Today seemed a good day for a shave with a Slant-Bar razor. This Merkur 37G replaces the 37C I had previously owned: I just wanted up an upgrade because I liked the razor so much—and indeed it does provide a wonderful, friendly shave: close and comfortable.
But some credit must be given to brush and cream. The brush is my Simpons Duke 3 Best, a wonderful little brush, and the shaving cream is Dr. Selby’s 3x Concentrated, a terrific shaving cream that I recently recommended as one of the shaving creams shaving soap users ought to try. A wonderful lather and a unique format for shaving cream.
Some misunderstand the nature of shaving cream—it’s more detergent-like than soap in its formulation so works better with hard water—and refer to any hard source of lather as “shaving soap” and any soft source as “shaving cream”, but the difference is not firmness: there are soft soaps (Virgilio Valobra, Cella, Vitos) and hard creams (Dr. Selby’s 3x, Tabula Rasa, Figaro). “Hard is not a synonym for “soap,” nor “soft” for “cream.”
Three very pleasant passes with the Merkur Slant and the Gillette 7 O’Clock SharpEdge blade it holds, a final rinse, and then a pleasant amount of Guerlain’s Vol de Nuit as an aftershave. What a fine shave!
Filed under: Shaving
