18-08 - 'Slurry skip' madness
- Brush: Yaqi 'Purple Haze' w/ 24mm Mew Brown knot
- Razor: 1953-54 Gillette 'Aristocrat Junior'
- Blade: Gillette Nacet (18)
- Lather: House of Mammoth - Mood Indigo - Soap
- Post Shave: House of Mammoth - Mood Indigo - Balm
- Fragrance: Proraso - Wood and Spice - Cologne
Well, never let it be said this hobby stops being exciting.
After u/djundjila's world record Weck shave yesterday in which he used the brand-new 'slurry lather' skip discovered by u/sgrdddy, I was inspired to head to the lab myself and see what all the hype is about. Now, I'm not as crazy as these two - I wasn't going to put down a sub-5 minute shave or use one single swirl of the brush to do 3 whole passes - I just wanted to give it all a shot.
And holy shit does it work an absolute charm.
After a scant 5 seconds of tub loading, I put brush to face, casting one last wistful glance at my bowl on the bathroom counter that wouldn't get any use this shave. I'm not normally a face latherer, but for this method I wanted to give it another shot. So I work the lather from the brush into my whiskers. First impressions were guarded: there didn't seem to be much lather at all, and I was beginning to wonder if this was going to work. But after a bit of massaging everything into my face (and breaking out the bowl after all to dip my brush tips into some more water), I was soon left with a nice protective layer of lather. This took maybe one minute in total, from tub load to shave ready. I was astounded.
And I know what you're going to ask: surely, Juli, with such a short loading and whipping-up time, that lather can't have been that good? Well, hold on to your shave towels: it really was that good. Slick, protective, nourishing. It looks thin, but it gives you a performance like you could expect from any 'properly' whipped-up lather. It's sort of the best of both worlds. It doesn't sacrifice comfort or performance for speed like you'd expect a shortcut of this kind to do. My face felt great afterwards - no irritation, no nicks, no dragging of the blade or razor during the shave which would usually indicate a bad lather.
Normally, I'd be spending a good 5 to 10 minutes standing there like a goofball, dialing in my lather in the bowl to its perfect slick drippiness. And yes, that lather would work brilliantly and it is a fun process to really fine-tune that perfect combo of suds and water, but, like sgrdddy correctly pointed out, sometimes you just don't have 30 minutes to do a luxury shave. Sometimes it's 1am, like for this shave, and you desperately want to go to bed. Sometimes it's 20 minutes before the start of your work day and you're rushing to get a passable shave in before dashing to the office. For those scenarios, this slurry lather method is an absolute game changer. No longer do I have to bother with shitty brushless creams or, god forbid, canned foam. Now, I can get a damn fine lather going with my favourite brush and soap in a minute and a half, shave, and be out the door in under 10. Game changer, I tell you.
Another really pleasant bonus of this method: because your brush goes from water to tub straight to face, it retains a good bit of warmth. All you face latherers have it good with that one - I'm used to my brush being room temperature at best after all that faffing about in my bowl. It felt great massaging a nice, warm brush and lather into my face - really added a touch of luxury to what is otherwise a very quick-fire shave.
Needless to say, I'm impressed, I'm converted, and I'll be giving this another go. There's something to be said about taking your time, having fun with the lathering process, and really relishing all the little rituals inherent in a proper shave. And I'll definitely still be doing those. But for those times when I'd love to do that but just can't, the slurry lather method is an absolute god-send.
Tags: #MammothMafia23 #UNCHALLENGE