August 1, 2024
* Preshave: Hot Shower
Brush: Chisel and Hound - LG Brushes - Boar 3
Razor: Henckels Friodur 451 No Stain
Edge: Pudding (1)
Lather: House of Mammoth Everett
Post Shave: House of Mammoth Everett Splash
Post Shave: House of Mammoth Everett EDP
Second ever shave with a straight (I tried one shortly after AA last year and had too much Weck PTSD to enjoy it at all). First shave on this u/whosgotthepudding freshly honed edge for $headless. Overall it went significantly better than I'd expected. Really a very close and smooth shave. There certainly was some blood, both from a couple of nicks and from 2 or 3 little cuts, but, nothing close to how terrible the Weck was. Feedback from the splash was fairly burny but I expect that to get better as I get better at this razor. Fun to stack headless with $FriodomRiders and u/Djundjila - though I won't be honing part way through.
The hardest part was definitely the jawline and neck, for me. I did a 2.5ish pass shave - with the grain and across the grain with a couple very risky touch ups to try and get it smooth, which really worked well. My neck was 2 passes: down and kind of angled across - I don't know how I'm ever going to get a straight across shave on my neck, but, maybe by the end of the month I'll be singing a diferent tune.
I did briefly watch a couple of videos yesterday - less than 3 minutes total probably - and the most helpful thing I observed to start was that I don't need to try and be using the whole blade at one time for some kind of gigantic pass. I don't even need to be using most of it - just whatever works well on that part of the skin and go with it, even if it's a pretty narrow pass, that's ok. Which, in hindsight, makes a lot of sense; with all the different angles on a face it's silly to think that you're going to get a 3 inch stretch that is the same enough to use the whole blade. Maybe that was part of my weck problem, I don't know. That was a nightmare, but, this is better.
For the brush I am using the ever practically titled "Chisel and Hound - LG Brushes - Boar 3" made by none other than u/geekyoldrob. He made these thinking they'd fit a sponsor point for the Lather Games, but, joke is on him (or is it on me?) - three of us quickly scooped them up for $RawHoggin with u/EldrormR. After my first lather with it I'll say this: this knot sucks, I should have spent some extra money on a nice Zenith again. The handle is nice - the super hard wood he used is cool, but, yeah - there's a reason he called these "cheap ass brushes" when they dropped. Because, well, that's exactly what they are. But - the lather worked well enough and I am interested to see how a crappy knot breaks in after using a really nice Zenith year one and a stellar Maggard Boar last year.
Finally - the software: House of Mammoth Everett. Given my sub flair there was never really a question of what direction this would go. It's always going to be $MammothMafia24 - I wouldn't want u/Mammoth_Don to come bust my kneecaps and I think u/MammothBen and the giving back from HoM is an admirable and worthwhile endeavor; especially this one. My kids love to swim and we are very fortunate to have some great local swimming lesson options, but, I literally have nightmares about my kids slipping underwater at a lake and me frantically searching but being unable to find them (my stomach turns even typing that) and so the more kids that can learn to swim the better. That turning compelled me to donate to Live Like Jake and you can too by clicking that link. I did put $MammothMafia24 in the notes but it sadly did not show up on the actual donation. They'll probably be wondering what the heck is going on, at least I hope they do.
Anyway. overall a really good start to AA this year and I'm actually excited to keep honing my skill with the straight this month - maybe I'll even pick up another so I can continue to learn on a different kind of steel when the month ends (Ralf Aust carbon steel, anyone?).
Looking forward to a fun month with you all.
Finally - Tags again to make doubly sure I'm in each of these and to give myself a template for the month:
$MammothMafia24 u/Mammoth_Don
$RawHoggin u/EldrormR
$headless u/whosgotthepudding
$FriodomRiders u/Djundjila
$discord