Age....

I'm 25 and started shaving prolly when i was 13...tried my pops old norelco electric but it just irritated the crap out of my face...moved onto a gillette sensor and it was ok, did the disposable route for a couple of years.

after high school, my scruff became thick/coarse/fast growing so i tried and used the mach 3 for the longest time (blades was/are still expensive).
after college my mom bought me 2 electric razors for xmas and i used them for the life of the blades, but i would get bumps always
past year i was doing a mix of schick quattro plus a foil shaver, but i started to shave about every couple of weeks or when my boss said ill pay you 50 bucks to shave.

Until now, 2 weeks ago, i started DE shaving as i saw my grandfather shaving with his 53' super speed and always wondered about the shave, and now that razor is mine and i love it....this is another expensive hobby that i'm adding to my already long list which includes cars, motorcycles, guns, cameras, shoes, hotwheels (yes one of my walls has only hotwheels on it)

 

Very nice stories to ready everyone! I am 35 and have been DE shaving for about 2 months. I bought a brush and soap once about 5 years ago, but I didn't even take the time to learn how to do it right. So I quit shortly after I bought them. Recently, I decided to look into wet shaving again. This time I did a lot of research, watched videos, etc. Finally, I decided on a Parker 22R, Omega Shave Soap, and Astra Blades. I love the experience! I have bought a few local artisan soaps as well.

Why did I switch? Well several reasons. I like my life to be simple. I like the fun of whipping up lather. It takes more time, so it teaches you to be patient. It is less product waste to either be recycled or buried in the earth.

It's something my kids think is neat. Both my son (almost 5) and daughter (9) have helped me whip up lather and also apply the lather to my face. My son on occaision will want to "shave" in the shower. Now, I can let him use the brush on his face and I can take the blade out of the safety razor (which can not be done with disposables) and help him get a shave. and wouldn't you know it, my son is BBS everytime! How does he do it, I'll never know!

 

I'll be 42 in Sept. 2012. I've been shaving since I was 14. I used an electric for awhile because I only had a few hairs on my chin and mustache, but I went to a high school that did not allow any facial hair, so I had to shave. I switched to disposables and later an Atra Plus before I turned 16. I started wet shaving (using a mug and brush) using a cheap boar brush and Colgate or Williams soap (depending on what I felt like buying) when I was around 22. I stuck with the Atra Plus until the Mach 3 came out. I switched to DE razors, and expanded my options on soap use after I discovered this place in 2008. I started using straights in the mix a little over a year ago.

I swtiched to DE razors after sporting a full beard for three years straight and I was appalled at how the price for Mach 3 cartridges had gone up. Around that same time I read a blog post somewhere (I cannot remember which blog) that referenced DE shaving, Leisureguy, and The Art of Manliness so I had my mom send the the DE I knew she had (it turned out to be a 1954 40s style Super Speed), bought some DE blades locally, and I was hooked!

 

59 years old, wet shaved for 40+ years. Tried an electric once and figured if I wanted to shave with a razor that felt like a belt sander, I'd just buy a belt sander. I've always used a brush and a soap puck, Williams and a cheap drug store boar and both will still deliver a good shave. I'll admit, I developed a soap AD and sure enjoy experimenting with different soaps.

 

I'm 43 and have been wetshaving since I was 14. Started using DE razors in 2006. I dabbled with an electric in my early 20's but got terrible shaves with it.

 

I'm 24, 25 in November. I started wet shaving around February of this year when my pops bought me a vdh kit. I used mostly an electric razor before that if I even shaved at all. Now I shave every other day unless I'm going somewhere and need to look nice. I got my wife into wet shaving barely a month ago and she seems to be enjoying it.

 

I'm 43 and started wetshaving when I was about 18(ish)

Using DE razors of and on since that time and fall back on the Gillette cartridge razors and stuff from a can every now and then

But he..... I always get back!

 

I'm now the grand old age of 40 my Uncle ted (who was like my dad) taught me how to shave among lots of other great things and being ex navy he used either a straight razor (it was called three kings i think but I have never found one) and gold aristocrat (again still don't have one) so I learned to shave with a DE at 14ish I don't remember where I got it from but I think mine was a super speed (which I lost while travelling). And once he thought I had mastered that I got to use his straight razor, sadly when he died in 2006 my niece (his daughter) kept the straight and the razor with a few other bits and now has them in a box in her garage. I did how ever after a year at Uni switch to a I think it was a mach 3 only because my house mates used to take the p*ss about how old my razor was and after a year of having a face and neck that was more pitted than a world war 2 airstrip I switched back, and I have been here ever since from the crazy 80s with 3 blades through the mad 90s with 4 and into 2000 with now five and water activated gunk on your razor. But the same issue remain's how come something made so many years ago and uses a single blade still out performs all these new engineered gadgets with no razor burn. In our house (apart from me and the dog I'm out numbered by 5 females) my wife uses a Lady gillette (and all my soaps and blades)and our eldest (13) uses merkur 38 barber pole that we got her for her birthday but insist on using canned goo as she said its so much quicker (because at 13 its all about time)and her younger sister (11) is using a purple 5 blade thing because she likes the colour (this may change) as for the other two the are to young yet and if it was not for two bathrooms I would not stand a chance as it is hot water sometimes seems like a luxury,but I love them all and would not change it for the world.......

 

I'm 50 (will turn 51 in September) and have been wet-shaving since this past Lent. Before that I have used a fusion razor, an electric razor, and a track II razor when I started years ago. Strangely it took me a couple of minutes to remember what I used to shave with before I had my badger-hair brush and DE razor!

 

I turned 50 in April. My dad bought me a straight razor and strop for my 12th birthday. He told me that I would not need another razor the rest of my life. I learned how to use it and maintain it. I then went into the Marines and could no longer use that razor as it was considered a weapon and you couldn't have that in the barracks. I went to an Atra but moved onto a Mach3. When I decided to go back to wet shaving, I went back and forth between a straight and a double edge. I finally went double edge since I was now shaving my head and didn't want to go through the learning curve all over again. Perhaps some day I will go full circle.

 

Oh rah! Sounds like your dad was hard core.

 

Well I'm 30 now, came back to wetshaving about 7 months ago, but I started it as well when I was 13 - my grandfather taught me to shave. Come to think of it, I don't even know why I switched to the dark side of cartridges for those 5 years....Oh well. Lesson learned

 

Believe that I'm the second oldest so far. May not be as good as I once was but I'm as good once as I ever was!

Ps. My barber yesterday asked : " you'd have such nice 'snow white hair' if you didn't dye it. You'd look like 'Cesar Romero'! Compliment ?

 

I am 44 and new to straight razors, still waiting on the razors I ordered, a kit with a Dovo and a "sight unseen" deal from whipped dog. Should get them next week and am looking forward to learning all the in's and out's.

 

I turned 60 back in June. I began wet shaving in April of 2010, I use vintage DE razors. I use adjustable razors, TTO, three piece Techs and comb razors.

 

I'm closing in on 37 and have been shaving on an off using various Gillettes and Wilkinsons Sword razors since my early teens. For the last few years I have used an electrical razor and shaved only when I had to.
A month or so ago, I quite suddenly started getting interested in wet shaving using the fabulous DE technology.
I have no clue how this happened, but I have enjoyed shaving ever since.

 

Well at least so far I seem to be about the second oldest person on this thread - I am 66 and will turn 67 in December. And I guess like many I sort of taught myself to shave. It started when I was about 4 with a toy razor and brush, I guess I really am becoming old that I remember that. Well anyway I later started out with whatever DE blades and razor was available at the time (most likely by the great god King Gillette). I seem to have a beard that eats electric razor for breakfast because after a few shaves the blades are shot and even with replacing them the razor never works again. Over the years I guess I've tried most every popularly available type of blade and razor (SE, DE, injector and cartridge) out there. And although the last couple of years I stuck with the dreaded can and Mach 3 because at least locally that was about all that could be found and my daughter would have fits when I tried to return to wet shaving (the hot water worried her). Anyway I've come back to wet shaving and learning how to do that properly and beginning to make passes with a DE again. Now about 3 weeks of wet shaving and remembering why I liked it so much before. The major problem is razors and blades and even prep stuff are hard to find locally. At least it supports my daughter's claim that Saint Louis is meeting the death it deserves (she want us to move to Jolly old London don't you know).

 

I'm 37 and have been wet shaving since I was 13 or 14 probably, started sometime in middle school. Most of that time has been with cartridge razors... Gillette Sensor, Mach 3, Fusion, etc. There have been a couple of electric razors thrown in there, but I could never get a good shave with them and they tore my neckline up something fierce.

So I've been wet shaving more than 1/2 my life. About a year and a half ago my wife (then fiancee) gave me her grand-father's old safety razors. Two single-edges, and a double edge. They can be seen in the Family Heirlooms thread.

On a whim one day I picked up a packet of double-edge blades at the supermarket and decided to give it a try. Wow! Best shave ever! And then I was hooked. After some time I picked up a badger brush, soap, etc and got rid of the aerosol shaving cream, and I haven't looked back.

I haven't tried the single-edges yet, still trying to figure out what blades I need. And if I can ever get up enough money I'd like to pick up a straight edge and try that too.

 

27 years old, and wet shaveing from the age of 14, started shaveing using 2, and 3 blade gilete cartrdiges but the price was (and still is) way to high for me, than switched to plastic disposables, and 3 years ago i tried a safety razor and a DE blade and I'm using them since then. Bought my first brush and shaveing cream a week ago, until then I mostly used shaveing gel in a can, and a few days ago i bought a shavette. One day I hope i can afford a nice straight and some time to learn how to hone it and use it right