Yesterday’s Christmas shave was a return to my first high-end shave cream, Trufitt & Hill’s West Indian Limes. This cream may well be credited with my serious re-entry into gourmet shaving some 4 years ago. I had dallied with DE shaving in the ’80’s, but, as hard to believe as this may be for younger shavers, there was very little access to high-end shaving gear in those days. Not that it didn’t exist, but distribution was the pits. A few specialty stores offered a limited and very expensive selection of brushes and razors. To put it in perspective, I bought a marginal Mason Pearson Super Badger brush in New York for $175 in 1986! That was a lot of money back then (hey, it’s a lot of money now!).

Then came a perfect storm of events that are often credited with the traditional shaving renewal. Many credit Corey Greenberg and his 2005 segment on NBC’s Today Show as the catalyst that sent men scrambling to find DE razors and traditional shaving concoctions. The second event was not really an event as much as a revolution, and I’m referring here of course to the internet and its ability to instantaneously spread the word, as well as provide access to just about anything you could dream of. Suddenly, small, marginal, traditional shaving gear makers were flooded with orders for their goods, and the rest is history.

The T&H West Indian Limes was such an explosion of scent it went straight to my brain-stem. It must have caused some serious re-wiring of the neurons, because before I knew it I was spending the GDP of a small developing nation on shave shit. Before long the T&H had been displaced by dozens (conservatively speaking) of other creams and soaps, gradually finding its was to the back of one of my many cabinets.

Christmas is always a time of renewal and fresh starts for me (along with new Year’s Day and Easter Sunday), so a shave with the T&H West Indian Limes seemed like a good idea (back to the beginning as it were). And it didn’t disappoint. The first sniff always causes an involuntary flow of saliva as the overpowering citrus smell hits the olfactory receptors. And the cream is a superb shaver, thick gobs of lather aplenty for 3-4 rich passes with the E.J. Chatswtorth and a fresh Shark blade.

I realize that it’s been quite some time since the last shave post (Thank God, some of you may mutter!). I’ve gone back to the badger, the boar having run its course for now. The contrast between the two types of brushes was quite pleasant though, in a Yin Yang sort of way. I have, in the past, been accused of elitist sentiments; a contention that I strongly disagree with. Elitists tend to cut a broad swath through all their interests, accoutrement, and lifestyle in general. I do not. My elitism, such as it is, is limited to a few interests, where I prefer the label “gourmet” ; I appreciate quality because in the long run it pays, and craftsmanship because it’s a link to people and traditions rather than just machines and convenience. The boar brush explorations are a perfect example. I have no difficulty in using and appreciating low-priced items, and even comparing them favorably to high-end versions. My favorite after-shaves are from the Booster line at $10 for half a liter! My all-time favorite shave cream: The J.M. Fraser at $12 for a pound jar. And the best blade: The Treet Blue Special at about a dime. Elitist? Who, me? Puh!

Now excuse me, my Rolex says its time to ride my hand-made road bike on the Tacx trainer.

Courtesy of Mr. Dario (retirement has its benefits, he’s now my Tonto, ear to the rails on the lookout for interesting stuff). From Elizabeth Seward’s article on Planet Green, a very simple recipe for making shaving cream. Don’t know if it’s any good, but maybe I’ll buy a bar of inexpensive glycerin soap and give it a try. Sounds uber-simple. Maybe that will be my next kick: How To Shave Like A Homeless Guy. Let’s see just how cheaply I can make shaving cream, pair it up with a Treet Blue Special blade for a dime, a cheap boar brush, and see if I can go 30 days with the same kit.

Is this the ultimate razor? The Silver Streak Rolling Razor. Donald Trump even endorses it, so it must be great!

The web site is excellent but the best part is the Testimonials section. Check it out. I tried to order one but they wanted $35 shipping to Canada for a $27 order. NOT! Anyway, if anyone ever tries one of these, let me know. I emailed the link to Leisureguy…maybe I can sucker encourage him into trying one. I did ask him if he thought it was well positioned for guys like us, to which he replied: “Debonair, successful, … oh, wait: stretch-band shorts and T-shirts. It’s a tough call”.

I’ve been working to make my travel shave kit TSA and airline proof. I hate those 1 liter plastic bags in which you have to shove your liquids and creams and keep them separate from the rest of your gear. One of the genuinely stupidest pseduo-security measures that I have ever witnessed (and there are many…like making the poor 80-year old grandpa who can barely bend down, take off his shoes and belt).

In response I have moved to solids, wherever possible. MR GLO soap for the face, a shave stick instead of cream, solid deodorant, etc. Now if they could just come up with a solid toothpaste, face moisturizer, and cologne….I’d be bulletproof!

The shave stick (D.R. Harris) and the Simpson Wee Scot are great offsets to the Fusion…they give you the illusion that you really are getting a gourmet shave. And the Fusion, in its defense is pretty appropriate to shaving in those hotel showers without a mirror and nowhere to lay your stuff. A lot safer, faster, and fool-proof in unpredictable settings.

One of the brushes I ordered from Fendrihan is the Vulfix #28 boar. A very inexpensive brush at CDN $19.95. Looking at it didn’t leave me hopeful. A skinny patch of bristles that, once wet, resembled my dog’s tail after she came in from the rain…limp and soggy looking. I decided to pit it against the Mitchell’s Wool Fat shaving soap, a formidable puck of lanolin-based splendor that is nevertheless a challenge even for great badger brushes. In fact, I have discovered that this is one soap that seems to perform better when worked up with a boar brush and had very good results from my Semogue and Omega Pro 48. But these were denser and larger brushes…could the wimpy Vulfix even come close?

To my utter surprise and amazement this little brush is a demon! Incredible “pick up” from the puck, and a spectacular and voluminous lather. Better than either the Semogue or the Omega. Talk about not judging a book by its cover! Paired up with a three-day old Gillette 7 O’Clock from Russia, the combo produced a very easy shave and a perfectly smooth face.

I finally scored an Omega Pro 48, and from a local retailer to boot. Vasco’s in Montreal is probably the country’s biggest gourmet shaving store. And speaking of big…..this brush is a monster! I’ve never seen it in a comparative photo, so assumed it would be about the same size as my Semogue and Vulfix boar brushes. When the clerk at Vasco’s took it out of the box, I thought she must have made a mistake and was showing me the brush barbers use for brushing hair clippings off clothing!  But, like my other two boar brushes, the Pro 48 was wonderful at pulling shave soap off a puck of Mitchell’s Wool Fat soap, producing a much better lather than I’ve ever been able to get with a badger and this particular brand of soap. And this with the brush not even broken in. Thanks to Leisureguy for showing me the way on boar brushes.

The love affair with my Semogue boar brush continues unabated. I’ve never been a real shave soap lover, mainly because I was never able to get a good lather from soap in the shower. But the boar is particularly well-suited to this task; the stiff bristles scraping generous quantities of soap molecules onto its tips and translating this into a very copious and lubricating lather. And, the scrubbiness…marvelous!  Who would have thought I could find such pleasure in something so inexpensive and banal?

Today’s shave was with the Tabac soap in its wonderful ceramic bowl (or it it really glass?). The four-day old Sputnik blade continued to produce a phenomenally smooth shave, I suspect at least partly due to the outstandingly rich lather from the boar brush. The alum block revealed no sensation of irritation whatsoever. Finished off with Tabac cologne….mmmmm….memories of youth. Tabac was my first real-man’s aftershave and the scent is embedded in my libido!

Another shave today with the Semogue 1520 boar brush, purchased from Fendrihan.com (an excellent on-line vendor, based in Canada). It’s breaking in very nicely, developing a “feathering” at the tip ends which gives it a much better latherability. The bristles are also getting a little softer, although still very stiff compared to a good badger brush. But here’s the rub (pun intended): The stiff bristles are amazing at generating a great lather from a soap, presumably because they are capable of scrubbing off much more soap onto the brush. I used the Semogue with my all-time favorite soap, the Gold-Dachs Spezial Razierseif. An outstanding lather; dare I say it?; better than with my best badger brush. The G-D has the most amazing scent, and the final pass resulted in a super-smooth visage that feels good even 12 hours later at the time of writing.

I find that the interest in boar brushes has rekindled my explorer’s spirit when it comes to shaving. Thanks to Leisureguy for the lead into this very interesting area.

Never being one for half measures, when I first got into gourmet shaving in the early ’80’s I immediately went for a top-quality badger brush. I’m ashamed to say that I’ve never tried boar, horse, or synthetic brushes. Why go out for a burger when I have Fillet Mignon at home, right? But like Leisureguy is wont to say: “I love a good burger, as well as a good steak”. The two aren’t mutually exclusive, and his recent forays into the world of boar-brush shaving have piqued my interest. Nevertheless, the self-driven moratorium on further gear acquisition has kept me from ordering a boar brush…until now. I needed a couple of bars of MR GLO and noticed that Fendrihan also carries a nice selection of boar brushes at very reasonable prices. So I ordered a Semogue 1520 and a Vulfix 28. This morning I used the Semogue with one of my favorite shave creams, the J.M. Fraser Mosswood. A wonderful lather on the first pass, but I had to reload some cream into the brush for each of the remaining two passes. Nevertheless, I LOVED the scrubbiness. You can really feel the bristles activating the beard and setting it up for a cut. I got a magnificently smooth shave with a fresh Sputnik blade. I hope that with more breaking in the brush will be able to sustain three passes with only one cream injection.