August 1, 2023 – Austere August Day 1

• Brush: Summer Break Soaps “Dundy” Maggard Boar 26mm
• Razor: Marianna #310 Hair Shaper
• Blade: Personna Hair Shaper (1)
• Lather: House of Mammoth – Dammusi
• Post Shave: House of Mammoth – Dammusi

Day one with the hair shaper – better and worse than expected. I got a closer/cleaner shave than I thought I would and I didn’t cut myself that much. I did not really enjoy the shave, nor am I good at it. Like, at all. But, I remind myself throughout the shave – everyone struggles when they start learning something. They only way to get better is to do something over and over. And, there are only 30 more shaves to go, so, I got this. Plus, u/OnionMiasma hooked me up with this pretty little Marianna and I can’t take his gift for granted – gotta keep on keeping on. Slid a nice little Personna Hair Shaper in there and hopefully it gets better and better, not worse and worse.

I went with a with the grain first pass followed by a hybrid across and against the grain second pass with some minor buffing to get acceptably smooth. The boar pic 1 pic 2 pic 3 was scratchy and unbroken in but overall pleasant. It’s lofted very high (I don’t have a calipers to say exactly how high) and I like it. Good splay, good scritch, whipped up a stellar lather. I suspect this thing will break in beautifully and be a knot I keep around.

What did I learn from this shave? That I need to go slow, but not too slow; too slow means snags. That the blade angle can be a bit wider than I thought. That I need to pay very close attention as I situate the razor so I don’t slice myself – no whipping it around like I do with my DE to get it in position. And, that it’s going to be more difficult than I initially thought. Hopefully I’ll come to enjoy the process – I vaguely remember my first several weeks of shaves with a DE being very difficult as well, so, all in due time. I’ll keep updating with each shave at least one thing I learned – hopefully writing it down helps it stick.

As for Dammusi, well, I’m a believer! I got a smoosh from u/jwoods23 (I think) and I didn’t love it, but, if I’m going to upgrade my Mammoth Mafia status I needed something and I did Sonder last year and no other scent grabbed my attention so I went in with the expectation that the splash would be the scent that everyone was raving about and man am I glad I did. It’s wonderfully complex and u/mammothben crushed this release. I’m glad I didn’t pick it up on release so I can now use it for a month straight – as it sits here drying down it just gets better and better. I look forward to unpacking it.

Anyway – good luck, all. May your learning curve be quick and your shaves become bloodless.

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