July 4, 2023
- Brush: Dogwood Handcrafts X John Butcher 24mm "Mark" Brush with Tuxedo Synth Knot
- Razor: Gillette SuperSpeed #REGUS
- Blade: Wilkinson Sword
- Lather: Grooming Dept – Soap (Kairos 2022)
- Post Shave: Lather Bros – Flora Colussus Balm
- Fragrance: Jimmy Choo – Flash
- Music: Dream Theater – Another Day
Happy 4th of July to everyone out there and a Happy Independence Day to my fellow American Shavers & Shavettes. For Americans, today is a day to celebrate declaring our independence from England by eating hot dogs, lighting off fireworks, and hopefully ending the weekend with the same number of fingers as we started with. And for r/wetshaving, we celebrate by shaving with spring-time scents! Today, we have florals, grasses, and petrichors. Oh my!
Today, I shaved with Soap soap by Grooming Dept, in the Kairos 2022 base. I specify that, because this Soap soap’s scent notes are white florals, rose, and fresh air, HOWEVER Grooming Dept has released a few different soaps called Soap, so things can get a little confusing. The good news, however, is that white florals and rose are spot on for a spring-time theme. When I smell this soap, the first adjectives that come to mind are fresh flowers and clean. I’m immediately hit with floral characteristics as soon as I open the tub and it continues on as I give it a good lather. It’s like I’m walking down a path of a botanical garden. I literally contemplated taking a Claritin thanks to the abundance of florals in this soap (note: I did note ACTUALLY consider taking medication because of the soap’s scent. By “literally” I meant “figuratively”). The soap smells great and performed wonderfully.
My commitment to #ridewithItchy and not dickhole for every day of the Lather Games continues, as I finished the shave with Flora Colussus, because what is the best way to finish a floral shave? With the COLUSSUS OF FLORALS! I actually don’t love this balm. I bought it randomly because it was on sale and it smells good, however, it is mentholated and it makes no mention of that on that front of the package or in the product description. The first time I used it, I thought my face was about to burn off. Seriously, I actually thought I was having an allergic reaction, but nope. I checked the ingredients and sure enough: Just menthol. The product description says “Besides healing and nourishing your skin after a shave, it also offers great relaxing and calming feeling for those stressful days.” Ummmm… It wasn’t calming or relaxing when my face was unexpectedly melting off! So, a note to all the artisans out there: Please make it abundantly clear if/when you add menthol to your products. I need to mentally prepare myself for that sort of thing.
For today’s fragrance, Jimmy Choo’s Flash was the perfect #FOF pairing. It was like Soap’s better-looking twin. It’s floral and perfect for Spring Day (in the Summer). If I had to literally (figuratively) take Claritin for Soap’s lather, then I’d definitely literally (figuratively) take Flonase after spraying this one on. Smells wonderful, like I’m walking in a field of flowers. It’s Spring in a bottle and you don’t need allergy medicine to enjoy it.
I was very fortunate my white roses are currently in bloom, because it made for a pretty good #photocontest pic. At first, I tried to perch the soap, razor, brush, balm, and frag in the bush and take a pic like that, but the branches couldn’t hold it, and I kept pricking myself on the thorns, so I cut off a few roses, and sprinkled on a few petals for good measure. Made for a better pic plus far less pain for me. #winwin
DISCLAIMER: I won this soap, “Soap”, through this PIF by u/GroomingDept. It has in no way influenced my opinion of the soap, “Soap”.
For today, we have a science challenge. And who doesn’t love science?? We’re here, discussing shaving on the internet thanks to science. You know the expression that “baking is a science and cooking is an art”? Well, yeah, I’ve always been better at cooking than baking. When I bake, it drives my wife crazy because I’m not the best a measuring things. If I have a 12 ounce bag of sugar and a recipe calls for 4 ounces, I’ll just eyeball out a third of the bag. And apparently that’s frowned upon. And like my cooking style, my shaving style also goes more by feel. So, a challenge like this is somewhat of a… Well…. Challenge. But, no one said the Lather Games was going to be easy! So, let’s cook I start of the shave by soaking my brush in warm water while I take a shower (about 10 minutes). After the shower, I go immediately to the sink and turn on the hot water, I replace the brush soaking water with fresh hot water again and fill up the sink while loading from the tub (approx. 30 seconds). Take the brush and swirl it in the soap tub until a decent lather starts up, then bring it to your face, and start to build a nice lather into your skin. Continue doing this until the lather has a nice sheen and the bathroom sink, counter, and mirror are covered with lather that went flying off the brush. The bigger the mess, the better you’re doing. When all is said and done, loading from the bowl will use a little less than a gram of shave soap. As far as the shave itself goes, the sharpness of the blade will decrease by approximately 7% after each pass. Upon completion of the shave, wipe everything down and tally up how much water you used. My sink faucet operates at 2.2 GPM, and I let the sink fill up for approximately 30 seconds while lathering. Fortunately, the water is already hot, so we don’t need to account for losses from getting the water hot, so I’m confident I used less than 1.5 gallons of water for my shave. Then, of course, I needed another 3 gallons for clean-up. All things considered, the shave took 13 minutes, 26 seconds. Yes, this is all standard, and no, I didn’t measure a damn thing, but who says science needs to be exact or accurate??
For today’s interview, I have the dude who made the shaving brush I used today – Stephen Joiner of Dogwood Handcrafts. I feel so fortunate that I just recently acquired one of his brushes and I really need to have him create a custom one for me at some point in the very near future. So, r/wetshaving’s favorite brushmaker was such an amazing sport with this request. I sent every artisan 10 typed out questions and u/Phteven_j asked if it would be okay to record a video instead. Ummmm… Hell yes it would! Originally, I thought maybe I’d type out his answers, then I watched his video. So, Stephen answered all of my questions and more in this 27 minute video. Thank you so much Stephen! You have no idea how much I appreciate you doing this. Since this is video format, I’m going to include the questions I sent him below with timestamps to his answers, but honestly, watch the whole thing. It’s insightful as all get-out and Stephen goes on a great tangent or two. Such a great dude to do this. And Fuck Mojo Handcrafts (you’ll get this once you watch the interview).
Ten Questions with… Dogwood Handcrafts
1) Have you always had a knack for creating? Whether it be art, or things that are functional, or the functional art that you’re known for today?
:50
(INTERVIEW CONTINUES IN THE REPLY)