Hello everyone. I've been shaving with and collecting straight razors for quite a while, now. After looking at and reading a few of the shaving forums I decided on joining this one. You all seem to be a pretty good group to hang out with. I've amassed about 100 razors so far, despite the wails of "Oh, no. Not another one!" She just doesn't understand...it's better than collecting empty booze bottles! I've been retired for 16, going on 17 years now, so I have plenty of time for my hobby/ies. While I was working I hated shaving...bloody hell, It kept growing back! Now, since every day is a Saturday, I spend 20 minutes to a half hour pampering myself with a nice relaxing spa-like shave. I started out with a Merkur DE using Feather blades for a few years and after my son got disgusted with the cost of the multi-blade disposables, we both picked up on shaving with straights. I've got to tell you, it was after some trepidation at the beginning and the acquisition of a new nickname - Scarface, that I began to feel comfortable. I tested new strokes to get the best results and found that I had never gotten a better and closer shave than I've gotten with my straights.
Welcome from Alabama the Heart of Dixie! With that many razors you will fit in great & enjoy it here. You may want to jump over the the 30 day challenge. Lot of fun and advise. Every now and then we get away from shaving but we always come back. Lot of straights over there and this month is shavettes. Glad to have you aboard!
Hi from Seoul, nice to meet you. Here we refer to straight shavers as the Dark Side, glad to have another Dark Side member. Looking forward to seeing pics of all your razors.
to TSD @Rkep01 I hope you enjoy it here. Very nice sized collection you have, can't wait to see some of them. I'm a DE shaver, but I love the look of the straights! I'm not comfortable shaving with them and I don't have the patience to improve my technique, but I still have about 20 or so.
Thanks, 178. I certainly wasn't an expert when I took my first walk on the dark side. What I learned is to keep the blade at less than a 30° angle to my face. You want to slice the whiskers off, not scrape them off. If you hold the blade too high you risk cutting yourself (learned that the hard way). Also, you have to keep your skin tight (ditto). Always move the blade forward, don't slide it sideways (shudder). Once I started with it, I never looked back.
Welcome to TSD @Rkep01! Glad you chose us as you landing spot on the 'Net. Good bunch of folks here that enjoy sharing and teaching each other. The 30 Day Crew are a mix of new shavers trying out vintage razors & vintage shavers learning new gear. It's a self help group of coaches and cheer leaders working on developing our best technique to enjoy the gear we own. That right there covers two thirds of the "Technique Trumps Tools" that is taught in The 30 Day Rule / Focus group. The rest of the conversation is BBQ & cookies, old cars and fast women (or old women and fast cars depending on the day of the week ), photos of kids and grandkids, in depth discussion of most any shave gear. It's an unhijackable juggernaut that always comes back to shaving & improving results. The 30 Day Rule / Focus bit is to stick with a set of gear to understand how to get best results.
Thanks for the welcome. The 30 Day Rule/Focus Group sounds interesting. I'll definitely be posting here. Stay tuned!
