Christmas shave

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.

As you know, the big day up here is the 24th, not the 25th.
I always bring out my very finest equipment on the morning of the 24th for a grand shaving experience.
Normally I shave at night, but that is one day where I will always shave in the AM.
On Christmas day I never worry about shaving.
That is a day too full of activity, both indoors and outdoors, to worry about stubble:)

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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.

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No christmas sauna ever without vihta. Sort of a tradition. Already have ours made.

Well, being a Grinch nothing special really. Just what ever blade comes up in rotation plus whatever soap and brush I feel like using that day.

Bob

I tend to to have special shaves on special occasions. I have no such designated razor or products I'm committed to for any given day; but I do have a stash of 'special occasion' razors that I use for a special shave.

This Christmas I think I will be using a 200 year old greaves stub tail, mama bears northwoods camp with AOS ocean kelp über lather and a homemade rosemary mint bay rum. Gonna strop her up on my certifyd Red imp 700. I will likely shave before the gifts, and finish off the shave by making a fire and drinking some eggnog.

Though I am torn at this point, I may pull out my W&B celebrated, as it hasn't bad it's fair share of face time this year.

Merry christmas!

I would love to try a traditional Finnish sauna. In fact, I have a day-dream of visiting Finland and renting a summer cottage.:D

My holiday shave will be a relaxed shave sometime late morning. I know I have some shaving stuff under the tree so I am looking forward to trying something new.

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Originally Posted by Leatherstockiings

I would love to try a traditional Finnish sauna. In fact, I have a day-dream of visiting Finland and renting a summer cottage.:D

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It's not bad idea at all to rent a summer cottage at Finland :) Finnish sauna is best pre-shave I know and I'm glad I own wood heated sauna. But you got to remember that if you ever get to finnish sauna, it's not same thing if you don't have finnish buddies with you :)

I'm warming sauna early in morning and going to use for few hours, cool off once in awhile. It makes stuble really soft and easy to cut. I have had my BBS's usually after sauna. I'm not getting any shaving products for gift because I have already too much. Well that is my wife's opinion ;)

I have an 8 year old tradition of pulling the old Ern Mistletoe razor from the drawer, stropping it up and going at a Christmas day shave before trundling off to the in-laws house. The old girl was toe-heavy honed, but always shaves great!

Attachment 150203

After last years jolly old shave, I decided a face-lift was in order for this once-a-year razor! I reshaped the blade to a nice smile and set a nice bevel thru 1k with 2 layers of tape!

Attachment 150204Attachment 150205

I have always wanted some "Christmas tree" celluloid scales, too pricy!
So I used some liners from a rotted-away Novelty Cutlery razor and some strips from Hobby Lobby for decorating flip-flops! Some bartop epoxy!
Stay with me, now! :rofl2:

Attachment 150207Attachment 150208

Silly thing, but much more festive, to me anyway! :D I need to get it taped back up and run it thru the hones for Christmas day when I will face-lather some nice MDC with my newest brush, "Amedaus" and clean-up good for a fine day with family! ;)
That's the plan!

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No sauna for me, perhaps a hot bath and some tunes. Bit of preshave and break out the MWF for its first go. (I don't quite understand why I'm as excited as I am by this.)

Either which way it's going to be a leisurely one.

I might pull out an expensive special soap and nice a top brush and razor, but no elaborate rituals for me and all my products and razors are in regular rotation anyway. I suppose the difference is that the wife doesn't bug me if I take a little longer on Christmas Day lol

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!

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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.

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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!

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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!

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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.

Well.......I like the idea of celebrating Christmas eve more so than day myself. I have no sauna unfortunately. I have a good stock of food for breakfast snack and supper as does my cat. I will break out my hones today as I am a lousy honer and do some practicing. Maybe the good lord will give me a good edge and I could work out a nice SR shave for the day. That would be nice. Merry Christmas fellas.

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Originally Posted by Sailor

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.

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I was spreading aftershavebalm when I herd from tv that declaration of christmas peace started. What a perfect timing :) It starts my family christmas always, no christmas without it.

I wasn't going to shave today but last night this post inspired me to strop up a razor so I can shave this morning. Using the Bismarck I bought myself for Christmas last year and A/S balm I just opened from wifey :-) . Merry Christmas everyone, hope your edges are sharp and smooth

Well I just laid everything out for the Christmas morning shave that is going to end in BBS. After a very hot shower. I have a vintage solid brass brush handle with a new silver tip knot in it I have been meaning to test. And I might as well crack open a new puck of Mama Bear's Dragon Blood to to break it in. Then the Reaper I just finished is going to get it's maiden run now that it splits a hair length wise :<0). It should be a nice relaxing morning before all the relatives get here for breakfast. I hope you all enjoy your Christmas !

It is christmas day and time to tell was it as good as I thought it would be.

I chose vintage sr C.V. Heljestrand MK 30 for shave. It was my first time with that razor. I used Col. Conk amber shaving soap and eShave's cucumber aftershavebalm. I spent in sauna about hour and half using vihta. I rubbed my face with really warm vihta. Col. Conk soap was almost half year at my friend who was getting know to wet shaving so I was thrilled to get it back at last. I hadn't shaved for a week so I got really strong stubble.

I made nice lather and did tree passes. After sauna it was like I wouldn't had stubble at all, C.V. cutted really great stubble, There wasn't even normal sound of shaving, all sr shavers know what sound I mean :) It was absolutely great shave, result was BBS and didn't had to do any touch ups.

My christmas shave was absolut success :)

Sorry to say but I missed out on my Christmas shave, and most of the day. The day was supposed to go like this: open presents in morning, a hike with dogs, a shave and then go to a friends for a couple of drams, and finally Christmas dinner with some friends.

I made it through the hike with the dogs. The rest of the day was spent between the bathroom and bed. I had to struggle to get my shave finished last night.

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Originally Posted by Leatherstockiings

Sorry to say but I missed out on my Christmas shave, and most of the day. The day was supposed to go like this: open presents in morning, a hike with dogs, a shave and then go to a friends for a couple of drams, and finally Christmas dinner with some friends.

I made it through the hike with the dogs. The rest of the day was spent between the bathroom and bed. I had to struggle to get my shave finished last night.

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Oh duuuude...that sucks ! I am so sorry. I hope you are feeling better? Hope maybe New Years will be better for you also.....get well soon.

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Originally Posted by Nightblade

Oh duuuude...that sucks ! I am so sorry. I hope you are feeling better? Hope maybe New Years will be better for you also.....get well soon.

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Feeling much better, thanks.
A line from a Radiohead song comes to mind...you do it to yourself, you do, and that's what really hurts:)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Leatherstockiings

Sorry to say but I missed out on my Christmas shave, and most of the day. The day was supposed to go like this: open presents in morning, a hike with dogs, a shave and then go to a friends for a couple of drams, and finally Christmas dinner with some friends.

I made it through the hike with the dogs. The rest of the day was spent between the bathroom and bed. I had to struggle to get my shave finished last night.

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Oh man, that really sucks. Not sorry for missing the shave but getting sick on christmas. Well, now you have whole year to plan next christmas shave :)

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Originally Posted by sharptonn

I have an 8 year old tradition of pulling the old Ern Mistletoe razor from the drawer, stropping it up and going at a Christmas day shave before trundling off to the in-laws house. The old girl was toe-heavy honed, but always shaves great!

Attachment 150203

After last years jolly old shave, I decided a face-lift was in order for this once-a-year razor! I reshaped the blade to a nice smile and set a nice bevel thru 1k with 2 layers of tape!

Attachment 150204Attachment 150205

I have always wanted some "Christmas tree" celluloid scales, too pricy!
So I used some liners from a rotted-away Novelty Cutlery razor and some strips from Hobby Lobby for decorating flip-flops! Some bartop epoxy!
Stay with me, now! :rofl2:

Attachment 150207Attachment 150208

Silly thing, but much more festive, to me anyway! :D I need to get it taped back up and run it thru the hones for Christmas day when I will face-lather some nice MDC with my newest brush, "Amedaus" and clean-up good for a fine day with family! ;)
That's the plan!

Attachment 150209Attachment 150210Attachment 150211

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That is very unique, and a great idea!