My DE Adventures (aka Introduction)

Hello all!!

I found my way into DE wonderland, when I began looking for alternatives to the super high priced Fusion cartridges. I am fairly budget conscious, and after working my way through 8 Fusion cartridges, I decided enough was enough, and refused to pay their high prices.

After the fusion, I tried out an in house brand Razor from Family Dollar. I found it to be surprisingly good, and the carts for it were only $3.50 for 4. My father still uses it to this day, and loves it!

After the Family Dollar triple blade razor, I found a Mach 3 Turbo handle for $2.50 at an Amish discount food store. It performed quite well, and I found I could take the Mach 3 disposables, and pull the cart off, and use them on the Turbo handle: this was great as I had a coupon for Mach 3 disposables.

While good, the Mach 3 was also too costly, so I started looking into Gillette's two blade offerings. I picked up a Sensor, Atra, and Trac II, and started experimenting on which was the best.

My experimenting lend me to Badger and Blade, and eventually to here. I wanted to give DE shaving a try, but didn't wish to invest a lot of money in case I decided it wasn't for me. A very kind member at B and B PIFed me a Gillette Tech, and some blades. At about the same time, I bought the VDH shaving kit.

I quickly found that wet shaving using actual shaving soap/ cream was far superior to the various canned goos I had been using.

From that point on (about a month ago) I started to acquire more products to try out: various Aftershaves,various shaving creams/ soaps: C.O. Bigelow, The Real Shaving Company, Williams, a sample of TOBS St. James, Kiss My Face, VDH Deluxe, VDH Select.

I have also acquired a Merkur 38R Barber Pole razor, along with a Omega Badger Brush.



I have found that shaving with a DE is a very enjoyable process, and something I look forward to each, and every day. I also like having the quiet "me" time in the mornings.

My next purchase will be more blades, and either TOBS Rose, or Lavender.

I am also putting together a complete wet-shaving kit to PIF to a newbie, as a thank you for all of the wonderful knowledge I have learned on the boards.

 

Welcome. It sounds like your journey is well on it's way as well as RAD,SAD,CAD and all the rest. Enjoy and feel free to ask lots of questions.

 

Welcome! It sure is fun isn't it?

 

Welcome to TSD!I will recommend you to try shaving sticks too if you have the chance.Enjoy the experience.

 

Welcome, and enjoy your shaves!

 

Welcome.

 

Hey Michigan, nice to have you here. Welcome to the Den!

 

Welcome to the Den!

 

Welcome!

 

:signs046 Waves from Wisconsin

 

Sounds like you're rolling right along.

Welcome!

 

Quick Update:

I used my Merkur 38R for the first time this morning (came in the mail yesterday) and had a simply amazing shave!!

The person I purchased it from includes 21 blades, in a wide variety of choices. I put a 7am green blade in it (primarily to rate how it performed, as they are generally not rated very highly), and I was very pleased. I used "The Real Shaving Company Moisturizing Shave Cream", and my Omega Badger Brush. Followed up with the "Gillette Series Aftershave Balm: Sensitive".

As an added plus, I was able to avoid the intense irritation I have consistently gotten on my lower left neck. Yay!!

 

Welcome to TSD! Remember that sometimes the best products aren't the most expensive.

 

I am not particularly gun-ho about needing to order every product from the internet: as such, I am perfectly happy with VDH Deluxe soap, and C.O. Bigelow Shaving Cream. "The Real Shaving Company" is also superb, and low cost.

 

Famous last words....

 

Welcome to TSD and the world of DE shaving. If you enjoyed your shave with the 7am blade, just wait until you use a blade that doesn't suck. :happy102

 

The shave for today:

Since I have a huge stock of Twin Bladed Carts to use up, I decided to use my Atra today.

The Atra is a vintage handle, that I got off of E-Bay. It's clearly an early 70's model, and the box even said not for resale on it, so it may have been an early demo unit. Anyway, it was sealed NOS, and came with an original Atra cartridge sans lube strip.

So today I used Edge Infused Brushless Shaving Cream from a tube as pre-shave prep. Horrid stuff, feels like I was smoothing hand lotion on my face!! And it doesn't lather............AT ALL!! YUCK!! :mad:

I worked up a lather of TOBS St. James using my Badger Brush. I proceeded to shave but my Gillette Vector Cartridge didn't feel quite right. Switched it for the last remaining Atra cart: the original Atra without the lube strip.

The feeling of that cartridge was totally unlike the Vector. With the Vector, I can always feel the blades on my face, the vintage cart felt like it wasn't even there!! It also provided a superior far closer shave over the Vector cart!

Why has Gillette insisted upon a continuous downward cycle of crappier products? I love the Sensor, but everything after that has been garbage. :sick007

Finished the shave with "Gillette Series Sensitive Aftershave Balm".

Overall, a great quality shave from a cartridge razor.

 

I hope no one minds if I pull out my bag of tricks and hand michigan lover some of my tricks. connaughtshaving.com/index.html in my opinion one of the better stores for new wet shavers.
classicshaving.com another very good shop in my opinion.

Also think about a straight razor, while not for everyone its great in that you do not need to buy anything further ever, no blades ever. That's exactly how the straights wone me over, as soon as I can get back into straight shaves - one of mine is out with Lynn Abrams while a second is on its way from the store.

 

Welcome to TSD! Enjoy and have fun.

 

:signs046. You do realize that you have almost every AD known to a wet shaver, right? Forget about seeming to save money because blades and soaps can be inexpensive and just enjoy the hobby, experience, and fun. Actually, I think you already are. :happy001