Thread: Christmas shave

That Christmas SR is really great! I got some brilliant ideas

I have about 8 straight razors, but I don't have any kind of rotation. Usually I choose my SR and soap or cream by the mood I am. I have only one new SR which was my first. All the rest are vintage blades. I have one old SR from 1920-1930 which I call "Executioner". I haven't even hone it yet because somehow I am afraid it

Very nice Christmas razor!

I am hoping to finish an old French wedge restoration by then and give it its first go (with me).

Since this Christmas I will receive my very first straight razor, strop and badger brush, I will always think of Christmas morning as a special day for a special shave no matter what equipment I will have in the future.

It's only shaving...only if you treat it as such

This will be my first Christmas shaving with a SR.
And to think I almost let it pass without something special!

I will have to put some thought into this.
Thank goodness for threads such as this!

Originally Posted by Jaatinen1982

I have been straight razor shaver for almost a year. I started to wonder what kind of special rituals people might have about shaving at christmas. Do you have special shaving soap or SR that you use on your christmas shave. I have already my own rituals about wet shaving but I am interested to hear from you too.

What comes to my christmas shave ritual I am going to mix old finnish folklore and straight razor shaving. First I go to christmas sauna and smack myself with punch of birch branches (called vihta or vasta in finnish). Sauna and vihta smoothes nicely stubble and skin so this works as pre-shave. Then I use my favorite C.V. Heljestrand SR and Col. Conk's amber shaving shoap. I do all three passes and then use cold towel after shave and aftershave balsam.

Althought I have noticed that I start all important celebration to me with wet shaving.

That's a nice idea that I haven't thought about before. It might be an idea whose time has come, because I'm going to catch up on my honing today and I'll have a lot of razors to choose from Christmas Day.

As my signature suggests, shaving has become somewhat of a celebration every time I do it because the four decades of futility I experienced before finding this and other sites nearly four years ago.

The razor I choose is always a "shave time decision," but the strop will definitely be my Roo, and the soap will probably be Arko in the tub. For aftershave, I'll use either use Bergamot or Bay Rum.

Certainly others have a Christmas shave planned? We could go on to a New-Year's shave as well! Any holiday shaves from our Hebrew bretheren and any others?
Holiday shaves, anyone?

I have only one straight these days - I sold the other 10 I had - so the shave will be:

Dovo Best
restored Eveready brush with a Golden Nib 22 mm best badger knot
Proraso Blue cream - picked up at Bigelows in Greenwich Village in October
AV Ice Blue AS
Nivea ASB

I have been away from the straight for a while now, and sold my collection to pay off a new guitar. However, I decided to make the jump back into straight razors again. I ordered a dovo Palisander from classic edge to have a second razor.

I just placed an order with SRD for a dot 325 and a Naniwa 12k to go with my Norton 4/8.

Really looking forward to 2014 and getting back in the straight razor groove.

All the best gents, and Happy Christmas to all.

Barry
Steveston BC

Been experimenting with different alternatives. The Klaas is set, the Secret Santa brush is a must. Tried the C&E sandalwood tonite, very nice. A strong possibility.
Actually the shave tonite was fantastic.

Today 24th is the celebration day of christmas here in Finland. I just started heating my sauna. It is 9am. I left tarsoap in sauna so there will be nice fragrance of tar floating around. I can already feel smooth shave on my face and almost can't wait until sauna is heated up. I maid two vihta last summer and frozen them in freezer, I just opened wrapping around those and there is already nice smell of birch.

Merry Christmas!

Originally Posted by Jaatinen1982

Today 24th is the celebration day of christmas here in Finland. I just started heating my sauna. It is 9am. I left tarsoap in sauna so there will be nice fragrance of tar floating around. I can already feel smooth shave on my face and almost can't wait until sauna is heated up. I maid two vihta last summer and frozen them in freezer, I just opened wrapping around those and there is already nice smell of birch.

Merry Christmas!

Hyvää joulua for you too,

We leave sauna for evening. At noon we're about to get into city to watch the declaration of christmas peace. A tradition that has been going on in this city for more than 700 years. Too shame it's damn storm going on right now. Hope we don't lose electricity. There's already flood and the main road to the city is already cut. Luckily there's another, giving us some 20 km more.
The day goes by eating some ham and then just taking it easy. The kids are already grown ups so we do not give any presents.