It’s the last week (for now) with the PAA Platinum Strangelet Super Sharps. This week, I’m going with the Henson Medium, and while I could finish the tuck over the next two weeks and try it in the King C Gillette or Parker Semi-Slant, I won’t. At least for now. It’s time to move on from a blade that, while it hasn’t been bad by any means, just doesn’t excite me.
This week, as I mention in the title, will feature the 200th shave I’ve logged. And while there’s a chance of some imprecision in that number, it’s pretty darned close, and I’m going to stick with it. Tuesday’s shave will go down as the 200th of this journey into wetshaving, or double-edge safety razor shaving. I’m somewhere around 16 months in, and I’ve learned so much about how to shave, what my face likes in a good shave, and what products make me happy and excited to shave.
So while I should have probably planned this better, the Strangelet is the blade of choice for the week, but I’ll be surrounding it with my favorites in other areas: the Henson mild is easily my favorite razor, Proraso products are obviously a huge favorite, and I’m really loving the fragrance of the Proraso blue line, Tuesday’s shave will move to the Cella Aloe Vera shaving cream, and Thursday will round out the week by using my Taylor of Old Bond Street Organic shave cream. I’m looking forward to all of these shaves.
Here’s a stat for this week’s shaves: These three shaves will increase the total shaves with the Henson mild to 42–the most of any razor.
So, let’s dig in to this week’s shaves and see how it goes with the Strangelet in a very mild razor.
The Ratings
Sunday’s Shave, #199. The Mostly Blue Proraso Sunday Strangelet Shave.
The setup:
- Razor: Henson AL-13 mild
- Blade: PAA Platinum Strangelet Super Sharp
- Pre-Shave: Proraso Protective pre-shave cream (blue)
- Brush: Proraso boar shaving brush
- Soap/Cream/Gel: Proraso Protective shave soap (blue)
- Alum Block: Stirling Soap Co. Alum
- After Shave: Proraso Protective aftershave balm (blue)
Using the Henson mild razor makes me irrationally giddy. And after finding that the Strangelet blade gives a lot of blade feel with the medium and the Rockwell, I was looking forward to seeing how it worked with a mild setup.
There was still a lot of blade noise with this shave, but not nearly the blade feel of last week. And this was mostly good. Yes, I needed a few extra strokes to get the smooth shave I prefer, but as I’ve noted before, I’m finding that I will gladly sacrifice some closeness for comfort, and finding combinations that can handle extra strokes without a lot of irritation seems to be my shaving sweet spot. And you’ll recall that the two almost perfect shaves with the Strangelet in the last two weeks were with the Nivea gel and the Barbasol 1919 cream, both of which laid on thick and really protected my face from that aggressiveness.
So, just to prove that it’s capable, today’s shave came out as almost perfect, too. Very close with the extra strokes, but they didn’t contribute much irritation, as there was only a brief sting of the alum post-shave. The comfort I get from the Henson mild definitely played today, and this was the first Sunday shave with the Strangelet that didn’t tug on my beard hairs with the first stroke.
The added bonus was the Proraso blue software. I’ve decided that I love its scent more than the other Proraso products, but it doesn’t seem to lubricate quite as much as the white during and after the shave. But this fragrance will stick with me for quite a bit of the day, and I’m happy with that.
So, an almost perfect shave that made me very happy. This is what my shaving journey has been about. This has been a great way to start the week.
Comfort: 23 of 25
Quality/Closeness: 23 of 25
Overall: 23 of 25
Tuesday’s Shave, #200. The 200th shave.
The setup:
- Razor: Henson AL-13 mild
- Blade: PAA Platinum Strangelet Super Sharps
- Pre-Shave: Proraso Protective pre-shave cream (blue)
- Brush: Omega 10019 boar shaving brush
- Soap/Cream/Gel: Cella Aloe Vera Shaving Cream (green)
- Alum Block: Stirling Soap Co. Alum
- After Shave: Barbasol 1919 After Shave Balm
The 200th shave! I was excited for this, with the Cella shave cream in play for today’s shave. I made a last minute call to change from the Razor Emporium pre-shave to the Proraso blue, and that was a good call–the shave was slick and nicely protected.
First note: the Strangelet felt noticably less sharp today than on Sunday. So I’m pretty sure it just doesn’t hold its edge as well as others. And yet, there was a stronger sting with the alum initially, but it faded fast.
The shave was close–about as close or slightly closer than most of the others with the Strangelet, but that sting kept it from being an almost perfect shave.
Comfort: 22 out of 25
Quality/Closeness: 23 out of 25
Overall: 22 out of 25
Thursday’s Shave, #201. The TOBS Strangelet shave.
The setup:
- Razor: Henson AL-13 medium
- Blade: PAA Platinum Strangelet Super Sharp
- Pre-Shave: Proraso Sensitive pre-shave cream (white)
- Brush: Omega 10019 boar shaving brush
- Soap/Cream/Gel: Taylor of Old Bond Street Organic Shaving Cream
- Alum Block: Stirling Soap Co. Alum
- After Shave: Nivea Sensitive Soothing post shave balm
#201! The first of the next 100 shaves went extremely well.
The TOBS (Taylor of Old Bond Street) Organic Shaving Cream makes a wonderful, luxurious lather, and paired with the Proraso white pre-shave, I had a nicely slick and protective lather. While the Strangelet blade still felt duller than it started out, paired with the Henson mild, it provided an excellent shave, and again, I intentionally kept myself from going too far in cleaning up my neck and that resulted in a shave with no irritation, not even with the alum, and a remarkably close shave. In short, this was another almost perfect shave–one of several from this blade, which makes me feel a little guilty that I can’t really say I plan on restocking the blades.
Again, I’m proving that with the right setup, a mild razor paired with a mild blade can deliver a great shave with little or no irritation. And I’m proving that I’ve learned enough to ensure good or great shaves in almost every shave.
Next week, I move on to revisit another Gillette blade. Stay tuned for those weeks of shaves!
Comfort: 25 out of 25
Quality/Closeness: 23 out of 25
Overall: 24 out of 25
