PFor today's budget shave I have decided to change things up a bit. I have moved on from the glorious SuperMax Titanium blade (which has lasted way longer than any blade should be able to last) and have decided to throw an Astra SP into the plastic fantastic Silk Bay razor. I like Astras, they're a fine blade that does a decent job and can be found at less than $10/100, but I often have issues with irritation when I use them, so it's not often that I brake one out. My enjoyment of this razor stems from its ability to mow down hair aggressively without chopping up my skin, so I am giving it a true test by using a blade that I find to be a little too bitey for everyday use. For the brush I have decided to give the #6 a break and pull out a product that most of us have used at one time or another, the VDH basic boar brush. This brush came in a VDH set that was given to me as a gift, but it can easily be found in most drug stores and grocery stores for sale by its self. This brush costs around $6 and works well enough to get the job done, but is not what most of us would consider a very glamorous piece of gear. For many people who are interested in wet shaving, but are on a budget, the VDH boar is a staple. it is the one brush that can be found nearly everywhere and does not cost an arm and a leg, so it deserves some attention. My lather bowl remains the same, I love it and rarely use anything else. For the soap I am using one of my favorites, Pyrate Cove Cucumber and Mellon. This little soap costs $3...total. Shipping is free and there is no tax charged, so the price tag is the total cost of the soap. This soap is so easy to lather and smells so good that it is almost criminal. I am a huge fan of Pyrate Cove Soapworks and always enjoy using their products, so pulling out the Cucumber and Mellon for a budget shave was a no-brainer. The shave was, as per usual, a typical three pass with a cold water rinse to finish off. The soap took a bit longer to lather than usual, due in part to the brush having been sitting in a drawer for a while, but once it got going the Cucumber and Mellon did what it does and filled up my bowl with copious amounts of sweet smelling lather. The razor worked nicely yet again, but I did feel some bites from the Astra along the way. The shave was close enough, but I did end up with some irritation and a very small nick on my jaw line. It was an OK shave, but certainly not of the stellar quality that I have been getting using budget gear. All in all, it was a somewhat disappointing experience. The fact of the matter is this: sometimes budget gear is not the best choice. Yes, the VDH boar is easy to find and cheap, but it also does not perform very well. There are better choices at or below the price point of the VDH. The Omega 13522 at around $8 or the #6 Turkish Horsehair at $2.55 are both far better than the VDH boar brush. The VDH basic boar brush will get the job done, and if it comes down to being a choice between the VDH or a cheap Diane brush from Sally's Beauty Supply, then I would go with the VDH every time. The Astra blade, while inexpensive and sharp, simply does not work well for me. There are at least a half dozen different blades that can be had at the same price range as the Astra SP. If you're looking for an inexpensive blade to buy in bulk, don't just stop at the first one that does ok, try several and find the one that works best for you. My Pyrate Cove soap did a fine job, but simply cold not compensate well enough to make up for the poor performance of my chosen brush and blade. Perhaps a slightly slicker soap like Vitos Extra Super could have made a bit of a difference, but it shouldn't have to. When you have good gear, even budget gear, it should all work together to create a pleasant experience. It shouldn't have to make up for one or two sub par products. I walked into this shave knowing that it would probably end up mediocre. I did it to make a point. Budget gear can be great stuff, but just as expensive products aren't necessarily good just because they are expensive, buying the cheapest or easiest to come by gear is also not the best way to go. Try inexpensive products, give them a chance, but don't be afraid to move on if they do not work well for you. After all, if a $1.70 puck of VDH Deluxe isn't your thing, then is it really that big of a loss? Inexpensive gear is nice because there is so little risk and so much possibility for reward, so get out there and give that KMF shaving cream, or that Dorco 301, or that #6 Turkish Horsehair brush a chance. What have you got to lose other than the price of a bad gas station hot dog?
I think this is a great thread. My brother is into budget shaves, but totally without thought to quality (bic disposable, generic canned goo, his wife's moisturiser!) and I've tried to convince him that a small additional outlay could improve his experience to the point where he enjoys his shave (he actively dislikes shaving as things stand). Anyway, spurred on by jabberwock's posts I thought I'd look at my cheapest 'best' shave (as noted elsewhere, I do have the stocks to do an even cheaper but notably worse shave). Here are my thoughts: Pre-shave: none. I usually enjoy Proraso pre-post cream, but it's something I can live without and my shave isn't markedly worse without it. Brush: Vie-Long Horsehair, £9. I know you can get cheaper brushes (I have some) but, for me, the Vie Long is a great product. Soft tips and yet with a really firm backbone. I can't recommend it highly enough for those on a budget. Soap: Palmolive stick - as noted elsewhere, you simply can't go wrong with this. It costs 50p per stick in the UK and performs as well as or better than soaps costing 20 times as much. Razor: Gillette Fat Handled Tech, cost me £6.50 and is in reasonable nick. This was too mild for me when I first started DE shaving, but having a year to improve my technique I can now get comfortable, effortless shaves every time. Blade: Gillette 7 o'clock yellow. Not the absolute cheapest blade, but you can pick them up in bulk for very little. A good sharp blade that works really well with the tech. My last purchase worked out at 12.5 pence per blade. Aftershave: This is the only one I've struggled on and had to accept a compromise in shave quality. Ordinarily I use a splash (typically DR Harris Marlborough) followed a little while later by a good quality balm (usually Boots no. 7 balm). Neither of my usual products come under the cheap heading. I do have some Proraso Milk, which is cheap, but I don't find it moisturising enough for my dry skin. As such, I've come down on the side of Nivea Sensitive Balm which is a good all round product and can be bought for £2.50 a bottle from Wilkinson's (a budget retailer) here in the UK. I used this combination this morning and had a really good shave - not quite up to my best, but much more than merely acceptable. I don't feel I compromised on the quality of the products from a performance perspective (other than the pre-shave) but perhaps did on the scents experienced (which is part of the fun of traditional shaving!) However, for a new starter (and this is what I would love to convince my brother to have a go at) the above products will get you a great shave for less than £20 and set you up for several weeks of shaving (perhaps even months if you bought a bigger pack of blades). You could stick with this set up for ever if you were so inclined. Of course, the cost-effectiveness of DE shaving is easy to put forth on paper (or message board) but the pitfall is that the cheap entry point is a gateway drug. Before you know it, you've bought 20 soaps and creams, 8 balms, 10 razors, 5 brushes and a couple of thousand blades and you've spent way more than if you'd just stuck to your old routine. Such is the problem of turning a shave from a chore into an experience!!!
You need some cologne too. Tabac is a great cheap frag but my favorite cheap frag is Sex Appeal by Jovan. Getting to smell good just $12, getting to smell like a 70's porn star priceless.
So, for a slightly different take, and looking at blades alone: For a long time my favored blade has been the Personna Lab. I also like Israeli Personna's, which seem slightly smoother, and slightly less sharp... The Lab cost me $14/100. I get 3 shaves from a blade = 4.7 cents/shave. IP cost $16/hundred. I get 4 shaves from them = 4 cents/ shave. I have recently rediscovered the Feather blade, and they have displaced the Personna's as my #1 blade - the smoothest and closest shave ever! They are expensive though, and cost 29 cents/blade! But here is the kicker... They are obviously made of superior steel, and last me 7 shaves! $29/hundred. 7 shaves = 4.1 cent/shave. In other words, this expensive blade, which is the best I have ever found, is no more expensive than the very good but less durable Personna. To be fair, I like the popular Astra SP as well. They cost $10/hundred, and I get 3 shaves, which equals 3.3 cents/shave. If absolute cost were the criteria, I would probably use the Astra. It gives me a good shave, and is comfortable in use. But it only costs me an additional 42 cents/year to use the Feather, which I find truly superior. Which one do you think I'm going to choose?
Thanks for the 1st photo. I had the same black plastic razor kicking around for months not remembering where it came from!-( now I remember!
Today I am using the exact same gear as last time, with one exception. I will be using Razorock S. Maria instead of the Pyrate Cove soap. I am changing up the soap because I have decided to give my underperforming gear a second chance, but I will need a nice and thick cream for it to work. While the VDH Basic Boar brush is not a great brush, if given an easy to lather product, it can still get the job done. The Astra SP blade is one that I have issues with, but it also usually mellows out after a shave or two. This makes the Astra SP a good choice for me if I am using a thick cream as it is able to cut through all of the lather and not as able to irritate my skin. The Pyrate Cove soap is a good soap, but when using other products that need a little help to shine, something with a little more density is called for. Which brings us to the Razorock S. Maria. This stuff is an excellent nonmenthol eucalyptus scented cream that is ultra concentrated. A little goes a very long way. I have to admit that using a eucalyptus scented cream without menthol is a bit odd for me, but after a couple of shaves with it I got used to the fact that there would be no face freeze to go along with the odd scent. This cream comes in a 5oz. tub and costs around $10, which is typical of most midrange creams. What is not typical is that with very little product the Razorock S. Maria will give you enough lather for two faces. I have found that if I use as much S. Maria as I would any other cream that I end up having to use a ton of water to get it to the proper consistency which results in enough lather for ten passes. Less is definitely more with S. Maria. I'm still using my trusty green plastic lather bowl, which apparently is also available at Wal Mart for $1. The Sik Bay razor continues to be my budget razor of choice (much to my wife's annoyance...hey, if she didn't want me to abduct it then she shouldn't have insisted that I try it). Today's shave is he same as all the previous budget shaves, a typical three pass followed by a cold water rinse. This time around the VDH Boar did an OK job. It had a much easier time producing lather and applied it without much fuss, but it was still nothing to write home about. The VDH Boar makes an OK travel brush and is an acceptable brush in general, but if you want something that really works well I would look elsewhere. The S. Maria really performed today, it kept my skin safe and soft and allowed a bitey blade to do its job with a minimum of issues. It is an excellent cream that does not get enough recognition. If you avoid creams because they do not last as long as soap or because you can't get as thick a lather out of them, then I highly suggest giving the S. Maria a try. The Astra SP was much tamer today. It has mellowed down now that it's been through a previous shave and the thickness of the S. Maria cream also prevented it from digging in. I still ended up with some slight irritation, but not nearly as much as the previous shave. Not having to worry about the bite of the blade allowed for a much closer and much smoother result as well. I still believe that one product should not have to compensate for other sub par products, but with a well thought out combination they can be made to perform. Unlike more expensive gear, budget stuff has the added bonus of being easier to move on from. If that $3 brush or $2 soap doesn't cut the mustard, then there are plenty of other fish in the sea. It's easy to experiment with budget gear because it costs so little. The up side, of course, is that when you do find a cheap piece of gear that really works you can stock up on it without breaking the bank. I am much happier finding a $5 soap that blows me away than I am when I find a $25 one that does the same. With budget gear I enjoy finding those hidden gems, but I am also not as afraid of a product turning out to be junk.
So, I've enjoyed using the low cost products for the past several shaves and I've gotten some great advice about other products, but it's time to return to my Edwin Jagger DE86 and to break out a Bolzano and some Vitos soap. I like being able to advocate for the under dogs of the shaving world, but in spite of what some people may think, I am not an all budget all the time guy. I just like to illuminate some dark corners and to enlighten those who do not realize that quality can be found even in the lowliest of places. Before I return from the land of the ultra inexpensive I figured I would share some thoughts on some of my favorite budget gear. There's plenty of other budget gear out there that I haven't tried yet (or that I don't personally care for), so if I've left something out feel free to help enlighten the masses. Trust me when I say that even though there is plenty of junk out there that can make your shaves seem like torture there are also many hidden gems just waiting to be discovered. Here are my favorites: Soaps: --Godrej Shaving Round: Tiny, odd smelling, but really fun and easy to lather. This stuff is great for a travel kit and if you have an Indian grocery store it's uber cheap. --Van Der Hagen Deluxe: King of the budget soaps. It smells nice, lathers well, and is available everywhere. I love this stuff. --Ogallala: Amazing lather, strong scent, comes in a spifftastic old timey box. This is probably my favorite of the cheap soaps, but it can burn a bit. Creams: --Kiss My Face: Great scents, widely available, and great for using in superlathers or for boosting under performing soaps/creams. --Razorock S. Maria: Super concentrated (a little goes a loooong way), great lather, a tribute to Santa Maria Novella...minus the parabens and insane price tag. Blades: --Lord Platinum: Sharp and smooth, but still forgiving, a great blade for beginners to create a benchmark. --Dorco 301: Ultra low cost, comes with its own blade disposal, sharp and smooth. Gets a lot of undeserved bad press due to its little brother the Dorco 300. --SuperMax Stainless: Smooth and forgiving, but not quite as sharp as its higher priced siblings the plats, super plats, and titaniums. Brush: --#6 Turkish Horsehair: There is no better brush at even twice the price. Great lather maker, nice looking, compact without being tiny. It does smell awful at first. Razor: --Sik Bay plastic 3 piece razor: Aggressive without being deadly, easy to use, and well made. This razor made me want to give plastic a chance. Blade Bank: --Tin Can DIY Blade Bank: Why pay $2-$4 for a bank when you can make your own for $0.50? They work great and last forever. Lather Bowl: --CocinaWare Salsa Bowl: Cheap, textured surface, has feet for stability. Available at HEB or Wal Mart. One of the best shave gear purchases I have ever made. So, those are my thoughts. Thanks for the time and I hope that I have gotten a few folks out there to "give cheap a chance"
