Look, I'm not knocking it - I have amassed somewhere in the neighborhood of 200 unique daily shaves (soap or cream with matching aftershave and/or cologne/EDP/balm/preshave/solid cologne, etc.), about 200 razors, a 100-year supply of blades, about 50 mugs and scuttles (most of them simply for display although I have nowhere near the shelf space to display them) WITH NO END IN SIGHT. There is always something new to try, although one puck or jar of shave soap and one bottle of ftershave used to last me months. At that rate I should get through my current supply in about 100 months. My question is - already I know there is no answer - what is the point of all this hoarding/collecting? Using each scent only one or two days a year doesn't seem like the solution.
Good news; you have disposable income! After 11 years or so, I am down to one brush, one razor, a handful of soaps, and about 75 A/S. Why 75 A/S? I paid a bunch of money for them and I just can't bring myself to pour them down the drain, even though I only use five of them on the regs.
@WhaveDan , I've been doing this hoppy since 2011. I am nearing the end of the trail for me. I turn 74 in October. I am much closer to the end than the beginning. I enjoy the variety of shaves I can do. I tend to use my SE razors more than DE, but I will be using birth year razors in October which means most will be Gillette. I am looking to sell, trade, gift many of my "extra" razors in the next year. I picked up the hobby of making shaving brushes in 2014. I have slowed down on that, and I hope to adopt out many of my Jayaruh brushes. It's all fun, and it keeps me out of trouble most of the time. Glad you have joined us.
Bingo. In my case, though, I still get in trouble. You could make the same criticism about collecting anything, not just shave gear. Dan, welcome to The Shave Den. Whatcha buyin' next?
Nice idea, birth year razors during birth month. Will have to do the same, also in October................
Daleski! Chubbz 1 The Badger is safely tucked away in a vitamin bottle, ready at a moments notice for travel! Chubbz 2 The Boar is standing by to stand by! These two brushes bring me joy whenever they are deployed. Just know, both of them are available for recall to PA, all you need to do is ask for visitation. BUT YOU CANNOT HAVE THEM BACK! MINE, MINE, MINE!
All yours and enjoy them. I still have number 3 here with an Omega baby pro knot in it. Unfortunately it doesn't see much use any more as I am a one trick pony with a mixed knot Semogue.
I too started to amass a collection until I finally figured out what worked for me and liked. My collection is now slowly growing smaller as I donate to family or sometimes sell stuff off. I will probably end up with about 6 razors, 6 brushes, and about 8-10 soaps/aftershaves/colognes but these numbers are subject to change.
First off welcome @WhaveDan ..... I'm glad you decided to check yourself in, here at this asylum (AKA TSD). That said I've be collecting / hoarding long enough that I think I'm to the point that I've been giving even some of my many boxes away or telling people "if your look for ____ contact me first. Now it's only out of curiosity for razors and I've never been big on soaps ......... we won't talk about brushes though.
I think you just enjoyed your hobby and when you had the time you visit Antique stores or go online to see what is available & bought new nice gear and just enjoyed buying eye candy shaving gear. Here is how my brain works, I decided to buy a AC shavette clone with some blades to see if I would like this way of shaving, they sent me the wrong blades for my Shavette(those were free because of re-shipping costs to China). Well being a Greenhorn I wanted some guarded type blades so I bought some Guarded Kai Protouch blades(Nice blades). After about 20 shaves with my AC shavette I thought I might need a AC SE 50mm safety razor to use up some of these naked edge cheap blades they sent me so I bought myself a Yaqi AC Excalibur razor and then someone gave me 10 Feather professional blades as a gift. Well now I have 3 magazines of 50mm blades and really like the razor and Yaqi had a flash sale on Version 2 Excalibur AC razor so I bought another razor(bargain razor IMO). Well then I found the Feather blades don't last that long and I won a gift card so I always wanted to try Schick Proline P30 blades so just bought those ones. So now I have 4 blade magazines of AC 50mm blades, 2 AC 50mm SE safety razors + 1 AC folding razor. That is how I seem to accumulate shaving gear by this way of thinking some times , and I enjoyed this 10 month accumulation of shaving gear most of the time as a retired fellow wet shaving enthusiast bumping around. I had a plan when I first got into traditional wet shaving was to save money by trimming my own hair and stopped buying cartridge razors and after 4 years most of my gear has paid for it's self and have at least enough soft ware and hardware to last another 8 years so that is another way my brain thinks. With nasty Covid 19 by trimming my own hair has gave me peace of mind also that money can't buy.
For me it has always been about exploring the various shaves available from a wide variety of tools, some over 100 years old. The secondary goal was to find the "best" (quality, at least) razors out there. And I did it for about 15 years... maybe a bit more. And all this without breaking the bank. Ironically, now that I find myself in the rare position of actually having the spare cash for just about any razor I want, I have no desire to keep chasing razors. I've found the 20 or so razors that I really like, the three or so brands I like, what type of brush I like, and what soap manufacturers I prefer. There's a few razors I don't own that I would like to compare, and one unicorn razor that I will buy if I ever find it. This really is a hobby where a person can (usually) afford the high end toys by eating out less and occasionally enjoying a ramen based meal. For those of you with children, I have no suggestions on how to explain to the kiddos that they have to skip McDonald's this week because daddy won a razor auction.
What razors are you hoping to try, and what's the unicorn? Inquiring minds want to know! Sent from my SM-G977U using Tapatalk
That's the name, but I am here to tell you that there IS a cure. For example, I was once a sufferer, but JUST THIS EVENING, I resisted purchasing a Wolfman razor.
Which razor did you settle on? I remember a while back reading that you loved the 2011 R41 with Bic blades?