DaveWave94

05.09.2025

• Brush: TGS Galaxy 26 mm
• Razor: RazoRock Cyber Medium w/ Superknurl handle
• Blade: Willy’s Premium
• Lather: Declaration Grooming - Cuir et Epices
• Post-Shave: Alverde - Men ASB
• Passes & Info: 2 passes on the head, 1 on the neck. Good shave.

My only day off this week, so this shave was to put a good finish to this day.

I still remember back when DG was all the rage, nowadays it’s seemingly less popular. Milksteak is still a good base though and this scent is very great. “Leather and Spices” if I’m not mistaken and it’s exactly that: like an expensive leather bag full of delicious spices. Got this one a few years ago by the recommendation of sahenders, who said it might fit well with TF Oro Valley and it surely does. But also shines on its own - I really like it. The blade today is yet again made in India, but it’s better than The Gentleman’s and Parker Premium: really solid first shave, I’m indeed impressed.

Weekend shifts are usually pretty calm, so I don’t really dread working tomorrow and Sunday. Plus it’s just 6h shifts, so I should even be fine after work. Everyone else: have a nice weekend!

03.09.2025

• Brush: TGS Galaxy 26 mm
• Razor: Leaf Thorn
• Blade: Derby Premium (half DE)
• Lather: Wholly Kaw - Transition
• Post-Shave: Lavera - Men sensitive ASB
• Passes & Info: single pass only on the head again. A little bit of burn once I applied the ASB lotion, otherwise a good shave.

A quick shave after I trimmed my stubble beard down. The really short lengths look best with a skin-close shave up top in contrast IMHO. WK Siero is always nice to use and Transition has such a smooth, mellow and warm scent. I can’t pick out anything individually, but it’s seriously very good and relaxing to use.

The 3rd RN shift was a huge improvement over yesterday’s miserable day. It seems like my colleagues are indeed happy to have me around, just don’t have enough time to explain everything thoroughly. Tomorrow I will have another early shift, but this time with a team member who’s universally hated at this station. We’ll see how it goes, I try to stay as neutral as possible.

02.09.2025

• Brush: TGS Galaxy 26 mm
• Razor: RazoRock Cyber Medium w/ Superknurl handle
• Blade: Personna Super
• Lather: A&E - Peach & Cognac
• Post-Shave: OAM - oli del benessere, sensitive skin toner
• Passes & Info: single pass head shave only. Nice and smooth, but the blade slowly loses its edge.

Just a quick shave before bed. I had a bad mood, so Peaches & Cognac to help lift my spirits. Always get a good lather, surprisingly always without any frag burn as - like every other A&E soap - the scent strength is enormous with this one.

Day two as an RN and it was seriously bad. The onboarding process is so disorganised at my workplace that it effectively didn’t happen today: I had my own side together with an assistant nurse and that’s it. See for yourself what you’ve got to do. Wonderful 🙄
At least by noon one of our higher-ups showed up to congratulate me on my successful exam, so I could give her the documents they still needed from me. Not much time for other talking though, as they also had a meeting for 13:30 scheduled. Fun times. 😮‍💨

01.09.2025

• Brush: RazoRock Beehive 28 mm
• Razor: Leaf Thorn
• Blade: Derby Premium (half DE)
• Lather: HAGS - Creatures of the Night (mutton tallow base)
• Post-Shave: OAM - oli del benessere, sensitive skin toner
• Passes & Info: 1 pass on both head and neck. Very comfortable shave.

Just another use of the Thorn, this time with a very slick mutton tallow lather. I had some trouble getting a good lather going, but worked it out in the end. The final result was very slick and made for nice shaving.

My first day as an RN was rather uneventful: basically the same work as before. Our higher-ups weren’t even present today, as they had to attend some event. So apart from getting a few congratulations - nothing special. Honestly, I’m a bit disappointed. But as I got home, I found a letter from the central of the welfare organisation my nursing home belongs to: they invited me to an event at the end of September, where they want to have a meet & greet w/ new trainees and those who successfully finished their degree this year. Sounds nice and I think I should attend; they also want to award the best new nurses, so I guess that’s why they didn’t just send me an email as usual. We’ll see…

31.08.2025

• Brush: RazoRock Beehive 28 mm
• Razor: Leaf Thorn
• Blade: Derby Premium (half DE)
• Lather: Zingari Man - The Rambler
• Post-Shave: OAM - oli del benessere sensitive skin toner
• Passes & Info: a single pass on the head and on the neck, a really smooth solid shave.

A night shave before my first shift as a RN tomorrow. Kinda nervous, kinda excited.

Rambler’s sweet scent is kinda intoxicating, normally I’m not too keen on sweet things but this one is really fascinating. Had worked up a really good lather today, so it was quite enjoyable to shave today.

Have a good start into the new week!

😂
I’m sure it was a bit like a broken record, it was drawn out over months.

Thanks in all sincerety 🙏🏻

Thank you!

No worries, I think it’s good advice. I’ll stay in touch through messengers with the most important ones and we made plans to meet up again. 😉

Thanks! 👍🏻

Today was our certificate ceremony with a little celebration afterwards, so it was a pretty exciting day for me.

I already got all my written exam results on Wednesday and I was really surprised how good I was:

• Written exams: day one: 1/A; day two: 2/B; day three: 1/A
• Practical exam: 2/B
• Oral exam: 1/A

For a final score of 1,4 for my exams stand-alone and 1,2 for the theory of all three years of my retraining combined. Together with another classmate, we were awarded as the best male and female new nurse of our year respectively. Each of us got a nice flower and 50€. I never, ever was the best in anything… So currently I am really proud of myself. The only thing we have to wait for is our official nurse title, as this is handled by the state administration office and official documents take time to be printed. I hope we can hold them in our hands by Mid-late September. My mentors/practice instructors from my workplace were at the celebration too and seemed to be really happy about both me and another colleague/classmate passing our final exams.

The biggest part of my class went to eat at a greek restaurant with our teacher after the main celebration was over, which was just a twelve minute drive away. It was nice to wind down with good food, joke around and to revel in memories of the past 3 years.

What’s my plan now? I’ll stay working at my nursing home, just with reduced hours for the first year (30-35 h/week depending on staffing and workload) and then I want to become a mentor/practice instructor myself. For now, I’m so damn satisfied to have mastered a big step up in my career. My emotions are a weird mixture of pride, happiness and satisfaction, but also sentimental melancholia because I’ll most certainly miss a few classmates a lot…

29.08.2025

• Brush: RazoRock Beehive 28 mm
• Razor: RazoRock Cyber Medium w/ Superknurl handle
• Blade: Personna Super
• Lather: Barrister & Mann - The Full Measure of Man
• Post-Shave: OAM - oli del benessere - sensitive skin toner; moisturiser
• Fragrance: Bentley for Men Intense EdP
• Passes & Info: 2-pass head shave, a bit rushed but thankfully no irritation.

I actually did this shave way earlier, before my certificate ceremony w/ celebration - but I just now found the time to post.

This shave was great, even though I had to do it very fast. I didn’t stretch my skin very much, just went with long strokes of the razor. Two passes were necessary this way, so I don’t know if I actually saved that much time. I still showed up late (though not last) because the school had chosen a very remote location for the ceremony - had to walk through mud after finally finding a place to park my car and almost ruined my good leather shoes 🙄 More in the FTF thread.

FMoM seemed quite fitting to me: I like good tobacco scents and despite not owning it for long, it’s one of my absolute favourites. The mild razor helped so I don’t cut myself, as lots of photos were taken. My class - at least the biggest chunk of it - went to a greek restaurant with our teacher after everything was done. A nice day and a good shave beforehand, what more can I ask before the weekend?

Thanks! 🤝🏻

Indeed.

a necessary sacrifice for sure.

Thanks! 🙏🏻

Thanks! It’s like a huge burden was lifted from me.

26.08.2025 | Celebratory Shave

• Brush: RazoRock Beehive 28 mm
• Razor: GEM Micromatic Bullet Tip/Flying Wing, gold plated
• Blade: Personna GEM PTFE
• Lather: HAGS - Barberwood
• Post-Shave: HAGS - Barberwood toner
• Passes & Info: 2 passes on the head, single ATG pass on the neck; kinda rough shave due to a new GEM blade, still enjoyed it very much.

It is done. Finally, I passed the last exam today and I aced it! It was an oral exam where we had to draw envelopes with different case studies and questions regarding nursing topics. My first draw was shite, but thankfully you get another: woohoo! A child w/ neurodermatitis, blood sampling, medical advice for the parents, skincare for ND and the impact of chronic illnesses on young people. Totally up my alley, so I passed with flying colours (A/1). Couldn’t be happier since.

I wanted at least a short shave to celebrate, but in the end it was enough lather for 3+ passes. So I went with it, even though the shave was a bit rough thanks to the new GEM blade. Well, I wanted to use my only golden razor. Still worth it - as much as I dislike the generative AI tub art of this soap, the scent is so good. A bit sweeter than I usually like my barbershops, but at least the toner brings more of the woody notes that its name promises. This isn’t the best HAGS base IMHO, even though “Hathor” sounds like the premium line. To me, the best is undoubtedly the mutton tallow base which seems to be a common preference in the wetshaving hobby. IDK, maybe sheep are really slick & greasy?!

Tomorrow we’ll get our final results of all exams in the afternoon and on Friday our graduation certificate. I’m really stoked 👌🏻

Thanks. Aced it.

This sounds just as bad as a bear encounter. I sure would’ve died. Good that you got home safely!

How was your hiking trip? Glad you weren’t eaten by a bear!

25.08.2025

• Brush: RazoRock Beehive 28 mm
• Razor: RazoRock Cyber Medium w/ Superknurl handle
• Blade: Parker Super Platinum
• Lather: Wholly Kaw - Vor V
• Post-Shave: Moon Soaps - Old School “balm”
• Passes & Info: 2 passes on the head, 1 on the neck. Not the worst shave, but this blade isn’t very sharp either. One small blood spot on the scalp, another on the neck.

Skin issues yet again, so I used one of my mildest razors available. I seriously don’t know WTF is going on with my facial skin, but I kinda got it under control with charcoal soap, a mild peeling and ceramide cream. Moustache and soul patch are gone for good, but no face shaving in the foreseeable future either.

Anyways, I still wanted a shave to calm down and center my focus on something nice. I’m really nervous about tomorrow’s oral exam and it’s been hard on me. So this was my type of relaxing & self care for today. Vor V with its awesome fruity leather scent, another indian blade with a platinum coating - this one is kinda good, but still too dull for my preference - and the misnamed aftershave lotion by Moon. The latter seems to finally go really bad, I’m afraid I’ll have to dump it.

Despite those little blood spots, the shave was actually not that rough. At least I’ll look sharp for tomorrow; I just want to get it over with and finally finish my retraining, get my degree on Friday and be done with learning dry stuff. I’ll just need to pass this final obstacle!