Mantic59's Shaving Journal

Mantic's Holiday Shaving Gift Guide

2009-12-01T13:43:00.005-06:00

I thought I'd jot down a few ideas for those of you who'd like to "drop a hint" about shaving related holiday gifts. I've browsed around many of the traditional shaving vendor sites, and been in touch with several of them, to see what holiday deals they may be offering:

The book Leisureguy’s Guide to Gourmet Shaving is considered by many the "bible" of modern wetshaving. Now in its third edition.

Lee's Safety Razors will be conducting its "Twelve Days of Christmas" promotion again this year. Starting 2 December Lee's will be posting a special for the day. Last year's promotion had some pretty spectacular deals so this is something to keep an eye on.

RetroRazor has the following holiday deal:

RetroRazor starter kit includes a chrome Weishi handle, 15 blades (Derby Extra, Dorco, Red Personna), cleaning brush and travel bag. RetroRazor starter kits are already 25% off the retail price ($36) with free shipping, a tremendous value, but tis the season for gifts of shaving: Buy 2 starter kits and save 5%, 3 kits will save 10%, 4 kits save 12%, and 5+ gives 15% off at checkout. Additionally, we have a limited number of Mantic59 gift guide codes for an additional 10% off . Use MANTIC59 at checkout to see if you qualify.

Em's Place will be offering free shipping on any order of $100.

Saint Charles Shave will be offering complimentary products on all orders over $25 (excluding shipping) beginning December 3rd thru December 15th.

Super Safety Razors tells me:

We recently dramatically increased our line of razors and brushes on our site. All are currently on sale for the holiday period.

As I find more deals I will pass them along!

Taking The Plunge

2009-12-01T12:58:00.001-06:00

The things I do for you people. Ever since I started making shaving videos I've had requests to make one (or more!) about shaving with a straight razor. I've resisted those requests because, frankly, I didn't really want to mess with it. Straight razors are expensive, fussy to maintain (IMHO), and difficult to learn (comparatively speaking).

But the requests just keep coming. So I recently went over to Straight Razor Place for some advice. And to make a long story a little shorter, I found a relatively inexpensive "beginners kit" I can use to play with and--perhaps--learn enough to do a video. Don't expect anything tomorrow though. I plan to take several months to learn and practice. A decent video is probably a year off.

Contest Winners!

2009-11-25T21:18:00.005-06:00

Here are the winners to my 5000 subscriber celebration contest! There was great response and the selection process for the first two contests was really tough! For the third and forth contests I assigned each response a number and used a random number generator to select the winners.

Due to the Thanksgiving Holiday in the US it may be early next week before some of you are contacted for your shipping information! I will be out of town for a few days during the holiday so don't panic if you don't hear from me right away!

Video Responses:

First Place, and winner of Simpsons Commodore X1 shaving brush courtesy of Leesrazors, a Parker 22R razor with 100 shark blades courtesy of Super Safety Razors, a set of shaving cream samples courtesy of Truefitt & Hill, and a jar of Hydrolast aftershave skin conditioner courtesy of Enchante is AnarchicError

Second Place, and winner of a shaving gift box with everything you need--brush, razor, blades, soaps, and aftershaves, courtesy of Connaught Shaving is Shavemacman

Written Entries:
First Place, winner of a shaving brush and muhle razor courtesy of the Shaving Shack and a set of shaving cream samples from Truefitt and Hill is NathanHulsey. Second Place, winner of a blade sampler and Weishi razor courtesy of Retrorazor is m1foley. Third place and winner of a $25 (CDN) gift certificate from Rasage Poulin is Bit2.

Winners of the after-market Merkur Progress dials are MarkGauvreau (for the dial from IKON) and slipknot998 for the dial from Mer).

Finally, the random winners of prizes of shaving creams and soaps from QED, Emsplace, Prairie Creations, Bullgoose Shaving Supplies, Vintage Blades, Saint Charles Shave, My Time Bath & Body, Jopo's Emporium, and Mama Bear:

TrooperDobbs
jamin4gt
MrBawston
JustinmTee
Xezmer
jmuscold
DanielScottLipe
grigutis
dan219089
OrangeRazor

Congratulations to everyone who won and a huge THANK YOU to everyone who participated!

Contest Ended!

2009-11-24T21:30:00.001-06:00

My 5000 Subscriber Contest has officially ended! Winners will be announced shortly!

Facial Mapping

2009-11-24T13:23:00.000-06:00

Where can I find those cartoons of the face with the little arrow that map beard direction?

You mean these?

Kind of, but the ones I was thinking of had redlines on the face diagram showing which was to shave for the 1st, 2nd, and possibly third 'shaves'.

You misunderstand: the red arrows on those faces were for MY beard growth pattern. You need to take the blank face and map YOUR growth pattern (it could be completely different than mine)...everyone's a little different.

In any case, I will provide links on the right side of the page to these "blank" diagrams for anyone to download and print.

Ingrown Hairs

2009-11-17T08:16:00.002-06:00

Thanks so much for your informative videos! They have inspired me to shave properly, with shave cream, a badger brush and a DE razor. Now I am thoroughly enjoying what used to be a chore. I recently purchased a Merkur Futur, which is has been a great experience. I wonder though, how do I stop ingrown hairs? My neck area is sensitive and even following your careful instruction, lathering properly, whenever I shave "against the grain" I get ingrowns. Am I not shaving properly? or is my shaving angle wrong?Any tips you have would be appreciated!!

There are several things you can try to deal with ingrown hairs. First, prevention. Dial the Futur down when shaving your neck, reducing your beard a little more slowly in that area. You need to be sure the area is clean of lather residue--rinse very well with hot water instead of cold after your last pass. For additional cleansing try soaking a cotton pad with Witch Hazel, a hydrosol, or even a non-alcholic aftershave "splash" and wiping down the area, rinsing with tepid water afterward. Then re-apply the splash or use a light aftershave balm. Avoid heavy aftershave balms.

If you get an ingrown anyway, some people have gotten excellent results by using a soft (dry) toothbrush on the area just before going to bed: it exfoliates the skin just enough to expose the ingrown through the skin so it grows back out (I've tried this myself and it works great for me!). If its more serious it might be time to investigate a product like Tend Skin (or a DIY alternative of a crushed plain aspirin tablet and a few drops of water. Apply to the area and let it sit for five minutes, then wash it off).

5000 Subscriber Contest

2009-11-10T21:29:00.000-06:00

I'm coming up on a milestone. There will shortly 5000 subscribers subscribers to my videos. Imagine that--5000 subscribers for videos about shaving. I can't let this go without some kind of celebration. so I'm going to have a contest. But not just one contest, FOUR contests! Each of these contests will have there own prizes, thanks to some awsome shaving vendors!

The first contest is a video contest. Make a video about traditional shaving. Maybe its a tip or trick you want to pass along. Maybe its the story on how you got interested in traditional shaving. Or maybe its a video of yourself shaving. Here are the rules: first you have to subscribe to my Youtube channel if you haven't already. Second, the video has to be created after the date of this posting--no responding with a video you've already made. And finally, you must own all the rights to your video. I'll pick the winners of this contest.

The second contest is a written contest. Write a paragraph or two about traditional shaving, kind of like the video response: a tip or what traditional shaving means to you, or whatever. You can leave it either as a comment to the contest announcement video or as a comment to this posting. The only rule is that you have to be a subscriber to either the video channel or the blog depending on where you leave your comment. To subscribe to the blog you can either use the google follow function or sign up for email feeds or some way where I have a method of contacting you if you're a winner. I'll pick the winners of this contest too.

The third contest is just for you shavers who use a Merkur Progress razor. All you have to do for that is leave the word PROGRESS as either a response to the video or this posting. Again, you have to be a subscriber as well. The winners will be chosen randomly from the responses.

For The last contest you don't have to do anything except subscribe to either the channel or the blog and leave a comment that you want to be entered in the contest. Winners will also be chosen randomly from the list of entries.

So now that you know what to do lets look at the prizes up for grabs!

First prize for the best video gets a Simpsons Commodore X1 shaving brush courtesy of Leesrazors, a Parker 22R razor with 100 shark blades courtesy of Super Safety Razors, a set of shaving cream samples courtesy of Truefitt & Hill, and a jar of Hydrolast aftershave skin conditioner courtesy of Enchante. Second prize is a shaving gift box with everything you need--brush, razor, blades, soaps, and aftershaves, courtesy of Connaught Shaving.

First prize for the best written entry includes a shaving brush and muhle razor courtesy of the Shaving Shack and a set of shaving cream samples from Truefitt and Hill. Second place includes a blade sampler and Weishi razor courtesy of Retrorazor. Third place is a $25 (CDN) gift certificate from Rasage Poulin.

For the Progress contest there will be two replacement dial prizes, one from Mer and one from IKON, so you can get rid of that ugly knob at the bottom of the razor.

For the last contest where you dont have to do anything I have a bunch of awsome prizes, from places like QED, Emsplace, Prairie Creations, Bullgoose Shaving Supplies, Vintage Blades, Saint Charles Shave, My Time Bath & Body, and Jopo's Emporium. Plus there may be a couple suprizes thrown in for good measure.

All these contests end two weeks from now, so get going!

Weird Razor

2009-11-10T16:30:00.000-06:00

I just purchased a merkur razor off of ebay. it was brand new in box, but the entire head of it was warped or twisted. it this normal for safety razors to be torqued?

Does it look like this?

Yes it looks just like it. I think it is a Merkur Heavy duty or something like that. For my first safety razor what would you recommend? My brother wants one too so I need to get another one anyway. I am on a budget though so I dont need anything too fancy. Just get the job done.

No, what you have there is a Merkur "Slant Bar" razor. The razor is torqued to (supposedly) provide a more "efficient" cut than regular razors. It does by design what a "Gillette Slide" does by technique:

I have a slant in my "stable" of razors and it is a little more "aggressive" compared to other razors I have (and more likely to nick myself). If I feed it a very high performance blade like a Feather it becomes positively dangerous: in experienced hands it can give an incredibly close shave but that combination is not for the novice!

Off Topic But Necessary

2009-11-04T08:34:00.006-06:00

I couple months ago I had posted here that I was going to avoid non-shaving-related postings. Here's an exception because I think it needs to be talked about more openly.

I just had a colonoscopy.

Fun times, eh? I've heard a lot of stories about how painful and embarrassing they can be so I want to share my experience with those who may benefit from a "first hand" narrative.

(tl;dnr summary: its not that bad)

By way of background, I have had a steady stream of "encouragement" to get a colonoscopy for the last six months or so, after two events: my mother getting treated for colon cancer (successfully by the way) and a second, life-threatening gastric ulcer (the first one was four years ago, caused by H. Pylori bacterium and the second one this past May caused by an idiot primary care physician over-prescribing Ibuprofen for a back problem). After the second ulcer episode the gastroenterologist "suggested" that I get a colonoscopy to make sure that "the other end" didn't have ulcers. My (new!) primary care physician also "suggested" the procedure both as a second opinion to the gastroenterologist and also since I was hitting the age of 50 anyway. I delayed as long as I could until last month my wife went SWMBO on me and scheduled the procedure.

So, here's what happened. For the three days prior to the procedure I had to avoid eating beans, peas, popcorn, corn, and grapes.

The day before the procedure I had to be on a clear liquid diet: chicken or beef broth, tea, coffee (black), white cranberry juice, sports drinks (e.g. Gatorade), apple juice, white grape juice, orange juice (no pulp), carbonated sodas, etc. No dairy products or anything that had red or purple coloring.

At Noon that day I started the "purge" by taking two Bisacodyl pills. They started working about 4pm with what I can only describe as a "butt explosion." OK, make that several "butt explosions." It was a LMD--Laxative of Mass Destruction. Seen a Space Shuttle launch? Yeah, its kind of like that: I thought I was going to get launched off the commode. But there wasn't any pain or cramping associated with it and while "the urge to go" was fairly sudden I did have time to make it to the bathroom.

Coincidentally this was right at the time I was supposed to start drinking "Halflytely." This is stuff you mix with two liters (!) of water and is drunk in 8oz increments every 15 minutes. So for the next 90 minutes I'm drinking and going, drinking and going.

(By the way, this process used to be a lot worse from what people have told me. Halflytely is the successor to "Golytely," an apparently truly ghastly concoction. Halflytely tastes a little like a lemon-lime soda that has "gone flat." While not exactly great tasting I tolerated it easily even with the quantity I had to drink. But whoever thought up the name "Golytely" and "Halflytely" should be taken out and shot. There is nothing "light" about the results.)

Anyway, the worst of it was over by about 9pm. After Midnight and up to the procedure nothing by mouth allowed: no clear liquids, chewing gum, mints, cough drops, etc...nothing. I still had to "go" periodically overnight and into the next morning, and it was still pretty forceful, but less and less came out. Out of curiosity I weighed myself before I started and again just before I left for the doctor's office: I lost 4kg (that's almost 9 lbs).

My appointment was scheduled for 11am the next morning; its an out-patient procedure at the clinic my gastroenterologist is associated with. I sign in, answer a lot of medical questions, pay the fee (gawd, I have to PAY to have this done to me...), and get taken to the preparation area. I undress and put on a hospital gown. More questions from another nurse and she starts an IV with a fluid-replacement mix, though she tells me its really there to make the medicines they'll give me take effect more quickly. OK, I'm a little nervous now, but the nurse assures me that the medicine they'll give me will put me to sleep and I won't feel (or at least remember) a thing.

My wife gives me a smooch and bids me adieu as they wheel me out of the prep room and into the endoscopy room. The first thing I notice is the endoscope...with a loooooong tube attached to it. *Gulp* They hook me up to the monitoring equipment: BP 140/80, pulse 90, pulsox 98%, etc. I try not to think of the loooooong tube and look at the pulse monitor to do some biofeedback. Pulse drops to 80. More people come into the room and go about their business. Pulse goes up to 100 briefly; I tell myself to relax and pulse goes back to 80. Finally the doctor comes in: this man has (literally) saved my life twice so I trust him and I stay relaxed for the moment. We chit-chat for a minute and everyone seems ready to begin. I look at the nurse next to me and ask "I'm not going to remember any of this, right?" She smiles and says "goodnight..."

I'm next dimly aware of a strange sound, almost like groaning. Then another sound also like groaning but somehow different. I wake up a little more and open my eyes: I'm in the recovery room with my wife and a nurse and *I'm* groaning. My stomach is very uncomfortable, almost like gas cramps. The nurse gently massages my abdomen and tells me to try to pass gas. What's going on? No one told me they shoot air up there! For the next 30 minutes or so I try moving around, walking, sitting, anything to get things going. Finally I get a couple good "toots" out and I start to feel a little better. My abdomen isn't quite so hard so they send us on our way: my wife drives us home.

I'm still pretty uncomfortable though. My wife suggests "hugging" an electric heating pad to try to relax some of the abdominal muscles. It takes another 30 minutes or so but then I start having some truly impressive flatus: louder and longer than anything I have ever experienced (no smell though. Remember, nothing but air is in the intestines at this point). By 8pm I feel good enough to have a small meal. By the next morning I feel fine.

So there you have it, everything you secretly wanted to know about a colonoscopy but were too afraid to ask.

Counterfeit Shaving Brushes?!?

2009-11-03T16:19:00.001-06:00

I've heard of knock-offs of name-brand shoes, purses, and watches. But shaving brushes? Apparently someone is trying to pass off fake Shavemac shaving brushes. More information on spotting the fakes can be found HERE on Shavemac's site. Be sure to buy your shaving products from reputable vendors.

Reminders

2009-10-31T12:27:00.004-05:00

Kind readers have reminded me of three other video topics I need to do:

Straight Razor Shaving
Update to "Method" Shaving
Ladies Leg Shaving

I popped over the straight razor place to start doing some prep research on straight razor shaving. It'll probably be a year before I would feel confident enough in my skills to do a video on it. That one will probably end up last on my list of videos to do.

My Inbox Overfloweth...

2009-10-26T22:13:00.001-05:00

Yes, despite the real world getting in the way (medical issues, putting together a home office, remodeling the guest bathroom to better accomodate video shoots), I really am working at getting some videos out the door over the next few months. Here's what I'm working on (in no particular order after the first four). I'll be happy if I can get one video out per month so this represents the next year or so of work.

5000 subscriber celebration & contest
"After the Shave" (aftershave balms, splashes, alum, styptic, etc. Might have to turn it into a multi-part video)
Lathering Mitchell's Wool Fat Shave Soap
The Goodfella Razor
Maintaining Sideburns
SE razors (GEM, Injector)
Tips On Buying a Shaving Brush
Witch Hazel
The "Philosophy" of Shaving
Getting A Shave At Truefitt & Hill In Las Vegas
Inexpensive Shave Brush "Battle Royale"
Dealing with Ingrown Hairs
Dealing with Razor Burn
Dealing with Razor Rash

Very Cool TV Story

2009-10-23T12:42:00.002-05:00

Check THIS out! THIS too! Plus the related THREAD over at Badger and Blade.

Facebook Fan Page

2009-10-08T12:13:00.001-05:00

I'm setting up a Facebook "fan page." More info coming (as I try to figure out how it works).

A "Stock" Posting?

2009-09-21T12:57:00.003-05:00

I sometimes post on forums that are not related to shaving but have a shaving-related topic going on. I recently wrote this as a reply to one such topic (the original poster was wondering why he was getting "redness and these little white bumps" after shaving) and I think I may just keep it as my "stock" answer to a lot of shaving gripes:

Repeat after me: preparation and reduction, preparation and reduction.

Most people don't prepare for a shave adequately; they splash on some water for a couple seconds and then slap on some goo from a can and expect to get a decent shave out of it. Some people can...most can't. The fact is that it can take up to three minutes to fully hydrate the face before a shave. Shave after showering if you can. If not, wash your face with a gentle facial soap (not a freakin' body bar or deodorant soap!) and lots and lots of the hottest water you're comfortable with.

And for gods sake, use a decent lather. Just about anything out of pressurized can won't cut it. The propellent causes little pockets of air in the cream or gel which will dry out the skin. Then they have to put in artificial lubricants to try to make up for it (more chemicals on your face, meh). Use something from a squeeze tube or better yet a traditional shave cream or soap that you use a shaving brush with. You'll be *amazed* at the difference.

OK so you've got a decent lather going. Now you're going to reduce the beard in stages instead of trying to get everything all at once. Shave--using as little pressure as possible on the razor--in the direction your hair grows in (with the "grain"). Don't try to get every last hair at this point, the idea is to comfortably knock down the worst of it. Take your time and use relatively short strokes--maybe an inch or so at a time. Rinse with hot water and relather. Now shave *across* the grain (90 degree angle) to knock down a little more beard. Rinse with hot water and relather. This time shave across the grain from the opposite direction. Rinse with hot water and relather. Now shave against the grain. After getting the hang of this technique you can start working on short-cuts: maybe you don't need that second cross-grain pass or you don't need that last against-grain pass after all, for example.

OK you're done shaving. Rinse again with hot water, thoroughly. You want to get off any gel or cream residue that still might be on the face (some gels stick to your face like grim death and will clog your pores and give you ingrown hairs or shaving bumps if you're not careful). Now go ahead and splash on some cool water to start sealing the pores. Finish with an aftershave that doesn't have alcohol as the 1st ingredient.

My Grandfather's Shave Kit

2009-09-10T21:50:00.001-05:00

My sister found my late grandfather's shaving kit and sent it to me. The razor is a Valet Autostrop.

Wetshave Vendors Coming Through!

2009-09-04T13:17:00.003-05:00

WOW, what a response from the wetshaving vendor community! I made a few tentative inquiries regarding prize donations to my 5000 subscriber contest idea. To date I have commitments from more than 15 vendors, with more coming in! At this rate I think I will be able to have more than one contest--I'm thinking one video-based and one blog-based--with multiple prizes for each category. This could be completely awsome!

Contest?

2009-09-01T09:15:00.000-05:00

I'm coming up on what I consider to be a remarkable milestone: I will soon have 5000 YouTube subscribers! I'd like to celebrate by holding some kind of contest. I'm contacting various vendors to see if they would contribute prizes (gotten some positive feedback already).

What kind of contest ideas do you have? I suppose I could just choose a number of subscribers randomly but I would rather so something a little more creative. If I get enough prizes I suppose I could do several different things!

Off Topic - Mantique59

2009-08-24T13:59:00.003-05:00

Mantique59

Last Chance For Howcast Voting!

2009-08-24T13:53:00.001-05:00

Howcast's "How To Video Challenge" voting period ends at 8:59 pm PDT tonight. Vote for my "How To Get A Better Shave" entry HERE. Help me get into the top ten? Even if you voted previously, you can vote again! Thanks!

Howcast Contest Restarting

2009-08-17T08:27:00.002-05:00

Howcast has re-started their "Video Challenge" contest. Because of the previous "irregularities" there have been a few changes:

"Viewers will now create a Howcast account or sign in to their existing account in order to vote. They will be able to vote on as many videos as they want and any one video, once per day. Please tell your friends, family, and fans, a super easy way to create a Howcast account is to use Facebook Connect, which will appear as an option when they attempt to vote. (Using Facebook Connect means they won't have to type in any information to create an account.)"

So hop to it! Head on over to Howcast, get yourself a free account and vote for my entry every day!

Happy Anniversary To Me

2009-08-14T06:41:00.001-05:00

Wow, three years ago today I posted my first shaving video to YouTube:

It now has almost 300,000 views.

Howcast Voting Temporarily Suspended

2009-08-13T13:13:00.003-05:00

Howcast has suspended voting in their contest due to "irregularities" (yeah, I was kinda wondering why some pretty lame videos where getting some significant votes). Their explanation is here. I'll let everyone know when it starts again!

Vote For ME!

2009-08-12T07:00:00.000-05:00

If you've read this blog a couple weeks ago you know I've submitted a how-to video to Howcast's "How-To Video Challenge." Now is the time to vote for me! From the rules:

"...viewers will have one week to vote on their favorite videos to select the pool of finalists. During the voting period, viewers may vote for as many videos as they like, but may only vote for each video once each day. Finalists--the top 10 entrants with the most votes--will be judged by a panel of film, video, web, and how-to professionals to determine the 1st, 2nd and 3rd place winners."

So vote for me every day! Here's how: go to THIS page and click on the "thumbs up" button!

Off Topic - The End Of Physical Therapy!

2009-08-05T12:55:00.001-05:00

LINK