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Natterings of a Nasal Barbarian

Graybeard57 said:
My wife is allergic to cats, and at least two of our three sleep on the bed each night. She adores those little critters. :)
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I can't say I am in a similar situation. That cat and I loathe each other. She knows that she resembles a creature that is loved and adored by humans, and takes advantage of it with my wife. I wouldn't be surprised if she were a demon/goblin/gremlin disguised as a cat.
 
SOTD 02/12/20

Well it’s lucky seven with this amazing razor. This is day seven. Seven consecutive two pass, bloodless BBS shaves. Where do we go from here? Some might be content to shave with their grail razor for the rest of their days. What does one do if he’s just reached the US actuarial maximum of his mathematically allotted days of life eight days ago? I’ll tell you! He switches off to assess whether his last week of perfect shaves may be attributable to the use of his favorite soap, MWF over the last 12 days. In any case, I still have 358 actuarial days in this leap year remaining to enjoy my favorite pastime before I go to my actuarial reward! LaResche is acknowledged to have designed two superb superb safety razors - one open comb design (cf LaResche 51) and one safety bar design (cf LaResche 77). The 51 presents as my grail razor, after seven perfect irritation-free shaves. I will admit that I’ve only shaved with the 77 a few times, but they were also great shaves. Tomorrow I’ll begin a week of shaves with the LaResche 77 for comparative purposes. I will continue my focus on MWF.

RAZOR: LaResche 51 Luxe
BLADE: Wizamet Super Iridium
PREP: Cold Water rinse followed by a scrub with PAA’s Cube Preshave Soap
BRUSH: Viking Silvertip Badger
SOAP: Mitchell’s Wool Fat
POSTSHAVE: Cold water wash with brush squeezings followed by Thayers Lavender WH and finished with Aqua Velva Sensitive 5 in 1 AS Balm
 

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SOTD Thursday 02/13/20

Thought I’d begin today’s shave with some closeups of the only safety bar design LaResche ever made. The 77 model has a sharply arched top cap fitting on a narrow baseplate. The only modern razor that is similar is the Fine Marvel. Both are formidable looking razors. And surprisingly, both are smooth and highly efficient shavers. The Model 77 has a thinner top cap which is subject to bending and thus delivering a highly aggressive shave according to some of the experts on B&B. Mine delivers a smooth highly efficient shave, so I suspect does not possess a bent top cap. The blade gap is easily more than 2mm.
The shave was epic. The Viking brush generated its usual thick, yogurty,glistening lather. of which the Model 77 made good use. I kept my shaving strokes purposefully short and ended up with a bloodless, two pass BBS, albeit one thattook a great deal longer than my shaves with the Model 51. It was not irritation-free, however, as the alum block revealed some slight heat around my usual trouble spots - the Adam’s Apple and middle of the back of my head - which the Fine Snake Bite reinforced. I attribute that to operator error in relearning my way around this razor. In any case, I feel clean, smooth, cool, and refreshed.

RAZOR: LaResche 77
BLADE: Wizamet Super Iridium
PREP: Cold water rinse followed by a scrub with PAA’s Cube Preshave Soap
BRUSH: Viking Silvertip Badger
SOAP: Mitchell’s Wool Fat
POSTSHAVE: Cold water wash with brushsqueezings followed by Thayers LavenderWH and finished with FineAccoutrements Snake Bite AS Splash4FC46E62-4A0F-49C1-BD3C-584C7C928B04.jpeg1E93C27E-F865-4E82-99E5-415E6620A9E7.jpeg76D9BD91-227E-41C6-BE33-75875E8523AD.jpeg
 
SOTD 02/15/20

The mantra in the 30 Day Concentration (30DC) thread at The Shave Den (TSD) is “technique trumps tools”. My concentration this month has been the daily use of MWF. After discovering my grail razor (LaResche 51) and experiencing 7 consecutive,bloodless, irritation-free BBS shaves, I’vealso noticed that my face and dome surfacesappear shiny, soft and well-hydrated. Twoshaves with the LaResche 77 yielded much the same result albeit with some minimal heat. So I asked myself, if soap used is partof our technique, how much of my shave results should I attribute to the daily use ofmy favorite soap?

To test this theory I decided to use my 115 yr old Gillette Single Ring. This old girl’snickname is “The Weeper Maker”. She always delivers a very close shave, but I’ve never escaped without at least one weeper. In order to maintain at least the semblance of consistency, I loaded the same blade I’vebeen using, a Wizamet Super Iridium, a relatively sharp and smooth blade from my remaining stash of 200 original Polish blades.

The Viking Silvertip Badger brush generated its usual thick MWF paste. Thispaste was applied to the shaving surfaces and then face and head lathered with sufficient amounts of warm water over the prior scrub of the those surfaces with PAA’sCube Preshave Soap.

I then picked up “The Weeper Maker” and launched into the first WTG pass. She sang through that first whisker reduction with aplomb. A careful examination afterwardsrevealed no blood on either dome or noggin. I relathered and completed my second XTG pass with no blood and someminimal roughness in the usual spots - theAdam’s Apple and the middle of the back ofmy head.

Now I asked myself, should I tempt fate? I decided to only lather the two rough spots for some ATG buffing. I proceeded gentlyand carefully to bloodlessly eliminate the roughness. A check with the alum blockupon completion yielded some slightstinging in the back of the head and noirritation at all around the troublesome Adam’s Apple! Unbelievable! More powerto MWF! I feel clean, smooth and refreshed!

RAZOR: Gillette Single Ring 1905 Vintage
BLADE: Wizamet Super Iridium
PREP: Cold water rinse followed by a scrub with PAA’s Preshave Cube Soap
BRUSH: Viking Silvertip Badger
SOAP: Mitchell’s Wool Fat
POSTSHAVE: Cold water wash with brushsqueezings followed by Thayers LavenderWH and finished with Fine AccoutrementsLavender Pour Homme AS Splash
 
Most excellent shave kind sir! Loving your narration of the morning ritual and you probably do it better than anyone I have read! I love Lavender Pour Homme also! One of my favorite scents!
 
Nice Post! I enjoy reading the amount of detail you put in your journals. A quick question though. I have noticed that you use cold water during your pre-shave instead of warm water, and I was curious why you do that?
 
Patelliott said:
Nice Post! I enjoy reading the amount of detail you put in your journals. A quick question though. I have noticed that you use cold water during your pre-shave instead of warm water, and I was curious why you do that?
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A few years back I gave up on using hot water in my shaves. Cold water is more invigorating, and I get less irritation.
 
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