August 01 2024
- Brush: Omega 13732 24mm
- Razor: Solingen Best Silver Steel 6/8 (Straight shave #98)
- Lather: Stirling - Varen
- Post Shave: Stirling - Varen
- Fragrance: Ineke Perfumes - Idyllwild
Brush progress album
On the first day of my fourth Austere August, I'll explain my thinking on how I selected my setup. May as well say what I have to say while people are still interested and before monotony sets in.
This will be my first Austere August without using an MMOC. I do love the MMOC but the opportunity to improve my straight razor technique and contribute to what might be the largest Headless Horsemen class so far was too good to pass up. I'm using a 6/8 Solingen razor that I got from u/whosgotthepudding and that just recently returned from a touch up by straight razor savant u/gcgallant.
I was planning on using one of my newly acquired badger brushes for the month, but on my recent vacation I went to a pharmacy in Vancouver and was somewhat surprised to find a few Omega boar brushes in the shaving section. I took that as a sign to pick up a souvenir and to participate in Raw Hoggin' this year. Of course I have this same knot (I believe, same 24mm size and 55mm loft) in a different handle but I like it so that's no big deal. Tagging u/EldrormR for my first post, the brush is boxed in my SOTD pic and the first picture in the Brush Progression Album linked above shows it out of the box before the first shave.
The hardest decision for me was software. I had been waffling about doing another Mammoth Month or seeing if I could withstand a month of Terror or Northern Elixir, but then once the Sheep challenge was posted I knew a month of Varen would be fun. I'm familiar with the Sheep base but look forward to dialing it in this month. This morning the tub weighed in at 137 grams.
And for the fragrance, I'm not exactly sure if any of my three challenges requires the same frag every month, so I went with one that I will be happy to keep repeating if I need to. Idyllwild is a beautiful fougere and provides a lovely contrast to Varen.
And now on to the shave itself. This was a stupid shave! I've broken in three boar brushes from new before today, and always did a few test lathers with some towel stropping to get them opened up before use. The complete lack of splay made building a lather quite difficult, but I eventually worked in enough water with just painting strokes to get the job done. I had to reload and rehydrate between every pass, but the edge on this razor is so nice right now that I still managed a presentable shave without much irritation. Luckily what little funk this bleached boar has was overpowered by Varen.
$headless
$RawHoggin
$ShepherdsofStirling