03.10.2024 - Transition

• Prep: warm water
• Brush: RazoRock 400 Noir SE 24 mm
• Razor: Stando Perun
• Blade: Rapira Platinum Lux
• Lather: Wholly Kaw - Transition
• Post-Shave: Tüff sensitive AS; Phytorelax Aftershave scalp cream

-> 2-pass head shave. Originally I wanted to do a neck lineup as well, but didn't have enough soap left in my brush.

Transition is a WK soap I hadn't tried yet. It has a beautiful autumn landscape for its tub art, so it fits seasonally. The scent is on the lighter side of the spectrum but goes rather well with my Phytorelax balm. I'd say it's good for everyday wear based upon my first impression. Unfortunately I don't even own a single german soap - the only active german artisan I know of is Meißner Tremonia from Dortmund, but a lot of their products that'd interest me are currently unavailable. Mühle is from the former GDR and their stuff is solid. Of course there's still Tabac, but I am not sure if their soap is even made here anymore. Most german razor blade manufacturers were bought either by Gillette or Harry's, so they only produce cartridge BS these days. I still had an aftershave from East Germany around though, even one that's around since GDR times! Tüff used to be quite popular, mine is the green version without any fragrance/perfume added.

So today is German Reunification Day, but as @[email protected] has already mentioned, we're still not fully united. I live in East Germany, and while not everything sucks over here (e.g. our part of the Autobahn is better than most of it near Hamburg or Bochum) we are still at a economical and cultural disadvantage. From big corporations to little start-ups, most will settle in a big metropolis in West Germany. Bands rarely play in the East either, and so forth. Our last regional elections were all huge successes for the far right-wing party I despise deeply & refuse to name here, but one factor contributing to this is the sheer incompetence of our government. Many people here fear for their economic safety due to high unemployment and rising bankruptcies, so my hope is that a lot of voters are in fact not right-wing arseholes but generally unsatisfied with everything. Despite different opinions in the public, I'm still a firm believer in continuous dialogue and searching for compromises. It'll never do us any good to prohibit certain parties and dictate opinions - as we saw, this only strengthens right-wing extremists and their propaganda.

Now this turned out to be much more of a tirade than I anticipated, sorry for this wall of text... I'm currently in a bit of a transition period as well, as my RN retraining draws to a close and the exams are next year. Let's hope the best for the future.

Immanuel tried to say something to disapprove of this message too - but he Kant...

Bentley for Men Intense ++ 👍🏻

Even as a younger german, I definitely need to agree. We have this strange fixation on punctuality and efficiency (except for the Deutsche Bahn, the laughing stock of german public transport). If other schools of thought postulated that "form follows function", the german way is definitely "Function over Form!"
Made in Germany is still seen as a promise of good quality, but often at the expense of weird/ugly/boring design 😅

Nevertheless, congratulations on the new razor! Hope it'll give you many comfortable shaves.

Thanks, it fits even better than I expected 👌🏻

01.10.2024 - Happy October

• Prep: warm water
• Brush: AP Shave Co. 30 mm Tuxedo Fan w/ black & clear handle
• Razor: Ever-Ready 1912 SE
• Blade: GEM PTFE
• Lather: Stirling Soap Co. - Autumn Glory
• Post-Shave: Southern Witchcrafts - Pomona AS; Pacific Shaving Co. Caffeinated ASB
• Fragrance: Southern Witchcrafts - Pomona EdP

-> 2 pass head shave and 1 pass neck cleanup. Good shave.

A very late SOTN, but happy October to everyone! It's actually one of my favourite months, favourite season in general and also: the start of spooky season in preparation for Halloween.

Today's soap is one of my first autumnal soaps I ever got, and it smells very similar to a Yankee Candle of the same name (my mom and me are avid fans of scented candles). It's a Stirling soap, so it's kind of a neverending story (haven't used this one that much, but it still looks full!). It almost explodes with lather when a big brush is used and guarantees a good shave. Combined with an Ol' Reliable like the Ever-Ready, it's just relaxed and comfortable shaving. I still really like pairing Pomona with different scents, wore the EdP all day again and wanted to include it in my shave too.

If you think r/wetshaving is in a lul, dying, or threatened by some other website with 9 monthly users, etc... get your head out of your ass. We're not going to wait, so try and keep up.

👏🏻 Well said!
How sad that some people feel threatened by our small community with only a handful of members. The things about the IRC crowd sound so awful, like hating on Ben from HoM for talking about his creative process - do these people get mad when the Movie they love also has a "Making of..." or "Behind the scenes" segment on the DVD/Blu-ray?!?. How spiteful can people be? 🤦🏻‍♂️

Judging by the newest abhorrent change Reddit implemented to their ToS, I guess many more will leave sooner or later. Let's wait and see, we'll be here if they want a new home. Thanks for doing a great job managing this instance and standing up for us, walden ! 🤝🏻

Thanks! It's good to be part of this instance/server.

Thank you very much! It's great that we have a server for our niche hobby over here and I'm glad to be part of it.

Pomona is so great, I'm even wearing the EdP today. Really unfortunate that it didn't sell well and was discontinued - it's definitely one of my favourite gourmands too! Yeah, sad thing about SW 🫤
When I checked their website yesterday, it was still up but most things are sold out, even the samples. I wonder how Courtney and Stephen are doing, hopefully everything is alright...

Thanks 👍🏻

29.09.2024 - SW season is back

• Prep: warm water
• Brush: TGS Galaxy 26 mm
• Razor: Ever-Ready 1912 SE
• Blade: GEM PTFE
• Lather: Southern Witchcrafts - Pomona
• Post-Shave: Southern Witchcrafts - Pomona AS toner; Saponificio Varesino - Pro Victis skin repair cream (sample)

-> 2 pass head shave. Very smooth and comfortable!

As some of you fine folks already remarked a few days ago, fall season is SW season. Unfortunately SW is seemingly not very active anymore (at least compared to other artisans) but they're the pioneers of great vegan shaving soap and alcohol-free aftershave. Especially the latter is great for head shavers like me with a sensitive scalp.

Pomona is sadly a discontinued scent. The bright gourmand with apple, honey, spices and red wine makes it a perfect companion for the early days of fall. It's very similar to cider in smell and evokes memories of a harvest festival IMHO. It was a perfect choice for the sunny autumn weather we had here today.

The soap is always working well for me, the lather is nice and quickly turns into something usable. Using my Ever-Ready 1912 again was a joy, very neat to have a razor where you just put the blade in, clamp it down and it's ready to go. Btw, this is still the same GEM blade that had a pretty bloody shave with my MMOC - now it's smooth sailing with it.

The SV Pro Victis sample was good. I guess it's intended purpose is not as an aftershave balm. It is very thick and doesn't absorb very fast, but at least it seems to be pretty good in the skin food department. It's also supposed to be anti-inflammatory, so that's neat. Nothing I'd personally buy though.

Edit: I now realised that today I'm celebrating one year of using Lemmy! Thanks for this awesome little community here, folks. After the Reddit exodus, I haven't found a new home easily but this small group is welcoming, friendly and safe. I feel like I can be myself over here and that's what matters most.

I feel like if I use lemmy I'm helping the fragmentation of a key and useful community I care about.

Welcome back! Good to see a familiar name over here again. In my honest opinion: as many members over here prove, you can be part of both Reddit and Lemmy without any harm done. Those of us who completely left Reddit behind - atm I only can think of @[email protected] and myself - never did so with any negative intent towards the r/wetshaving community, but instead against the Reddit admins and their greed and power hunger. I hold no grudge against anyone on Reddit, overall it was one of the greatest communities I've ever been part of on a rather "toxic" website. The only reason I left Discord too was that I simply don't have much time for it anymore and when I had some, my time zone made it hard to communicate with others in real time.

The way I personally see it: the old Reddit wetshaving community, pre-APIcalypse and Reddit forcing out third-party apps, is not the same anymore. A few of us left, some returned, but new active members joined. A lot of the "core group" of members never left either. But the idea of federated networks or the Fediverse is just too great to pass up: instead of being at the mercy of corporate overlords you can self-host and manage your own server/community. You can admin, you can mod... others from other servers can connect with yours, follow your topics and interact with your members. But no one gains a single €, $ or £ from it. No ads. No monetisation. Fewer bots. Tons of third-party apps to choose from.

The difference? Reddit wetshaving community still has DQ thread every day and much more interaction (the SOTD thread there can easily get 40 - 70 comments, we are lucky when it's more than 20; even then, it's mostly long conversations between our handful of members). Over here, it's much more of a cozy place due to the "core group" being just fewer members in general. Occasionally we attract the rare poster from the wider fediverse, but unfortunately they're often a one-and-gone deal. I kinda wish we had some more members as each different individual in this niche hobby brings their own unique perspective to the table; however, I really like our little group and the friendly atmosphere we built here. Buena Vista Wetshaving Social Club (BVWSC) was the brainchild of PorkButtsNTaters666 and so far, it's a great community activity that fits into everyone's schedule and allows for the community spirit to flourish. In general, I don't want to convert anyone to leave Reddit behind and join Lemmy - but anyone can gladly participate here too!

If you want to slowly move over, maybe begin by copy pasting your SOTD posts from Reddit and post them in our SOTD thread too. Join in on the BVWSC shave shenanigans. It's fine, honestly. I for one would cherish if you decide to also be active over here - we definitely still have a lot of room for more members.

( Sorry dear @[email protected] for hijacking your great organisation thread of this group buy effort. Not a SR user, so unfortunately not in - but best of luck in your endeavours!)

24.09.2024 - Neon Sun against rainy days

• Prep: warm water
• Brush: Omega Roma Colosseo 31 mm
• Razor: GEM Micromatic Bullet Tip/Flying Wing, gold
• Blade: Personna GEM PTFE
• Lather: Noble Otter - Neon Sun
• Post-Shave: Moon Soaps Old School "balm"; Phytorelax Aftershave scalp cream ASB

-> 2 pass head shave. Same blade as my recent bloody experience, different razor. Very smooth now that it lost its initial "bite"!

Neon Sun is such a great scent and NO base a treat as usual. The label sent some warm thoughts about a Miami sundown my way, kinda nice in the current rainy weather over here. Both passes went by very comfortable, I guess it was mostly a mindset and skill issue on my part during my last awful shave. Today I was more relaxed and it went way better. I rarely use my golden BT/FW, but it's a very charming vintage razor. Mild, efficient and the gold plating is chipped off in some places to give it a rough aesthetic. It's the cool kind of vintage with lots of 'mojo'.

In other news, I trimmed off the circle beard/goatee and now rock my Zappa look (stache, soul patch and stubble) again. Occasionally I might shave my face again, but currently the dry parts of my face (cheeks, jawline) need a longer recovery break. Thing is, I totally like myself better this way too - with a goatee, it's just generic bald guy #815 looking back in the mirror. Generally, with facial hair it's all about what suits you best and what feels nice - and with wetshaving, you also have the greatest tools for contouring and caring for your skin.

Granted, Voyager isn't perfect. But like Jerboa, it's also free, open source and available on F-Droid too.

I have used quite a few Lemmy Apps - Jerboa, Eternity, Thunder and now finally Voyager. Out of all these, I like Voyager best. It has true AMOLED dark themes, tons of customisation, gesture control (although swiping for upvotes and replies is kinda fidgety with my big fingers) and touch-friendly links (nice for big fingers and ADHD brains). Also, from all of these it is the easiest app to write PMs to anyone, like right now with our BVWSC activities. E.g. Thunder doesn't even have a PM function 🤔

I'd say try it out, give yourself time to adjust and familiarise with the new app and see how it works for you. I'm far from a pro user of it, but if any questions arise you can always shoot me a message and I'll gladly try to help!

(sorry, tagging is a missing feature in Jerboa)

Voyager has it implemented pretty well, even with touch-friendly links, but I still forget to tag people properly often 😅

Glad to hear that the fresh GEM treated you well. I think it was a multitude of factors that led to my very rough shave, including carelessness/rushing on my part. The MMOC is a really great razor, super efficient and (usually) comfortable to handle. No fault on it.

22.09.2024 - bloody Strathcona

• Prep: warm water
• Brush: vintage yellow bakelite handle w/ 22 mm SynBad knot
• Razor: GEM Micromatic Open Comb MMOC
• Blade: Personna GEM PTFE
• Lather: MacDuff's Soap Co. - Old Strathcona
• Post-Shave: alum block; Thayer's Original toner; Pacific Shaving Co. Caffeinated ASB

-> 1-pass head and face shave. A bit too rough thanks to a fresh GEM blade...

So today I also wanted to try Old Strathcona again. @[email protected] was so generous and sent enough of a sample for 5+ shaves, I reckon. I still had a good bit left in my old wooden lid.

However, I wanted to give the Leaf a well deserved break and use another razor today - so I had to put a fresh blade into my MMOC, as the old one caught rust. Needless to say, when the alum block is listed in my Post-Shave routine - you know that it didn't went well. 🫤

I usually have a blast using the MMOC, but some of the fresh GEM blades have an edge that makes them feel like shaving with a carpet knife. In total, one big weeper and five blood spots on the scalp. Six blood spots around the face. Bless the french shaving heavens for Osma alum, as without it I'd look like I got into a fight with a cheese grater. The Thayer's toner and the PSC balm handled the rest. To say it with a meme-ified movie quote: "I shaved... but at what cost?!" 🤔

Memo to myself for the future: don't use a razor you haven't used in a while with a soap that's unfamiliar to you, especially not with a fresh blade. Don't think you can manage a full head and face shave with just a tiny amount of a soap sample. Also, get yourself a proper small shaving mug or bowl for your sample shenanigans.

Now I really look forward to tomorrow's shave. Hope you fine folks had a great weekend!

18.09.2024 - BVWSC part. II: Canadian Druid in a barbershop

• Prep: shower
• Brush: AP Shave Co. Snakeskin handle w/ 26 mm Silksmoke Flattop/Fan hybrid knot
• Razor: Leaf Thorn
• Blade: snapped BIC Chrome Platinum
• Lather: MacDuff's Soap Company - Old Strathcona
• Post-Shave: Moon Soaps - Old School balm

-> 2 pass head shave, 1 pass face shave. Good shave overall!

Today's BVWSC shave is done with a soap I found really interesting. MacDuff's Soap is an artisan I heard many positive things about; their inspiration from Canadian landmarks and the great outdoors is also something I find intriguing. Plus, featuring their dog on the tub art and in their logo is a huge bonus point with me too.

I really have grown to like barbershop scents, even though as a german I never was inside one at all. Old Strathcona is definitely a very unique take on this genre - once the very generous sample by @[email protected] showed up, my initial impression was of an old time cologne for mature gentlemen. Luckily, that's not everything!

The soap lathered very fast. Props to MacDuff's Soap base, this one gets slick quick and turns into a beautiful lather with just a bit water added to the brush. Once lathered, the scent turns away from the cologne-style barbershop and more towards something green. Everything makes sense now that I'm reading up the official Scent description . Djundjila and walden also mentioned anise which is described as basil and tarragon; I didn't get much of that (my nose is sus) but much more of a herbal, green and slightly salty cologne (I guess the salty parts come from the mushroom absolute?). Call me weird and maybe it's my ADHD, but I pictured a druid like Miraculix sitting in a old school barbershop chair. Hence today's post title. I really like when a soap takes me on such a little daydream journey, especially on a stressful day like today.

Performance wise, apart from the quick lathering and the good slickness, it's also very skin-friendly. I tested it on both my head and face, each with their individual problematic areas and had no irritation or burn whatsoever. I could see MacDuff's as something I might pick up in the future - I really like unique barbershop scents and this one definitely fits the bill. Thanks sahenders for your suggestion and the generous sample! Compared to CFG Ghost Town Barber, my favourite barbershop and my newest HAGS Barberwood, Old Strathcona is way less sweet. It's earthy, mossy, dark without being divisive. Perfectly suited for the upcoming autumn season!

I apologize for my lengthy writeup and any incoherent rambling that it may contain. Hope it's been at least a tiny bit entertaining for you folks! I'm already looking forward to our next BVWSC shave in October. The sample by @[email protected] already arrived yesterday and it also smells very intriguing and mysterious. Have a good night (or day, depending on your time zone)!

I also look forward to it, but it'll be done very late today. Stressful shift...

00.00.2024 - Barberwood on the face

• Prep: warm water
• Brush: AP Shave Co. Snakeskin handle w/ 26 mm Silksmoke Flattop/Fan hybrid knot
• Razor: Leaf Thorn
• Blade: snapped BIC Chrome Platinum
• Lather: HAGS - Barberwood
• Post-Shave: HAGS - Barberwood AS toner

-> 2 pass face shave around the goatee. Two weepers in total, but a very comfortable shave regardless.

At the time of writing, there was no post in this thread. So it seems to be my duty to avoid a barren thread today!

The second use of Barberwood, this time on the face... but with better hydrated lather today! I'm still a bit rusty when it comes to face lathering, but it's getting better. Today's brush is possibly my favourite for the even spread of lather it can achieve, so that helped a lot.

This time the soap smelt a bit sweeter, similar to my other HAGS Creatures of the Night . Performance was way better though, the lather was very slick and also hydrated my skin well. The toner continues to impress on the face, as it really feels rich enough that I didn't feel the need for a balm. Since my skin is sensitive and dry in the jaw area, that's rare!

I now have an interesting barbershop scent to compare tomorrow's BVWSC soap against - really looking forward to tomorrow's shave!

Thanks for the reminder! 👍🏻