Post 13
I’ve reconciled myself to the fact that my shave will never again be as close as that my Mach 5 used to provide. The reason is that the Mach 5, true to the advertisements, actually cuts the hairs below the surface of the skin [Update: Things have changed]. As I’ve come to find out (primarily from The Village Barber Iain Kaine, Moustache & Blade – Episode 5) this sub-dermal cutting is what leads to ingrown hairs for a lot of guys, especially in the neck area. For me, even with the Mach 5, ingrown hairs were never a problem. Rarely do I even get even minimal irritation when shaving. So DE blades are always going to be an “inferior shave” if measured by the length of stubble left behind. Some hardcore wet shavers out there will surely disagree with me. But I maintain, my DE blades will never give the shave my Mach 5 did. Nor are they supposed to! I’ve adjusted my expectations by keeping mind this simple thought: Shaving is aboutlimiting the damage that a sharpened piece of metal wreaks on my face. I have been told, and I have experienced, that a single blade, and particularly a DE safety razor blade, is the least amount of damage I can do to my face in this regard. And then there is the fact that it is an absolute delight to shave with them and, well, it’s a very worthwhile trade off.
Post 14
If any of you are married, you may know about traditional anniversary presents. For instance, Year 1 is Paper. Year 2 is Cotton. Year 3 is Leather, and so on. Well, as it happens, Year 6 – which I celebrated with my wife this past summer – is wood. My very thoughtful wife bought me as a present a very nifty little wooden shaving stand to hold my Gillette Red Tip and my brush. Not only is it handsome, it really handy! Before I was allowing my brush to try in a bowl, and it would come out all lopsided and, sometimes, not fully dry. That doesn’t happen with it drying on the stand.
Post 15
I’ve been really excited to use this blade. Admittedly only because of the neat wrapper. So after trying out my straight razor for the first time (following Lynn Abrams advice and only going so far as my right sideburn), I completed my shave with the Treet Dura Sharp. It slid very smoothly across my face, very smoothly indeed. It felt light as air, especially in comparison with the straight razor. I thought I had a really good shave going on until after I rinsed with cold water and applied my Village Barber balm. It was then that I realized I had cut hell out of my neck. I was bleeding from more places than I ever have after a single shave. Some of them I couldn’t even stop from seeping even after applying pressure, very unusual with me. I hardly ever bleed at all, and when I do it can usually be stopped in an instant – sometimes even just the cold water will do it!
Post 16
My wife got me this years ago, as a joke methinks. Yes, it’s a switchblade moustache comb. But I’ll tell you it’s no joke the way this bad boy combs out my moustache. This freaking thing works! When I had the brush moustache going I never used the comb, owing to the fact that my hairs weren’t long enough to require straightening. But during the times I’ve grown out the handlebar, such as right now, this sucker is indispensable. I’ll typically only comb it out after a shave and/or shower, when the hairs are wet and pliable. I’ll sort of comb them into shape and let them dry that way. Gives the stache a little bit more of a formed look (I don’t typically use wax on my handlebar; I strongly prefer the au natural look).
Post 17
I don’t really use wax on my moustache, even when I have the full-on handlebar like I do right now. The thing I generally don’t like about moustache wax is the same issue that has always driven me away from hair products; namely, you can feel them. Wearing moustache wax to me is like having hairspray on my face. No, sir, I don’t like it. But I have tried two different kinds of moustache wax: Clubman and Douglas Smythe’s own home-brewed ‘Tache Wax. Clubman is very soft when it comes out of the tube and is easily manipulated in your fingers. It seems to disintegrate pretty rapidly during the day though. It also leaves a white film on my stache when applying. Doug’s is actually much better, a lot firmer so that I have to use a fingernail to scrape it out of the tin. It then has to be warmed in the fingers with vigorous rubbing before it’s viscous enough to apply to the stache hairs. The hold is a lot better with Doug’s as well. Unlike the Clubman, it also seems to last a lot longer during the day. But again I get back to the simple fact that I just really don’t like wearing moustache wax. It’s just not for me. As an interesting side-note, I met a gentleman of 70 years of age recently who has a tight little curl to his snow-white handlebar, and he told be how he achieves it: he first shapes it with wax, but then finishes it with Elmer’s glue. He allowed me to touch the curl, and I can say that it probably even more solid than you might expect. That thing will not move a hair’s breadth! He swears that the glue washes out just fine at the end of the day.
Post 18
Of DE razors at this point, I have tried but two: my go-to 1955 Gillette Red Tip, and a Yuma, which Doug suggested I try. The Yuma is, I am told, based off a much older model Merkur. It is made of aluminum it would seem, judging by its insignificant weight. It is of three pieces, the blade being loaded by the unscrewing of the handle from the head. The first time I loaded up a blade – I think it was a Gillette Wilkinson Sword – I was very wary of the way it sat in the Yuma. The edges of the blade were not parallel to the safety bar of the razor itself, so that one corner of the blade stuck out farther than the other. It also seemed there was too big of a gap between blade and aforementioned safety bar. In all ways this thing look like it could take out a sizeable chunk of flesh in addition to relatively insignificant amount of stubble. Echoes of The Merchant of Venice sounded through the washroom. Short story short – I went through with the shave and found my face still intact upon completion. I have not used the Yuma since.
Post 19
I never fully got used to this blade over my three shaves with it. I think what may be the case is that it is not a good blade to use with my Gillette Red Tip. It never felt like the blade was at the right angle, feeling instead like it needed to be at a steeper angle without the Red Tip allowing for it. As a result, The blade tended to feel as if it were cowering to the hair. It wasn’t really a scraping sensation, it literally felt like the blade was cowering or giving way to my stubble. Needless to say, not a terrific shave with this blade. But nor was it the worst. Might be better mounted on a different razor.
Ryan Steven Green, aka Rynostevie, is a native Los Angeleno and a professional film and commercial director. Along with Douglas Smythe, he co-hosts the popular podcast–Moustache & Blade. It was Smythe’s discovery of his award-winning short documentary Between the Upper Lip and Nasal Passageway that initiated Ryan’s entree into the wet-shaving world. Contact Ryan: Ryan@moustacheandblade.com
About Douglas Smythe
Ryan:
It’s gents like you and me that prove you’re never too old to start, and never too young to learn. It’s been rewarding for me to return to the DEs after decades of cartridges and way too much cash. It’s also rewarding to hear that Doug gotcha hooked, that you’ve even gone further than I as I’ve not yet ventured down the straight-razor road as you’re venturing! Way to go, bro’, way to go!
Now if I could just figure Ott why these so-called smartphones really seem so dumb, at times, well that’s a tale for another topic.
Thanks for the bravery, it makes me smile!