When everything works, a morning shave can light up the day. Today:
Soap: D.R. Harris shaving soap uses a good formula, and so far as I know they have avoided the mistake of outsourcing its production. The lather is first-rate and the format — their shave stick — is well-designed for travel and seems particularly suited to my Monday shave, which tackles a two-day stubble. The fragrance is an English classic: Lavender. Floral fragrances (lavender, rose, honeysuckle, etc.) seem particularly welcome in winter, when by February is becoming wearisome.
Bush: This Rod Neep brush has an excellent silvertip knot and the handle is a well-designed one-off with a coin set in the base: 1984, the year I left Iowa City to live in Santa Cruz. It easily worked up a good lather from the soap the stubble scraped from the stick, and with just a little water added as I worked up the lather on my face, prep was perfect (preceded, of course, by washing the stubble with MR GLO).
Razor + blade: Italian Barber’s Stealth, now sadly discontinued, is an exceptional slant, one of the most comfortable slants I’ve tried, and for all its comfort a stubble ninja, assassinating every whisker with lethal efficiency. It works well with a range of blades, so I’m unsure of the brand it currently carries — but it did the job: my face is utterly smooth with no trace of damage, despite shaving briskly.
Aftershave: To continue the Lavender theme, D.R. Harris’s Old English Lavender Water was the perfect finish to a great shave.
What a wonderful way to start the week.