Travel Shave: Design94 Titanium Razor

Hello, and welcome to today’s travel shave.

The razor is the Design94 Titanium. The first one I ever got from Design94. Thorsten sent it to me a couple of years ago and I believe it was their very first razor. I’m using it here in a hotel bathroom that’s bigger than the room itself, with midnight sun outside. More on the hotel in a moment.

The Design94 Titanium

Four and a half inch handle. All titanium. Ninety-six or ninety-seven grams, which makes it still a heavy razor even in titanium. The handle is 14.7mm thick. One millimeter gap. Negative 0.05mm exposure.

Negative exposure. That turns some people off. Don’t let it. This razor is super smooth and very efficient. No dragging at all. Titanium also gives you that loud, clear feedback when the blade is on the skin. Almost ASMR. You hear exactly where you are.

They now have a 3.75-inch handle version available if the 4.5 is too long for you. I have all the razors in the Design94 line. The playlist is in the description below.

The kit

The blade is a Wizamet on its fourth use.

The shaving cream and the aftershave balm are both Nivea Men Protect & Care. Lou, my brother from another mother up in Canada, sent me the shaving cream for this trip. I’ve said this many times: if I could only have one shaving cream and one balm for the rest of my shaving life, Nivea Protect & Care would be it. Both of them. It shaves like a thick body cream. Comfortable on the skin. I haven’t tried anything better. Still number one.

The brush and the bowl are from Leaf Shave, both in black. Adam over at Leaf sent them to me a good while back.

The hotel

The bathroom here is enormous. Way bigger than the room itself. The room has two beds, a chair, and that’s it. Underly spacious. The bathroom, though, there’s real neutral ground between the toilet, the bath, the sink, and the door. Overly spacious. It’s funny.

The hotel was built in the late ’70s. All the light bulbs are yellow or orange. The tiles have a brown-orange tint. Nothing wrong with it, it runs perfectly fine, but it’s like stepping into a time pocket from 1978. No TV in the room, so I brought the Anker Nebula projector, a Google TV, and an iPad. I don’t travel without those three. The Nebula throws 120 inches on the wall, so all is good.

A fan somewhere above me starts and stops at random. The water pipes in the heating system bang from time to time. If it gets noisy in the video, that’s the building. There are also a couple of technicians from the Czech Republic here to fix some telecom antennas. Last time I stayed here it was just me and a colleague with no staff, an empty hotel, completely alone. Like The Shining. This time there are people. Better.

Midnight sun outside, so you have to be able to cope with the light. And I caught my face slightly sideways earlier, so I’m already feeling a little sting going into the shave.

The shave

The Nivea lather is on the wetter side today, but it works beautifully. Almost like shaving with a thick body cream. The Design94 Titanium just glides. Smooth, efficient, loud titanium feedback telling you exactly what’s happening.

I have a regular trouble spot. A small bump I always need to angle around carefully. If I go even slightly sideways on it, I’ll get a cut. Today I went more sideways than usual. A little more. So, yes. A little blood. Nothing dramatic, but a real cut, and bigger than the usual nick at that spot. My fault entirely. I know it’s there. I went sideways anyway.

The Nivea balm fixed it. Maybe a bit enthusiastic with the pour today, but that’s fine. Some for the elbows. Wonderful shave overall. The Design94 Titanium delivers every time.

Next up on Saturday: the Ainsworth Apex lead titanium razor. A different machine entirely.

Thanks for watching. We are not obsessed, we are dedicated.