"new" razor

Still trying to identify...
It's a Gillette TTO

Below it have the words:


"J" /----\ "1"
|knob|
"Gillette" \----/ "England"




well
It's a Gillette Knack 19?? or a Gillette Tech from 1964

info extracted from: http://www.geocities.com/safetyrazors/gil_ser2.htm
and http://wiki.badgerandblade.com/index.php/US_Gillette_Dating_Information

for me makes more sense that it is a tech... but I need to search a little further..

Shaving Saga - At last! the close shave.. and other items

I finally manage to get the ultimate close shave...
I got the missing info from a forum... so.. here's the recipe.. after bath, one should put some hidration oil on the skin.
This oil will be absorved will one's preparing the lather and setting/stroping the blade.

After this procedures the shave gets a lot more confortable!!
I finally got the BBS (baby botton shave) feeling :D


I really shouldn't do this .. but.. here comes... I'll give the straight razor a try, so I bought this one:



It's an "eurostil professional" with changeable blades and it cost's 4.50 eur.
I should make a review in some of the next posts

And here's my supplier at downtown, Lisbon, where I got my mechanical gears (the "merkur hd" and now the straight razor):

Shaving Saga - Palmolive for men Sensitive

Yesterday I bought a new shaving cream..

I haven't gave up my quest yet... I gave "Palmolive for men sensitive shaving cream" a shot




Just tried it.. and liked it :D


A review from http://www.ciao.co.uk follows:

I have always suffered with sesnitive skin around my neck area when I shave, I have tried many different gels and razors but until I started using Palmolive shave cream i never really found anything that didnt make my skin sore.
Palmolive is a traditional shave cream that comes in a tube - the cream has to be used with a shaving brush to create a thin water based lather on the face. The cream and the brush combined are what is important about getting the right shave, the circular motion of the brush helps lift the hair away from the face so it can be easily removed with one light stroke of the razor. A good tip before applying the cream is to soak your face for a while with hot water - this opens your pores and expands the size of the hair by 30% which makes it easier to shave off.

The cream is cheap about £1.90, and although it takes slightly longer to shave it is worth it as you getting a cleaner, closer shave with less irritation and it doesn't leave a oily film on your face that many gels do.

Shaving Saga - Sephora's Shaving Cream

I'm not completely happy with the results I'm having .. and perhaps this is related with a bad moisture.

So.. I decided to buy a new shaving cream. This one is from Sephora's:



I tried it in the next morning!
I start doing as usual: putted a small amount on the bowl, and start to develop with the brush.

Well.. what usually takes me about a minute to create with gillette contour... it take me a lot more with this cream... But even so, it even make me more anxious to try it!
When I start to apply it... It starts to drop everywhere.. and in the face it's way too liquid to be used as good lather.

I restart all over with the gillette cream.....

After this, I noticed that this two creams combine very well: the blade slides very well on the gillette cream applyed in the face washed with sephora's cream.

Maybe Sephora's cream isn't supposed to develop with brush and bowl...

Edited #1: I tried again another day direct on the skin...and it didn't work ... once again I had to put the gillette cream over it .. :(

Edited #2: After that.. I'm using it mixing it (1/3 sephora's, 2/3 gillette's).
It's way smoother, but the Sephora's looks like it takes the consistency (thickness) of the whole lather (it looks like the brush starts drooling over me :S )

Shaving Saga - Improved shave!

Hello

Latest weeks I'm been learning again how to shave....
I'm talking about the middle XX century "safety razors"

I learned about lather: how to create good lather
and finally, I learn how to shave properly.

I'm not talking about the well known instinct of an basic "clear the hair of the face" method
because "well.. here we go again.. I must do it again"
But facing the all process of shaving not like an "must do it" but an event you just don't want to miss

My gears:

Merkur Heavy Duty razor





Personna blades (from the same store I got the razor..)

Shaving Saga - Trying Blades

Since we're all different.. I though trying a new kind of blades..

the BIC blades:



They're look sharper than the wilkinson's. Unfortunatelly, they haven't the same longevity, so on the second day shaving I could notice it ....

Shaving Saga - My first Double Edge Razor

I got to try this new way to shave, so I searched about this kind of razor in several stores.

Unfortunately I wasn't something easy to find... Is much more easier to get a (in)famous Mach 3 /Fusin than this kind of simple tool...

But I just could find it in a local store. Its's not so elegant as I imagine... Somehow I always imagine something heavy with more adjustable options. Instead I got this "Wilkinson Sword Classic Double Edge Razor" for 4.50 Euros with 5 blades.






And it includes a set of 10 "Wilkinson Sword" blades



A lot cheaper than I expected to spent!

The First Shave

I already had the brush and the shaving cream, so I start to make the lather.
I inserted the blade into the razor and turned the knob completely.

Then I start shaving.
I wasn't unconfortable... and after the first shave (within the grain), I started a second shave, now perpendicular to the grain, After this I didn't felt confidence to shave agains't the grain... After all, I think already made a huge step just for doing this far!

Conclusions

I didn't get the shave I expected.... Is far from a close shave, but I just couldn't get the blade on my face anymore, because I should rest my skin for another day ....

I noticed I could get a closer shave just by not closing the blade completely, and leaving the blade exposed.

Shaving Saga - Learning about Lather

I just watched on youtube a video explaining something that nobody ever explain to me: the importance of a good lather in the process of shaving.

I never cared much about this....
When I was a teenager, I didn't had much hair on my face, and shaving with hot water was enough to make an excelent close shave. At those days, lather was optional, but I was always invited to use it as it makes part of the process of shaving.

Today, my face skin is thin and my face's hair is middle/tough, so lather isn't optional anymore.

What people won't tell you about the good Lather

Today, everyone have seen those old brushes and bowls at some stores among the pen holders and other stuff, and most people won't even consider to use those stuff in our days.

We live in the time of the "instant foam cream" and the "shaving gel" and we just don't care about this old stuff.


My impressions

My razor is a gillette mach 3 turbo, and I used a gillette contour shaving cream, a brush and an ordinary bowl from the kitchen.



I takes me some minutes to make the perfect lather, because I just wasn't sure about when is it good enough! I start considering it is good enough when the brush can absorve the lather completely just by passing it by. After this, while passing the cream on my face, I can see the shape of the brush drawed in my face.



I must tell I felt some difference. The blade runs much easier on my face, and I start considering to start shaving with one of those old shaves from the middle of the XX century