What's new
The Shaving Cadre

Welcome to The Shaving Cadre, a forum dedicated to gentlemanly discourse about wet shaving and other topics of common interests. Membership is always free so register today and join in the fun

beginish’s Eye on a Splintered Mind

There are certain things that, at least at one time, required a person with an attitude of 'devil may care' + 'who gives a flying fig what anyone else thinks' in order to pull it off. Back in the day, that included a bow tie or a shaved head. These are passé now. I would say that it still takes a bit of chutzpah to pull off a waxed handlebar mustache and a beret. Not even the hipsters have worked their way back to muttonchops yet, though.
 
I have been using the Valobra stick as a cheat shave from my Arlington 3017. I always knew that Valobra was good, and used up a stick waaaaaay back in 2010. I picked up this stick in my last binge shop in 2014. Performance continues to be outstanding with this soap, and a face lather on 3 days stubble with the Chubby 2 synthetic is a dream.

What I didn’t really notice back then was the scent. I always chalked it up as ‘soap.’ Duh. But La Toja is more of a soap scent. Valobra is a true, bonafide, English Fern-class Fougere. And a really good one at that, dialing back on the powdery scent this variety of Fougere has. Combined with Harris Pink AS, I actually smell good, and get a good extra hour or two of persistence.

Highly recommended.
 
Cartridge update. I am still using the same Sensor cart, and it has close to 30 shaves on it. I will use it through the end of the month and then switch to one of the two I have left. I’m thinking of sticking with them for the rest of the summer.

The cart is a bit rougher at this point, but I still get a BBS or near BBS with very little effort. At $2/cart, that translates into about 7 cents per shave, which ain’t bad at all. I have about 30-35 Personna Lab Blues, from which I get a week of shaves per blade. I could probably push it, but at 6 cents per shave, why bother?

So here’s my dilemma. Do I care about the difference of a penny per shave? After all, even shaving every day, that’s $3.65 a year, or less than one latte at Starbucks. What I lose, I guess, is the connection to the old ways, but only so far as the actual shaving goes. I still do soap and brush with a nice AS to follow.

The actual shaving part was never a driver. I started using a brush and cream way back in 2000, but used a cart to shave. Even after taking up the hobby in 2009, I did not commit to DE shaving every day until 2012. I never got RAD, and have just 5 razors (compared to my brushes even after the purge....yeesh).

I am comfortable with the idea that I can get close, comfortable shaves from 12 sensors per year. Dare I go there?
 
A month on a Sensor cart? Wowsa! 😲 I generally can get about 10 days, but checking my history, I went 4 weeks on a single cart back in 2017.

I have 20-30 or so carts, as the Sensor is my backup if something should happen to my Injector. I do have a single Mach-3 cart from the 2-cart pack that was included when I bought the M3 on sale a few years ago.
 
Excellent point about the plastic, Dave. That is something to consider. My plan for where to go after finishing the box of Personnas was to go with my Schick adjustable injector, in part to honor my late father, who managed to nick himself with one every day. Those blades ain’t exactly economical, though.

Yeah, Sam, I was as surprised as you to get a solid month of good shaves from this Sensor. The results don’t lie, though.
 
The end of my latest 3017 soap victim is in sight, as I have broken through the bottom of the pick of Arlington. There is certainly still a good amount of soap, but it’s only a matter of time now. As I started this puck in early January, it has had real staying power, though I would likely have finished it earlier without about a month’s worth of shaves withother products in the meantime.
 
D.R.Harris pucks do last a while. I think mine lasted over 200 shaves; great value for money there (and the scents are pretty good too!)
 
beginish said:
The end of my latest 3017 soap victim is in sight, as I have broken through the bottom of the pick of Arlington. There is certainly still a good amount of soap, but it’s only a matter of time now. As I started this puck in early January, it has had real staying power, though I would likely have finished it earlier without about a month’s worth of shaves withother products in the meantime.
Click to expand...
I always liked the DR Harris scents. Some of the best if you are considering the English Soap houses. But I could never really get the damn things to lather just the way I wanted it to. The creams are among the best in my opinion...it's just a good lathering cream. I never picked up Arlington though except for a sniff at Aidan Gill in New Orleans.

Five to Six months to finish off a soap is called economical in my boat. That is one heck of a 3017!
 
I had trouble with the lathering too, until I switched to synthetics, and then it was just fine.
 
I almost always 3017 soaps and AS. Never sampled DRH, though. I use soaps till the donut hole gets so big lathering the ring annoys me. I scoop out the ring and add it to a tub of other remnants till that tub is full and then use that till only a ring is left. OCD in the right amount is a wonderful way to keep things simple (and organized!). ;)
 
I haven’t seen a ring since last October, when I finished my last soap. Then I moved on to TOBS Jermyn Street and used it until January, when I switched to my Christmas present of Arlington. I will likely go back to Jermyn Street when I finish. Great lather and really good scent.
 
Congrats on getting to the bottom of the tub of Arlington. I hope that the ring of death goes quickly for you. I am still on a tub of Strike Gold which I think is going to last me until September at the rate it is going. (It is a very firm artisan soap.) I am a month in and maybe about a third of the way through the tub. One of these days I need to pick up a puck of DRH. I hope it will be less disappointing than the puck of TOBS Sandalwood Herbal was. The TOBS just didn't play well with my face.

On the Sensor cart thing... Whatever works for you is what you should do. Although, I agree with @Dave in KY about the landfill issue. DE blades seem more eco-friendly. As far as carts go I am a fan of TracII carts and Harry's carts.
 
I pulled out the ring and pressed it into the bottom of the bowl, and there is inevitably some loss for the soap that was only loosely attached. I did the first lather with the pressed soap and lost very little, getting an excellent lather. I was initially unimpressed with the Harris puck (had only used their sticks before), but it was a question of ‘which brush?’ and once I moved to just synthetics, the lathers have been first rate.

I have a very lightly used puck of Windsor and another brand new Arlington, so I look forward to them at some point.
 
On the cart question, in my use, I get better, no muss shaves from the Sensor than I do the DE. I got a full month from my last cart, and am a couple of weeks into use of the new one with no drop off in performance. On a cost and performance level, Sensors trump DE blades.

That said, I can’t overlook the plastic question. With the DE, the steel blade bank fills with metal blades and I can just drop it in the recycling bin once every 2-3 years. No such luck with the carts. In my house we work really hard to recycle as much as we reasonably can, and even though the amount of plastic in a cart is negligible in the grand scheme of things, every little bit helps. When I toss a cart, the plastic and the steel sit in a landfill forever.

When I finish my last cart in September, back to DE and SE for good.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top