Shave of the Day - A Memorial Shave

Welcome to Sorrell Shaves

Today is a hard day for me, as it marks the sixth anniversary of the day we lost my dad.  He was a great man, who taught me many things, one of which was shaving.

 

I started out at a tender young age, finding whatever razors were around at the time (usually BIC disposables, the horrible orange plastic things) and hacking away at the fuzz emanating from my young face.  When my dad cottoned on, he taught me the ways.  I started out with what I recall being a Gillette Red Tip, only to migrate to a Gillette Sensor Excel, a Gillette Mach 3 and on occasion when I was out of blades, my dads Wilkinson Sword Quattro.

That brings me on to todays shave.  With six years passing, I'd not been able to bring myself to use my dads razor, but it is something left to me and it is something he'd want me to do.  So, with that in mind, this last week I set about obtaining the things I needed to replicate a typical shave of my dads.  I had his razor handle (Wilkinson Sword Quattro), and his old brush (another Wilkinson Sword brush).  He was a regular user of either L'Occitane Cade soap or the Wilkinson Blue Bowl soap.  I had also been left his old L'Occitane bowl but this was beyond use due to corrosion, so I purchased a replacement.  Sadly, the Cade soap has been discontinued, but I had a Wilkinson Blue Bowl soap in my collection already.  I simply put the puck in the L'Occitane bowl, an acceptable hybrid of items.  I purchased Quattro Titanium blades for the first time, £7 for four cartridges!  I remembered well his use of two splashes as I grew up, Brut and Old Spice.  I had the Old Spice in my cupboard too.  I added the Phoenix & Beau Balm as I know he would have sung it's praises highly.

With that, I prepared in my usual manner with a hot towel whilst the brush soaked.  I loaded the brush heavily on the puck as I was going to face lather today.  I took the time to lather whilst I contemplated the vast amount of happy memories, and it felt like my dad was standing there with me, like the first time he showed me how to lather.  I took the razor to my face, and found that the shave passed quickly and without drama.  I performed a two pass shave as my dad taught when I was a youngster, first with, then against the grain.  The razor gave a very good shave, close and smooth.  I did have to load the brush again for the second pass, but this is typical of the small knotted brush.  Once the shave was finished, I performed my cold towel session, then finished with the balm and splash.  A good shave was had today, it was a nice way to remember my dad on this hard day.

Hot Towel, Wilkinson Sword Blue Bowl Soap, Wilkinson Sword Boar, Wilkinson Sword Quattro, Wilkinson Sword Quattro Titanium (1), Cold Towel, Phoenix & Beau Balm, Old Spice