A very nice shave indeed. I’ve not used the Omega 20102 for a while, and as I lathered I realized that I’ve missed it. The brush is now well broken in, and it lathers easily, feels good, and has great capacity. I loaded it with Lavender De Luxe from Meißner Tremonia, a fine soap with a very nice traditional lavender fragrance. Meißner soaps seem to be somewhat thirsty: to load the brush well, I had to add a few driblets of water in the course of loading. The end result was a brush full of wonderful lather.
The slant v. nonslant pairing today was, as you see, the first two iKon Shavecraft razors, the #101 on the right in the photo, wearing a Bulldog handle, and the #102 on the left, also wearing a Bulldog handle.
With a very good razor and a new blade and a normal beard like my own, the gain in cutting efficiency is not so noticeable as it would be if I had a thicker and tougher beard, but it was enough that I did notice the #102 shaved slightly easier, but in this case they were close. Still, shaving day in and day out, I find the #102 not only cuts more easily, but it is more apt to leave a perfect BBS finish. The #101 can produce a BBS result as well, but not quite so readily and easily as the #102. (Full disclosure: I used only the #102 on the ATG pass today.)
A good splash of Lavanda to finish the job, and the month begins with another wonderful shave: BBS with no nicks.
I’ve been working on a shaving gift list, and the focus is (inevitably) on products for the traditional wetshaver: a selection of razors, brushes, and soaps that would please a DE shaver. But (oddly) some men still shave with cartridge razors and canned foam, and a significant percentage of those don’t much like shaving. (For a while, if I were conversing with a clean-shaven man, I would ask, “I notice that you shave. How do you like shaving?” and invariably they would reply with the same sentence: “I hate it.”)
Most men who hate shaving and use cartridge razors and canned foam do not make the connection between the tools they use and their lack of enjoyment. They deal with it by focusing on spending as little time in shaving as they possibly can (because the experience is so unpleasant), much as they might gulp down a bitter medicine as quickly as possible—the opposite of how they would drink a fine wine. If the experience is enjoyable, one wants to linger a while. You don’t slam down a fine dinner the way you eat a Big Mac. And because the experience of the cartridge shave offers no enjoyment, most men develop a blind spot in that regard (cf. Daniel Goleman’s Vital Lies, Simple Truths: The Psychology of Self-Deception, a fascinating book on the mechanisms and purposes of blind spots).
So when you mention traditional wetshaving—DE safety razor and true lather—to the typical cartridge shaver, he will generally respond by asking how long the shave takes (his primary focus is to minimize shave time). When you tell him that after some practice it takes around 8-10 minutes, he says, “That’s too much time. I’m not interested.” The time it takes is the only thing he thinks about. The possibility that he might find enjoyment and pleasure doesn’t even occur to him because those are so remote from his shave experience.
So for men who shave with a cartridge razor and canned foam and hate every shave, a gift of a nice brush, safety razor, and shaving soap might be the wrong direction to go. I’m sure they will appreciate the thought, but many will place those on the special shelf for nice gifts (cf. the excellent Australian comedy The Castle) and never try using them because it would take 5 minutes longer.
I’m very aware of this type of guy because I was one. I wrote the Guide to make the case for giving traditional wetshaving with a DE razor a try and to help the reader pay attention to aspects of the shave other than how long it takes. The first part of the book points out other aspects of shaving, including the pleasure it can bring. And then, after arousing interest, I describe alternatives in equipment and provide instruction on prep and technique. But the first job is to refocus the reader’s attention from the time takes to the degree of pleasure it provides.
In that regard giving a man who hates shaving and has not really consider traditional wetshaving a gift of the Guide may work better than giving him a razor, brush, and soap. The common wisdom is that you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink. The solution is to make him thirsty.
Filed under: Books, Shaving
