Alpha Shaving Works' Big Poppa Razor: Five Shaves In
Hello, I’m SIG SOLO. Welcome back to the channel, and welcome to this shave.
The Razor
The razor in this shave is a collab between Scott and Steve over at Alpha Shaving Works, and it’s a looker. Eighteen millimeters wide at the widest point, eighty eight millimeters of handle, and it sits right around fifty-nine grams. The head is modeled after the Futura, and I think it’s bronze, though don’t hold me to that one. Gold and black anodized aluminum on the handle, a little coin set into the bottom, and an indentation cut into the grip that your fingers just fall into. Easy to hold, easy to control. Gap’s about 0.8 millimeters with a slightly positive blade exposure. This one’s on its fifth use, and it keeps getting better.
I had a completely different shave lined up, and then I got a notification that this had arrived. Plans changed fast. It only took about two weeks to get here, but two weeks feels like a long wait when it’s something you’ve been looking forward to.
Scott and Steve put this together as a collab, and funny enough, Scott’s been going back and forth with me about starting his own YouTube channel, what lights to get, what mounts, what microphone. Keep an eye out; there might be more from him soon.
Hold it on the black section with your index finger up top, and it just feels right. Magnificent.
The Lineup
The soap in this shave is one that’s been sitting in my box unopened for a while: Arko Comfort. Squint at the tin and it almost reads gold.
The brush is a Simpson Trafalgar T3 in Butterscotch, a color they started selling after they made the first one for me. Thanks to Simpson for that one, and I paid full price, no favors. I love this color. Look at that butterscotch.
The bowl is a Hendrix Classics straight wall in black, sent over kindly by Pete. And the aftershave for this one is Arko Gold Power.
Let’s get this party started.
The Shave
My daughter’s hovering outside the bathroom door waiting for me to wrap this up, so let’s move.
First pass, and I can feel the blade a little, but nothing menacing. Honestly, it’s comfortable. Efficiency sits right above the middle; I’d call it high-end medium. Enough bite that you’d use this every day without a problem, not so much that it’s going after your face.
Second pass, and this soap has a bit of a colonial vibe to it. It reminded me of the Gold Power aftershave Arko makes, which always struck me as kind of a dupe for One Million by Paco Rabanne. Comfort has some of that same vibe, just toned down. The one they call Cool doesn’t hold back the same way.
This razor’s close to fifty-nine grams, and you feel it. The extra weight, the extra-wide handle, the grippy cut into the body - it all adds up to easy control. I checked the weight again just to make sure I had the number right.
Funny timing: a Rockwell package was on its last leg of the journey; it should arrive soon if I’m lucky. New Setpoint razors inside. Rockwell reached out and asked if I wanted to buy one. I’d already ordered the steel version, so they refunded that and sent me what I believe are two aluminum Setpoints along with the stainless steel one. More on those once they’re in hand.
Aftershave’s a 70% alcohol splash. Stings a little where I nicked the top of it; nothing serious.
Scott, Steve, you did a great job designing this one. Seriously. I need to actually buy it instead of just borrowing it, but that’s a problem for another day. It’s a great razor.
Let’s do the sound test.
Like, subscribe, hit the bell, and share. We’re not obsessed. We’re dedicated. That was SIG SOLO.