The Straight Road - Part 74: Bocote Week
This week marked the beginning of my "Getting To Know You" phase with regard to my shaving gear. I have decided to shave for a whole week with the same kit, just to see if I can get a little deeper into the nuances of the blades, the brushes, the soft products and the whole experience. Since I had such a great shave last week with it, the first candidate was the W&B 7/8 Barber's Use in Bocote, the match TGN Finest Bocote Brush and a great lineup of products: Trumper's Coconut Shaving Soap, T&H West Indian Limes, shaving cream ASB and Cologne and, finally, Dominica Bay Rum. A week of tropical shaves to get me in the mood for spring as things warm up around here.




The Anticipation
This week was a more relaxed week as far as my schedule was concerned. With SWMBO Jr. on March Break and attending camp all week, there was no dancing insanity and rushing. I was determined to enjoy a few morning shaves, which I was able to do on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

The Prep
Each shave was prepared for in the same way, with a nice hot shower to wake me up in the morning. My standard stropping routine of late is just to go for fifty passes on the wonderful 'roo strop that episaacs made, then lay the blade aside, ready to go. For brush-soaking, I have been experimenting with just running it under very warm water for about a minute, then a few shakes and onto the soap. As a pre-step, I take a dab of the T&H cream and rub it onto my face.

The Lather
I am pleased to report that the lather I got in all three shaves this week was great. The combination of the coconut soap, the lime cream and the finest badger knot makes for a wonderful merengue of lathery goodness. The other pleasing aspect was the consistency from day to day of both my technique and the resulting suds. Gone are the days of the same brush and product producing variations for me, which I consider a good thing. Lather enough for two passes and touch ups, with some left over, was the norm.

The Shaves
Again here, there was not much variation, which is a good thing. Monday's shave was probably the worst, as I did feel a little bit of roughness left behind on the right side of my chin. By Wednesday, that had been improved upon to the point that there wasn't much there at all. The only problem with Wednesday's shave was that my attention to the chin wasn't as great, which left me with a bit of a rough patch on the point. The great thing about using the same gear for a few days was the ability to perfect things to the extent that, by Friday, I was completely smooth, I got everything taken care of on the chin and, overall, the shave was great!

The Post
Here is where I mixed things up a bit, as I am experimenting a bit with the alum block. On Monday, I used only witch hazel following the shave, then applied the Bay Rum, the ASB and finished up with a few dabs of the cologne. This left me smooth and well-moisturized, without the dryness I was getting from using alum. On Wednesday, I switched things up a bit, skipping the witch hazel in favour of the alum block. Again, I got a nice smooth feeling, without tightness of dryness. Maybe alum will work in warmer weather. One thing's for sure, the Bay Rum stings a lot less when it follows the alum versus the witch hazel. This morning, I rotated back to the witch hazel and did find a fair bit of sting in the Bay Rum, though nothing to extreme. I think, in the future, I'll combine alum with this Dominica and perhaps witch hazel with other aftershaves that don't quite have the same bite.

The Verdict
What more could I want from my shaving than smoothness, comfort and a great overall feeling? The combination of products for this week was surely a winner, though I still have a lot of samples left! This little sample of Trumper's Coconut soap shows no signs of running out, which leads me to believe that it will be making quite a few more appearances. I have pretty much put SGAD on hold for the time being, given my PAD and PTAD (pipe and pipe tobacco, for those of you not acquainted with my latest ADs). I should have enough products to hold the fort for a long time! There are still samples in my cupboard I haven't even touched yet. Ah...variety, isn't it great?

Enjoying the spice of life on The Straight Road!

Things are going well around here as I ding 84 shaves. Tomorrow I have a full day of travel, but I might squeeze in a straight, or maybe DE, shave in the morning. My pipe collection is coming along nicely and I'll post some photos once I get a rack to hold them and display them a bit. I am also working on building a bit of a tobacco cellar, which will allow me to age some blends and enjoy them at later dates. And by cellar I mean Mason jars and a cupboard. Anyway, there's lot's going on, it's Friday and 21C here in Toronto, so let's have some fun!

Thanks for reading.

Cheers,

Jack