Kevin's Weblog

3) Go skiing

Yesterday I went out to Mt. Hood Skibowl for my first day of skiing in 6 or 7 years. Muscle memory is pretty amazing, because after the first couple runs I was skiing pretty competently. I wasn’t quite ready to start dropping into double-black couloirs again, but I felt pretty good.

I was pretty happy with my choice of resorts. Skibowl is cheaper than other places about Mt. Hood and it’s the closest one to Portland. I got there in a little more than an hour. The mountain doesn’t have huge vertical, but there’s a lot of advanced terrain; more than I was up for exploring. The snow quality was good (13" new in the last 2 days) and it was suprisingly uncrowded for a weekend. I would joke about people staying home to watch the Oscars, except that the crowds started to pick up after 3PM, when the night skiing tickets start.

The only real complaint I had was that all the lifts are old, slow doubles. Real old. With no safety bar or leg rests, and small enough to make you feel a little nervous. I’m not a big guy, but I was happy to be riding solo most of the time so I had enough room to fully expand my shoulders and to be able to hook my arm around the center post for a little extra feeling of security.

The weather was what it was. With fresh snow comes snowfall. Over the course of the day it ranged from overcast to light flurries to heavy snowfall of the big, wet, soak-your-clothes, aren’t-you-glad-you-have-GoreTex snowflakes variety. For about 15 minutes there was sun and it was beautiful. I’m either forgetting exactly what I used to wear skiing, or I’m less cold-tolerant these days, but I was downright chilly for much of the day. Next time I’ll bring another layer, I guess.

I seem to have recently exposed myself as something of a shavegeek, and since Marc did ask, here’s what I use to shave:

My razor is a Merkur “Long Classic” Safety Razor. This is a classic double-edged (DE) safety razor and, at least for me, it gives a closer shave with less irritation than a modern multi-blade cartridge razor. It does take a little practice because the head doesn’t pivot, but it’s not too tough. The most important difference in usage is that you don’t want to apply any pressure while shaving, since the blade is somewhat more exposed than in a cartridge (although, it’s still much more protected than a straight blade — this is a “safety” razor, after all). I load my razor with the so-called “Israeli no-name” blades; they’re as good as the name brands, and you’ll pay no more than $15 for a 2-3 year supply. If I were doing it again, I’d probably get the standard size razor, rather than the long. The long is more similar in size to what you’re probably used to, but the style of using these razors is a bit different and the extra length is superfluous.

My brush is a Vulfix badger bristle brush. I think it’s a #849, but I’m not certain. As I mentioned previously, the point of the brush is to beat a small amount of shaving cream into a large quantity of thick lather, which you then work into your whiskers to get them stuck standing up in the lather. This is the same basic idea that you see in commercials for multi-blade razors except that it works much better. I’d recommend sticking with a fairly small brush as you can apply the lather more precisely that way.

I rotate between a couple shaving creams. On the traditionalist end is Trumper’s Violet Shaving cream. You can get it at QED, which is one of those sites that doesn’t let you deep link, or from Amazon. This stuff produces excellent thick lather, with a subtle floral scent. (By the way, in the tub it’s a strong purple color, but that gets completely de-saturated when you whip up the lather, so what goes on your face is white not purple, which might be a little alarming.) My other daily staple is Nancy Boy’s Signature Shave Cream which is a bit more strongly scented and seems more luxurious and pampering. It’s what I reach for when my face is feeling a bit worse for the wear (like after that shave at HairM). I should point out that the guys at Nancy Boy are pretty flamboyantly gay, so if that bothers you, well, you’re going to miss out on some fantastic personal care products. The last cream I have on hand right now is Proraso, which is a classic product from Italy, and available at Target as well as online. It has eucalyptus and menthol oil in it, which produces a nice refreshing cooling effect in the summer. I also find that I get the closest shaves with it. Actually a touch closer than I would like most of the time, which can lead to a little razor burn. I’ve found, though, that using a couple drops of Pacific Shaving Oil before putting on the Proraso produces a good effect. I’ve also used Taylor’s shaving cream, which is very similar to Trumper’s but less expensive and with a somewhat different selection of scents

Finally, aftershave... I use Trumper’s Coral Skin Food, which is just amazing. A little pricey, but you only need two drops at a time, so a bottle will last you a year or so. This version has a nice rose scent which I like a lot; there’s also a lime scent available. Again, you can find it at QED or Amazon.

On Price: The initial reaction of most people is that this stuff is pretty expensive. That’s true to some extent, but I think that in the long run it’s the same or cheaper than what most guys are using (and your face will be happier). The biggest savings in going to be in blades. Remember I said you can get 100 blades for about $12-15. That same amount of money will buy you 4 Gillette Fusion cartridges. Proraso and Taylor’s creams are pretty reasonably priced; Trumper’s and Nancy Boy are a bit more, but in either case you only use a small amount at once and a tub will last you much longer than the common aerosol cans (perhaps 6 months to a year).

On Starting Out: If you’re not sure you want to go all the way with this system, which is admittedly going to cost you about $100 to get started, here’s my recommendation. First, ditch whatever aftershave you’re using and get some Skin Food. There’s no reason you can’t use it with everything else you’re using now, and you’ll want this stuff when you switch away from using shaving cream with the numbing agents that they add to keep you from realizing how much you’re beating up your face with your current razor. For the next step, you can either pick up a DE razor and try it with your current cream or gel; or get some Nancy Boy, which you can use without a brush (although it’s better with) and with your current razor. Then, if things are going well for you so far, take the plunge and get the rest of the gear.

On Speed: By way of fair disclosure, this way of shaving is slower. You need to soak your brush before use, you can’t go as fast with the razor, you need to lather up again before your second pass, and changing blades is a little more work. On the other hand, you’ll get a better shave, your face will feel better, and you’ll enjoy the process more. Instead of shaving being a chore involving bits of plastic and aerosol cans, you can luxuriate a bit in the ritual and enjoy using objects that feel good in your hand and products that actually smell nice!

On Travel: It took me a while to figure out how to travel with this setup. Initially, I just reverted to my old Mach 3, but my face was clearly unhappy with this, travel already being hard on your body. There are sets designed specifically for travel, but you’ll end up paying for all this again and I wanted to avoid that. After some trial and error I found a system that works and requires minimal additional expense. I use Proraso on the road, because the tube packs better. (You can get tubes of Trumper’s also, which I might do after I run out of Proraso.) For a while, and for longer trips, I would just travel with my razor empty and a couple fresh blades, but for short trips it’s a bit of a waste to toss a blade after just one or two shaves. So, I ended up buying an link<-->inexpensive sheath that protects the blade during travel. It’s sort of ghetto, but what I found works for my brush is an empty toilet paper roll. It’s the right size and the brush slides straight through to avoid damaging the bristles. I just stick a bit of tape over each end to keep the brush in there. I suspect if you were a little more ambitious, a trip to a hardware store might yield a bit of PVC pipe with screw ends that would work similarly but be more durable.