Revisiting Old Products

One of things I've found is it's always good to go back and retry something you might have put aside for a while. It might be a razor, brush, blade or maybe a soap or cream you might have given up on and haven't passed along to someone else or even tossed. I try and make it a point to revisit some of those neglected items to see if I still feel the same about them. I have been pleasantly surprised on a number of occasions about something that maybe I just wasn't experienced enough with or just had lousy technique and I've improved since then. Now, I haven't found any new favorites by doing this but I have upgraded my opinion enough that it's no longer a neglected item.

There is the other side of the coin too. I have revisited some items that I set aside not because I didn't like them but I was busy trying other things. When I went back to these items. I found that what I once thought was a great product was maybe not so great and maybe I should set them aside on a more permanent basis or trade/gift them to someone else. I have too many top quality items in my rotation already.

The one thing I normally don't return to is something that did not smell good to me at the time. I will pick it up, smell it again but it never seems to change my opinion. It still smells bad. Those need to go.

I'll give a couple of examples. The Merkur Futur Razor. It was my first DE razor and a gift from my wife. It was really cool looking but killed my face and I was setting it aside a lot for milder razors. Now, after a lot more practice with different razors, it does a fine job and back in my rotation. 7AM blades. I couldn't stand them. Now, they do fine. Not my top three but much improved. I thought Mama Bear Shave Soaps were great. Now, I just find them mediocre performers. The scents are still decent but I find them better candidates for mixing with something else to improve their performance. The pear scent is an example of a scent I just never could stand.

Another example is Ogallala Soaps. Performance was terrible. They listened to shavers and improved the formula. It was still a bit off for where it should be but my technique improvements have brought it up considerably and I get good performance and a great scent. Before, I was using them as bath soaps.

I'm still pretty new at this so I'm sure I will keep going back to older products for re-evaluation. I may find some more surprises although that will happen far less since my technique improvements have progressed to the point where I can max out a products potential pretty quickly. The one area I have far far to go is straight razors. I'm a total infant when it comes to those and will be for long time to come.

So, go look in the closet or shave cabinet and revisit a few friends. You might find a few suprises.