parker 60r taught me what less aggressive safety razor means
I felt that I didn't give the TTO a fair shake, so I bought the Parker 60R safety razor and gave it a go.
When I said that at some point I may buy a proper TTO, I thought I might as well do it now. TTO means twist-to-open. This is when you twist part of the handle and the razor opens up to allow loading of the blade.
Some call this a butterfly safety razor, some call the mechanical opening part doors, and others call them flaps. Whatever you choose call it, it is a TTO style safety razor.
I actually might switch to using this full time. While my Parker 78R works very nicely, the 60R is the one that finally showed me what a "less aggressive" safety razor actually feels like.
What is the aggressiveness of a safety razor? It is a combination of smoothness of shave, ease of shave, how much skin irritation you encounter, and how well the blade works to shave your beard.
Some men argue the aggressiveness of a razor has everything to do with the blade used. Then there are others that say no no, it's about your technique and the blade doesn't matter. And then there are yet others that say nope, it's about the razor used that determines the aggressiveness of a shave.
So which is correct? All of them.
Blade: A decent DE blade will shave mostly well on the first shave and then very well on the second shave. It's the third shave where you should notice a blade losing its sharpness.
Technique: This comes in two parts. Learning how to angle your safety razor and learning the razor itself. Presuming your angle is correct, some razors are easy to learn while others take more time to figure out how to get the best shave out of it.
Razor: A razor's head shape, comb type (open or closed), width, angle (straight or pre-angled), weight, handle length, handle grip and other factors all determine how well or not well a particular razor works in your hand.
And now I can talk about the 60R.
The 60R is a lightweight at 2.75oz - which I wanted. Some guys prefer heavyweight like the 65R (which is almost 4oz). I don't. For me, lighter is better as long as it's not a featherweight, which is the 60R isn't.
When I first used the 60R, it felt weird only because I was accustomed to the 78R, but then got used to it quickly and found it an easy razor to learn. Even after just one shave, I could tell that I could get along with this.
Even though every Parker razor comes with 5 DE blades, I decided to try a Shark Super Chrome since I have a bunch of those.
I was able to figure out a good angle, did my standard two-pass (lather face, shave, rinse, lather again, shave again), and everything went well. No nicks, no cuts, no missed spots. That's as good as I could ask for.
In the end, it wasn't one of those "I have to learn shaving all over again" things. The 60R was easy to get along with.
Where I really felt the difference is that the 60R pulls less than the 78R I was using. I had a smoother overall shave.
Is the 60R like a vintage Gillette Super Speed?
No.
The 60R is longer at 4" (101.6mm) while the Super Speed is a 3.3" (84mm). 60R is also heavier at 2.75oz while the Super Speed is 2oz or even slightly lighter depending on what year it was made. And, of course, the handle is different also where grip is concerned.
Some newly made safety razors are very true-to-spec to the old Super Speed, but not the 60R. This is fine because the Super Speed is almost a featherweight, and I'm not sure I could get along with that. The slightly heavier 60R is about as light as I'd want to use.
On the subject of grip, that's really the only knock I have against the 60R. With the 78R, it doesn't matter how slick your hand is from shaving soap/cream/gel, you're not dropping it. The grip pattern on the 78R handle is excellent. 60R does have decent grip on the upper portion of the handle but not-so much on the lower part. Yes, it has some fancy pattern there and looks nice, but what matters more is grip.
The less aggressive nature of the 60R head is good enough to where I can deal with the less-grippy handle.
How will this perform for the long term? No idea. I would imagine that all TTO safety razors wear out quicker than a 3-piece just because of the mechanical component. With the 3-piece, I can't see that wearing out unless the screw threads decided to give up the ghost (very unlikely). TTO however isn't nearly as robust of a system.
I understood all this before getting the 60R and will be keeping mine.
Would the 60R be good for most guys?
I'd actually say go for the 99R model instead for two reasons. Heavier, which most guys prefer, and I can tell the handle has better grip just by looking at it.
Strictly speaking aesthetically, the 99R has more of that old time barbershop look compared to the 60R. For some guys, the look of the razor matters and the 99R is definitely the better looking razor.
I'm also pretty sure the 99R is the most popular Parker model next to the 78R.
Alternatively, there is Parker's Super Speed-ish model, the 87R. No, it doesn't have a flared tip and it's heavier than the Super Speed at 3oz, but it's a shorty and as close to a Super Speed as you'll get with a Parker razor.
barbasol vs. foamy
I've used both and no, they're not the same. Not at all.
You can, at least in America, find Barbasol and Foamy shaving cream in many places. Grocery stores, department stores, pharmacies, and so on.
At first glance, Foamy's on-the-shelf price is about 50 cents more for a can compared to Barbasol, so it appears to cost more. However, a regular size can of Foamy is 11oz and a regular size can of Barbasol is 10oz. Is it worth paying the extra 50 cents for 1 ounce more? That's for you to decide.
Is Barbasol the cheapest shaving foam? No. There is Equate brand from Walmart, which is 50 cents less per 10oz can compared to Barbasol. No, I have not tried it.
Is Foamy the most expensive shaving foam? Actually, yes - for a foam. There are shaving gels that are way more expensive. But where a can o' foam is concerned, Foamy has the highest price. That doesn't mean it's expensive, but, yeah, highest cost.
These are the differences between Barbasol and Foamy:
Barbasol has 1 fewer ingredients compared to Foamy. The 1 ingredient Foamy has that Barbasol doesn't is palmitic acid. But it should also be noted that both Barbasol and Foamy contain stearic acid. From what I understand, a fatty acid must be present because it's a basic building block of shaving foam.
Foamy is thicker than Barbasol, but that also makes is slightly more difficult to spread across the face.
Foamy has a very pronounced scent. Barbasol is lightly scented.
Side note on that: There is no such thing as a fragrance-free a.k.a. unscented shave foam in a can, and I know exactly why. The propellant used naturally stinks, so a scent has to be added to mitigate that. No way around it. I can absolutely assure you that you don't want a fragrance-free shaving foam. You would hate it. Barbasol with its light scent is the closest you will get to unscented. If you absolutely must have a 100% truly fragrance-free shave lubricant, Aveeno Therapeutic Shave Gel. It's a gel and not a foam. You have to give up shave foams if you want to go fragrance-free.
The directions on the Barbasol can specifically state to shake the can first, then dispense. The Foamy can has no directions printed on it at all. I would assume that yes, you're always supposed to shake the can before dispensing (probably so the foam comes out evenly every time).
Which can lasts longer? You'd think it would be Foamy because of the extra 1oz in a regular-sized can, but I think both Barbasol's 10oz and Foamy's 11oz last about the same amount of time.
On both cans, the button on top is the same size and requires about the same amount of finger pressure to dispense the foam.
Both cans, thankfully, do not rust. Look at the bottom ring of both cans and it's white and not steel. For many years, shave cans over time would start rusting at that bottom ring. Barbasol to the best of my memory was the first to advertise rustproofed cans, so much so that they printed that feature directly on the can itself for a good long while.
Barbasol in my experience seems to stick to the face slightly better and has slightly more cushion for DE shaving.
Foamy requires more effort to make it stick, but lasts longer during the shave, but also takes more effort to wash off.
The stronger scent of Foamy "stays" with a hand towel. When I finish a shave, I wash my face clean, then dry with a hand towel. After time passes and the towel dries, when I smell that towel later, the Foamy scent is still there. This doesn't happen with Barbasol.
My face can use either Barbasol or Foamy. I go back and forth between the two.
gps car navigation for hot weather driving
I live in a hot state, so I have to plan for this stuff early.
My current daily driver is the Garmin DriveSmart 76, and while that works very nicely, I purposely use a Garmin model made from over a decade ago because it's much better equipped to handle hot-hot weather.
Before I get into that, there are three realities when it comes to smartphone in cars used for navigation:
- Can and will overheat, then shutdown at the worst possible time.
- Can and will lose GPS signal where navigation will stop at the worst possible time.
- Pairing to a car's infotainment system is flaky at best, can and will fail at the worst possible time.
Using a phone for navigation is just asking for problems to happen, especially in hotter weather driving. No thanks.
A standalone navigator is the best option, however, during hot weather driving, heat is a problem. Just like with the phone, if it's blasted by too much heat, it will shut down.
The solution to this problem is to purposely use an older Garmin with a resistive matte screen. Capacitive touchscreens may be brighter, but run hotter. I'd rather run with a screen that's slightly dimmer and works instead of dealing with a capacitive that causes shutdowns from generating too much heat.
How old is too old?
The oldest model that still functions properly is the Garmin nuvi 52LM and nuvi 54LM. Outfitted with a 32GB microSD card, it gets the job done. Just connect the thing to the free Garmin Express software to update the maps.
After that is the nuvi 57 from 2015. More features and quicker to calculate routes. Needs the 32GB memory card like the 52/54.
After that is the Drive 52 from 2019, which can still be bought new (although renewed/refurb is just fine). Also needs the 32GB microSD like the 52/54 to fit all the latest map data. This one in particular has the brightest matte screen you can get that is on par with a capacitive screen. It was also the very last matte screen for the car Garmin ever released.
All of these are 5" screens. Yes, there were 6" matte screens (nuvi 66 and 67) and even a few 7" models (nuvi 2757 and 2797), but the 5" is the best of the lot.
Yes, they have to be used plugged in all the time because the battery life isn't that great. Yes, you need that 32GB memory card as mentioned above. But once you have those things in order, then you have GPS navigation that can handle the hotter weather.
Does this mean you can just leave it in the car all the time?
NO.
Or to be more specific, you can't leave it mounted on the glass 100% of the time.
For example, if you go to a grocery store and have to park in the sun, leaving the screen on the glass is a bad idea because it will get cooked. The sunlight comes through the windshield and will bake a Garmin screen. The solution to this is simple. Take the Garmin off its mount and out of the sun when parked. Just chuck the screen in a door pocket or glove box. Easy enough. When you get back to the car, put the screen back on the mount, turn it on and go.
Better to use an old matte screen Garmin instead of risking phone overheating
The real question here is this: Which would you rather destroy?
Every time a modern phone with a sealed battery overheats, you run the risk of battery bulging that can literally render a smartphone dead. And by that I mean "will not turn on AT ALL" dead. In the past, you could replace a phone battery or at least take the battery out and plug it in to get your important data off it. NOT ANYMORE. When a phone gets cooked, it's 100% dead.
Take the same situation with a Garmin Drive 52. Let's say you left it mounted to the glass on a hot sunny day like an idiot while going grocery shopping. You come back, try to turn on the 52 and nope, it won't power on. You destroyed it by letting the thing get cooked.
If you destroyed a Drive 52, that wouldn't feel so bad as destroying your phone. Think about that.
I'll end this one with a little story.
Years ago I had a Garmin nuvi 50 where, like an idiot, I left mounted in the car while I went shopping on a hot sunny summer day. I came back after my shopping, tried to turn it on, nope... not happening.
The car was started with the A/C on, so I held the screen unplugged in front of a vent blowing cold air on it to cool the thing off for about a minute. Then I tried to turn it back on, and... success! Incredibly, that 50 powered back up and still worked fine.
But make no mistake, I got lucky there. That 50 could have very easily gave up the ghost and never powered on again, but it soldiered on even after I left it in the sun like an idiot.
Had it been a capacitive screen model, nope, no way, never would have powered on after being cooked like that. The only thing that saved it was it being a matte screen...
...which I why I keep some matte screen Garmins kicking around. They can genuinely take more punishment from hot weather driving and it's worth it to keep one (or several) around.
gas station perezhivanie
Sometimes all it takes to feel your age - good or bad - is to take a trip to the gas station.
This mug sorta/kinda explains how I feel.
I have been a fan of gas stations for a long time and have been to many. Probably well over a thousand by now. Mom-and-pops in the middle of nowhere, sketchy places in dirty neighborhoods, highfalutin super-clean ones in wealthy cities, big trucker stops, and so on. I've experienced pretty much all types of them.
One thing I particularly appreciate about gas stations is it's a place where technology is paused. There is absolutely no time to work out system bugs for cutting edge technologies in an environment like that. As a result, older proven technologies are used instead. True, you can pay by phone these days, but that is the slowest way to complete a transaction at the pump or inside the store. At the gas station, how to pay for anything from best to worst is cash, debit, credit, phone. I doubt that will ever change.
If you think tech is moving along too fast, the gas station experience is like going back in time 30 years ago. At a freshly built brand new trucker stop, sure, you'll see some modern tech (usually at the pumps), but without looking too far in the same place you'll also see other stuff that looks and feels like the late '90s, even though new. Why? Because that's what works best in a place like that.
Gas stations are for adults, and rarely do you see children in one since other than the candy and sodas, there's nothing there for them. You also don't see pretty people at the gas station either.
Those you do find at gas stations are regular people. Thoroughly average Joes and Janes getting fuel, and maybe a drink, snack, lottery ticket, whatever.
The closest thing I've ever seen to hot women at the gas station are medical girls, and they usually only appear during morning hours before their shift starts. She drives in, fuels up, comes in the store. Her outfit is, of course, scrubs. Sometimes blue, sometimes purple, sometimes red. Scrubs are one of the least sexiest things a woman could wear, and that's fine because clothing like that is built for purpose and not style. I say this because a woman in scrubs, unsexy as that may be, is as close as you'll get to seeing a hot woman as the gas station. Also, the reason they show up at the gas station and other women don't is because they're braver, with the general attitude of, "I'm in scrubs, I don't care, and I just need to fuel up and grab a Bai before I go to work."
Generally speaking, the age range of people you see buying things at gas stations is 40 to 65. Yep, middle aged people. The people working there might be younger (and often are), but the patrons are middle aged by default.
In the past back in my 20s, I started going to gas stations a lot just because I like driving so much. Back then, I was the youngest guy in the store. Then I reached my 30s. Then my 40s...
...then I reached the fifth decade of life.
Am I the oldest guy in the store now?
Not quite yet, but getting there.
Does that bother me?
No.
Gas stations are regular-people places. At no point will I ever get side-eyed by anybody with the incredulous look of, "What's he doing here?", because nobody cares.
Sometimes when I see somebody else in the store that looks to be about my age, I think, "I'm the same age as that guy."
Does that bother me?
No.
But it is a small reality check every time that happens. It's a reminder that I'm not young. I'm not old (as in not elderly) either, but still, not young.
I'm okay with that, but it's weird because I really don't feel the age I am.
There are positives and negatives to being in the fifth decade of life.
An example of one of the more annoying negatives is getting "sir'd" in a condescending way, usually by a store employee, just for asking a simple question.
But I argue the positives outweigh the negatives. One of the biggest positives is that for any - and I mean any - store I go into, I don't get grief from anybody (save for the "sir'd" types). Those working there see my plainclothes look, then seen the gray on my head, and think, "Yep, that guy is safe."
Being middle aged with gray on top is like wearing a loud flashing neon sign that says "WILL NOT DESTROY YOUR STORE". That's a good thing.
At the gas station, who do you see most? Middle aged guys either with gray hair or bald heads. I'm one of them, and that's just fine.
my current safety razor shaving rig
Yes, I'm still DE shaving, but my rig has changed.
DE means shaving using a safety razor with a double-edged blade. At first, I was using a King C. Gillette safety razor and Astra blades ("Superior Stainless" variant and not Platinum, although those are fine too).
Then I went through a few different blade brands which included Derby (3 different types there) and Shark. I even tried a blade sampler at one point.
After all that, I bought a different safety razor, the Parker 78R. And just because I hadn't tried them before, Gillette Perma-Sharp blades (although I may try Gillette 7 O'clock blades next).
For my face, the combination of Parker 78R safety razor and Gillette Perma-Sharp works. And while this will make safety razor snobs go "Ew!", Gillette Foamy shaving cream works for me. Barbasol also works. I can use either.
I went from Gillette razor and non-Gillette blade to Gillette blade and non-Gillette razor. Funny how that worked out.
The Parker razor is lighter in weight than the King C, but slightly more aggressive when the correct blade is used, which as I said is a Perma-Sharp for my face. With the Parker, I can "let the blade do the work" more easily than with the Gillette razor. The King C isn't bad, but I have to press more when using it... which is not how you're supposed to be using a safety razor. The razor should glide with minimal effort required, and the 78R is decent for that...
...although I could understand if other men would find the 78R annoying since it is a 3-piece. For those that prefer TTO (twist-to-open) "butterfly" style, see the Parker 99R.
I prefer the 3-piece just because it feels more solid, but at some point I may buy a proper TTO. A lot of reviews state the razors from Viking's Blade are good, but I won't know if that's true or not until I actually buy one. VB does offer a few TTO types where you can adjust the blade angle. That's a reason to get one. I like that.
For now, a Parker razor, Perma-Sharp blade and a can of Foamy are getting the job done in fine style.