Shave of the day 28th September

Pre-shave: Dr Bronners Peppermint Soap
Lather: LEA shave stick
Brush: Omega #50014 travel brush
Razor: Merkur 985CL open comb travel razor with a fresh Lord
Post-shave: Cool water rinse, alum, and Krampert’s Finest Bay Rum Aftershave, some LEA After Shave Balm
Beard care: Wet Shaving Products Matterhorn Beard Oil

Shave of the day 26th September

Pre-shave: Dr Bronners Peppermint Soap
Lather: Aubrey Organics North Wood
Brush: N/A
Razor: BiC Sensitive SE
Post-shave: Cool water rinse, alum, and BodyShop Maca Root Energetic Face Protection
Beard care: Scotch Porter Beard Balm and Big Red No7 Beard Comb

Shave of the day 23rd September

Pre-shave: Dr Bronners Peppermint Soap
Lather: Prairie Creations Walter
Brush: Vie-Long #13051M unbleached pure horse
Razor: Gillette 1958 TV Special Superspeed butterfly with a Persona Platinum
Post-shave: Cool water rinse, alum, and Myrsol After Shave Formula K
Beard care: Scotch Porter Beard Balm and Big Red No7 Beard Comb

Shave the… corpse?

I find weird things on the web some times:

(click to make bigger and readable)

I can understand why you might want to shave a corpse – if you’re doing an open casket funeral, that is – and a razor cut would be most unflattering. So a niche product for a niche marked, but quite possible a forerunner for todays depilatory cream?

Shave of the day 21st September

Pre-shave: Dr Bronners Peppermint Soap
Lather: Arko shaving stick
Brush: Turkish No7 ‘horse hair’
Razor: Gillette 1958 TV Special Superspeed butterfly with a Persona Platinum
Post-shave: Cool water rinse, alum, and Krampert’s Finest 80 Below
Beard care: Scotch Porter Beard Balm and Big Red No7 Beard Comb

Alum is alum – or not

Taken from a thread on my favourite shave forum:

Alum is alum.

Yes, but also no.

Finding the relevant posts would mean going back in the archives a few years, but the key take away is as follows:

  • Alum is both a class of chemical compounds and a specific chemical compound – much in the same way as salt*. The specific compound is potassium alum (aka potash alum, or potassium aluminum sulfate), with the chemical formula KAl(SO4)2. More widely, alums are double sulfate salts, with the general formula AM(SO4)2·12H2O, where A is a monovalent cation such as potassium or ammonium and M is a trivalent metal ion such as aluminum or chromium(III).
  • Potassium alum is a naturally occurring compound, which in the past was obtained from alunite, a mineral mined from sulfur-containing volcanic sediments source. Historically it’s been used as a natural deodorant, and as an astringent/styptic and antiseptic –  in addition to the use for tanning, dyeing, clarifying liquids, fire retardant, and pickling.
  • Other alums such as soda alum, ferric alum, and ammonium alum are manufactured, and can be used for many if not all of the things naturally occurring alum is used for. However; since these are different chemical compounds, they will vary in toxicity, taste, skin feel and other properties**.
  • The most common alums used when shaving is potassium alum and somewhat less commonly ammonium alum (aka ammonium aluminium sulfate). The later is sometimes considered inferior, since most shavers feels that it stings more. There is also been claims that there is a link between the use of ammonium alum and dementia, however I have found no solid studies in the field after a brief look.

TL:DR? Stick with potassium alum, but don’t freak out about it.

*    ) By salt we commonly mean sodium chloride, but salt is also a class of ionic compound that results from the neutralization reaction of an acid and a base.
**  ) Much like lead diacetate is wildly different from ordinary table salt in taste (it’s sweet) and toxicity (it’ll give you lead poisoning).
***) Too Long – Didn’t Read. Said whenever a nerd makes a post that is too long to bother reading.

Shave of the day 19th September

Pre-shave: Dr Bronners Peppermint Soap
Lather: Proraso Eucalyptus & Menthol Cream
Brush: Omega #10048
Razor: Gillette 1958 TV Special Superspeed butterfly with a Persona Platinum
Post-shave: Cool water rinse, alum, and Krampert’s Finest Bay Rum Aftershave
Beard care: Scotch Porter Beard Balm and Big Red No7 Beard Comb