In the past I have often made a few practice lathers with a new brush, too eager to try them out to wait for the next shave. I didn’t do that with the Fine synthetic, and now I wish I had. In my first use of the brush, it felt a little too resilient in comparison with, say, the Plisson, which uses the same bristles. But today, when I compared it to the Omega S-Brush shown, the Fine felt very different indeed: just like the Plisson (though I’ll do a comparison shave later with the Plisson to check).
The soap is Wickham’s Garden Mint, a spearmint rather than peppermint shaving soap, and a very nice soap indeed. With both brushes fully loaded, I lathered my face, and was surprised by the softness of the Fine brush, a softness that had not been there in the first shave. I did not expect a synthetic brush to have a break-in, but maybe in the manufacturing process the bristles get some coating that imparts stiffness (I’m thinking of sizing or something of the sort), and the first use washed that away.
In any event, the different between the S-Brush (a very nice brush indeed) and the Fine seem identical to me to the difference between the S-Brush and the Plisson: they’re both excellent, but the Fine and the Plisson are softer and more luxurious feeling than the Omega.
I did three very smooth and easy passes with the iKon DLC slant on the SE handle. No nicks at all: I have indeed learned to use very light pressure with this razor. The blade was a Personna Lab Blue, which works well in this razor for me—though now I’m wondering whether the slight problems (nicks on XTG on upper lip) I encountered in using other blades were not simply the result of too much pressure and not the blade’s fault at all. Next time I’ll use an Astra Superior Platinum in this razor and see.
A small splash of Mickey Lee Soapworks Italian Stallion aftershave milk, and the week is underway.
Filed under: Shaving
