New Horizons in Shaving

[Dave in KY]

It's been a bit since I posted last. Busy and draining time right now. I've got a personal mess I don't want to deal with but have to on top of trying to keep getting product out for our online company.

But I have been taking the time to learn the straight.

Lots of mini discoveries, soap is starting to make more sense and I'm getting more out of my top level soaps.

I made the shift to not using a DE for pass one, and well, it aint' easy. My first day the shave took well over an hour try to figure a way though this coarse curly hair of mine. On top of the personal issues, I got a bit dejected, but have been pressing on, and a little better everyday. That first day, I tired all 3/4 of my razors and wound up going back to the ugly Torrey CBLindsey so kindly threw in on the yard sale buy I made from him. It just seems to be the best of both worlds between a quarter hollow and full hollow somehow, and Chris put a heck of an edge on it.

I still can't get though all of my left neck w/o the DE so that's the next milestone I'm looking towards. But the later passes are starting to feel closer to real shaving and I'm very comfortable with the touch, so there's not much fear, though a fair amount of swearing going on each shave.

That's about all I've got now. I'm still on the fence about Bingo, the last couple took the fun out of it for me, and it's not my game to tell people how to play. Iif I do it this time, it's for Dave.

I promise to make it enjoyable Bingo for ya

 

[HMan]

I promise to make it enjoyable Bingo for ya

Play it your way Dave, I'm sure it's going to be a blast.

 

[HMan]

A few days into the no DE till the end phase here, and today there was progress, of a sort.

I did manage to get everything but the lip and chin on the first pass today, and it didn't take all day either! However after doing a few passes before going to finish with my Gillette Rocket HD, I'll say, the results from the straight were about like a mediocre first pass with a DE, so still a long way to go.

For soap, I was planning to visit a frag shop here in town today, so didn't want anything too lingering to compete with that. I broke out B&M Spice. My first shaves with this were mediocre at best, but today, something magical happened, it's like it made it actually possible to cut easily though my coarse facial hair. It was a bit astonishing compared to earlier shaves in the week, so I'm going to stick with this stuff for a bit as I continue down this arduous time consuming route of blah results.

Another minor milestone is today I tried, on purpose with two straights, on a still Hellberg quarter hollow, and the other, a blade that I couldn't use at all before the Easy Aces, with a blade that feels like tin foil. Today no issues using it, before it was nothing but snag and fear. So, mediocre results aside, I am seeing improvement of some sort.

After the shave I ran down to see if I could peek in the gym. They are moving about 50 yards, to a new, more posh location. It's a good thing, the new layout looked much better, less cramped. I just saw tomorrow is open house, so I'll give it a full scope out then.

After that to the fragrance shop, to check out Frederic Malle, way above my pay grade, but samples are affordable and I'm on a frag jag. I've really been digging the Comme Des Garcons frag samples, and reading more about frags, so a stop by the shop was in order. I'm wearing Vetiver Extraordinaire right now and loving it.

Totally different vibe to CdG, maybe more 'exclusive' and maybe that's why I like CdG it feels like a gym monkey like me can wear it and not feel pretentious. Still it's fun like heck checking out different frags, I had no idea, until I innocently spayed some Tom Ford on in the airport. I didn't know frags could have a life and tell an olfactory story. It's fun, like watching a movie for the nose.

Finally the big damper on this week, my partners wife sent us a less that pleasant message last night. I can't detail it here, but come on, it's enough dealing with my partners, I don't want their wife getting in my face.

 

[uacowboy]

Sounds like you are coming along with the straights for sure and that's a nice little haul of Frags.

Sorry about the Drama though.

 

[bentheduck]

Huzzah! Progress! Thanks for the reminder that I need to step up my frag game at some point.

Brush off the drama the best you can.

 

[HMan]

Sounds like you are coming along with the straights for sure and that's a nice little haul of Frags.

Sorry about the Drama though.

Huzzah! Progress! Thanks for the reminder that I need to step up my frag game at some point.

Brush off the drama the best you can.

Thanks guys, glad to know that it's a genuine sign of progress. One of these days, I'll get a decent shave from a straight, I enjoy the process so it's worth it to me. I could see how it might be too much for some though, and why moustaches and goatees used to be so popular.

I appreciate being able to let the drama steam off here so I don't have to elsewhere, I'm ok with drama as long as I don't have to bottle it all up, that's doesn't generally end well.

Totally up your frag game @bentheduck even if it's just checking out lots of samples. Which you should anyway, you never know how a frag will be till you wear it. Case in point the Vetiver Extraordinaire should be right up my alley, but after having it on for a few hours, it's smelling too feminine for me, which I didn't expect. And the Portrait of a Lady scent smells very masculine to my nose. You just never know.

 

[bentheduck]

Thanks guys, glad to know that it's a genuine sign of progress. One of these days, I'll get a decent shave from a straight, I enjoy the process so it's worth it to me. I could see how it might be too much for some though, and why moustaches and goatees used to be so popular.

I appreciate being able to let the drama steam off here so I don't have to elsewhere, I'm ok with drama as long as I don't have to bottle it all up, that's doesn't generally end well.

Totally up your frag game @bentheduck even if it's just checking out lots of samples. Which you should anyway, you never know how a frag will be till you wear it. Case in point the Vetiver Extraordinaire should be right up my alley, but after having it on for a few hours, it's smelling too feminine for me, which I didn't expect. And the Portrait of a Lady scent smells very masculine to my nose. You just never know.

Thanks for the encouragement! I went to the mall with my fiancee a couple of months ago to check out some of the relatively affordable stuff. The only thing I hated is the sales rep kept saying I *should* like this and that, and was wrong every time. I'll have another go at it, there are plenty of places in Houston.

 

[HMan]

Thanks for the encouragement! I went to the mall with my fiancee a couple of months ago to check out some of the relatively affordable stuff. The only thing I hated is the sales rep kept saying I *should* like this and that, and was wrong every time. I'll have another go at it, there are plenty of places in Houston.

The rep can make all the difference but don't let that put you off. I generally just say I'm just looking and sniff bottles in those situations. In the smaller shops here anyway, the salespeople have just been fantastic and no pressure. Makes a big difference, I just a 'regular' guy so just getting myself to go into these places has been a step forward for me.

 

[NurseDave]

I did manage to get everything but the lip and chin on the first pass today

Goatee

 

[HMan]

Goatee

It's looks good on you Dave, it makes me look like a pervy magician.

 

[GearNoir]

World of frags is deep and dangerous! It’s so fun to go try/sniff stuff out though!

Sorry about your continued business drama. I think I found the issue:

 

[HMan]

World of frags is deep and dangerous! It’s so fun to go try/sniff stuff out though!

Sorry about your continued business drama. I think I found the issue:

View attachment 5358

Don't drag @The Monkey into it!

 

[The Monkey]

Don't drag @The Monkey into it!

That looks more like @Dave in KY

 

[Dave in KY]

That looks more like @Dave in KY

He plays like @Dave in KY too

 

[dangerousdon]

All the Frags actually sound wonderful! I hope a resolution presents itself soon with your partners. Seriously...no one wants a non-party (the partners wife) in the middle of affairs!

 

[HMan]

It's been super busy here, but thankfully a lot of positive progress has been made amidst the chaos. Finally got most of this batch of writing done, this is probably the most challenging piece I've ever had to do, so feel good about it overall, and sure hope the customers like it.

I suppose anyone who's had to develop a project knows, sometimes the hardest part is just working out what needs to be done and how to do it. Once all that is in place, the doing sort of does itself, but the prep for this was painful and making sure all the pieces wound up in the right place and worked to together was a big challenge.

On to a brief but great shaving update -

I'm breaking through with the first pass with a straight. It's going way faster than ever, and now I'm having time to start experimenting with tag passes as well.

I went back to my old favorite soap, Tallow and Steel (Kyoto). Having had very bad luck with it at first I didn't expect much as was prepared to move to another soap if it was a fail. Well a very happy surprise for me, it seemed like it somehow 'softened' my bead and though the slickness isn't up there with say B&M I actually got a far better shave because I could actually get though the hair on pass one.

I thought it might be a fluke, so I repeated the experiment today, this time using the earlier v2 formula in my #1 favorite scent West Indies. Well I'll be same results, I got right through that first pass and had the best straight shave to date today. The v3 is slicker, I'll be ordering more for sure. This is really a great thing for me, because for whatever reason my skin just gets on best with T&S and having used it for years now, lathering is a breeze for me.

Ok that's about it for today, I've got a couple more busy weeks coming up and then hope things ease up for a bit. I'll still looking forward to @Dave in KY calling Bingo and will take his place as resident complainer for the duration.

All the best to my fellow cadre people. Have a great week and thanks for reading this blather.

 

[Dave in KY]

will take his place as resident complainer for the duration.

Wait what ?!?

 

[uacowboy]

Good to hear you are continuing to get better with the SR.

One thing about those big projects though is once they are done, they are usually the most satisfying.

 

[MilkCrate]

Nice work with the straight!

 

[bentheduck]

Keep up the hard work!