I’ve been shaving with the Proraso white combo since early March of this year. And the Proraso soap was the second soap I purchased and used in shaving. It because a long-time staple of my Sunday shaves, becoming the defacto standard to start my shave weeks. But now that I’ve added the Proraso blue and green lines to the collection, it has to share the stage a bit.
But not this week.
I’m back to the Proraso white line this week in a pretty big way, hoping to answer a couple of questions. Yes, experimentation continues, even as I close in on my 200th double-edge safety razor shave.
My Sunday shave this week uses the Proraso white soap, but since I also purchased the Proraso white shave cream, I figured I need to compare the two. So Thursday’s shave will use the cream. I don’t expect much difference in the shaves. I’ve learned how to lather both very well, so I don’t see there being any difference in the lather or the slickness in the shaves, but you never know until you try, right?
Of course, the other experiment this week is the last week (for now) of using the Gillette 7 O’Clock Super Stainless Green blade, this week with the Henson mild razor. I expect great things, as the Rockwell delivered an almost perfect shave with this blade on plate 3 (mild-medium), and on the last shave of last week with the Henson medium. But sometimes expectations don’t become reality. So that’s why I’m trying this–to see how this blade stacks up in my 3 favorite razors.
And the bonus this week is that I’ve chosen the Arko shave stick to be the lather on Tuesday’s shave. I’ve been looking forward to these shaves for a while.
So there’s the setup for the week. Let’s see how I did!
(Just a quick reminder that this is the start of the new rating system for my shaves. That will be reflected in the numbers below. Also, remember that the overall rating is rounded down, so that a shave can’t be elevated to a higher quality if not intended.)
The Ratings
Sunday’s Shave, #189. The Proraso White Soap shave
The setup:
- Razor: Henson AL-13 mild
- Blade: Gillette 7 O’Clock Super Stainless Green
- Pre-Shave: Proraso Sensitive pre-shave cream (white)
- Brush: Proraso boar shaving brush
- Soap/Cream/Gel: Proraso Sensitive shave soap (white)
- Alum Block: Stirling Soap Co. Alum
- After Shave: Proraso Sensitive aftershave balm (white)
It’s been a solid month since I last lathered up the Proraso white soap, so it was a happy return to an absolute favorite. With the Proraso boar brush, the soap lathers very well and I’ve used it long enough where I’ve got the feel for just how much water it needs on a given week. Today was no exception, as I had an excellent thick but slightly watery lather to apply.
After today’s shave, I can say that the Henson mild and the Gillette green seems like a perfect pairing. The shave was incredibly comfortable and very close, even as I made sure to limit the number of passes. In fact, I didn’t make an extra pass at all, just using the three, finishing things up on the neck with a With the Grain pass, just to try to clean things up and lay down the hairs.
I know I say it probably more than you’d expect, but this again was a shave that just brought me joy. I enjoy lathering the soap, I love Proraso products (you’d think they’d hire me as a pitch man, since I love it so much, but no), and I really enjoy the whole of my Sunday shaves, from trimming my beard in the shower, to the whole shave, to the beard oil and beard butter I use after the shave is over.
This shave was almost perfect (23 or 24 out of 25 on the new scale). The comfort was incredible, with very little blade feel, but enough to know and hear that it was having an effect, and only a momentary sting when I put on the alum. The closeness, now a full 90 minutes after the shave, has settled into a nice, smooth feel with the grain, with only a very few spots of stubble felt when feeling against the grain. This was the kind of shave I really want every day.
Comfort: 24 of 25
Quality/Closeness: 23 of 25
Overall: 23 of 25
Tuesday’s Shave, #190. The return of Arko.
The setup:
- Razor: Henson AL-13 mild
- Blade: Gillette 7 O’Clock Super Stainless Green
- Pre-Shave: Razor Emporium Unscented Pre-Shave
- Brush: Omega 10019 boar shaving brush
- Soap/Cream/Gel: Arko shave stick
- Alum Block: Stirling Soap Co. Alum
- After Shave: Nivea Sensitive Soothing Post Shave Balm
Okay, I know that the intent with a shaving soap stick is that you rub the soap on your face, and then come back with a damp shaving brush to lather it. I’m not there yet, I mean after all, this was my second time using it. But instead of taking a small spoon of soap off of the stick and putting it in the shaving bowl, I rubbed the stick around the dry bowl to leave a nice film of soap. Then I lathered it there.
The Arko soap lathers very well, among the top of my collection, and is thick and slick, even when I make it slightly watery. The smell, as I noted last time I used it, to my nose is just a strong soapy fragrance, but it doesn’t stick around long, especially after I applied the Nivea balm.
So how was the shave? This is another almost perfect shave. I did make an extra pass to knock down a few spots, but all that seemed to do is make for a little bit of sting with the alum that lingered while I had it on. It was very close and very comfortable, as I’d expect with this razor and blade combo.
For the rating, the slightly increased sting drops the comfort rating, but the closeness is still up there, making for an almost perfect shave.
Comfort: 23 out of 25
Quality/Closeness: 24 out of 25
Overall: 23 out of 25
Thursday’s Shave, #191. The Proraso white cream comparison shave.
The setup:
- Razor: Henson AL-13 mild
- Blade: Gillette 7 O’Clock Super Stainless
- Pre-Shave: Proraso Sensitive pre-shave cream (white)
- Brush: Proraso boar shaving brush
- Soap/Cream/Gel: Proraso Sensitive shaving cream (white)
- Alum Block: Stirling Soap Co. Alum
- After Shave: Proraso Sensitive aftershave balm (white)
Wow. There’s a lot to unpack here–all good, but it’s a lot of things.
First, recall that part of this week’s shaving was to discover whether the Proraso white soap or cream performed better for me. And I can say that they seem even, though the cream definitely produces more lather faster. The lather smells similar and certainly has about the same slickness. I guess I’m not surprised, but this needed to be done.
Second, this was an almost perfect shave. Again. The third of the week, and I’ve only had one other week like that: the Henson mild with the Dorco Platinum HQ Red back in July. This one was marginally better than Sunday’s shave, where I needed an extra pass to get more closeness, but today, I didn’t need the extra pass and there was almost no sting with the alum (no sting would have made it the first perfect shave).
Finally: I could be perfectly content just shaving with the Proraso software. It all really does just make me happy and perform extremely well on my face and neck. Now, I’d miss the other soaps that I love, but really, I would be perfectly happy just sticking with Proraso if I had to.
So the last three weeks have showed me something: that the Gillette 7 O’Clock green blade works very well for me with a milder razor. IT was almost perfect with every shave with the Henson mild, once with the medium, and once with the Rockwell 6C plate 3.
I’ll set this blade aside for a bit as next week I’ll take on a new to me blade.
Comfort: 24 out of 25
Quality/Closeness: 24 out of 25
Overall: 24 out of 25
