The Barbershop Duet

Wow, how has it been 1 month already? Sorry we haven’t gotten to blogging recently, we have been having too much fun with all the other aspects of our new Barbershop Duet life! It’s been the best eye opening experience, from the products to the community to what we have learned, and we can’t wait to share it all with you! Of course each of these topics could be their own blog but we will try to mention the important points, but if you want more in detail let us know!!

The Amazing Community

I am not sure we can even try to portray how wonderful the wet shaving community truly is. They are all very supportive and willing to help or answer any questions we have no matter how silly they may be. Everyone is truly nice and there because they want to be and because they care. It is so refreshing, having real conversations and phone calls, we feel like we have made lifelong friends and it has only been one month. This community cares about everyone in it and thrives to keep it such a wonderful little safe haven to be in, Marcus and I couldn’t be more grateful we found all these awesome, generous, good hearted people. 

For my birthday, we just happened to hop into an IG Live and they all wished me happy birthday, as the giveaways started everyone who won something started PIF’ing (paying it forward) to me for my birthday, giant gift cards and shirts and soaps and I truly was just in shock, I rarely win anything and to know that all these wonderful people were making sure I had a great birthday had my heart so full. It was truly unexpected but paints the picture of what this community is ALL about. Seeing how they embrace new wet shavers and take them under their wings without hesitation is so heartwarming, and truly has given our faith back into humanity in ways we didn’t know we needed so thank you ALL, we see you, we feel you and we are beyond grateful. Every comment, “like/heart”, every share and personal message on IG or in the forums just brighten up our day! 

Our Weapons of Choice (razors)

Marcus is still working with his weapon that started it all (read previous blogs), a double edged razor, the Henson AL-13, mild! He is truly mastering his technique to get the BBS(baby bottom soft post shave feel) and enjoying all the layers of the process. Recently Marcus has also been trying out different blades to see what he likes the best. The stand we acquired for the henson razor, is simply streamlined technology and classy. We don’t ever reuse blades, there’s just no need with how cheap they are and we feel more sanitary and part of the ritual of setting the blade before the shave and disposing of them in our Frog when we are done.

Here’s another amazing example of this community…during our first IG Live with the Shave-migos as their guest, we were asked what hardware we were using and as soon as we mentioned Marcus and I sharing the same double edged Henson razor, Jason at The Razor Company, wrote in the chat that I needed to have a leaf razor…I was in shock! And true to his word, it arrived that next week and in the coolest color “prism.” I am in love with it!! I didn’t realize how having the pivoting head had been the only thing I sort of missed from my cartridge razor…I had already gotten used to the DE (double edged) razor and found ways to not be nervous but with the leaf’s pivoting head it is the closest shave I have been able to get EVER (the cartridge razor never got this close) and feels the safest. 

Lots have asked if we ever think we will switch from software(soaps) to hardware(razors) with our episodes and honestly we aren’t planning to. We see the eyes rolling from here, but we truly got into this for the soaps and they’re what we are most passionate about, we have even been adding more to our software like bar soaps, shampoo & conditioner bars and more so the thought of running out of soaps just seems impossible but who knows, only time will tell!

Other Tools- brushes, bowls, etc

We have tried more types of brushes, whether that be sizes, brands and different handles and grips but mostly are still using synthetic but we seem to like those as newbies, they are the easiest to maintain and you can’t really mess them up. Marcus got our first boar brush this month, a semogue, which was still pretty inexpensive. He had help from a few in the community on how best to break it in and is really enjoying it! We even purchased our first custom brush from AKA Brushworks as a birthday present so I am excited to learn how the whole custom world goes, I even splurged and ordered a matching lather bowl!

We have both tried a few different brands of bowls and are loving the variety, depending on the color, the feel, the type of soap we are working with… it has been fun to be able to mix it up with each shave, some with the steel or copper stay warmer, the other honeycomb style seems to whip up a bit faster, they all have their own special perk depending what we are looking for.

So far we have both been using the Cube from Phoenix Artisan Accoutrements as our pre-shave (when we are not reviewing soaps) and have really felt they are great help to us newbies and add a nice layer between our skin and the lather. We also got his and hers matching cube soap trays because they were just too awesome not too, these cubes will last you forever so feel free to try the different scents and menthol or non-mentholated options!

How’s Shaving Going?

We LOVE it. Truly, I know we found wet shaving by sort of stumbling into it but it has been a wonderful change to our daily routines. Finding ways to take care of ourselves with intention, whether it’s the routine of prepping all the things for the shave or picking out what soap we want or what music to play, even taking time to make the lather seems to help lift our spirits in ways we hadn’t expected. Self care is now something we really take note of, even from adding a fun aftershave before going for a walk or adding the after shower oil…things we used to not even consider but taking the few extra seconds to do make a HUGE difference. It doesn’t feel like it has only been a month, with the amount we have gained from switching to wet shaving, it has been so awesome to share the experience with each other and learn alongside each other, we have truly enjoyed everything and continue to gain more knowledge as we go. We are having fun, whether it’s filming episodes, decorating our shave den or parading new soaps in after an episode. It’s been thoroughly enjoyable. We really hope more newbies decide to join this amazing way of self care.

Do we miss anything about cartridge razors/old shaving ways?

NOTHING!! I used to think it was the time saving portion, but honestly after you figure out your razor set up, and you enjoy the lathering process you don’t even think of that ever again. And for us ladies who may not want to do a whole lather just to do a quick pit refresher you can still use a shaving cream and some artisans make them with the same scents as the shave soaps (super awesome if you’re in a rush time wise)! If you do the math you truly SAVE money after buying a razor and blades it is WAY cheaper and WAY better for the environment. 

 How is the production side of The Barbershop Duet?

We have almost filmed 40 episodes and it truly feels like we have done mayyyybe 15 total. So clearly we are enjoying it! Each soap has its own thing to discover as we are filming. We do NOT open any soap that you don’t witness us opening on camera! It keeps us wanting to film so we can open more soaps to share with you! We have the prep down, we have our own checklists to make sure we have everything ready and we can film an episode in 20-30mins, Marcus has the editing and full episode creation part down to about 1 hour, the longest part is waiting for it to render so we can upload to youtube! We are already planning out the holiday themed thumbnails and looking forward to how it can keep organically growing as we grow with it.

Final Thoughts (From Marcus)

When we got here, it was with the full intention of doing an episode a week. ONE. When we realized that the absolute ocean of soaps available was matched only by the ocean of magnificent people who made up this community, one episode a week would not contain our joy at being part of this community, nor would it adequately say thank you to all of you for all of the midnight phone calls, the IG lives, the welcome and birthday presents, the instant answers to all of our questions, and the other night when the Shave Dad called me just to check up on me as he had his shave. Two days, 4 episodes a week, might begin to cover it. Please don’t feel like we are asking you to watch them all right now. Don’t get me wrong, we know who you are, and we’re gonna take your moms out to diner and tell them how great you are, but we are mostly hoping to build a foundation of episodes so that when a newbie types an artisan’s name into YouTube, it might offer them one of our videos, as we hold the door open for kind newbies into the world’s greatest community. Thank you for being so amazing that you make us work harder because it only gets more fun for us. Don’t forget you have an appointment, next Saturday, at the Barbershop Duet! We sure hope to see you!

Final Last Thought/Special Mention…Our first IG LIVE:

Clearly no fun was had with these awesome gents from Shave-migos! Thanks Nicky, Carlos and Sully for a great welcome into the community and your constant guidance, support and being true wet shaving amigos! Follow their page for more fun IG Lives and giveaways 🙂