Your First Traditional Shaving Kit ?

The subject of this thread and general discussions have made me think about my first Traditional Shaving Kit.

http://theshaveden.com/forums/threa...ild-sharp-or-smooth-a-general-overview.37813/

I had to replace the blades and the soap but the rest of the kit is what I originally started my journey with and I still have it as a keep sake and a reminder of where and what I started with. Here is a photo of that kit.

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I transitioned from at the time 34 years of cartridge and electric use to DEs and have supplemented the kit over time with a variety of items.

So now here are the questions for the forum. What was your first kit? Do you still have it? How long after you started shaving did you transition to traditional shaving or have you always been a traditional shaver?

 

I've always wet shaved (wetting the face before applying lather), I just used canned goo and carts back when I started some mumble, mumble- odd years ago. Never did like electrics.

Now talking "Traditional Wet Shaving", most often associated with brushes, cream or a puck of soap, and a DE or SE...

VDH soap and brush
Merkur 34C, aka the HD
Forget what blade I used

Still love the VDH soap.
I now have three HDs - chrome, gold and a chrome with a red mallee burl handle. Never fail to get a darn near BBS when using the HD.

It really was a pretty easy transition as the carts I used back then had a fixed head - no pivot. I have no doubt that that's one of the issues facing newbies today - trying to get the right angle when the razor head doesn't pivot to the right angle like they're used to.

 

Merkur 34c HD
Shark Super Chrome
Omega 10005
Williams & VDH soap
Styptic Pencil

Ordered the razor from amazon. The blades came from ntguy. I forget where I got the brush, but I bought the rest locally.

 

Since it was only three weeks ago, I remember well:

Merkur 34C HD
Merkur blade (replaced within 2 shaves with a Sally Beauty Personna Lab)
Art of Shaving unscented cream
Art of Shaving lavender pre-shave
Target Shea Moisture shave brush
Kiehl's after shave balm
Clubman styptic pencil (liberally used)

 

Building the Great pyramids were heady times.

 

Mainstays Soup mug
Razorock Classic TTO Razor
Derby Blades
C.O.Bigelow
Escali Brush

Everything has since been replaced.

 

Ummm..it was somewhere back in the seventies with something made by Gillette with a plastic handle. I think it's the same as the M1 I have. The blades were the Wilkys of that time and my first lather came from a can..maybe Barbasol..used to like the Lemon Lime. Then I went with an injector for a bit..back then you could get them from the pharmacy.. The whole soap brush thing didn't happen until about the mid nineties. The soap was Williams and the brush was a Wilky I still have. Now I did go cartridge somewhere in there and for a long time did the soap and Williams with the cart. Maybe five years ago, in order to lol..to save money lol..I got back to a EE..in the wilds score.. and that's about it...

 

I shaved with the Sensor Excel for the longest time, didn't even know DE razors existed. Just a few years ago my first shave was a Gillette Superspeed A1, Shark Super Chrome blade & Barbasol red can. I was worried about cutting myself to shreds but only had one weeper on my upper lip. A few weeks later I picked up a puck of Williams and VDH brush.
I've actually been using that A1 Superspeed all week and having great shaves with it.

 

Wilkinson Sword Classic razor
with a provided Wilkinson Sword blade
then a Wilkinson Sword badger/boar mixture brush
and De Vergulde Hand Soap.

Never looked back to carts.

 

First kit would have been a Williams puck, a Burma Shave brush, a Super Speed with the black resin coating on the handle and blades from the local drug store.

I still have a Burma Shave brush and a puck of Williams, but not a Super Speed.

It was probably within 6 months or so of my starting to shave that I found the warm DIY lather worked better for me than the couple of electric razors I had tried initially. My father had the Super Speed but never seemed to use it and was happy to donate it to the cause. Circa 1980-1981...

 

My first shave kit consisted of a Schick type L and Palmolive Rapid Shave Lime. 1967.

 

My first traditional kit was:

Merkur 180 Long Handle
Astra SP blades
C.O. Bigelow cream
VDH Deluxe set.

I still have the VDH brush, bowl and Merkur.

My first 'wet shave' was some used Bic disposable and Barbasol. Neither have been seen for decades!

 

I used the old Slim Twin in the Navy and then various cheap disposables for years afterwards. I used hair conditioner for shave cream because it was cheap and my beard wasn't very thick yet.

It was awful.

Then around 2008, I found a Gem 1912 in Goodwill's front case. Went out and bought whatever blade to fit it at the drugstore.

It was awful.

I was still using the wife's hair conditioner at this time for shaving cream, with bad results, which explains the exceptionally bad and bleedy results I got when I tried it with the '12.

But I stuck with it, asked for and applied good advice, found razors and blades that worked better for me, developed patience, mastered technique, came down with and overcame RAD...and here I am.

Now it's great.

 

Perfect timing with this thread as I've just posted a picture of my first set here: http://theshaveden.com/forums/threads/my-gear.37837/#post-669382
To elaborate, what's in there is:
Parker 97R
Crabtree and Evelyn Badger hair brush
Initially a Wilkinson Sword Classic Blade (now currently trying out an Iridium Super)
Crabtree and Evelyn Nomad shave soap
Taylor's of Old Bond Street Jermyn Street Shave Cream
Omega Alum Stick
Baxter of Claifornia After Shave Balm

Originally I started my shaving days with a cartridge and canned cream/gel. I tried a fairly cheap electric razor for a while but never really enjoyed it so quickly went back to wet shaving. About six years ago now I started "trying out" using a shave soap and brush and never looked back. Now all of a month ago I converted to a DE razor and despite having a fairly shonky technique am still very pleased with the results.

 

My first kit was

Matas Men face wash.
2013 Merkur 15C
Merkur Platinum blade
Shaving Factory XS boar brush (although advertised and bought as horse, but that brush has never seen a horse in it's life)
Mühle Aloe Vera SS
Matas Men ASB

Did it work? Yes.
Was it good? Yes.
Is it good today? No!

That Merkur blade is horrible and the Mühle soap is just not very good. The Matas face wash is okay but boring as I don't know. The Matas ASB is just useless, no skin care what so ever.

I still love the brush but the Merkur doesn't get much use.

All factors above included it was still much better than the Mach 3 I used to use once in a while.

 

Merkur 34C razor
Merkur blades
Kiss My Face Mint shaving cream
Dovo 918052 pure badger brush

Out of the above, the only things I still use are the Dovo brush and the Kiss My Face. I only used the Merkur blades for a few shaves thinking "This is what traditional wetshaving is like? It pretty much sucks." Trying Derby blades after about four shaves, I then thought "Wow, this totally rocks!". Since that time, I have tried two other razors, a boar travel brush, about 70 or so blades, and a bunch of different soaps. To tell you the truth, I could have done just as well sticking with the Merkur razor, Derby blades, Kiss My Face cream and the Dovo brush, with the boar brush thrown in for travel. It makes me wonder if the 5+ years of trying different things wasn't largely a waste of time. Oh well, maybe not. Of course, that is irrelevant now.

The good thing is I have narrowed down the products I will use in the future to a select few blades, an EJ DE89L and Gillette Slim razors, Valobra soap, Kiss My Face cream, and whatever bottle of aftershave I happen to have on hand at the time. The two brushes should last a long, long time, so I am set there, too.

 

I always used electrics because I liked the 2 day stubble. (My girlfriend didnt, and stil don't) I wetshaved like 2-5 times a year, special occasions.

Then I started using Gillette fusion with gilette canned foam, sometimes Palmolive shave cream.

Then I got :
Palmolive stick
Badger brush(noname from the bay)
Derby single edge
Parker shavette

I abandoned the shavette for the Muhle r89, some supermax/topaz blades(not for me)

First successful shave was with a derby.

 

Excellent replies. Any one else?

 

I'd better type this out now. At my age, I might forget it soon!

Merkur HD
Wilkinson Sword
VDH boar brush
Old Spice aftershave
Omega Crema

I've only been at this since the first part of January, so don't have the benefit of nostalgia to recall anything as glorious or better than it really is. The whole set up is better than any multi-blade cartridge shaving.

 

I used cartridges and gel/foam for 35 years. Then, in an effort to save money, I decided to try DE shaving. After spending more money than I every thought possible on shaving, I have now settled on a setup and I'm actually spending less than ever. I've only been using a DE for about 9 months.

My original setup:
1968 Gillette SS
Astra SP blades
VDH Boar Brush
VDH Deluxe Soap
Nivia ASB
Old Spice

I never got good results from the Gillette SS. I bought a Edwin Jagger DE89L about a month after I started traditional shaving. I have since tried various razors including a Gillette Slim, Merkur 39C Slant, and a Weber Polished SS. None of them shaved as well as the EJ DE89, so I sold all of the others except the Slim (it's my birthyear razor) and use the EJ exclusively. I've also found that my face doesn't particularly care for Astra blades, so now I use Personna and Voskhod blades.