Hello everyone, As my first post I'd just like to say a big thank you to all the members and admins of this site; I've been reading threads and stickies - especially shave school - for the last 6 days (two to decide that I wanted to try DE shaving , one to realise nowhere near me sells them and three more for postage!) As long as I can remember, wet shaving has left me with heavy razor rash, meaning that for the last 6 years I have used electric razors. However last week I had to attend a formal event, and whilst getting my hair cut, my Barbour offered me a proper shave and I was amazed not to experience any irritation. I bought myself some fusion heads - i already had the razor handle in a cupboard from a previous attempt, but could tell straight away that it wasn't cutting the same way the barbour had and I googled around for how to shave properly.. finding this site! Apart from having never heard of DE razors before, i found out that I basically knew nothing about shaving - having never been taught to shave, I'd pieced it together from the back of Gillette shaving foam cans - wet face, apply foam, shave, apply balm, come out in rash :mad: Thanks to all you're posts I was able to eliminate the razor rash caused by the fusion by just shaving properly, and then just as I got used to feeling confident and comfortable shaving again, my DE razor arrived, and I got to feel the control you get with these razors and had my first ever high quality shave yesturday morning, it's now been my second and my skin is still feeling good! Living in the UK, we don't seem to have many of the brands listed on this website so I thought I'd just list what I used in case someone this could be useful to stumbles over this. This is a list of budget options as I didn't want to spend too much in case it wasn't for me, but it worked like a charm! (total cost £25, all available from boots!) pre-shave wash; palmolive natural hygiene plus handwash - it is technically a handwash, but its antibacterial, did a great job of softening the hair and didn't dry my skin any. Shaving brush; Men-u - at a tenner it's the most expensive part, but it comes with 20 shaves worth of shaving creme and has won an fhm award of some sort. shaving creme; the free men-u sample Razor; Wilkinson Sword Classic - I don't think they have these in the US, but they are pretty much the perfect learner DE - £4.75 with 5 blades, plastic body with a metal core for good weight, yes I'll move on to something better with time, but right now I doubt my technique is good enough to notice the advantages of a Merkur, so It gives me something to work towards. Post shave; Gillette Series Arctic Ice splash (alcohol based) folloed by nivea aftershave balm - the splash is a bit like linx - does the job and you can't smell it after 10 mins, perfect for closing pores and sealing nicks, and the nivea rehydrates the now dryed out skin. As i say, as my skill progresses, I will be looking at and experimenting with less budget products, but I had a lot of luck with this set up so I thought I'd share! Thank you all again for sharing you're experiences on these boards, they have really helped me Jon
Welcome to The Shave Den Jon, a great community of guys and gals that enjoy wet shaving, I hope you enjoy your stay! Be sure to sign up for the July Newbie Give-Away for a chance to win some great shave gear! You'll find the Welcome to The Shave Den Master Sticky, put together by our very own Queen of Blades, will help you find your way around the forums.
Welcome to the shave den Once you get a slightly better razor I doubt you will notice the difference between. A £10 razor and a Merkur, sure you get a few nice Belsen and whistles, I actualy started with a Merkur sold it to a newbie (really cheaply at that) as I prefered my 2 gilette super speeds which I got very cheaply off eBay, good vintage razor, very well made and wont set you back too much if you hunt around a bit, but befor you buy ask someone here on the den, some people will try swipe your money or they post it as the wrong item
Thank you for your interest, I am interested in the vintage razors, been having a good look on ebay,mostly at SE's, and being in the UK, there's a lot of the old Wilkinson Sword Empire 7 day razors on there dirt cheap, which I love the look of, but sadly it seems that you can't get hold of blades for them any more. Will definitely be looking in to the super speeds as the only thing slightly putting me off was the thread about getting better shaves with more modern razors?
Thank you for all your welcoming messages guys and girls, nice to join a forum with so many nice people on it
Welcome to TSD. There are many great UK products the three Ts for example. Good products however higher price range TOBS is a middle priced cream/soap. Their products are top notch everything I have used by them has been great.
