This morning...
Preshave: Hot shower
Lather: TGQ
Shave: Supper Iridium in Merkur Futur (f/2.75)
Aftershave: 70% Drug Store rubbing alcohol
Result: Pretty good.
The amazing part: This was shave #12 of this blade. I've been shaving carefully to use one edge and then the other. The first edge delivered eight... count 'em EIGHT!... shaves. The second edge only four. But, still, TWELVE shaves from a single blade! Wow!
I have a colleague at work who drives a Toyota Prius. He's bought special hardware and software for his laptop that allows him to connect the PC to the car and fiddle around with the various internal settings in the engine computer. Sports car enthusiasts have been doing this for many years. But Larry's goal is not increased performance. No. Larry is a hard-core "hyper-miler." His goal is to get the highest fuel efficiency possible, the most miles-per-gallon. He has studied and optimized very foot of his daily route. He has timed every traffic light. He has it all down. And before he comes into the office each day, he snaps a picture of the milage display on his car to post to some website forum he belongs to to show off to his fellow hyper-miler friends.
Can you believe that? They have web forums for people whose whole life revolves around getting the maximum milage on their car? These people just sit around all day and just discuss how to get an extra tenth of a mile out of a gallon of gas. It's absolutely silly! You'd never catch me doing anything like that. Anyway...
Anyway, there's an old saying, "Your actual milage may vary."
Me? I drive a supercharged Mercedes. Getting the maximum MPG is not my top priority. Some time ago, Larry and I took a product we were working on to an outside test laboratory. On the way back to the office, we got on the freeway via one of Portland's many "metered ramps." One car per green light. One at a time. When we came to the head of the line and the light turned green, I decided to show Larry how a Mercedes works. At the end of the ramp, we merged into traffic doing about 65. And, once he started breathing again, Larry's response was, "Wow. I don't think my Prius can do that."
My reply was, "In the last four seconds, Larry, I burned as much gas as you will commuting for the next four days.... but it was worth it!"
And, as I looked in my mirror, I caught a glimpse of the expression on Larry's face which clearly said, "Yes, by golly -- while I would never admit it-- it was!"
Larry drives with a certain goal that not everyone shares. His standard of an acceptable, even a good drive is different than others.
So also with shaving, some have different goals. There is a certain cult within the shaving community which I like to call the "hyper-shavers." Their goal is to extract the maximum number of shaves-per-blade, SPB.
How many shaves a guy can get from one blade depends first on the quality of his prep. I think mine is pretty good. A nice, hot shower with a good face wash is good. The hyper-shaver would probably spend twenty minutes wrapped in a series of hot towels soaked with special oils and beard softeners; I haven't got time for that.
Next, the products you use will factor into your SPB. I think my practice is pretty good in this area. I use TGQ soap. The hyper-shavers tend to layer on pre-shave oils and then mix up elaborate concoctions of soaps and creams to get the exact right slickness.
Perhaps the second biggest determiner of SPB is your beard itself. If you have a sparse, light beard, then you'll get more SPB. Mine is, I suspect, about average. It gets kind of tough and wirey between my lower lip and chin, but that seems common.
Another big determiner of SPB is how much time and how many passes you're willing to put in. For me, two passes is my usual practice. The whole process takes about 12 minutes. The hyper-shavers dedicate upwards of an hour to shaving extravaganzas involving five or six passes.
But, the single greatest factor in SPB is just your own standards. I suspect that some of these hyper-shavers who report SPB in the dozens are quite satisfied to run around looking like they just stepped off the set of Miami Vice. Not me! I have, over the last year of DE shaving, come to expect -- rather demand -- a very smooth, close shave. And I won't compromise that to eke one more shave out of a blade that only cost pennies anyway.
I will admit that the eighth shave from the first edge of this S Ir blade was below my usual standards. For one brief, 12 minutes to be exact, period, I flurted with hyper-shaving and allowed myself to accept a less-than-acceptable shave... though I gave no resemblance to Sonny Crockett even given my distain for unconstructed jackets.
So, why only four shaves on the second edge? Because that was clearly all it had to give. And that shows inconsistency.
I've been reading a lot of great reports about S Ir blades with may users reporting impressive SPB. As the Prius is the hyper-milers, the S Ir is rapidly becoming to hyper-shavers. Eventually, they'll figure out how to jack their laptops into their blades to maximize their SPB. I have been getting six and eight great shaves from S Ir blades so far. This last one was amazing... but inconsistent.
Tomorrow, I have a Feather waiting on deck just for A/B comparison purposes.
I wouldn't even attempt going behind the ears without them!
Haven't gotten the aggressiveness taken out of it yet, and even using what I feel is a light touch doesn't seem to prevent me getting a couple nicks in spots like the corners of the mouth and chin. 
I might be better off going back to the straights for my next grooming session. 
