Mary Kay & The Doc:

I know I said that my next shave would be Sunday, but I could NOT wait so I went ahead and used my latest acquisition with the Phoenix double open comb safety razor and it was an incredible shave. It was a true BBS shave. The Mary Kay foam has really impressed me in the performance department and the aftershave lotion is awesome. I'll definitely be looking at getting more of the aftershave lotion and I'm also wanting to try the men's colognes that they have to offer:

For those that still use the canned shaving foams and gels out there with a safety razor and are wondering how well the Doc. performs using those types of products, get this razor. It was phenomenal and had no trouble going through the canned foam and my beard at all today. The straight razor is still my personal favorite, but in terms of safety razor this one is the best you can get period.

Coffee Mail Call:

Today's mail call is from Soap Commander and this is their son Noah Seibert's latest coffee venture and it's simply amazing. You can smell the mint and the chocolate and the fresh coffee which is an amazing scent. I've never had coffee this fresh before with the exception to a coffee house out in Seattle, Washington and that stuff I had out there was horrible. Soap Commander's coffee is perfect. Between the aroma of freshly roasted and ground coffee grinds, with a little hint of chocolate and mint, you can't go wrong with this coffee:

I love the way this coffee sample was packaged:

The coffee being sealed the way that Noah seals it on top of this packaging, you don't have worry because the coffee does not lose its flavor while in transit:

And using a friend's brewing methods, I couldn't wait and decided to brew a pot and let me tell you that the aromas coming from my coffee pot really blew me away in a good way, wow:

It's got really good clarity and the aromas are smooth:

This tells me that it's a dark roasted coffee and does have a lot of flavor which is a good thing:

I like to put ice in my coffee to cool it off so I can drink it:

The flavor is phenomenal. I get a dark roasted coffee with a little hint of both chocolate and mint that was NOT over powering like you would get with most store bought flavored coffees available at your local supermarkets. It's also extremely smooth and easy to drink as well.

My Next S.O.T.D:

Since I got such a good shave today, there won't be another S.O.T.D. until this coming Sunday, November 8, 2015 and I will be using the same products only with a DE safety razor instead of a straight razor. The reason behind this is because I've never shaved off a heavy growth with the Phoenix Double Open Comb safety razor before and I want to see how well it performs with a heavy beard growth using these same products I used in today's shave:

When I ordered the double open comb razor, I had stopped shaving before so I could really give it an acid test and I already had 2 day's worth of beard growth. Unfortunately I could only go 7 days because the United States Postal Service decided to keep my razor in Phoenix, AZ for over a week which ended up being 2 weeks late because of it, so I went ahead and shaved and shortly after it arrived, I had already started shaving daily. So I never got to use it against a lot of beard growth. That's about to change this coming Sunday.

Mary Kay Shave Products:

This was an incredible and enjoyable experience. Today I had a beautiful and lovely lady friend of mine named Scarlette Long stop by and try out Mary Kay's shave products for men and I was extremely impressed with these products and the performance they had. The scent of these products is a masculine but fresh scent and have a really solid scent strength. I was really blown away by the men's colognes that she had available which I plan on adding to my collection. So far my personal favorite is their High Intensity Sport scent which has a fresh masculine scent with a little hint of sweetness and I did pick up a slight hint of Vetiver in the scent. I couldn't have asked for a better shave than what I got today. The foam had plenty of cushioning ability and the slickness was ok. It did tend to dissipate out a little bit, but not much and one of the ingredients of both the foam and aftershave lotion was Aloe Vera Leaf juice which makes for a comfortable post shave and is very soothing on the skin. And these will NOT aggravate sensitive skin either:

Below was before the shave and as you can see, I had my work cut out for me:

This was the most comfortable shave I've ever had with a straight razor since I've been using them and with this one being fresh off the stones, that makes it even better:

The final results speak for themselves. I got zero sting from my alum block and no sting at all from the aftershave lotion which was incredible. I basically got another "ice rink type of shave" yet again:

From left to right you see the aftershave lotion, the sunscreen and hydration cream which I used as a preshave and last but certainly not least the shave foam itself and these products will go a long way:

I couldn't have had a better and more enjoyable experience than I did today. I kindly didn't want her to leave because she is such a sweet woman that lights up a room when she enters it. Thank you Ms. Scarlette Long. This was fun and it went too fast.

4 Days of Beard Growth:

Well here's what 4 day's worth of beard growth looks like for me. I've had a really long friggin day today so please excuse the rather rough looking hair stubble (oops I meant messy hair dew). My last shave was on Halloween so you can imagine what my next shave will feel like:

And from the front view:

A large number of people often don't believe me when I tell them that I can grow a beard extremely fast and something like this removes all doubt. This is only 4 days worth of beard growth. Imagine what 7 days would look like or worse, an entire month's worth of beard growth. I'd look like the classic wolfman if I didn't shave for a month plus I'm pretty sure I couldn't take it or go that long without shaving. The longest I've ever went without shaving was 10 days and that was because I was in the hospital for 42 days.

Mail Call:

Today's mail call is from Mr. Steve Walker who organized the Face Book group called "The Dirty South Shavers" meet up that took place not long ago. And these samples are awesome. Steve Walker also does YouTube videos which are very informative and very entertaining. Here's the link to his channel and you should really check him out: 

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCovDyrte7DFQW6yf3oJIjbQ

So far my favorites are PAA's 9 which is an exact match to the gun cleaner known as Hoppe's #9 which I do have some here for a sniper rifle that I use to have, along with Mickey Lee Soapworks "Pantie Dropper", Soap Commander's "Dixie", Reef Point's "Dragon's Blood":

Thank you Mr. Steve Walker and tomorrow while I'm out, I'll get some kind of disposable containers for these very fine soaps that you sent to me. Thank you so much my friend.

1 Day's Beard Growth:

This is why I normally shave on a daily basis ladies and gentlemen. Besides having the same texture as barbed wire, my beard grows pretty fast now that I'm healthier than I use to be along with the fact that my facial hair follicles are now healthy again. Before I started traditional/wet shaving 2 years ago, I shaved with various cartridges for 24 years and over time, that does some serious damage to not just the skin but also to the hair follicles which is why it takes longer for your hair to grow back after using cartridges. This is only 1 day's worth of beard growth for me, so you can imagine what I'll look like this coming Wednesday:

The only reason I don't shave my head is because the only real option for me is a device called "The Head Blade" which uses a cartridge which is very uncool to use. Now if someone can come up with a device that allows someone to use either a DE or double edge blade and/or injector/Feather Artist Club injector blades with the Head Blade, then consider it sold because head shavers everywhere would definitely buy it:

Now I'm letting my beard grow out a little bit for 2 reasons. The first one was addressed in my last blog post which is to not only give myself a break from the usual grind that I've been doing for the past year, but also to give both my skin and my face a break from the trauma of daily shaving (less traumatic now that I've quit using cartridges which now shows). The second reason is because I want to give this new product a fair but tough chance to succeed. Now please remember that I last shaved on Halloween around 10 AM. It's now about 1 AM as I write this, so around 10 AM I will have a whopping 2 day's worth of beard growth so this shave will feel extremely good.