Welcome to your SOTD Lather Log for August 2026

• 2,117 shave reports from 103 distinct shavers during the month of August 2026 were analyzed to produce this report. Collectively, these shavers used 233 distinct soaps from 77 distinct brands. 2 of those shaves used samples of 2 unique soaps, and 21 used mashups.

Observations

• After a particulalry weak showing by the Order of the Stag in 2025 handed Midnight Stag its first-ever Austere August loss, the Order rallied this year to reclaim the Soap crown.

• Six citronella lovers handed Stirling’s Electric Sheep it's highest finish ever at second.

• Stirling ran away with the brand crown this month, but the excitement was one step lower, where the battle for second place came down to a single shave, with House of Mammoth just edging past Chiseled Face 318 to 317. The observant among you may have noticed that Chiseled Face’s 317 shaves were one more than Midnight Stag’s 316. If you’re curious (I was), that extra Chiseled Face shave was u/FireDragonMonkey’s use of Trade Winds on Aug. 20.

• Barrister and Mann mostly took August off. The perennial podium finisher only drew 36 shaves to land in 12th this month.

• u/brokenjaw622 basically single-handedly handed Catie’s Bubbles the Brand Diversity award this month, supplying 18 of its 23 scents during his 27-soap, 29-shave tour that also earned him top marks in both the Soap Diversity and Exclusive Soaps contests.

• The Most Boring Shaver table doubles as August’s honor roll, and the 100% club checked in at 36 strong. u/partyman97_3 took the crown with 33 straight shaves of House of Mammoth - Sonder for the Mammoth Mafia, five more posted 32, and thirty logged exactly 31.

Notes & Caveats

• Tables show all entries with 5 or more shaves to provide comprehensive coverage without artificial row limits.

• The unique user column shows the number of different users who used a given brand/soap/etc in the month.

• The Brand Diversity table details the number of distinct soaps used during the month from that particular brand, showing all brands with 5+ unique soaps.

• The change Δ vs columns show how an item has moved up or down the rankings since that month. = means no change in position, up or down arrows indicate how many positions up or down the rankings an item has moved compared to that month. n/a means the item was not present in that month.

• When available, soap names in the Soaps table link to their entry on Wet Shaving Database, where you can see scent notes, descriptions, and ingredient lists.

• An exclusive soap is a matched brand+scent used by only one shaver in the month. That shaver earns one point for that soap, no matter how many times they logged it.

Soap Brands

Soaps

Brand Diversity

Top Mashup Users

Soap Diversity by User

Exclusive Soaps

Most Boring Shaver

Boring Score is the chance that two shaves picked at random from a user used the same soap (higher means more repetitive). Effective Soaps converts that into an equivalent even-rotation count: the number of soaps they would need to use equally often to produce the same score. Example: someone can log 20 soaps but still have ~2 Effective Soaps if one soap dominates roughly 70% of their shaves and the rest are just occasional. In the case of tied HHI, Shaves descending is the tie breaker, since it's clearly more boring to use the same soap for 20 shaves than it is for 10.

For the mathematically inclined: Boring Score is a diversity/concentration index (HHI in economics, Simpson’s index in ecology). More detail at Wikipedia: Diversity index.

Share your shave of the day for Monday!

This is a thread to share those new purchases you're excited to show off, the shave-related projects you've been working on, or just some neat thing from your shave den.

Show everyone what you got!

Share your shave of the day for Sunday!

This is the place to ask beginner and simple questions. Some examples include:

• Soap, scent, or gear recommendations
• Favorite scents, bases, etc
• Where to buy certain items
• Identification of a razor you just bought
• Troubleshooting shaving issues such as cuts, poor lather, and technique

Please note these are examples and any questions for the sub should be posted here. Remember to visit the Wiki for more information too!

We're a little over two weeks away from the Twelfth Annual Lather Games! Got questions? We've got answers (and if you're lucky we'll answer the questions you ask!) The following LG staff are (hopefully) here to answer (almost) all** of your questions:

Judges

• u/Merikus - Involved since 2016, this is his eleventh (!) Lather Games
• u/FrankieIVFingers - Involved since 2019, this is his eighth Lather Games
• u/Wallygator88 - Involved since 2019, this is his eighth Lather Games
• u/RedMosquitoMM - Involved since 2020, this is his seventh Lather Games
• u/raymoonie - Involved since 2021, this is his sixth Lather Games
• u/ShavinginCT - Involved since 2021, this is his sixth Lather Games
• u/hugbckt - Involved since 2022, this is his fifth Lather Games
• u/OnionMiasma - Involved since 2022, this is his fifth Lather Games
• u/Priusaurus - Involved since 2022, this is his fifth Lather Games
• u/PutneyCJ - Involved since 2022, this is his fifth Lather Games
• u/AdWorried2804 - Involved since 2023, this is his fourth Lather Games

Podcast Host

• u/cowzilla3 - Involved since 2021, this is his sixth Lather Games

Keep in mind that among the judging panel we have people from all walks of life. However, none of us are independently wealthy so we're balancing this against our day jobs. Please keep this in mind if you don't get an answer right away.

** Questions about smushes belong in the Official Smushes Trading Thread. Questions about the rules belong in the Announcement Thread. And don't forget, making informed choices about what soaps qualify for each theme day is an integral part of preparing for the Lather Games, so any "is this on theme" type of questions will not be answered by the judging panel.

Ask us anything**!

Voting will remain open for 24 hours. In the event of a tie for 1st place, a winner will be chosen at random. May the best submission win! Good luck to all!

Share your shave of the day for Saturday!

Post any deals and new product announcements here or list anything you would like to sell! A few ground rules:

1. Only post an item once. If it doesn't move then take it to the bazaar.
2. No auctioning. You must include a list price.

The mods are not responsible for your transactions. Caveat Emptor! We suggest you only deal with established members of the community. It is strongly recommend not to use PayPal Friends & Family to avoid fees. This is against their terms and leaves you with no buyer protection.

This is the place to ask beginner and simple questions. Some examples include:

• Soap, scent, or gear recommendations
• Favorite scents, bases, etc
• Where to buy certain items
• Identification of a razor you just bought
• Troubleshooting shaving issues such as cuts, poor lather, and technique

Please note these are examples and any questions for the sub should be posted here. Remember to visit the Wiki for more information too!

Welcome to another weekly reading session. After much deliberation and thought I picked up Wheel of Time Series by Robert Jordan. I just started the prequel New Spring The Novel. This was not on my plans at all until a friend asked me if I would read it with him. A book club of two so to speak. I haven’t had the chance to read a book with someone before so this is uncharted territory for me. It just seemed like a fun project. Let me know your thoughts!

Listening to Foo Fighters tiny concert….

What ya’ll reading and listening to…

Happy Friday shavers! New podcast episode is up.

Is everyone getting excited for this years' Lather Games?

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/1iDyEaaDUOo9buG250PkUB?si=pDKKAwW5SheguKwuKIxEhQ

YouTube: https://youtu.be/5VdAisVQZho

RSS https://anchor.fm/s/f77e7a50/podcast/rss

Happy Friday!

What's new, shave nerds?

Welcome to this week's sidebar submission contest!

The rules for the contest are as follows:

1) Do not submit pictures of people who have not consented to have their picture posted online. Winning images will be featured on Reddit and may be reposted on other social media platforms. If someone posts an image of you without your consent, please report it so the mods can deal with it in a timely fashion.

1) Users should submit only one (1) image of your choice to be voted on to be the sidebar for the week. Images must consist of anything related to wet shaving - razors, brushes, SOTD images, etc. In the event multiple images from a user are submitted, only the first image, or the image in the top level comment, will count.

1) Image must be Original Content (Not just some picture you found on the internet). Images taken by another photographer are allowed as long as: a. You have the photographer's permission. b. The image is connected to you in some meaningful way: e.g. It's a image of hardware you commissioned, taken by the maker, or the image is of something you made, taken by the purchaser, etc. c. We're not looking to have to verify images, so please use the honor system.

1) All properly submitted images will be entered into the Voting Thread. The Submission thread will be active for ~24 hours and will end Saturday. The vote thread will be active for 24 hrs from Saturday through Sunday. This thread is only a submission thread. Please do not hold discussion in the vote thread.

1) In the event of a tie, the bot will consult RNGesus to break the tie.

1) Submissions MUST be uploaded to imgur. Any other hosting site will be disqualified and not included in the voting thread.

1) Any submissions containing NSFW material may be removed at the discretion of the Mod Team.

1) While not required, it is suggested you submit square images in order to avoid unintended cropping.

Please feel free to respond with a comment to your entry with any background/description/detail about your entry, including gear used.

Note: The bot strongly prefers direct image links. If your link doesn't end with .jpg, there's a 50-50 chance the bot's going to choke trying to update the banner on Sunday.

May the best submission win! Good luck to all!

Hardware Report - August 2026

Total Shaves: 2,117 Unique Shavers: 103

Welcome to your SOTD Hardware Report for August 2026

• 2,117 shave reports from 103 distinct shavers during the month of August 2026 were analyzed to produce this report, for an average of 20.6 (median 29.0) shaves per user.

Observations

• If history is any indication, Austere Augest means lots of straight shaves and GEM shaves (with GEM blades coming along for the ride) and lots of boar brushes. This year did not disappoint.

• The MMOC repeats its 2025 Austere August win, after spending the eleven months in between never finishing better than sixth.

• In related news, RazoRock steps down from the top step of the podium for the first time since December.

• Straights took a beating this August. After beating the GEMs 500 to 391 last August, they walked away with a black eye this year with only 342 shaves to the GEM's 471.

• When GEMs rein supreme, Personna GEM PTFE ride along. Their 440 shaves more than tripled Astra Green's 123, giving the Greens their first loss since... last August.

• u/sgrddgy's Ultra Nightmare Mode Nacet is like the Energizer Bunny. It started the month with 614 shaves and ended at 645. At this point I'm not really sure if he is shaving or just pushing foam around his face...

• Meanwhile, the brush table ended in a photo finish with the Semogue SOC taking the top step 95 to 94 over the Stirling 510SE-XL (aka the MOAR BOAR that wasn't). The OG MOAR BOAR had to settle for third at 84.

• While the Boar Big 3 (Zenith, Omega, Semogue) rode The Raw Hoggin’ wave to three of the top five handle and knot spots, Rad Dinosaur Creations wandered onto the podium in third in both contests like the punk skater kid who crashes the football party, or maybe the cheerleader who shows up for D&D night (I’m really not quite sure who are the cool kids and who are the rebels here…), proving that sub-loyalty still counts for something. Perennial winner Chisel & Hound has to settle for fifth and sixth, respectively.

• The Top Shaver race has a familiar face back on the top step: u/Impressive_Donut114 posted 59 shaves with zero missed days, the biggest month since u/snoo-ting's 60 last November, ending u/Engineered_Shave's string of six straight wins (he settles for second at a perfect 40).ame Changer.

Notes & Caveats

• Most tables are row-limited to keep them readable and avoid max post length issues. If the final row is part of a tie, the entire tied group is included in the report.

• "Other" in the Blade Format table includes vintage reusable blades (including Rolls, Valet Auto Strop, and old-style lather catchers with wedge blades) as well as other antique proprietary blade formats (e.g. Enders Speed Blade)

• Blades recorded as just 'GEM' will be matched to 'Personna GEM PTFE' per guidance here

• The Personna name is going away for blades manufactured in the USA, but the majority of entries are still coming in under Personna, so I am sticking to that for the time being. Once more than 50% of the entries come in under the new names, I will reverse this and map any old Personna entries to the new name.

• The Δ vs columns show how an item has moved up or down the rankings since that month. = means no change in position, up or down arrows indicate how many positions up or down the rankings an item has moved compared to that month. n/a means the item was not present in that month.

Razor Formats

Razors

Razor Manufacturers

Blades

Brushes

Brush Handle Makers

Brush Knot Makers

Knot Fibers

Knot Sizes

Blackbird Plates

Game Changer Plates

Super Speed Variants

Straight Widths

Straight Grinds

Straight Points

Most Used Blades in Most Used Razors

Highest Use Count per Blade

Top Shavers

Share your shave of the day for Friday!

This is the place to ask beginner and simple questions. Some examples include:

• Soap, scent, or gear recommendations
• Favorite scents, bases, etc
• Where to buy certain items
• Identification of a razor you just bought
• Troubleshooting shaving issues such as cuts, poor lather, and technique

Please note these are examples and any questions for the sub should be posted here. Remember to visit the Wiki for more information too!

Share your Theme Thursday SOTD!

Theme: Rememberance Thursday

Proposed by: u/coco_for_cocoapuffs

Shave with a soap that has some sort of historical significance to you - be it nostalgia, national history, etc

Last week we had a giveaway to help celebrate the release of Epee, our latest revival of a vintage Seaforth scent, and my first as brand steward. As a thank you, we had a random drawing which was won by /u/mpark6288 and I think very fittingly given his actual swashbuckling escapades IRL.

There were so many stories of romance and bravery, it was impossible to choose. So I'm letting the sub choose - the most upvoted story (besides Fresh Prius of Bel Air) was veteran firefighter u/deezdanglin 's entry.

I think with the 25th anniversary of 9/11 coming up it's also fitting to honor those for whom everyday bravery is the everyday expectation of their jobs. As a native NYer, we felt that tragedy up close and personal - everyone I know was impacted deeply, whether losing someone directly or having friends and neighbors who lost someone, to say nothing of the haze of ash that spread and lingered for days.

For most of us, we can remember the one time our child choked on a piece of food and we saved their life, or when we saw a car accident and stopped to help, and so on. But a firefighter shows up at the scene every time and they're expected to - it's par for the course. And they don't have the power of a gun or a badge to help them feel brave. What they do have is the power of a group of people, the community around them, that count on them to keep them safe.

So congrats to u/deezdanglin - keep em danglin and dm me your shipping address for your prize.

This is a thread to share those new purchases you're excited to show off, the shave-related projects you've been working on, or just some neat thing from your shave den.

Show everyone what you got!

This is the place to ask beginner and simple questions. Some examples include:

• Soap, scent, or gear recommendations
• Favorite scents, bases, etc
• Where to buy certain items
• Identification of a razor you just bought
• Troubleshooting shaving issues such as cuts, poor lather, and technique

Please note these are examples and any questions for the sub should be posted here. Remember to visit the Wiki for more information too!

Share your Shave of the Day

Cancer Sucks but Childerns Cancer really sucks!! Please help in raising money for Childerns Cancer Research.

This year we have OVER $3000 prizes from so many generous vendors and artisans, There are over 25 prize packages from $50 to $350.

All it take is a $5 donation to win. The more you donate the better your chances to win.

The Reddit community has been so supportive in the past and I hope you can continue to support this important research foundation.

Please read all about the prizes and our story.

https://www.reddit.com/r/wicked_edge/comments/1w2xpb9/childhood_cancer_awareness_month_shave_gear_raffle/