No. It's made me spend money and waste a lot of time looking for razors. I'm not really a "forum person" and have found most of what I know though trial and error and lots of reading. If you think this is a great community you might want to look on YouTube and look up "vinyl community", people post videos and interact, it's very cool.
When you try out new things, you never know where they will lead. Classic wetshaving has given me a new interest which I never would have predicted ahead of time. I only stumbled on it because I was looking for online deals on Atra cartriges, and discovered that DE razors were still made. It's very unlike me to be this interested in any aspect of personal grooming. Even now, it hasn't led me to take more care of my personal appearance in general. It led me indirectly to try out fountain pens, which I now use most of the time, but that's another story. The real hook for me is the technology involved. It's still a source of wonder for me that my Gem Junior Bar, made in 1907, or my Schick E2, from the 1930s, work as well or better than the latest five blade cartridges (although cartridges can work better that some DE shavers give them credit for). I was amazed that lathering with a brush and soap was actually better than using canned foam. This was something that I knew only from old movies as something that people "used to do". I'm getting better results, but what really interest me are the tools and methods. Learning to use classic safety razors has made me pay more attention to technique, and that has made me realize that I could have been getting better results even with my cartridge razors, Trac II and Atra. Given this unexpected new interest (well, a little over three years now), I've approached it in a way that's pretty typical for me, getting lots of toys to play around with, and talking things over with other enthusiasts. I've eased off on the acquisitions for now, although I still have my eyes open for a couple of vintage razors.
A definite "yes" in my case! DE shaving has turned my chore into something I genuinely enjoy. I won't deny that this hobby has made me spend more money than I have saved...but it's only because I love trying the amazing variety of shaving creams/soaps/blades/razors out there. This generosity of The Shave Den community has made me aspire to be more generous in my own life.
It took me a while to figure out how to answer this thread. What I've concluded is that wet shaving didn't lead me to do other things to take better care of myself, but was rather part of a change I made to take better care of myself. I had let my blood pressure and weight creep up over the years to the point both were getting into risky numbers. Mind you not absolutely terrible in either case, but I was heading in the wrong direction. I decided it was time to turn things around and generally take better care of myself. So, in the past 4 years I've lost about 35 pounds, lowered my blood pressure to a healthy level, become a running addict, and started using more natural products that have left my skin in far better health. This afternoon I'm going to go do my 2-mile qualifier for the Boulder Bolder 10k.
I'd say yes. I'm 21 and started using a DE Razor in October of last year. I'm in the military and yes we have to step on it when we shave. But since I'm a "Nasty Girl" (National Guard,) I'm not a full time soldier. I feel really unique and that there aren't many people my age that use these razors. I think also that it has made me turn from ready in ten minutes to actually being patient and doing things with a sense of class. Enough rambling for this newbie.
