I'm just finishing up my second year of wet shaving. The first year, 2012, was a crazy year of accumulation and trying every soap and blade I possibly could, as well as buying over 2 dozen vintage razors.
For 2013 my goal was to settle down, limit purchases, and start working on the things I already own. Specifically, I wanted to try my favorite blades in as many of the vintage razors I had collected as I could, limit my soap and cream use (I have about 60 soaps & creams) by paring down my rotation to just 11 products, with only occasional uses of others, and not buy any more blades, soaps or creams.
For the most part I was successful. I limited my testing of new blades to just 2 or 3 new brands, I stuck to the 11 soap/cream rotation, and only bought a few new soaps and creams when the deal was just too good to pass up, or if I found vintage soaps at decent prices. Where I failed was limiting blade purchases. This year I've bought 500 PolSilver SI's, 60 NOS Wilkinson Sword (UK), and 26 Personna 74's.
My goals for 2014:
1. Continue with a 10 to 12 soap/cream rotation, with occasional trysts with other products. Each product will get used for at least 10 shaves in a row, perhaps more.
2. Get back to testing blades - I have 21 brands I've not tried yet. The biggest group I'll try this year will be the Gillettes (Goal, Green, Yellow, Blue, Black, & Silver Blue). I'll take my favorite razors and use one of each of those in the same razor, consecutively, with a Voskhod thrown in as a reference. Using each blade 3 times, that's 21 days of shaves, so I'll do that with a different razor each month, for 5 months of shaves, leaving the rest of the month to try other blades, or go back to standards.
3. Sell at least 20% of my software. I'd like to go higher but I'm having a difficult time even paring it by 10%
4. Sell 25% of my vintage razors
5. Restore at least 2 brushes, one with a synthetic know and one with a TGN Finest
So what about you? What are your goals for 2014? If you set goals for 2013, what were they and how did you do? I know many of you don't plan your shaves or goals at all, and that's great, but there must be others that set goals like I do.
For 2013 my goal was to settle down, limit purchases, and start working on the things I already own. Specifically, I wanted to try my favorite blades in as many of the vintage razors I had collected as I could, limit my soap and cream use (I have about 60 soaps & creams) by paring down my rotation to just 11 products, with only occasional uses of others, and not buy any more blades, soaps or creams.
For the most part I was successful. I limited my testing of new blades to just 2 or 3 new brands, I stuck to the 11 soap/cream rotation, and only bought a few new soaps and creams when the deal was just too good to pass up, or if I found vintage soaps at decent prices. Where I failed was limiting blade purchases. This year I've bought 500 PolSilver SI's, 60 NOS Wilkinson Sword (UK), and 26 Personna 74's.
My goals for 2014:
1. Continue with a 10 to 12 soap/cream rotation, with occasional trysts with other products. Each product will get used for at least 10 shaves in a row, perhaps more.
2. Get back to testing blades - I have 21 brands I've not tried yet. The biggest group I'll try this year will be the Gillettes (Goal, Green, Yellow, Blue, Black, & Silver Blue). I'll take my favorite razors and use one of each of those in the same razor, consecutively, with a Voskhod thrown in as a reference. Using each blade 3 times, that's 21 days of shaves, so I'll do that with a different razor each month, for 5 months of shaves, leaving the rest of the month to try other blades, or go back to standards.
3. Sell at least 20% of my software. I'd like to go higher but I'm having a difficult time even paring it by 10%
4. Sell 25% of my vintage razors
5. Restore at least 2 brushes, one with a synthetic know and one with a TGN Finest
So what about you? What are your goals for 2014? If you set goals for 2013, what were they and how did you do? I know many of you don't plan your shaves or goals at all, and that's great, but there must be others that set goals like I do.