Later On

Greg K. reminded me of the excellence of the Palmolive shave stick, which he says uses a tallow-based soap, a surprise to me: I assumed from the name (palm+olive) that only vegetable oils are used. In any event, I got a wonderful lather, using my Omega Lucretia Borgia with synthetic bristles of the “artificial badger” type.

The first pass, using my newly rhodium-plated Hoffritz slant bar, was quite smooth. Then I thought of BruceOnShaving’s idea of using a different razor for each pass, the better to match razor and task: the three-razor method. My initial reaction was “too much bother,” but then this morning, after my first pass, I realized I was looking at an entire counter of shave-ready razors: blade in place, just pick up, rinse, and shave (and the rinse is only to warm up the head of the razor).

So, in fact, it was no bother whatsoever: I picked up a Gillette President (only the gold-plated version—the Diplomat?) for the second pass, XTG. And for the final pass, an English Gillette Rocket. Extremely nice, and I get the point: some razors are indeed better at some jobs than others, and this way I get to use more of my razors more frequently. Good idea.