My seventh shave was eventful because of the generosity of many of my new DE wet shaving friends, who conspired to stop me from using my beauty supply DE razor, Persona blades and Tri-coastal White Birch and Tobacco shave butter. I was gifted both long and short handled Mekurs, a few new blades, a new bowl, two badger brushes and some better shave soap. I had arrived I thought, but as always be careful what you wish for.

With my stepped up gear, I proceeded to do my seventh shave and as I started to lather my Italian shave soap in my new bowl, I received a shock. The soap wouldn't lather. I was crestfallen, but don't cry for me Argentina I scrapped up a fingernail more of soap and tried again, but to no avail. My bowl contained a milky bubbly mixture. It was like trying to crank up a new Ducati motorbike and getting nothing. So, I fumbled through less than stellar shave and if many of you recall, sent out the alarm of my post "foam consistency...when is it right?" Well, you guys showed up with great advice, that had me release the errors were in my prep work. Previously, with less than standard product I had not hit all of the traditional benchmarks, but with better gear, there was a different approach. Namely, using about a almond size amount of soap, less water than more, and more product to start until I gain more experience, so I could get the job done. With, that in hand...well, we'll discuss that in shave number eight.

The take away is that the forum had my back and with your counsel and sage advice allowed me to step back from the ledge and now my foam is much better. Better prep work, equates to better techniques, which leads to better performance, equals a better outcome. My ego was taking a gentle pounding and I wasn't even ten shaves in, but I was thankful for the guidance, which provided a valuable lesson