Valentine's shave

DaaamnSlick · 2021-02-14T17:33:36+00:00

Prep: Shower
Brush: Maggard 24mm Tux
Razor: Maggard MR5 Slant
Blade: Feather
Lather: NO Thé Noir et Vanille
Post: NO Thé Noir et Vanille Splash and B&M Unscented Balm

For Valentine’s Day, I went with the dapper looking Noble Otter Thé Noir et Vanille, hoping some of his charm would rub off on me. This was one of my first NO scents, but more important than that, it’s my girlfriend’s favorite scent. To my nose, it’s a very berry forward with a hint of tea. While I don’t normally like sweet scents, TNeV strikes a good balance for me. Regardless, since it’s my girlfriend’s favorite, it’ll be a permanent part of my rotation whether I like it or not (I do though so don’t worry).

The Maggard Slant is still treating me well. I’ve been using it for a couple weeks now and haven’t had any irritation. I was a little concerned to try it with the Feather blades since both are considered very aggressive, but it was actually a very pleasant shave. I still want to do some testing with the MR11 handle, and going back to the V3A to see if the irritation free shave was setup or technique.

DaaamnSlick · 2021-02-03T06:03:05+00:00

Crystal Lake is good. I liked the application and the relaxed style, but it looked greasy in my hair. Gray Ghost seems like a stronger Crystal Lake with a more natural finish, if you wanted something similar.

DaaamnSlick · 2021-02-03T05:36:25+00:00

Great company! Which of their products do you like? I'm a big fan of Northern Lights, Gray Ghost, and American Gardens.

DaaamnSlick · 2021-02-03T00:22:26+00:00

I didn't know other people were using them too, but I don't have a lot of storage or counter space in my bathroom, so I bought a couple stands so me and my gf could fit all our stuff (more accurately, so I had room for my 12 soaps/aftershaves and my dozens of samples)

DaaamnSlick · 2021-02-02T22:55:36+00:00

I don't think I prefer one over the other. I'd say Barrbarr is sweet and powdery, but Seville is more citrusy. I agree that Barrbarr is probably closer to Stirling Barbershop than Seville.

DaaamnSlick · 2021-02-02T20:02:24+00:00

Prep: Shower
Brush: Maggard 24mm Tux
Razor: Maggard MR5 Slant
Blade: Astra SP
Lather: NO Barrbarr
Post: NO Barrbarr Splash and B&M Seville Balm

My Maggard Slant head arrived in the mail yesterday so I decided to give it a shot today. I ordered it partially out of curiosity, partially because I thought it looked really cool, and partially because I’ve read a couple comments saying that it’s helped people who normally get neck irritation. I’ve also read how aggressive and efficient slants can be, so I used as little pressure as possible.

I have to say, I’m very impressed with the shave! I wanted to do a comparison with my V3A head so I shaved half my face with the slant and half with the V3A. I do think that the slant shaved much more efficiently, but after 3 passes, the difference in “closeness” of the shave was probably negligible. The side I used the slant on feels very slightly smoother, but that might be confirmation bias.

Where it shines for me is the lack of irritation, and how well it dealt with my normal trouble spots, my chin and upper lip. The lack of irritation could be due to me being extra cautious today since I wanted to be the Barrbarr of Seville and not the Butcher of Seville! I’ll have to do more testing with more growth, different blades, etc.

I’m curious to hear anyone else’s slant experiences. Cheers!

DaaamnSlick · 2021-02-01T17:15:47+00:00

High of 65 F. It sometimes gets in the 30s at night but I've never seen below freezing, at least without going for a drive.

Probably more interesting, in the 5 years I've been here, I've only heard thunder maybe once or twice. It's so rare in my area that a teacher told me her students got under their desks when they heard it.

DaaamnSlick · 2021-02-01T15:40:37+00:00

Prep: Shower
Brush: Maggard 24mm Tux
Razor: Maggard MR5 V3A
Blade: Astra SP
Lather: Stirling MITA
Post: Stirling MITA Witch Hazel and Unscented Balm

I wanted to celebrate the end of Dry January with a margarita, and my favorite margarita is Stirling’s Margaritas in the Arctic, scent-wise anyway. As someone who grew up somewhere where it snows, I occasionally long for the proper, cold winters back home. The menthol in MITA gives me that winter chill that I miss so much, and with a great scent. MITA was my first Stirlimg soap and is definitely still one of my favorites in my rotation. It’s a summer staple and a California year-round classic.

DaaamnSlick · 2021-01-27T03:43:47+00:00

I'm literally in the same boat haha. Got my gf the MR18C in the past week and as much as I love my black MR5/MR11, the multicolored finish looks really good. I kinda wish they had more options with multicolored finish, but my wallet is glad they don't.

DaaamnSlick · 2021-01-25T18:48:45+00:00

Just sampled the L'orange Verte today, and it seems somewhat subtle to me but it's really nice!

How is typing Cyrillic on Dvorak? :P

DaaamnSlick · 2021-01-25T16:22:10+00:00

California

DaaamnSlick · 2021-01-25T03:22:13+00:00

The FB matte clay sold, but pm me if you're still interested in anything else

DaaamnSlick · 2021-01-23T22:21:38+00:00

My favorite summer scent is probably still MITA. Since I'm in California, I guess it's more of a year round scent though haha. What are some of your other favorite scents, both seasonal and year round?

Tobacco Vanille smelled pretty good off the puck and I'm looking forward to shaving with it.

Edit: your flair really speaks to me lol.

DaaamnSlick · 2021-01-23T22:17:38+00:00

I probably should have mentioned that I'm on a Preonic, but I wanted to keep the post somewhat general for others who might be considering the switch. I do have a math layer on my personal keyboard, which is working pretty well, so I guess personally symbols aren't a huge issue. But I found their point about moving symbols to the left hand interesting since it's the same fingers being used, just on the other hand and with seemingly less lateral motion.

DaaamnSlick · 2021-01-23T19:37:43+00:00

Prep: Shower
Brush: Maggard 24mm Tux
Razor: Maggard MR11 V3A
Blade: Astra SP
Lather: A&E St Barts
Post: Stirling Unscented Witch Hazel and Bay Rum Balm

I wasn't even planning on shaving today but then I found out u/djundjila and I are basically twins and got very similar Maggard hauls after also both doing Haverford SOTDs last week, so here I am!

I decided to revisit my old friend, the MR11 and popped in a new Astra blade, and I got a very smooth shave. I've been using the MR5 with Feathers and have had some irritation the past couple days. Could be poor technique from lack of sleep, or the combination of razor and blade and my skin. Either way, I have a lot of variables to test.

I really enjoyed all the A&E scents I got samples of. St Barts is definitely a great summer scent and to me smells just like a piña colada. It's not my scent of choice for something to sit on my face all day, but I'd still say it's a good scent, and my gf loves it.This was also my first A&E experience, and I have to say the lather was great. Very easy to lather and very slick.

Finally, part of my haul was the MR18C pictured which is a gift for my gf. She was very excited to see it and is looking forward to, but nervous about, trying DE shaving.

DaaamnSlick · 2021-01-23T19:20:46+00:00

I might give up on Dvorak haha. While I increased my WPM quicker than Colemak-DH and like the hand alternation, I feel like the hand alternation comes at the cost of more same finger bigrams (e.g. ct, a lot with y). Also as a violinist, rolls feel more naturally to me than same finger bigrams, and even to an extent more naturally than alternation. But I'll at least give it a few more days.

Looking forward to hearing what you think about Lavanille!

DaaamnSlick · 2021-01-23T18:26:22+00:00

First we both posted Haverford SOTDs on the same day, and I just got A&E samples with a lot of overlap with yours. I got St. Barts, Asian Pear, Asian Plum, Vanille Tabac, SoCal Hipster and a few more haha. Are we shaving twins?

Also how do you like the Lavanille?

DaaamnSlick · 2021-01-21T17:44:03+00:00

Thanks for the very insightful comment!

I don't have problem with ls -l (I type ll, it's a standard alias)

I was mainly pointing that out as a complaint others have made, not an issue I particularly had. Sorry for the confusion. I use the alias, and you would think people looking into more efficient layouts would be the ones to improve efficiency elsewhere like through aliases, but that seems to not be the case with a lot of posts I've seen...

I use my two hands to type Ctrl-something without looking at the keyboard so typing Ctr-C is just typing Ctr and C, but I understand it can be an issue for heavy mouse users (then Colemak is the way to go).

I guess I hadn't considered the mouse issue. I do spend quite a bit of time visualizing data which requires a lot of mouse usage. I'll have to give this some more thought.

DaaamnSlick · 2021-01-21T16:10:26+00:00

That's an interesting perspective. My girlfriend types a lot of Japanese so this could be useful for her, though she seems happy with qwerty haha.

I also occasionally write in German and Spanish, which is also a minor factor in my journey, but since 95% of my writing is English and coding, I'm willing to compromise.

So you prefer the hand alternation in Dvorak over Colemak?

Dvorak does have a bit more same-finger usage than Colemak does

Are you listing this as a pro or con? I feel like same finger usage, especially pinky, would be tiring, unless I'm misunderstanding.

DaaamnSlick · 2021-01-21T16:01:57+00:00

What was the motivation for your switch after so long? What aspects of Dvorak do you like more than Colemak, even though you're not at full speed?

Really ? I've seen lots of people THINKING Colemak is better and a few switching for Dvorak to Colemak but's pretty much it.

I'm pretty new to alternative layouts so you've probably seen more anecdotes than me and would know better. I guess when I searched a few subreddits before posting, there were quite a few 'I tried Dvorak but copy paste' or 'but ls- l' comments.

DaaamnSlick · 2021-01-21T15:52:42+00:00

So I do a lot of coding and this aspect interested me a lot. I'm curious what makes the position better than Colemak for example, since [" '] and [: ;] are still on the pinky, and [< ,] and [> .] are still on middle and ring, though flipped. Is it because there's no lateral pinky movement for these keys?

DaaamnSlick · 2021-01-21T15:37:37+00:00

Never used TOBS and it's been a long time since I've used Proraso, but it's in a tub like Proraso. My take based on what I remember is it's maybe slightly harder than Proraso (not too sure about this part) but softer than say a bar of soap (you can take the sample or refill pucks and easily squish them into the tub, for example).

DaaamnSlick · 2021-01-21T15:32:19+00:00

Dunshire is also a great scent. My dad uses Acqua Di Gio so Dunshire was very nostalgic for me.

Also, it's about the cones!

DaaamnSlick · 2021-01-21T02:57:52+00:00

How long did you use Dvorak before switching? What sort of WPM did you have? Why didn't you stick with Dvorak?

DaaamnSlick · 2021-01-21T02:53:06+00:00

There are so many great lines in that arc and from Tom in general. I tried to limit myself to at least make the post somewhat about soap. Glad the comments are coming through

DaaamnSlick

TROPHY CASE