Hi everyone. I'm 52 and started DE wet shaving a couple of years ago after many years of electric shaving. Boy, what a difference. When I decided to give it a try, it was on a whim while at Walmart looking for blades for my electric when I found the Van Der Hagen shave setup they had there. I'm sure everyone has seen it, the DE Weishi razor, brush, soap, and mug. Anyway, used this for awhile, not totally satisfied, and bought an Edwin Jagger DE89LBL. I've never become very good at using shave soap, maybe I don't have the patience or it's the mega hard water we have here, so I mainly use Taylor of Old Bond St. shave cream. Me, being lazy, and becoming annoyed with having to take the razor apart to change the blade, I purchased a Parker butter fly razor, don't remember which model but one of the more popular ones. I didn't really care for it too much. So, my googling began, along with youtubing, and people were talking about old Gillette's. So, I purchased a Gillette 40's style Super Speed from ebay, and for me I was in shave Nirvana. Then began, much to my wife's dismay, my Gillette acquisition bug last year. I have slowed down some but I have acquired more 40's style super speeds, flare tips, slim adjustable's, fat boys, post war Aristocrats (currently using and love it), scored an aristocrat slim adjustable, and a couple of toggles. My latest acquisition that I just received is a GEM OCMM. It looks almost brand new and I got it for 12.50. I couldn't believe how well it looked when I opened the box and saw it in person. I'm sure there are other's I haven't mentioned as I have, at least for me, amassed quite the collection. That's me in a somewhat brief nutshell. Kevin
to TSD @CrustyCat I hope you enjoy it here. I see you have your RAD(razor acquisition disorder) well in hand. Those Aristocrats are sweet TTO's.
Hi Kevin, and welcome to TSD! Happy Shavings! I'm not sure if signing up was a sensible thing to do. We're all enablers, y'know. So you've got a GAD? (Gillette Acquisition Disorder). Lots of AD's to be found over here. Before you know it you'll have to move to a bigger place to store all your shaving goodies!
Hi Kevin, welcome to TSD . I just saw your post about liking Clubman. I've used it for years, with great pleasure. Looking forward to your future posts.
Welcome to TSD Kevin @CrustyCat! Glad to joined in and brought all that experience with you. At your convenience feel free to post photos of your collection. Sounds like you've passed User, and are firmly into Collector status. That hard water can be conquered by purchasing a gallon jug of distilled. It might help you establish a baseline for what a lather should be or a particular soap can do. Some producers have taken hard water into account and adjusted their formulas for that reason. Generally lack luster lather can be attributed to not using enough product. Before the soap can begin making foam it has to precipitate out dissolved minerals. What brands of soap have you tried?