The Anger of Compassion

Beard vs. Budget: Test Day 3

I wrote yesterday that I wouldn't do an acid test today because this would be about my 8th or 9th day of shaving in a row. Actually I've shaved a lot recently: last Friday I shaved twice (had to go to the Harry Potter release that evening), skipped shaving Saturday (I'm a wild man), and I've shaved every day since then. I rarely do anything like that, and I don't really recommend it. But I couldn't leave it alone, this idea of testing. It's true that I don't want to scrape my neck raw. But that's not the fault of the vast Anger of Compassion readership, is it? And yet, they're the ones, hungry for wetshaving knowledge, who'd be hurt if I slacked off.

So, today's test included Williams Mug Soap and a touch of Kiss My Face mint cream, whipped into lather using a small German boar brush, similar to the Burma-Shave brush available from Wal-Mart. Once again, in the interests of frugality and simplicity, no pre-shave preparations were applied.

The first pass was, for the second day in a row, a Merkur blade in the 1953 Gillette Super Speed. No worries. Rewet, relather, and go for a second North-South pass...with an early 1950s Eversharp-Schick Injector.

Good thing I'd had my coffee already.

You'll read on the shaving boards about how mindlessly easy it is to shave with an Injector. That is not my experience at all, and I've come to see those comments as being from sociopathic liars guys shaving with 1960s-1970s era razors, which as far as I can tell offered a lot less blade exposure than the older ones, like mine, which appear to have considerably more bite. Anyway, no problem with this pass, either.

Rewet, relather, and this time (third pass) it's the Injector across and against the grain. Now, I frequently use an Injector (usually this one) for some touch and cut in tough places at the end of a shave, but I avoid using it for an entire shave because these razors are very much lighter than the silo-head DEs many wetshavers love (the Merkur HD, for example, or my recommended Weishi or beloved Super Speeds). So much lighter, in fact, that they tend to bounce off my beard. Not fun when I'm shaving my neck. But I was careful and there was no problem.

So I rinsed and slid the small remainders of some ice cubes on my face and neck, and then splashed on some witch hazel. Still no problem with razor burn, and remember that witch hazel contains 14% alcohol. At that point I decided to go for acid test greatness: instead of reaching for a balming aftershave, as per my original plan for the day, I grabbed the bottle of Aqua Velva instead. I took a deep breath, then splashed it on.

So I've shaved now for nine days in a row, the last three days of which featured low-cost ingredients followed by alcohol-based aftershaves. Today I did the same, and the shave included two passes with an Injector. So how did it go with the Aqua Velva? Did I experience that familiar feeling, from my cartridge-using days, of a crazed band of Africanized honey bees attacking my neck?

Nope. Bracing, as usual, but no pain, no soreness, no baboon-ass-red tone to my skin. Inexpensive ingredients, inexpensive brush, tested against three different razors so far, and satisfying shaves every time. This, even on a neck shaved nine days in a row and assaulted with alcohol-based aftershaves.

Cheap stuff rules.

Posted by Craig Ceely at July 30, 2007 04:13 PM