Later On

Here’s what I do: I have a more or less standard set-up: razor (one of several), blade (Swedish Gillette blade), shaving soap, trusty badger brush, and (of course) MR GLO. To explore, I go for mass change: rather than change a single variable, change ‘em all: if a little is good, more is better, right? The American way.

So today I used a brush I normally don’t use, a shaving cream (I normally use soap) that I haven’t used for a long time, a razor I don’t often use, and a brand new (to me) brand of blade. And I have a superb shave. And in addition I have no idea what contributed the magic.

Started with soaking the Omega Pro 48 boar brush while I showered. At the sink, a quick beard wash with MR GLO, then loaded the brush with shaving cream and got quite a nice lather worked up on my beard—enjoyable, so I kept at it for a while (which doubtless contributed to the shave’s excellence).

I’ve not used Kai blades before. They’re very cool looking: totally blank, no printing at all, like Tesco blade. The Gillette special adjustable is, I think, their last adjustable model. It’s quite nice, in fact, and I should get it back in regular rotation.

The first strokes with the blade were a little rough, but my guess is that the coating used often initially covers the cutting edge and must be worn away with shaving for the blade’s actual sharpness to be revealed. This is why with some blades (Sputnik, Zorrik, and others) the second shave seems better than the first. In this case, the second pass was noticeably smoother than the first. I think the next shave with this blade is going to be very good indeed.

The lather was thick and luxuriant, and the second and third passes were extremely pleasant. A pass of the alum bar after the cold-water rinse, a final rinse of that, dry, and a splash of The Shave Den’s Amber Ylang Ylang aftershave. I like her aftershaves, and after working through the samples will buy bottles of the ones I liked the most.

My face is once again exceptionally smooth. A very pleasant shave indeed.