Hello from the South Coast, USA

Hi, my name is Eddie, I've been wet shaving for just over a year and I just had another great shave!



Last summer, at an age of almost half a century, I got completely fed up with shaving. The problem with that was that I also can’t stand facial hair on my face. I’ve tried just about every cartridge razor and at the time I think my wife and I both had Gillette Proglide Power Razors; this was after the last in a long series of electric razors. After purchasing yet another quality electric razor and giving my face six months to adapt, it too would yield razor burn and always left my entire neck hellfire red for hours. The cartridge razors give me egregious razor burn and make just about every hair on my face look like a wound, and they cost a lot of money to achieve that result. I think my beard is probably just normal and not all that dense, but apparently, I have sensitive skin.

On another sleepless night, after having set my face on fire with one or the other of the aforementioned implements of torture, Rick Harrison of Pawn Stars fame appears on the TV and like a good televangelist preaches about my facial salvation that can be had with the Micro Touch One safety razor. I got to googling and the next day I went to Walmart and found the “As Seen On TV” section and picked up that razor. And, I began doing research and found this website / treasure trove of information. Even with what I had available, after my first shave I thought to myself, “I like this. I think I can do this.” So, I read some more, asked a couple of friends about wet shaving via email, watched some videos and started adding a few items to the budding shave den: Shave Secret Oil, Cremo Shave Cream, Nivea After Shave Balm, etc.

One of my friends asked me if I would mind if he sent me a brush. Of course! With the beautiful badger hair brush came a bunch of different blades for me to try as well, which was a good thing because I just wasn’t liking the Dorco blades.


He also recommended I look into purchasing a real razor, either new or vintage from eBay. So, I then bought a Gillette Slim, a Merkur 23c and a bunch of other blades from a website that sells individual blades. I had a bit of a difficult time finding a good setting on the Slim, so I decided to shave with only the Merkur and work on my technique.

Trying different blades, i have found that my face really likes the Gillette 7 O’clock Permasharp blades (I’ve gotten up to 25 shaves with one blade), the Wilkinson Sword blades from India, and my face loves the Voskhods, but for only one shave. My technique improved and I could even use my razor to get a decent quick shave with no irritation.

Rabbit hole: A while back a wonderful lady that I know through my sister, both of whom live half way across the country, sent me some old razors that she found in her basement. After cleaning them all up, I now had four vintage razors in beautiful condition:

1. 1977 Gillette Super-109 Adjustable
2. 1961 Gillette 195 Adjustable "Fat Boy"
3. 1920s Gillette Old Type Ball End Handle
4. 1956 Gillette Flare Tip Super Speed



Back to the shave …

Tonight, with 3 days of growth on my face I loaded the Gillette Fat Boy with a brand new Gillette 7 O’clock Permasharp blade. The brush was loaded with Chiseled Face Groomatorium’s Summer Storm and lathered in a bowl. The first pass was with the razor set on 5 nearly completely cleared the visage of all 3 days of growth. After a second pass and some buffing with the razor set on 3 the alum block yielded no wincing. Post application of the Summer Storm aftershave, my face feels great and my wife is amenable to being close to me.

I now look forward to treating my face to a great shave. I cannot believe no one taught me about shaving when I was a kid, but you can be sure that I have already begun teaching my teenage son and he hasn’t started shaving yet.

This took a long time to type not just because it was long, but because I kept stopping to faceturbate. Many thanks to all you for sharing so that others of us can learn and hopefully, I’ll be able to add something useful to the conversations, too.



 

Welcome to TSD! Looks like you'll fit right in with the AD'S!

 

Sounds like you had a really interesting journey and you have a lot of great gear to show for it. That's great that you're taking the time to teach your son about shaving. I was never given any pointers myself but fortunately, I found my way to these forums and I have learned a whole lot from others here. Glad to have you here now as well.

 

Welcome @DabblinRazors ! I do believe you're going to fit right in around here. I'm South Coast as well, polysyllabic at times, and enjoy a shave with a Fat Boy (razor, that is).

Thanks for bringing your experience to our little corner of the interwebs!

 

Welcome aboard! Fine collection you have going there. Clearly you belong with those of us best able to enable you in continuing the wanton acquisition of shaving gear. It does my hear proud to see Voskhod in your den, and the GSB and Astra are excellent as well. The Gillette Stainless is a great blade too. Somewhat of a sleeper that stays under the radar. Great razors, great write up......yep, you're one of us now!

 

Welcome to TSD! Sounds like your a true believer already, so keep up the good work!

 

Hello, welcome to TSD!

 

Welcome to the Shave Den. You have a nice collection of razors.

 

Hi from Seoul, nice to meet you. That is a nice looking collection.

 

Welcome, from Houston. I started, like you, Micro Touch One, but I had to figure everything out for myself.
It's a great feeling, being free from the "Cartridge Hype".

 

Welcome to TSD!

 

Hello and welcome

 

Welcome to TSD. You'll fit right in here.

 

to TSD @DabblinRazors

I hope you enjoy it here. You have a wonderful start on your future collection. I can see the AD's have taken hold full force!
Forget about your shaving past, you've found Valhalla. Has your wife tried "traditional" shaving yet? We have many ladies here who can assist her with info.

 

Hi!

 

Welcome to TSD - glad you found us!!

 

Welcome to The Shave Den, a great place to hang out!

 

Hello and welcome !

Sent from my Galaxy S6 using Tapatalk

 

Welcome to TSD! You have some awesome razors and you are correct, there is a wealth of information here that just keeps going and going!! Congratulations on finally enjoying shaving! I just started wetshaving in April and I love it!


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