Shave of the Day Thread - 2018

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alfredus said:
Happy birthday @tim33z - if you can get a good shave from a certain razor/blade combo, your problem is most likely poor lather...look at your good shaves and use that soap/brush combo together with the same razor/blade combo and see how you go ;)
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Thanks @alfredus!
Do you mean spend a good few days with the same setup which has given really good shaves in the past?
 
Date: 30 July 2018

Pre-shave:- Cold Water straight from the tap
Brush:- RazoRock Plissoft Synth. 24/57mm knot
Soap/Cream:- Tabac Shaving Stick
Razor/Blade:- Merkur 38C / Polsilver Super Iridium #5
Post-shave:- Thayers Witch Hazel & Tea Tree Oil / Lucky Tiger Aftershave & Face Tonic / Lucky Tiger Face Moisturizer
Fragrance:- N/A

Finally, at last, this Saturday I moved into my new home in a unit, while they're still a lot to do around the house and my mother needed to be out of the house by 18th August.

I won't be going back to my normal wet shaving gear until Friday the 20th or on the 21st of August. Aaaah :arghh::cry:

tim33z said:
P.S. getting the water to the right temperature and keeping it there was painful so for three quarters of the shave i used cold water and didn't mind it one bit! I see why @SpeedyPC does this often....
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@tim33z I love :love: cold water shave, no more warm water shave it's a complete waste of time...... FYI click here
 
tim33z said:
Thanks @alfredus!
Do you mean spend a good few days with the same setup which has given really good shaves in the past?
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Exactly - and if a razor/blade combo gives you sometimes a good shave and sometimes not, most likely the difference is lather.

If you get a good shave from a razor/blade combo it usually means you have the angle/pressure issue covered as well as the hair growing pattern on your face. Muscle memory usually kicks in when you use the same razor...so only lather remains.

Poor prep, post shave etc in my experience can add to the overall shave, but generally doesn't lead to a really poor shave.

Lather on the other hand is in my experience the single most important part of a shave!

I have managed to get a decent shave with many many different razors and blades - but I have never managed to get a good shave with poor lather.
 
tim33z said:
Don't look at todays SOTD then...(n)

Yeah i think with the Cool soap much the same as your experience - i haven't tried wetting the brush a second time while loading so might try this tomorrow morning.
I want to like this soap so much but it is so temperamental for me. I've tried bowl lathering also, but the bowl is completely smooth so this isn't helping.
I will persist until the sample is no more...
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I made this comment a fair while ago about the Reserve soap base, the trick is that it requires a hell of a lot of water due to its composition, more water than you would think is reasonable. A good 40-50 second load with a wet brush in the puck then start adding water and lathering, if it is not building a nice firm lather then keep adding successively smaller amounts of water until the lather 'pops'. For the reserve base I end up with around 3/4-1 tablespoon of water added to my bowl by the time its ready for shaving.
 
SpeedyPC said:
@tim33z I love :love: cold water shave, no more warm water shave it's a complete waste of time...... FYI click here
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I will move towards this - does it also mean wetting the brush before loading in cold water also?

alfredus said:
Lather on the other hand is in my experience the single most important part of a shave!
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How long should lathering take? 1 min? 2 mins? I know your Lather Shots always show it glistening in the light so is this what to aim for?
 
todras said:
I made this comment a fair while ago about the Reserve soap base, the trick is that it requires a hell of a lot of water due to its composition, more water than you would think is reasonable. A good 40-50 second load with a wet brush in the puck then start adding water and lathering, if it is not building a nice firm lather then keep adding successively smaller amounts of water until the lather 'pops'. For the reserve base I end up with around 3/4-1 tablespoon of water added to my bowl by the time its ready for shaving.
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I do recall reading a post you made on the Spice (i think it was)!
I normally (99.8% of the time) face lather and sometimes i end up with lather falling off the brush but i still need to add more water to get the right consistency and/or shine. Surely in this scenario, wiping some lather off my face is not the way to go, right? Should i just keep building?
Perhaps bowl is the way to go with it? I ordered one today :)
 
tim33z said:
I will move towards this - does it also mean wetting the brush before loading in cold water also?
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I soak my badger and boar in cold water for about 20mns, IF you're using a synthetic brush you don't need to soak it, just run it under the tap and shake the water out and leave a little bit of water into the brush.
 
Happy birthday @tim33z
Hope you had a good one!

SOTD
Rockwell R4 w/Polsilver
EJ STFv1 21mm
TOBS Lavender soap
Anherb balm

Even the 21mm STF generates awesome lather, though the quantity is a bit less due to the small size.

The TOBS Lavender soap smells like old school lavender bath soap. I really enjoyed it very much!!

TOBS soaps are great! Just a few good British soaps remain now, grab them while you can I reckon!
 
SpeedyPC said:
I soak my badger and boar in cold water for about 20mns, IF you're using a synthetic brush you don't need to soak it, just run it under the tap and shake the water out and leave a little bit of water into the brush.
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Do you shave at 0530 in winter by any chance? I'm wondering if creating the lather warm and rinsing the face with cold is acceptable? I might try this initially to gauge my technique as per @alfredus suggestion.

APR Skye Fall - are you ready to rumble???
 
Lathering for me takes up to 5 min...but I usually use larger than average and denser than average badger brushes that can take a lot of water and product...

I recommend these 2 lathering videos - that's all you will ever need:

Of course once you know, what type of lather you want, there are many many many roads that lead to Rome...but with this method you always get the best out of your brush and soap - it is not the fastest and most efficient method but it always works
 
Oh and the water temperature doesn't make a real difference - loading might be a bit easier with warm water, but I am cold water shaver as well..
 
SpeedyPC said:
I love :love: cold water shave, no more warm water shave it's a complete waste of time...... FYI click here
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I had a read of that.In the 1800's they were using leeches to treat a lot of illnesses too.
My servant is electricity.I have shaved with cold water,extensively,at one time of my life because of the choices I had made and now it is hot water every time.A good sharp blade and decent razor,combined with a quality soap,will cut through "soft and limp" hair without a problem.Definitely one of those YMMV situations.
 
tim33z said:
Stayed in town at Crown Melbourne last night so took my travel kit (sort of).
This consisted of a Yaqi Timber Wolf brush, Speick stick, sample SV Cosmo aftershave, and the Rockwell 6S (4) with a new German Wilky blade (good and one and out).
Not sure why but i had claret leaking from the 20th floor down to floor 5 i reckon!
Nicked a bump which i have on my right side of my chin cleft and it wouldn't stop pissing blood until i applied the syptic pencil.
My thoughts once this happened were basically, "if i'm bleeding this much on pass 1, i can go all out and do a 4 pass shave and be none worse". This left me quite a bit disheartened with the whole thing as my shaves recently have been a bit hit and miss.

Well, i have a BBS all over - so Yay for me! Pink lather isn't all bad....

I really wanted a perfect shave (its my B'day after all) but getting this result wasn't meant to be so difficult.

Have a great week guys (and potentially - girls)!

P.S. getting the water to the right temperature and keeping it there was painful so for three quarters of the shave i used cold water and didn't mind it one bit! I see why @SpeedyPC does this often....

Fingers crossed future shaves start getting me back on track!
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Happy Birthday @tim33z :cigar:
 
tim33z said:
Perhaps bowl is the way to go with it? I ordered one today
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Dial it in using a bowl as it's easier to observe the lather behavior - when I am on holidays I used a smooth cereal bowl with the reserve to lather and the soap behaves identically (even using SA water) - it's the tips of the brush that make the lather, striations or ridges in the bottom of the bowl (providing you have a decent brush) do next to nothing, in fact more often than not they introduce unwanted oxygen into the emulsification if you go too hard with the brush or too fast which people tend to do to save a little time on a workday.

If you fund your lather full of air bubbles its from too much agitation - to fix it hold the brush over the very top of the lather so the tips are just gliding over the lather surface and gently swirl the lather in both directions for a while to thicken and remove the air, this fix also works if you are not getting a thick, rich lather - the key to it is a slow motion with just the tips of the brush, there is absolutely no need ever to 'mash' the brush into the bowl.

To nail any soap base without a lot of pissing about and less than satisfactory shaves, I do 4 or 5 test lathers in succession using a bowl if the soap doesn't play nice from the get go. Once you get it down sweet you can go straight back to face lathering as its your jam :)

tim33z said:
Do you shave at 0530 in winter by any chance? I'm wondering if creating the lather warm and rinsing the face with cold is acceptable? I might try this initially to gauge my technique as per @alfredus suggestion.
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5.45am year round for me using both hot and cold water, it has no observable or causal effect whatsoever :)

EDIT: Happy Birthday too mate!
 
Pre: Warm water, Crew oil
Razor: Rockwell 6S (4)
Blade: Astra Green
Bowl: Handmade bowl, Mk1
Brush: RazoRock Silvertip Synthetic
Soap: Mike's Barber Shop
Post: Witch Hazel, Old Spice.
Another nice shave with the Rocky. (y)

 
tim33z said:
I do recall reading a post you made on the Spice (i think it was)!
I normally (99.8% of the time) face lather and sometimes i end up with lather falling off the brush but i still need to add more water to get the right consistency and/or shine. Surely in this scenario, wiping some lather off my face is not the way to go, right? Should i just keep building?
Perhaps bowl is the way to go with it? I ordered one today :)
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Happy Birthday @tim33z !

Will did a video on how to lather the reserve range that was pretty good.

 
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