u/jimm262's SOTDs for challenge 'MMarch24 Maddness Matchup 2024'

Mar. 1, 2024
Brush: Declaration Grooming B2 (25mm) no-name "gaslamp" handle Badger
Razor: u/EldrormR Industries MM24
Blade: Personna GEM PTFE [4]
Lather: Chicago Grooming Co. - AG 1889 - Soap
Post Shave:* Chicago Grooming Co. - AG 1889 - Aftershave

#MMarch24

#MMarch24 Madness is here! I got an update this morning that the 1889 was out for delivery, so I postponed my morning shave to wait for it to arrive. I’m confident that B&M is gonna dominate this round, but I wanted at least do what I could for the underdog. And then the day got away from me, so it was after 8pm before I finally had a minute to shave. Here’s to the weekend and a 6am flight to Cancun.

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Mar. 3, 2024
Brush: Razorock Plissoft (24mm Synth)
Razor: u/EldrormR Industries MM24
Blade: Personna GEM PTFE [5]
Lather: Noble Otter - Monoi de Tahiti - Soap

Vacation shave in Cancun today. We checked bags so I was able to bring my MM24, a puck of soap, and a synth brush (I figured that would dry better for travel). I don’t own anything by SW or CF, so I’m just watching from the sidelines today in the lather bracket.

#MMarch24

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Mar. 5, 2024
Brush: Razorock Plissoft (24mm Synth)
Razor: u/EldrormR Industries MM24
Blade: Personna GEM PTFE [6]
Lather: Noble Otter - Monoi de Tahiti - Soap

Absolutely fantastic shave today even with limited supplies. There was never any question as to which way I was going today. The Monoi de Tahiti is the only soap I packed for our Cancun trip and it was selected at packing time to be ready for today. Granted I’m not in Polynesia, but this is the most tropical, beachy soap I own, so the choice was clear. I do wish I had packed some aftershave, but I was worried about the bottle breaking and the mess that would ensue…

The MM24 is rapidly becoming one of my favorite razors. I don’t know what it is about it, but I can end up smoother with less (today zero) irritation than pretty much any of my other razors.

Happy Tahiti Tuesday y’all and may the Otter reign supreme.

#MMarch24

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Mar. 6, 2024
Brush: Razorock Plissoft (24mm Synth)
Razor: u/EldrormR Industries MM24
Blade: Personna GEM PTFE [7]
Lather: Noble Otter - Monoi de Tahiti - Soap

Last vacation Cancun shave and it was rushed. I’m sending my razor home with my wife because she is checking a bag home and I have to go to Newark for meetings in the office tomorrow (though will be home tomorrow night to get in my March Madness bracket shave). I thought our car was at 1:45 so thought I had about 5 minutes tops to shave. Results are about what one would expect. Perfectly acceptable visually, but definitely a few spots that are still stubbly to the touch along my jawline. And then of course we get downstairs and find out our car is at 2:20, not 1:45 🤦‍♂️.

Still a great trip, just a bummer that I have to work the last two days of the week… But then next week is Spring Break in Kauai and we can do it all over again. (This week was a work-adjacent trip for my wife that spouses tag along for).

#MMarch24

Mar. 7, 2024
Brush: Simpson CH2 Super Badger
Razor: u/EldrormR Industries MM24
Blade: Personna GEM PTFE [8]
Lather: Zíngari Man - Barrel Proof
Post Shave:* Nivea - Maximum Hydration Post Shave Balm

#MMarch24

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Mar. 9, 2024
Brush: Stirling/Zenith 31mm x 50mm Boar
Razor: u/EldrormR Industries MM24
Blade: Personna GEM PTFE [9]
Lather: Stirling - Deep Blue Sea
Post Shave:* Stirling - Deep Blue Sea - Aftershave

Headed to Kauai early tomorrow, so Deep Blue Sea seemed an ideal choice. (Monoi de Tahiti would have been even better, but today is Stirling day.)

#MMarch24

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Mar. 11, 2024
Brush: Razorock Plissoft (24mm Synth)
Razor: u/EldrormR Industries MM24
Blade: Personna GEM PTFE [10]
Lather: Spearhead - Seaforth! Black Watch - Soap

Kauai shave #1 and it was about as perfect as one could hope for a hotel shave. I do wish I brought some aftershave but I don’t trust those bottles or TSA baggage handlers to keep it from spilling all over everything in my suitcase. (I don’t mean to imply that baggage handlers are intentionally trying to break stuff, but they do chuck those bags around…).

I don’t have any A&E or SBS soap, so watching today’s matchup from the sidelines. I swear the MM24 gets better every time I use it. What a fantastic razor.

Now off to Hanalei, my favorite town in all of Hawaii. 🌴🌊

#MMarch24

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Mar. 13, 2024
Brush: Razorock Plissoft (24mm Synth)
Razor: u/EldrormR Industries MM24
Blade: Personna GEM PTFE [11]
Lather: Spearhead - Seaforth! Black Watch - Soap

Both of these competitors today are awesome people and the community is lucky to have to have them both. That said, this wasn’t much of a contest for me. There are lots of soap scents that I like, but 3 Scots was the first that I loved (so much so that I had to go begging to get a bottle of the fragrance — still the only fragrance that I own). Yes this is about soap, not fragrance, but Spearhead will always hold a special place for me for that. Black Watch today which is a close cousin of 3 Scots because that’s the one I brought to Kauai with me.

#MMarch24

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Mar. 15, 2024
Brush: Razorock Plissoft (24mm Synth)
Razor: u/EldrormR Industries MM24
Blade: Personna GEM PTFE [12]
Lather: House of Mammoth - Alive - Soap

I locked in my vote for today when I packed Alive to bring to Kauai. Lovely scent to start the day.

#MMarch24

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Mar. 17, 2024
Brush: Razorock Plissoft (24mm Synth)
Razor: u/EldrormR Industries MM24
Blade: Personna GEM PTFE [13]
Lather: Barrister and Mann - Oceana - Soap

Oceana seemed an ideal B&M choice for my final Kauai shave. Bummed we have to leave today, and am already looking forward to returning to my favorite island.

#MMarch24

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Mar. 19, 2024
Brush: Declaration Grooming B2 (25mm) no-name "gaslamp" handle Badger
Razor: u/EldrormR Industries MM24
Blade: Personna GEM PTFE [14]
Lather: Noble Otter - Lonestar - Soap
Post Shave:* Noble Otter - Lonestar - Aftershave

I just back from Kauai yesterday, so the only question for me was which Noble Otter to use. Do I look back and reminisce about Hawaii by using Monoi de Tahiti or accept that vacation is over and that I’m back in Texas again and go with Lonestar. I picked Lonestar as the optimistic forward looking choice.

Second shave with the B2 today and am on the fence. I think it may be a little too gelly for me, and I just can’t figure out the loading and lather release with it. It seems perfectly happy to sling lather onto the mirror or my arm or my chest, but then won’t let any go on my face. After my first pass the brush seemed to be full of lather, but literally nothing would come off onto my face when I tried for a second pass until I fully reloaded. Will keep trying because general consensus is that the B2 is a great knot so not sure what I am missing…

#MMarch24

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Mar. 21, 2024
Brush: Stirling/Zenith 31mm x 50mm Boar
Razor: u/EldrormR Industries MM24
Blade: Personna GEM PTFE [15]
Lather: Stirling - Varen - Soap
Post Shave:* Stirling - Varen - Aftershave

Question today was just Christmas Eve vs Varen. My 12 year old voted for Christmas Eve but my wife picked Varen and her vote counts more. The Stirling Boar is such a great brush, and I finally seem to be getting the hang of loading it because today I had plenty of lather for both passes and cleanup today from the initial load.

#MMarch24

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Mar. 22, 2024
Brush: Chisel & Hound RC Zebra w/ 26mm v23 Fanchurian Badger
Razor: u/EldrormR Industries MM24
Blade: Personna GEM PTFE [16]
Lather: Spearhead - Seaforth! 3 Scots - Soap
Post Shave: Spearhead - Seaforth! 3 Scots - Aftershave
Fragrance: Spearhead - Seaforth! 3 Scots

A rare shave on a non bracket day for me today, but 3 Scots was calling. Were calling? There are three of them I guess…

#MMarch24

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Mar. 23, 2024
Brush: Grizzly Bay Tip v8 (26mm) Fanchurian Badger
Razor: u/EldrormR Industries MM24
Blade: Personna GEM PTFE [17]
Lather: Spearhead - Seaforth! Black Watch - Soap
Post Shave: Spearhead - Seaforth! Black Watch - Aftershave
Fragrance: Spearhead - Seaforth! 3 Scots

HoM Alive is one of my favorite soaps, but there was still never a question as to which way I was going today. There are lots of scents I like, but 3 Scots was the first that I loved. 3 Scots’ close cousin Black Watch today because I got too excited yesterday and couldn’t wait. The 3 Scots frag layers well on top of it though.

#SpearTheMammoth

#MMarch24

(photo credit: https://www.reddit.com/r/DawnofMan/s/JnP1Y3YCFO)

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Mar. 25, 2024
Brush: Simpson CH2 Super Badger
Razor: u/EldrormR Industries MM24
Blade: Personna GEM PTFE [18]
Lather: Noble Otter - Lonestar - Soap
Post Shave:* Noble Otter - Lonestar - Aftershave

Repping my fellow Texans today, and to that end, there’s no better choice than LoneStar. Fantastic shave. Here’s to hoping the otters make it through.

#MMarch24

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Mar. 27, 2024
Brush: Stirling/Zenith 31mm x 50mm Boar
Razor: u/EldrormR Industries MM24
Blade: Personna GEM Uncoated [20]
Lather: House of Mammoth - Alive - Soap
Post Shave:* Mäurer & Wirtz - Sir Irisch Moos - Aftershave

This wasn’t an easy choice for me. If I count the pucks in my den, Stirling wins 4 to 1 (with one more on the way) over HoM. Plus Stirling is (at least bracket-wise) the underdog here, though in the wider world, Stirling is obviously the much bigger dog, so one could certainly argue that bracket seed aside, HoM is still the underdog. But none of that ended up mattering because I just went with my gut. Despite owning more Stirling, I feel more of a connection to HoM, so my gut said place my vote there.

On an unrelated note, I just realized yesterday that I ordered the wrong GEM blades and have been using the Personna Uncoated Stainless Steel blades rather than the PTFE coated ones all this time. I have some PTFE ones on the way so that I can compare, but I have honestly gotten some great shaves out of these blades. Today was the 20th use of this particular blade and it’s still going strong, so I am pretty curious to see how they compare when the new ones arrive.

#MMarch24

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Mar. 29, 2024
Brush: Chisel & Hound 26mm TnS Shoat (boar)
Razor: u/EldrormR Industries MM24
Blade: Personna GEM Uncoated [21]
Lather: House of Mammoth - Alive - Soap
Post Shave:* Barrister and Mann - Seville - Aftershave

Both of these are superb soapers and my rationale for choosing HoM is pretty much the same as when I chose them against Stirling: I’m casting my vote with the little guy (at least as compared to to BaM and Stirling). Still gave a nod to BaM with the Seville splash.

New brush today. We were talking about the rarity of boar knots in artisan handles the other day in Discord, so I decided to stick a TnS Shoat (boar) knot in a Chisel & Hound handle I had lying around. I think the pale boar bristles go great with the bright red and blue. I showed it to my wife and she called it a Toy Story brush. If you’ve ridden Toy Story Mania at Disney you’ll probably see it too. Good thing I like the Toy Story aesthetic because now I can’t unsee it.

#MMarch24

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Mar. 30, 2024
Brush: Zenith Unbleached Boar
Razor: u/EldrormR Industries MM24
Blade: Personna GEM Uncoated [22]
Lather: Eleven - Five - Soap
Post Shave:* Eleven - Five - Aftershave

First go with the Eleven soap and splash today. This is a new brand for me and with the 50% off discount I decided to just roll the dice on what was essentially a mystery scent with “Five”. The base is isn’t especially better than others but also not worse so I’m perfectly happy with the quality of the lather. Turns out that Five (at least to my nose and my wife’s) is just “soap” scented soap (and “soap” scented aftershave). So I definitely smell clean and would use it again, but there’s no emotional draw from it.

The MM24 continues to provide great shaves, even with the uncoated (i.e. not PTFE coated) blades I bought by accident (I didn’t pay enough attention to the fine print after searching on Amazon for PTFE GEM). I’m sticking with this blade through MMarch24 since it’s still going strong, but I’m honestly curious if I’ll find that the PTFE coated ones perform noticeably better since I have zero complaints about these uncoated ones.

The Zenith unbleached boar is awesome, especially now that it has been completely defunked.

#MMarch24

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Mar. 31, 2024
Brush: Declaration Grooming B2 (25mm) no-name "gaslamp" handle Badger
Razor: u/EldrormR Industries MM24
Blade: Personna GEM Uncoated [23]
Lather: House of Mammoth - Shire - Soap
Post Shave:* House of Mammoth - Shire - Aftershave

Last shave of MMarch24 and I decided to ride the victorious pachyderm out of the arena. I’ve loved every shave with this awesome little Frankenrazor. After a month of using it, a perfect shave is almost effortless. Certainly a lot of the credit goes to the razor, but it did emphasize the value in sticking with a single razor for a while so you can really get to know it. That said, as much as I love this razor, I’m looking forward to spending a little more time with my other razors and trying out that weird square handled razor with the magnets.

The little B2 was great tonight. Last time I was a little underwhelmed with it, but tonight it was great, so I guess the jury is still out, but I’m more optimistic now than after the last time I used it.

Shire smells fantastic. And even better, it got the thumbs up from my wife. I need to order the fragrance so I can smell like this for longer.

Thanks so much to u/ShavinginCT for organizing such a fantastic event, to u/tsrbike for organizing the MM24 side challenge, and to the Lord High Scrub u/enndeegee for the bracket prediction contest. Can’t wait until next year.

#MMarch24

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