Since international postal service to the US of A has completely broken down, it is time to explore alternatives to the classic Buena Vista Wetshaving Social Club formula. This time, it's a theme shave, and the theme is (for obvious reasons) The Strait of Hormuz.

FAQ

1. How does this work? You choose your gear in the most Strait-of-Hormuz-y way, and shave on Wednesday. Don't forget to post, though.

2. OK, but what are the rules? You poor fool, don't you know that the rules-based-international order is over, and that everything goes? Postmodernity, dammit!

3. I have never done this before, and I'm afraid. Can I join? Just do it. Eternal glory^1^ is waiting for you.

[fn^1^] Terms and conditions may apply. Eternity as stated here shall not excede 36 hours.

Some people's unfortune, other people's luck.

I am giving away two smushes of Saponificio Varesino Tundra Artica. In order to claim a smush, you need to:

• live in the EU
• feel comfortable enough to send me your real ID and address
• commit to use it and post about it on this piefed instance (and you will need to do this, because I will know where you live)

Attribution will proceed on a random draw with Python in 48 hours (or when I can be arsed to look this up). Please post anything below to manifest your interest. If you have won, we will figure out a way to contact securely.

Good luck, lemminards and piefolk!

As the winner of the March edition of the BVWSC, I was duty-bound to send soap smushes to my fellow shavers across the pond. Alas, as I am writing this, there is no legal and/or financially viable way of getting soap samples (or any letter, for that matter) from France to the USA.

Therefore, the BVWSC in its current form is dead. There has also been a notable decrease in interest, so maybe this is just the right opportunity to say farewell.

On the other hand, we might find a way of continuing the community event, but in a different form. Our go-to has been the Tabac edition – which seems to be the only type of gear every self-hatingrespecting wetshaver has. Or we could do something else.

So, what shall we do?

Today is the third Wednesday of the month, and it's time for the Buena Vista Wetshaving Social Club – our monthly community event! Join us, brothers (and sisters?) in the stank^TM^!

It's time to start prepping for March! Nominate your soap here.

Nominations close on February 2, 20:00 CET.

@[email protected]'s smush doesn't seem to have made it, so we will use good old Tabac.

Join us on Wednesday for the first Buena Vista Wetshaving Social Club meeting!

After last year's writedown, let us have a look at what 2025 had in store for me. Time for some statistics!

Overview

I shaved 207 times in 2025 (roughly every 1.8 days), down from 230 in 2024. A 10% drop! What's going on here? I suppose that in 2024, I was worried about the health of this community, so I had the impression I had to shave more. Now, that I'm more confident, I am reproducing a more standard pattern of roughly one shave every two days.

The straight razor dominance continues but has slightly plateaued:

The brush situation saw the most dramatic shift – synthetics surged while horse and boar both declined:

As to acquisitions, I was not very disciplined last year – though I hope that this will change next year.

Tooling clearly played a role in my shaves. Now that I can calculate with my sotd.el system exactly how much stuff I have used so far during the year, I used this power, and I got a much more balanced usage pattern (except for brushes). It is a more reasoned approach to shaving.

But let's have a look at the details.

Lather

I killed only one soap this year, namely Ishtar, which leads the charts this year. Absinthe was a spring purchase, and I very much like it. It's a clean and unassuming scent, which I could use every day (but it would be a waste to do it). Also, I'm vibing suddenly with The Watchman – which was not my favorite up to this year.

The Buena Vista Wetshaving Social Club is also clearly visible in the charts, with many soaps appearing once or twice. My favorite this year was probably Susurro.

There is no obvious candidate for killing a soap this year, and I don't know whether I should. Now that I have (checks notes) lots of soap, I have the impression that I enjoy each one individually quite a bit more.

Brushes

I bought a Yaqi 26mm Bingcha (Iced Tea) synthetic, which I used a lot. Boars got a lot less love this year. A badger finally made an appearance with the MRED/Le Père Lucien acquisition. Otherwise, the Semogue horse brush is still leading the field (but it has changed its nature, and I should probably write about this).

Razors

In the razors, I believe it is clearest that I have tried to balance somewhat my usage patterns – there is no clear favorite anymore like last year.

I bought a Puma 100 in spring, which saw quite a lot of use, and I continue to lean heavily on my Parker straight.

Looking ahead

I think I have gotten some confidence in my honing abilities, though it is certainly not perfect, and far away from @gcgallant's proficiency. I am hoping to get a better grip on the La Lune stone.

Aaaand I should probably be much more restrictive in my purchases. I do not feel the same itch for new (types of) razors anymore, and I hope that I have reached the exploitation phase after the exploration phase.

Thanks for reading all this, and a happy new year to all of you!

Btw, I would be very interested to see also the statistics of other's.

Since @djundjila posted his, let me show you the latest testament to my complete inability to control myself.

You are seeing in the top row a MRED/Le Père Lucien badger brush made of Ebony, then the matching aftershave and soap. The scent profile is vintage, and if you want to see more, check here.

In the center, a vintage Parker 51 fountain pen with an M nib from the 1950s, in excellent condition (yes, another expensive hobby), and which writes excellently.

On the bottom (and according to Gemini), a Man-Hoshi 24 (meaning "Full Star") Japanese straight razor from the 1950 or 1960s with celluloid scales. It has an asymmetric kamisori grind, and came in a very inoffensive state of honing. I honed it yesterday, and saw under the microscope that there is an area where there are slight problems on the edge. We'll see how this works out in a shave.

But now, I swear that it will be GRUYE!

A letter arrived today for me from the US of A, so I guess we are good to go for Buena Vista Wetshaving Club December edition.

Prep your smushes, and get ready!

This is to enquire about the BVWSC shave: I have not received yet my smush, and I assume I am not the only one. It probably would be advisable to postpone, but the question is to when. Next Wednesday will be the 24th – which maybe is not the best moment.

What about Sunday 21st (assuming we get the smushes by then)? I don't think we have any shaving activity planned for then, do we?

Do you have any opinions and/or other propositions?

Thanksgiving and Black Friday, yay! But it is time to be serious: nominate your soap here for the January Edition.

Nomination ends Tuesday 2 December, 17:00 CET.

Mail arrived today from yourshaving in Spain.

Since I bought a Aventus dupe perfume, I knew I needed this also in soap and aftershave form. I hesited a while whether I should go for Stirling Executive Man or rather Opuntia, but the fact that the Stirling soap was out of stock everywhere simplified the choice.

And since @[email protected] was saying good things about Koke, I also added it (free shipping might also have played a role...). I got a freebie Treet Platinum pack of blades.

Koke smells - interesting. Opuntia seems to be less of a pineapple bomb than the perfume I have, and the aftershave seemed more complex at a first smell.

Prep your smush of Caravaggio: tomorrow is the group shave!

I am struggling with my La Lune stone, and more precisely, with correctly using the nagura stone. Unless I am mistaken (and I might very well be), I am trying to do a tomo nagura.

I have the La Lune base stone, and a La Lune slurry stone, which should be the same. These are natural slate stones, and it might be that they do not come from the same vein, and one of them could be harder than the other. However, the color of the two stones is very similar – and there is much less variation between them than between the stones I see on the pictures on the website. By default, I would assume that they are identical in hardness.

The issue I have is the following: I cannot manage to create a slurry with the slurry stone without scratching the bigger stone. The slurry stone has been chamfered and I see no sharp edges, so I guess that this is user error on my side.

One known unknown: I have no clear idea on how much pressure I should use. If I use very little pressure and put the slurry stone on on of its flat sides, I seem to get an aquaplanning effect where the slurry stone seems to glide on the underlying stone without producing any slurry (I have tried this for a couple of minutes, so I don't think the issue is impatience on my side). If I increase pressure or put it on one of its edges, I do produce slurry, but I get scratches on the underlying stone (there are also some visible scratch marks on the slurry stone).

I tried to use dish soap to break the water's surface tension, without much success. I also thought that, maybe, prolonged exposure to water might make the stone softer, so I tried to soak the slurry stone longer (I tried leaving it 30 minutes in water before using it), but this does not seem to have had any noticeable effect.

Sure, I can use a diamond stone directly on the base stone and produce slurry in this way, but it's a shame to have a slurry stone without being able to use it.

So, what am I doing wrong?

Pinging @[email protected]

I received my smush today - is everybody ready, ordo we need to postpone a week?

We have winner: A Night at the Pub!

Cograts to snooting!

It's high time to get things rolling for december. Nominate your soap here, nominations close Tuesday 4, 19:00 CET.

The Buena Vista Wetshaving Social Club convenes this Wednesday. On the menu: Susurro by Chicago Grooming Co.

It was a close-run thing, but we have a winner: Caravaggio by Fanzine Saponifications:

Congratulations to @[email protected]. I hope that he will be able to drop waffles and beer, expedite his vacation, and send out the smushes.

It's time to prep for November – nominate your soap here.

Nomination closes Saturday 4th 18:00 Central European Summer Time.