Good morning, you handsome bastards.

For the month of December, I tracked all of our shaves in the SOTD threads. I confided in a few of you about this, to get your opinions. A few of you, I mentioned it to after asking about your shave on that day. Some of you began mentioning specifics in your SOTD after I kept bugging you about the details and I want you to know that it was noticed and appreciated.

I did this, at first, out of sheer curiosity. What are the most popular brands? What are the most popular scents? How many companies are there that we collectively use? And how busy are those SOTD threads anyways? After about a week, I was fascinated and reached out to a few of you to get your thoughts and I was met with nothing but encouragement. I pressed on.

Before we get into the deets, there are a few caveats, disclaimers, so-ya-knows, FYI’s, and et ceteras.

• These numbers are for face shaves only. If you posted a head shave, it was disregarded.

• These numbers are in regards to scents, not bases. This means that there is no distinction between Seville in glissant and Seville in Reserve.

• These numbers do, however, take into account the same scent as released by different soapmakers. For example, the scent Yuzu/Rose/Patchouli, by Chatillon Lux, has separate numbers for its releases by Declaration Grooming, Tallow & Steel, and Wholly Kaw.

• These numbers do not represent perfumers. As such, Chatillon Lux is not on this list.

• There were several instances where a shaver would combine or switch lathers for the sake of experimentation or due to lather burn. For these, I messaged that shaver and inquired which soap he thinks he used more of and that is the number represented here.

With all that mess out of the way, here is what you probably came for.

The four primary data points that I wished to learn are contained in the below sentence:

Over 31 days, in the month of December, in the Two Thousand and Eighteenth Year of Our Lord, 150 unique shavers posted 1063 shaves in 386 different scents by 109 different soapmakers. (And one unnamed, unknown, Mystery Belizean Coconut Soap that /u/steelersroc86 attempted to use. This shave, thus far, is the one and only entry under the “Etc.” soapmaker column, and brings the grand total to 110 soapmakers.)

BUT WAIT! THERE’S MORE!

In 31 days, the overall average number of shaves per day (SPD) was 34.29

The highest SPD was December 4th, a Tuesday, with 48 shaves.

The lowest SPD was December 23rd, a Sunday, with 21 shaves.

Average Monday SPD (5) – 38.6 – Total: 193

Average Tuesday SPD (4) – 38.25 – Total: 153

Average Wednesday SPD (4) – 35.5 – Total: 142

Average Thursday SPD (4) – 38.75 – Total: 155

Average Friday SPD (4) – 33.25 – Total: 133

Average Saturday SPD (5) – 29.4 – Total: 147

Average Sunday SPD (5) – 28 – Total: 140

There were 109 soapmakers represented this month (and 1 unknown.) There were a total of 386 scents used. Let’s do some lists.

TOP 10 SCENTS

1. Barrister and Mann – Vespers – 42 shaves
2. Declaration Grooming – Sellout – 29 shaves
3. Barrister and Mann – Seville – 23 shaves
4. Barrister and Mann – Reserve Lavender – 18 shaves
5. Barrister and Mann – Leviathan – 18 shaves
6. Stirling Soap Co. – Christmas Eve - 17 shaves
7. Southern Witchcrafts – Druantia – 15 shaves
8. Stirling Soap Co. – Naked and Smooth – 15 shaves
9. Storybook Soapworks – Visions and Revisions – 13 shaves
10. Declaration Grooming – Darkfall – 13 shaves

TOP 10 SOAPMAKERS

1. Barrister and Mann – 228 shaves
2. Declaration Grooming – 153 shaves
3. Stirling Soap Co. – 80 shaves
4. Noble Otter – 59 shaves
5. Wholly Kaw – 41 shaves
6. Southern Witchcrafts – 33 shaves
7. Chiseled Face – 31 shaves
8. Catie’s Bubbles – 30 shaves
9. Storybook Soapworks – 27 shaves
10. Summer Break Soaps – 24 shaves

MOST PROLIFIC SOAPMAKERS

1. Barrister and Mann – 43 scents
2. Declaration Grooming – 32 scents
3. Stirling Soap Co. – 27 scents
4. Wholly Kaw – 17 scents
5. Catie’s Bubbles – 16 scents
6. Noble Otter – 12 scents
7. Mickey Lee Soapworks – 10 scents
8. Chiseled Face – 10 scents

BBS. All The Time.

• /u/ythin
• /u/dganjo
• /u/mirna183
• /u/old_hiker

Honorable Mention: /u/sgrdddy missed only 2 days. He was also the only soul brave enough to shave with a bar soap.

Discipline Award: Stirling’s Naked and Smooth got 15 shaves. All of them were /u/mesingw. He could do Austere August easily, if he hasn’t already.

Notable Moments and Other Stuff

• /u/rocketk455, owner, founder, CEO, COO, CFO, Head Honcho, and All-Around Big Cheese of Summer Break Soap fame, welcomed a new member to the family! Bonus Instagram pic. And she even has a shave soap created for the occasion. (And yes, that was a straight up shill but I get to cuz of my flair. Is why, see.)

• /u/reguyw_nothingtolose joins the Century Club. Proceeds to get flamed to shit in /r/wicked_edge.

• This crazy shit happens to /u/themanwhodoneit.

• /u/gingerbredbeard goes back to the goo. And in my data, the scent listed for this shave is “Goo.” So.

• This asshole. Here and here. Pretty sure it’s a sockpuppet but it’s figured in the data.

• There were 3 beard lube shaves, from /u/bourboninexile. I dunno if I could even shave without a lather, now.

• Authors Note: I only started doing this part toward the end of the month so there is probably some stuff near the beginning that I missed.

This was fun to put together. I certainly learned a lot about what all is out there. Do you guys think this should continue to be a thing? Monthly? Every other month? Maybe quarterly or biannually? Let me know what you think about this.

And AMA about the data itself!