global_dev straight journal

81 was yesterday early evening. I tried to keep the beard light and see what i get out of a 2 pass WTG and at the moment with the TI its stuck at CCS. I lathered up Razorock cream with the Omega 10098... it's a stinker, no matter what i have tried the past few days, but it does work okay..

due to that CCS, going for 82 was a no-brainer around brunch. thinking that perhaps the edge wasn't there enough, i decided to give the TI a bunch o' passes on the coticule with water only. i know this wasn't going to do THAT much, but i figured little by little it will do something...

Lathered up the Omega 10098 with AOS unscented soap and did a 2 pass with TI, WTG and XTG and its obvious that I need the second complementary pass to get to a DFS. Sweet shave followed by the Shea Moisture Elixir and some Dirty English Tonic.. I took some pictures but CM7 RC2 on my droid crapped itself during the photo shoot apparently.

of interesting note, i got some Alt Insbruck and D.R. Harris Arlington. They both smell really nice, just not what I am looking for. I can't decide if I need to give them a second try, I really just think they are not for me..

The slant though, it has been messing up my straight program, I am not looking for a shave that keeps me clean for a day and a half. a little less than a day gives me the perfect schedule to get in some me time...

If the omega you are talking about is the really tall one with a black plastic handle, I have it too and it is easily among my favorites. It takes some time to get rid of the stink but most of it has gone by shave 10 or so. It has tremendous backbone whilst being kind to the skin and the long bristles allow you to make fantastic superlather.

Gustav said:

If the omega you are talking about is the really tall one with a black plastic handle, I have it too and it is easily among my favorites. It takes some time to get rid of the stink but most of it has gone by shave 10 or so. It has tremendous backbone whilst being kind to the skin and the long bristles allow you to make fantastic superlather.

Click to expand...

sounds like it.. i thought i grabbed some pictures, but i hadn't. i think the stink is on it's way out, but it was bad!! i can already start to see the softness emerging... and it definitely has backbone.

stropped the TI and with some Tabac and the Omega 10098, face lathered and enjoyed a two pass DFS++ (WTG & XTG).


The TI is very nice and i am getting used to the thumb notch during stropping and shaving... I just wish it was a 7/8. I love the horn visually and for the balance from the heft. I thought I was going to get rid of it, but I may end up keeping it for a while...

My WTG was a bunch of shorter strokes, but it just doesn't take off the length that an XTG attains... I can't tell if it's the edge or technique, but I'll keep trying... sometimes I see that 30 degrees is the ideal for WTG, but then I see advice at like 0 to 2 spines worth...

I think i need to retry with the Fili 14 and Hart as those two I seem to recall were outstanding and I want to compare.. I keep lusting after the NOS Fili's, but my budget is kinda tapped out, but the will is weak..

random comment: using both hands is already more than comfortable and has been for dozens of shaves, it isn't an issue.

I have also been getting in some use with a slant.. it's totally not as bad as everyone makes it out to be... seriously...

decided to give my boar a break, and took out the AdP badger brush. Gathered up the rest of my kit, went back for another shave with the TI, AOS unscented soap, stropped on the kanayama and face lathered..


After reading whipped dogs material and thinking about what he writes about WTG passes, i decided to try three passes all WTG on the face (NS) and all WTG/XTG (SN) on the neck... I cam away with a superb shave... DFS+++

i took my time, enjoyed the sounds and feel. I love the way the whole blade on the face feels..

followed up with some WH and aftershave cream... and had a great big smile on my face...

after some recent shaves, I've decided that i really want to improve my first pass with the TI, without going back to the hones to touch up... just untreated strops...

I have tub of Shea Moisture Shave Cream that gets poor reviews, but for me it works adequately and after doing some water only passes, i figure how much worse could this be than water only...


I did three WTG the grain passes and came away with a DFS shave..

The first pass was good, but i definitely miss spots on the first pass on my neck.

The Shea Moisture stuff has something that feels like it is maybe numbing my skin, a bit of tingling on the 2 and 3 passes and it does leave my skin feeling excellent with no need to moisturize after.

this morning, i decided to use the shea moisture as a pre-shave base and lathered AOS unscented soap on top. not a bad combo... with my C.O. Bigelow Best 23mm. quite a difference from the boar and AdP. I could immediately feel the difference.

again working on that first pass. did the small scoops and ended up with a CCS/DFS- result. another 2 passes WTG and it was DFS, but i think the XTG pass would have added another level to the shave... regardless, i skipped the XTG and some WH to clean up the area and some MyChelle Smooth to finish..

these shaves have become really quick and the face lathering takes the longest and is the hardest to troubleshoot by far. it's not hard to get a decent lather, but the volume of the lather is not there and as i add water it just seems to take much longer than in the bowl.

so i gave myself a full 24 before i shave, lately I have been trying to get in 3 shaves every 36 hours or so... especially as I have been trying to increase the effectiveness of my WTG and first passes..

today's morning shave was a noticeable increase in closeness following a 2 pass WTG shave... I'd call it a DFS+.. very impressed with myself at the moment.

spent a lot of time playing the angles and making sure my lather was good..

TI, AOS unscented soap, Omega Boar 10098.

I don't think i am a face latherer. first pass face lathered, lather looks nice and dense and creamy, but the lather/hair gunk doesn't come off the blade easily... adding water kinda makes the lather more runny on my face ..

As soon as I brought the brush and lather to the bowl, for the second pass, it was much easier for me to incorporate the water into a luxurious lather that was dense enough yet washed off the blade easily...

2 passes and i took the rest of the lather to the strops..

followed up with some A/S and then some Hydrolast moisturizer. It's good stuff.

wasn't feeling too hot last night and today so i decided to call in sick.. maybe the weather and my allergies are acting up...regardless of the cause.. this gave me plenty of time to relax and feel better...

so about 12 noon today, finally decided to jump in the shower and get ready for a relaxing mid-day shave... i had been tooling around with the omega boar when i decided to ditch it and go into my grab-box of goodies when i spotted it... Hydrolast! this stuff gets lambasted alongside of CRMS, however having dabbled in using Hydrolast with my DEs before, I decided to give it a chance with the straight. I knew it was going to be interesting since stretching the mix with a free hand is integral to it's use, but i figured i would just adapt since i go to the second hand pretty quick in my passes.. and as it turned out it wasn't much of an issue to the 2 and 3rd pass.


luckily i had consolidated much of the directions of using Hydrolast so a quick review and I was back in the game. priming the shave cloth , adding Cutting Balm , applying the mud and finally dipping in a bit of Activator later on .

in keeping with WTG improvement, all 3 passes WTG (close to natural motion strokes), this stuff had just about the right amount of cushion and slickness for the mug, passes 2 and three are more like touch-ups and stretching the
mix was very similar to what i do on a normal shave soap lather pass anyway...

what a great shave... the ingredients combine and leave my face feeling so nice, hydrated, smooth....it's almost unlike any other lather i have used... i can't even recall one that leaves my skin feeling like this...

even my hands feel great.

I think the Aftershave balm was superfluous...

so how was the result.. DFS++.

so i recently picked up some more straights and decided to hone up this:


DMT green to coti bout, to dark thuri and it was passing the HHT at 4+ all along the blade.. this was a different coti than i have been using an the surface looks totally different than my first.

i decided to stick with the Hydrolast and I had a pretty great shave all around except for one area that i guess i decide not to shave in my haste right under my lip, i totally missed it somehow.. i left it for today's shave since it doesn't seem to bad..

that hydrolast stuff is really slick and i think moving to this straight was a bit over-zealous - the jimpless-ness of this straight with a "longer"ish straight tang vs the TI jimped thumb-notch was significant in getting used to the feel of the hold...

stayed with that Harrison Bros. straight, but grabbed the AOS unscented soap and omega 10098. I have been dry lathering that brush on my hand while watching movies and such, and the ends have really split, but there is so much backbone. It makes me wonder when people have commented that the Shea Moisture badger brush is floppy. This brush seems similar in backbone and I wouldn't describe it as floppy. Maybe i still don't get that term... but floppy to me is like a big mop, no backbone... but maybe it should mean rigid knot tension, where it flops (snaps) back across like a boar knot...

I decided to bowl lather with this brush and because of the backbone, while it wasn't difficult, i really needed to use some elbow grease.. but the resultant lather was awesome. I bought the unscented so i could add my own fragrance, but i have yet to try that, and after using Tabac and Acca Kappa, the bland scent is very noticeable..

3 passes and I was at DFS++. seemed way easier than straight shaving with the Hydrolast. Again, I am noticing that prep (set-up, preshave and lather generation) and clean-up are now the long periods... the shave itself is kind of quick. At least that is how it feels...

I have also been going to the SRD 3" horsehide to strop and it's starting to break in.. it initially felt very compressed and fast/hard with limited draw. i think i'll give it a Tx of a bit of leather conditioner in addition to the lather i keep applying at the end of a shave...

Saturday late morning..

decided to try out the simpsons chubby 3 super.. completely different face feel and I realize I am not really a face latherer, or maybe i am 1/4 face and than 3/4 bowl latherer...

i pulled out the Jo Allen Non-XLL and actually took it to a pasted strop. this is the first time i have ever used a pasted strop. used Harbor freight green and white compound.. just playing around and it some research to figure out the different methods of application.. i tried rubbing, dissolving w/ WD40, and dissolving in alcohol 90%, and i although I know the HF stuff is the most well regarded, it seems to have worked, as the razor appeared very sharp, cutting hairs at HHT4 and 5 depending on the edge location.

AOS unscented soap... 3 passes mostly WTG and XTG and a great shave... DFS++

sunday late morning..

took the TI to the pasted strop, it's not as pasted as it wa earlier as I was diluting and wiping and whatnot... the blade came off with a HHT 4/5. I picked up some tangerine EO at Wegman's since I really like the AOS tangerine body soap scent and 1 drop to the lather bowl and loaded the brush up with AOS unscented soap.. what a nice refreshing smell which kind of reminds me of Mama Bear's Hinoki.. the lather wasn't affected by the oil at all and i got easily got 3 passes of lather; however i only did 2 passes and the 3rd pass of lather went to the strops.

The lather was really nice... i used the C.O. Bigelow brush which performs really well...

2 great WTG passes (face N-S, neck S-N)) and i was done with my typical shave result. Finished up with some TdH A/S and Parfum. I love this scent.

93 on tuesday evening- omega 10098 boar with Mama Bear Hinoki and Harrison Bros straight with a bit of pasted strop action... face lathering

lather was great, blade edge felt pretty sharp and shave was tight.. 2 passes and DFS++. i did a very light quick ATG with water on the cheeks and it was a clean shave..

94 on wednesday evening- omega 10098 boar with Arko (first time using it) and Harrision Bros straight stropped 40/60 on Prima Ringlender strop. First time using a soap stick and Arko performed great. better than my expectations by far.. while the scent was strong on the stick, it kind of faded into a pleasant clean smell for me during face lathering, but my wife came into the bathroom with a "hmm... what's the strong smell?"

since the straight seemed up to task and the lather was great, I decided to go for broke on the second pass with a ATG chevron style (chin to side base of neck) maneuver on the neck. BBS on neck. moved to the face.. ATG got BBS on the majority but with 2 issues. the lower sideburns and jaw area needs a ear to nose pass to get BBS. DONE!! that only left the mustache area which was tidy and tight.. i left it alone.. and while the difference is very fine, but noticeable to me, i will still claim victory..

the shave was very close and i can feel some slight razor burn especially in one area to the right side of my chin (chinstrap area), due to to much attention to that area, but it's survivable...

5 more to 100

great shave today! nice late morning shave

AdP brush on AOS unscented soap. Carl Melcher Solingen microtome.


2 easy passes, face is DFS++. nice size blade @ 6/8, but I don't think this is gonna get too much action in my rotation...

followed up by some water, WH, and MyChelle "Smooth" cream...

BTW I also got a body soap bar of Speick anise from BGS, and it is really nice. good handfeel, smells nice, but scent doesn't last like Hugo Naturals does..

had a day off on Friday and can't catch a break on the weekends with feeling sick.. Friday night i had some bad symptoms that were reminiscent of a short term bout of malaria, shaving, or anything really, was out. barely felt good enough to shave on Saturday late late morning, but MB's Lavender/Oak moss & Fleur de Soul had just arrived, both very interesting scents. I half-test lathered both and after lunch decided to shave with the Fleur de Soul. It reminds me very much of Alt-Innsbruck.. The Lav & Oak moss smells fern-ish.

Saturday afternoon - shave 96 - Been using the Harrison Bros straight, Prima Rindlender stropped, the MB Fleur de Soul, omega 10098 boar, 2 pass, DFS..

Sunday morning - shave 97 -Harrison Bros straight, SRP 3" horsehide stropped, Proraso pre-shave, MD Lav & Oak moss, Simpsons Chubby 3 super, 2 pass, DFS++

Global Dev,
I haven't read through all of these but the first several pages are interesting. It's cool to see how people progress through the same experiences.

Looks like you are doing great! Hopefully you will have gotten rid of the Omega boar brush stink by now. Mine is basically broken in by now and I enjoy having it in my rotation.

You are just a few shaves short of your 100th shave, do you feel you have mastered the art or do you still feel you have a lot to learn? I have the feeling I have regressed in the last 25 or so shaves. I suppose I will have to bite the bullet and map my beard once and for all so that I can get a better feel for what has to be done for the areas that still go on baffling me.

Thanks, I am having a great time.. I feel like I have come a long way and the shaves and motions feel like second nature already...

The boar was de-funked a couple weeks ago. it just left like that, no goodbyes, no tears, just disappeared one day... what a great brush. how different from the badgers though...

the shaves vary mostly on razor choice now, it seems.. or perhaps its how it was finished, but I think I know 99% what passes I need to get the shave i want. I still feel the need to chase the next edge finish to see the difference.

had a really interesting shave start today!! at first i was mildly confused, and suddenly it turned into a big smile when i realized what happened.

I wasn't feeling like i had recovered fully from being ill, decided to stay home and make sure i felt okay, since once I am at work it is kind of difficult to get home easily with public transport.. so took a nice warm shower to start my day about an hour ago...

yesterday around 4PM i applied a light coat of mink oil to the SRD horsehide 3". felt really luxurious once it melted into the leather...

I grabbed the Tabac, Chubby 3 super, and started to strop a (to remain unidentified) new to me straight that I just assumed was shave ready. It was so beautiful I don't know why I had thought that, and stropped up storm.. it sounded odd on the strop but i chalked it up to the mink oil and the grind.

Lathered up and was thinking "what a really nice lather, i do like the CH3 and Tabac" and brought the straight to my face and started, it was super smooth, in less than a 1/4 of a second I thought "now that was the softest edge i have ever felt, i guess I realize maybe my edges aren't so hot after all." But i look in the mirror and all my beard is still there.. strange no tugging, no pulling, no nothing, i lightly go over it again and nothing... i wipe off he lather, no hair... " What is going on? I thought maybe my technique was off, so i grabbed the JMP 14 that i honed up and wow what an edge.. this thing is saaawwweeeeeeeeeeeeet. Too bad the NOS are way out of the $ range right now...

wiped off the other straight, relathered and 3 pass later DFS+++. post prep, warm water, WH, cold water, Proraso ASL.

nice......