For the Love of Old Spice - Illini's Shave Journal

[GearNoir]

Whiskey as an AS hm?

 

[Fightingillini22]

Whiskey as an AS hm?

Today has been one of those days where I wish it was Kakubin and not Clubman!!

 

[Fightingillini22]

Hope every is having a nice Saturday! We're at my wife's grandparents house out in the country today, who have not been able to hold our 10 month old due to the virus. They're now fully vaccinated and we finally felt comfortable for both their safety (since they're in their 90s) and ours / kiddos'. Pretty emotional time for the wife as she was very scared something would happen before they could hold him.

Spending all day out here means my FIL and I get to sit in the back room and watch basketball. It feels like it's been a long time since I've been able to sit down and relax for almost an entire Saturday.

Had a nice early shave with CBL Back Alley Barber this morning before hitting the road. Such a lovely scent and amazing performance.

 

[GearNoir]

Glad the grandparents have finally been able to connect! That’s huge!

Figuring out how to come out of the super-retreated lifestyle from the past year has been really difficult for us too. Beyond work and a few individual connections with friends, we still are in the family-only visit mode for the most part as well. You’ve gotta make sure both sides are comfortable with it and it seems that most folks we come into contact with are a lot more willing than we are in general.

 

[Fightingillini22]

Glad the grandparents have finally been able to connect! That’s huge!

Figuring out how to come out of the super-retreated lifestyle from the past year has been really difficult for us too. Beyond work and a few individual connections with friends, we still are in the family-only visit mode for the most part as well. You’ve gotta make sure both sides are comfortable with it and it seems that most folks we come into contact with are a lot more willing than we are in general.

It was an emotional day for my wife, for sure. I don't have any grandparents left, but my wife has all 4 who are all in their 90s so now our little man has met all 4 of the great grandparents and they've all been able to hold him. We're blessed that everyone in the immediate family came through the worst days of the virus unscathed.

Saturday night my wife and I were able to secure our first vaccine appointments. We are not front line workers and do not have any preexisting conditions that would have qualified us for a vaccine yet, and for that we are lucky. But I was worried that once they moved into the broader distribution phase we'd be hard-pressed to find anything. We're very excited to have the appointment on the calendar now, even with it still 3 weeks away. We're the last in our immediate family to get it, since both my sister and SIL are front line workers and our 4 parents all qualified under the previous phase. That means we'll be able to have a "normal" first birthday party for our little guy in early May with the immediate family, which we didn't think would happen. Life is good!

Yesterday my parents came over to do some babysitting while the wife and I got stuff done around the house. I think we're about 90% of the way there on the babyproofing which has been a long journey. It's times like this that I wish we were living back in the 80s/90s when you put the outlet covers in the outlets, maybe a cabinet protector on the cleaning closet and called it a day. My parents finally admitted that it's much rougher now than it ever was when we were young.

No photo of yesterday's shave but CBL Barber's Chair continues to be a fantastic performer.

Sunday March 29th, 2021
Razor : '56 Gillette Flair Tip SS
Blade : Personna Lab Blue (53)
Brush : Rudy Vey Custom Plisson
Pre : Hot Shower
Soap : CBL Tonsorial Barber's Chair
Post : Stirling Christmas Eve
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PAA Sundown set this morning, performance and scent both excellent and the Lab Blue pushes on to 54 shaves!

Monday March 30th, 2021
Razor : '55 Gillette Red Tip SS
Blade : Personna Lab Blue (54)
Brush : Yaqi Barberpole Tuxedo
Pre : Hot Shower
Soap : PAA Sundown
Post : PAA Sundown


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Wishing you a great start to the week Cadre!

 

[Graybeard57]

I think we're about 90% of the way there on the babyproofing which has been a long journey.

Every time we thought we had the house babyproofed our sons would learn new skills, and we'd have to do more.

 

[Fightingillini22]

Every time we thought we had the house babyproofed our sons would learn new skills, and we'd have to do more.

HA, yes I'm sure that will be the case with us too. But I'm going to take this initial effort as a victory for now

 

[Fightingillini22]

I think we've really made it through the winter here in Chicagoland. The weather was beautiful yesterday, will be gorgeous today, and despite a small dip tomorrow it's looking pretty much flawless for most of the next two weeks. While I love the warmth and sunshine, especially over Easter weekend, there's no rain in the forecast and I don't have my preemergent down on my lawn yet. That's making me nervous. Need just a small blast of rain to water it in. Will be watching the weather like a hawk...

Had a dentist appointment up near my childhood home yesterday. We live about an hour south of there now, but I really love the dentist we've had for years so rather than try and find a new one, for the 2 times per year I have an appointment it's a bit of a road trip. This was the first time driving past since my parents sold the house last autumn. Kinda bittersweet, but nice to drive around the old neighborhood regardless.

Back to the CBL Barber's Chair this morning with a general "barbershop" theme. Soap continues to perform and the mixture of the Barbasol Original scent from the preshave with the Barber's Chair was pretty phenomenal.

Tuesday March 30th, 2021
Razor : '56 "Grungy" Gillette Blue Tip SS
Blade : Personna Lab Blue (55)
Brush : Ever Ready 100T with Plisson Knot
Pre : Barbasol Original
Soap : CBL Tonsorial Barber's Chair
Post : Soap Commander Endurance

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[GearNoir]

I never noticed your usage of Barbasol as a preshave before, interesting!

I do love the smell of Barbasol and it’s pretty dang slick...I just don’t like the shave and it always feels questionable as to the ingredients I’m running all over my face lol. Do you do just a light rinse of it before lathering up your main soap?

 

[Fightingillini22]

I never noticed your usage of Barbasol as a preshave before, interesting!

I do love the smell of Barbasol and it’s pretty dang slick...I just don’t like the shave and it always feels questionable as to the ingredients I’m running all over my face lol. Do you do just a light rinse of it before lathering up your main soap?

Yeah, I know there's a lot of pushback on the ingredients and with all the fantastic "pure" artisan soaps out there, I understand why some people opt to avoid. I fall into the "meh" camp, much like drinking whiskey, whatever works for you is the right way to do it!

I'll grab a small dollop of the cream in my hand, add some water to the cream, then apply a very thin layer across my whiskers before loading up my brush with whatever soap I'm using and face lathering right over the Barbasol. I'm not sure how much additional slickness I get from using it, but I'm more using it to complement a shave soap and any additional benefit in the shave performance department is gravy!

 

[Fightingillini22]

This week has been dragging. Both yesterday and today I woke up thinking it was a day later in the week than it was.

Threw down my first application of preemergent and then fert on the lawn yesterday, hoping we'd get hit with the spotty showers that were traveling south of us to water in the preem. No dice. And no real rain on the radar for the next 10 days. Of course, when I want the weather forecasters to be wrong and for rain to roll through, they'll nail this forecast and there really won't be rain for weeks. Sigh. Come on, April showers, don't let me down!

The wife and I are currently working our way through the "spaghetti order" of MCU films. Iron Man Monday night. Hulk last night. Iron Man 2 tonight. It's pretty entertaining and a nice way to relax after a long day. Pretty dang lucky to have a wife who not only doesn't completely ridicule my wet shaving hobby but also enjoys watching super hero movies!

Morning's shave was with the Seaforth Spiced set. Just great stuff, performance and scent wise. I'm very excited that they're releasing a Spice Lime set later this quarter, as I anticipate finishing off my Captain's Choice Nor'easter summer soap fairly quickly once the warm weather comes and I've been contemplating what I'd want to replace it with. Was originally thinking about maybe trying the Summer Break Cannonball, but the update from Spearheard announcing the Spice Lime made the decision a non-issue!

Wednesday March 31st, 2021
Razor : Gillette Prewar Tech
Blade : Personna Lab Blue (56)
Brush : Razorock F400
Pre : Hot Shower
Soap : Seaforth Spiced
Post : Seaforth Spiced

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[GearNoir]

The wife and I are currently working our way through the "spaghetti order" of MCU films. Iron Man Monday night. Hulk last night. Iron Man 2 tonight. It's pretty entertaining and a nice way to relax after a long day. Pretty dang lucky to have a wife who not only doesn't completely ridicule my wet shaving hobby but also enjoys watching super hero movies!

That’s a pretty darn big win there Ryan!

The missus has come around quite a bit to the shaving hobby but the superhero genre movies and shows she can only handle so much of per year. I’m often left to watch those on my own or with just the boys lol.

 

[Maryland998]

Didn’t know about the lime spice. Good deal. Prolly order lime soap and the original Spiced AS

 

[Fightingillini22]

That’s a pretty darn big win there Ryan!

The missus has come around quite a bit to the shaving hobby but the superhero genre movies and shows she can only handle so much of per year. I’m often left to watch those on my own or with just the boys lol.

I'm a lucky man! This will be the first true test of how many superhero movies she can take though, as I'm fairly sure we've never watched more than a few per year in the past.

Didn’t know about the lime spice. Good deal. Prolly order lime soap and the original Spiced AS

The bottle mockup Dennis shared shows the notes as "Tahiti Lime, Bergamot, Sea Spray, Coriander, Pink Pepper and Oakmoss." Sounds like an absolute winner to me, and his continued collab with Shawn on the frags makes me think this one will knock it out of the park.

 

[Fightingillini22]

We made it to Opening Day 2021 Cadre! Unfortunately my White Sox are opening the season on the west coast, so the game isn't until 9pm my time. Ouch. With Eloy injured, I'm tempering expectations for this season, but I'm excited nonetheless. I'm particularly excited to take my son to a game later this season. Sure he'll be like 16 months old, won't appreciate anything about the visit to Sox Park or last longer than 3 or 4 innings, but I'm still SO excited to share it with him.

I know it's not quite the fad it once was back in the 2013/2014 era, but I still enjoy a good superlather every now and then. This morning I rubbed a bit of TOBS Mr. Taylor cream into my stubble before face lathering up the CBL Barber's Chair. What a great combo! These two products perform great for me individually and no change when superlathered together! Chased with Fine AB and it was a great Barbershop-filled shave today!

Thursday April 1st, 2021
Razor : Schick Krona
Blade : Personna Lab Blue (57)
Brush : Stirling Kong
Pre : Hot Shower
Soap : CBL Tonsorial Barber's Chair & TOBS Mr. Taylor
Post : Fine AB

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[Fightingillini22]

In a very surprising turn of events, our county released a bunch of appointments yesterday so I was able to get my first dose last night. Little sore this morning but no worse than the normal flu one to my memory. I am extremely grateful to have the first dose completed and second dose on the calendar. Wife will get her first on Wednesday. Looking forward to continued steps towards normalcy.

Today was one of the last cold mornings I'm seeing for the foreseeable future, so broke out the Stirling Christmas Eve set for what I anticipate to be the last time until next season. Just such a phenomenal scent and typical top notch Stirling performance.

Friday April 2nd, 2021
Razor : Schick Lady Eversharp
Blade : Injector (3)
Brush : Stirling Boar
Pre : Hot Shower
Soap : Stirling Christmas Eve
Post : Stirling Christmas Eve

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[MarkB]

In a very surprising turn of events, our county released a bunch of appointments yesterday so I was able to get my first dose last night. Little sore this morning but no worse than the normal flu one to my memory. I am extremely grateful to have the first dose completed and second dose on the calendar. Wife will get her first on Wednesday. Looking forward to continued steps towards normalcy.

Today was one of the last cold mornings I'm seeing for the foreseeable future, so broke out the Stirling Christmas Eve set for what I anticipate to be the last time until next season. Just such a phenomenal scent and typical top notch Stirling performance.

Friday April 2nd, 2021
Razor : Schick Lady Eversharp
Blade : Injector (3)
Brush : Stirling Boar
Pre : Hot Shower
Soap : Stirling Christmas Eve
Post : Stirling Christmas Eve

View attachment 50248​

Gonna have to get some of the Christmas Eve this fall...

 

[GearNoir]

Awesome Ryan! Congrats on getting the vaccine process underway!

 

[Smattayu]

The wife and I are currently working our way through the "spaghetti order" of MCU films. Iron Man Monday night. Hulk last night. Iron Man 2 tonight. It's pretty entertaining and a nice way to relax after a long day. Pretty dang lucky to have a wife who not only doesn't completely ridicule my wet shaving hobby but also enjoys watching super hero movies!

I need one of those.

 

[FarmerTan]

This must be an Old Spice reference, as I'm not an Illinois fan (no offense).

Yes, Go Green!