, but I think I will keep it around for when a cooling menthol shave sounds great. Like KJ said, on a hot and humid day it's probably quite refreshing. Well, onto today's shave.
Today's Shave: Shave #73
Razor: Parker Variant - Graphite handle
Blade: Gillette Silver Blue
Brush: Maggard Razors Synthetic (Larger knot from KJ's PIF)
Soap: Mystic Water Bay Rum
Bowl: Glass Salsa Bowl from KJ's PIF
Pre Shave: Wash with soap in the shower
Total Razor on Face Time: 13 minutes
Post Shave: Cold water rinse, Witch Hazel (Walmart Brand) face only, Cold rinse. Master Bay Rum on the neck only. Every Man Jack Signature Mint AS balm to the face only
I played it safe today and just used the glass bowl from the PIF. I whipped up a great lather eventually (see the below review of the PIF bowl) and got right to my WTG pass on 2.2. I really worked in that lather with the new brush I'm loving from KJ's PIF. For some reason, even though I set the razor higher, it felt like I didn't get as close of a first pass as I normally do. The cheeks in particular felt unshaved. Hmmm, so on the XTG pass I raised the razor up to 2.5 and that didn't seem to help as I was still not the same smoothness I would be after my second pass. Honestly, my heart really wasn't into the shave this morning. I had the house to myself and really just wanted to get back to the book I was reading, but I decided to do the ATG pass too. I actually got some weepers today, so which ever Dave is recording this, mark it down because it might be the 5th weeper I've gotten since starting wet shaving
After some half-hearted clean-up I just decided the shave was done and went to the post shave routine. I know, I can heart a few of you typing already replying "What, you had the house and bathroom all to yourself and you didn't have some super spa-time?" Nope, but at least I'm honest that there are days I'm just going through the motions and today was one of them.
After rinsing my face still felt rougher than normal so I decided maybe I had some dry skin or something from working at the forge yesterday and doing a couple of house projects I wanted to get out of the way. So that's why I decided the EMJ AS balm might help with that. Still loving the Master Bay Rum AS on the neck. Funny thing was, about an hour after shaving my face felt BBS and DFS+ in most areas so it was a good shave despite not really having my heart in it.
Review of PIF Item: The glass bowl from KJ's PIF is really nice actually. I think it's a salsa bowl and it has dimples all on the inside. It was still super smooth which takes me longer to lather, but it still performed well and I think will be a keeper for me. I was concerned that I was going to drop it because the outside is very slick if your hands have some soap on them or are wet.
On the personal side of things, it felt good to build and work yesterday. I had to move my girls' beds and make them bunk beds. I wanted to angle the ladder to make it easier for them to climb up it (vs. just straight up) so being a blacksmith I just fired up the forge and made a couple of brackets that were just the right size for what I needed. Success and the girls loved it. I also had to add a rung to the ladder and a couple of other woodworking tricks to make the whole thing work.
I also got a large, square magnetic bracket for Christmas that is meant to hand tools on in your workshop, but my mind got to thinking and I decided I needed to make a tool for my blacksmith shop. I connected a large piece of scrap oak I picked out of someone's trash to the magnetic strip and connected that all to this super old hinge I had laying around. The resulting tool is an arm that I can stick all my misc. blacksmithing tools to when I'm forging. One problem I have is pulling out hot steel and then looking for that punch or chisel that fell off the anvil or slipped under this or that. Now, I can just stick on the magnetic arm and I know right where it is. The arm folds right up to a wall when not in use and folds out right in front of the horn of my anvil so that I can just take a step toward it to retrieve the tool I need. The magnet is tough too. I can hang several pairs of tongs, punches and other things on it with it holding great. That felt good to finally have something like that and the project all fell together in short time. It took longer to find all the nuts and bolts I needed than to build and install it.
Today's Shave: Shave #73
Razor: Parker Variant - Graphite handle
Blade: Gillette Silver Blue
Brush: Maggard Razors Synthetic (Larger knot from KJ's PIF)
Soap: Mystic Water Bay Rum
Bowl: Glass Salsa Bowl from KJ's PIF
Pre Shave: Wash with soap in the shower
Total Razor on Face Time: 13 minutes
Post Shave: Cold water rinse, Witch Hazel (Walmart Brand) face only, Cold rinse. Master Bay Rum on the neck only. Every Man Jack Signature Mint AS balm to the face only
I played it safe today and just used the glass bowl from the PIF. I whipped up a great lather eventually (see the below review of the PIF bowl) and got right to my WTG pass on 2.2. I really worked in that lather with the new brush I'm loving from KJ's PIF. For some reason, even though I set the razor higher, it felt like I didn't get as close of a first pass as I normally do. The cheeks in particular felt unshaved. Hmmm, so on the XTG pass I raised the razor up to 2.5 and that didn't seem to help as I was still not the same smoothness I would be after my second pass. Honestly, my heart really wasn't into the shave this morning. I had the house to myself and really just wanted to get back to the book I was reading, but I decided to do the ATG pass too. I actually got some weepers today, so which ever Dave is recording this, mark it down because it might be the 5th weeper I've gotten since starting wet shaving
After rinsing my face still felt rougher than normal so I decided maybe I had some dry skin or something from working at the forge yesterday and doing a couple of house projects I wanted to get out of the way. So that's why I decided the EMJ AS balm might help with that. Still loving the Master Bay Rum AS on the neck. Funny thing was, about an hour after shaving my face felt BBS and DFS+ in most areas so it was a good shave despite not really having my heart in it.
Review of PIF Item: The glass bowl from KJ's PIF is really nice actually. I think it's a salsa bowl and it has dimples all on the inside. It was still super smooth which takes me longer to lather, but it still performed well and I think will be a keeper for me. I was concerned that I was going to drop it because the outside is very slick if your hands have some soap on them or are wet.
On the personal side of things, it felt good to build and work yesterday. I had to move my girls' beds and make them bunk beds. I wanted to angle the ladder to make it easier for them to climb up it (vs. just straight up) so being a blacksmith I just fired up the forge and made a couple of brackets that were just the right size for what I needed. Success and the girls loved it. I also had to add a rung to the ladder and a couple of other woodworking tricks to make the whole thing work.
I also got a large, square magnetic bracket for Christmas that is meant to hand tools on in your workshop, but my mind got to thinking and I decided I needed to make a tool for my blacksmith shop. I connected a large piece of scrap oak I picked out of someone's trash to the magnetic strip and connected that all to this super old hinge I had laying around. The resulting tool is an arm that I can stick all my misc. blacksmithing tools to when I'm forging. One problem I have is pulling out hot steel and then looking for that punch or chisel that fell off the anvil or slipped under this or that. Now, I can just stick on the magnetic arm and I know right where it is. The arm folds right up to a wall when not in use and folds out right in front of the horn of my anvil so that I can just take a step toward it to retrieve the tool I need. The magnet is tough too. I can hang several pairs of tongs, punches and other things on it with it holding great. That felt good to finally have something like that and the project all fell together in short time. It took longer to find all the nuts and bolts I needed than to build and install it.
I envy you guys that can just picture something in your head and make or fix whatever it is you want. I am not that guy. My dad wasn't around a lot when I was growing up...so I never got that whole thing where a father teaches his son manly things. I tried taking a shop class in school once. Yeah...that didn't work out too well. Have you ever seen that cartoon where a character tries to make a birdhouse and the end product has a spring and a board coming out of the roof? Yeah...that's me.
My Dad built things, but he mostly had bad luck and mediocre results from what I remember and had no patience to teach us boys much about what he was doing, but I watched and handed him tools when needed. I really wasn't all that handy until I took a job as a facility director. Man, I had to build and fix things that I had no clue how to build or fix, but I just rolled up my sleeves and went to work. Don't ask me how much water flows out of the pipes that go into a urinal.......yeah, that water shoots across the bathroom if you make a mistake like I did.
This is like my wife's dream to make things from scratch. Alas, we still like apartment living too much to have a luxury like a garage and den to do work like this. One day man... one day...
Oh and proraso makes other creams without menthol so definitely give them a whirl just to test the waters. ?
Oh and proraso makes other creams without menthol so definitely give them a whirl just to test the waters. ?
Don't rip up that man card so fast Chris. The beds were separate and can be assembled into bunk beds. I just made the ladder for it so they could climb up to the top bunk. Reread my post and yeah, I can see how it could read that I made them bunk beds
This is like my wife's dream to make things from scratch. Alas, we still like apartment living too much to have a luxury like a garage and den to do work like this. One day man... one day...
Oh and proraso makes other creams without menthol so definitely give them a whirl just to test the waters.
Ah the joys of home ownership, a double edged sword for sure but yeah I love have a garage and a place that I can do whatever I want to it. But, if there's no hot water in the morning I'm the plumber on duty so there is a downside. I'd try other Proraso creams for sure.
Yeah this was like half the volume of a good fire hydrant I swear. I was trying to get a piece of a seal unstuck and I hit the valve. I thought I'd turned the water off in there but apparently I hadn't. You never saw anyone move as fast as I did to turn off the water. It shot from the urinal valve all the way across the bathroom and was hitting the wall with force. Kinda funny to think about now.
GearNoir
“The Disney Princess’s Apprentice”
Mine didn’t either! We’re hoping to at least construct an open port at some point.
SteveChuckFrank
Close Enough*
Just catching up Mike. I know what you mean when you say sometimes you just go through the motions. Unfortunately sometimes I get in the same mood when I know I have other things to get done. It usually makes for a more enjoyable shave the next time though!
This morning we all slept in a bit so I got a later than normal shave so it was time to work on that 2 pass shave quest for DFS / DFS +.
Today's Shave: Shave #74
Razor: Parker Variant - Graphite handle
Blade: Gillette Silver Blue
Brush: Maggard Razors Synthetic (Larger knot from KJ's PIF)
Soap: Mystic Water Lavender Lime
Bowl: Red Salsa Bowl (plastic) From KJ's PIF
Pre Shave: Wash with soap in the shower
Total Razor on Face Time: 9 minutes
Post Shave: Cold water rinse, Witch Hazel (Walmart Brand) face only, Cold rinse. Master Bay Rum / Superior 70 semi-bootlegger mix on the neck only. Barbasol Pacific Rush AS balm to the face only. Mammoth Painting.
I needed a quicker shave this morning so it was time to work on that 2 pass shave. I lathered up the Lavender LIme which seemed a few drops of water too wet but still in a good range for me. I flipped the blade to see if it made any difference. With the razor set at 2.0 my WTG pass was great. I did some minor clean-up along the way. It felt normal and perhaps cut better, but if so the results weren't enough to say that flipping the blade makes any difference. Theoretically it would seem to work, but I'm not sure it's worth the trouble. My second pass was ATG on the face & neck. This was the ticket. It felt a little rough on the left cheek area of my face but great everywhere else. I did some light clean-up on the cheeks and neck and I was done. Drum roll please (whose the officially designated drummer on TSC?) DFS / DFS+. I've got it!!! WTG and ATG is my path to a great 2-pass shave. Very nice and comfortable feeling. I can't escape redness on the neck and cheeks no matter what I do, but it's less and dissipates faster with the 2 pass shave.
Post shave saw me slipping to the dark side and becoming a bloody bootlegger
I mixed the Master & Superior 70 Bay Rum at about 50/50 in an empty witch hazel container. Just enough to fill maybe a 1/4 inch of the bottom to see if I liked it. I gotta say, it stung a tiny bit more than the Master straight up, but I really liked it. The glycerin was thinned out which leaves me with a very clean feeling yet just enough glycerin to keep my neck feeling moisturized. This mixture got rid of the Master's stickiness from the excess glycerin yet added the amount of glycerin the S-70 is lacking.
Review of PIF Item: I have two of the Barbasol Pacific Rush AS Balms that were PIF'd to me. One from Don and one from KJ. I really liked this balm. It smelled great with the Lavender Lime but the scent really disappeared fast which is ok with me. It left my face feeling soft, moisturized, but not greasy or shiny. Probably a blue berry sized amount is just enough of this stuff. I really like it. I'll conserve it though since it is so rare, but in the winter months it will be my go-to balm for when my face feels dry.
Today's Shave: Shave #74
Razor: Parker Variant - Graphite handle
Blade: Gillette Silver Blue
Brush: Maggard Razors Synthetic (Larger knot from KJ's PIF)
Soap: Mystic Water Lavender Lime
Bowl: Red Salsa Bowl (plastic) From KJ's PIF
Pre Shave: Wash with soap in the shower
Total Razor on Face Time: 9 minutes
Post Shave: Cold water rinse, Witch Hazel (Walmart Brand) face only, Cold rinse. Master Bay Rum / Superior 70 semi-bootlegger mix on the neck only. Barbasol Pacific Rush AS balm to the face only. Mammoth Painting.
I needed a quicker shave this morning so it was time to work on that 2 pass shave. I lathered up the Lavender LIme which seemed a few drops of water too wet but still in a good range for me. I flipped the blade to see if it made any difference. With the razor set at 2.0 my WTG pass was great. I did some minor clean-up along the way. It felt normal and perhaps cut better, but if so the results weren't enough to say that flipping the blade makes any difference. Theoretically it would seem to work, but I'm not sure it's worth the trouble. My second pass was ATG on the face & neck. This was the ticket. It felt a little rough on the left cheek area of my face but great everywhere else. I did some light clean-up on the cheeks and neck and I was done. Drum roll please (whose the officially designated drummer on TSC?) DFS / DFS+. I've got it!!! WTG and ATG is my path to a great 2-pass shave. Very nice and comfortable feeling. I can't escape redness on the neck and cheeks no matter what I do, but it's less and dissipates faster with the 2 pass shave.
Post shave saw me slipping to the dark side and becoming a bloody bootlegger
Review of PIF Item: I have two of the Barbasol Pacific Rush AS Balms that were PIF'd to me. One from Don and one from KJ. I really liked this balm. It smelled great with the Lavender Lime but the scent really disappeared fast which is ok with me. It left my face feeling soft, moisturized, but not greasy or shiny. Probably a blue berry sized amount is just enough of this stuff. I really like it. I'll conserve it though since it is so rare, but in the winter months it will be my go-to balm for when my face feels dry.
I lived for many years without a garage and once I got one for the first time I decided that was a deal breaker when we were looking for houses. What I love about my garage is that it pulls into my basement which is heated so in the winter my car is no less than 50 degrees to start out. I'm one of those types that changes my own breaks, rotate my own tires, etc. so having a garage to do that really helps save me money and frustration.
Dave in KY
Shave Newbie
I'd like to see the Pirate Monkey show a little more enthusiasm
No wet shave today. I'll be back at it tomorrow though.
GearNoir
“The Disney Princess’s Apprentice”
I'd like to see the Pirate Monkey show a little more enthusiasmNo wet shave today. I'll be back at it tomorrow though.
Walk the plank ye stubble lubber!
MilkCrate
"I am a Milk Crate with Dreams"
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