What pushed you in this direction?

I dont remember anymore...
But hey its better to shave now!:bounce015

 

A series of events for me. First, running low/out of cartridges, and seeing the price of replacements. Second, as I was going through some old stuff I had just moved from my moms house, and ran across an old black, severely tarnished shaving mug. Called mom and asked her about it and found out it was from my dads side of the family. My grandfather. I set about doing some research, and found out it was from around 1930. As I polished it up, I saw it was monogrammed with his initials and had some nice engraving to it. In my research, any time you google Shave, you get hits like The Shave Den and others. Well the rest is history....went and picked up a VDH puck and brush, put it in the mug and have been using it in my rotation every week since. Ditched the cartridges, picked up a 40's SS to compliment the mug, and haven't stopped acquiring since. That was a year ago.

 

Great Success! Not only sentimental value but monogrammed to boot. Right On! happy096

 

2 things happened at about the same time. I couldn't find Palmolive red lather cream at the drug store, and M3 carts went to $1.90 at Costco.
Googling Palmolive, I found the shaving forums.

 

I was given a fusion razor and when I went to buy blades I said this is nuts. Saving money now LOL. 2 EJ razors 1 Goodfella 1 Merkur and a box of soaps and balms.

 

I've been grumbling about the cost of cartridges for ages, then my neighbor received an AOS kit about a year ago. We talked about it for some time. I thought the initial investment was pretty steep, but I could see that, over time, classic shaving was more cost effective. Last month, my wife got me a Merkur HD for my birthday and I'm hooked! The HD, a Vulfix brush, and a tube of Proraso now go hand in hand with a french press of hot coffee in the morning. And the D/E suits my style. It goes along with my stingy brim fedoras, skinny ties, aloha shirts, record collection, vintage barware, etc..

 

I grew a beard when I got out of the Army. I shaved my neck at least once a week sometimes twice but used whatever razor I could find laying around the house. I wasn't going to buy anymore. This past Christmas, my mother in law gave me one of those hygiene kits from wal mart that had a fusion razor in it. I shaved my neck with that thing and it felt nice so I trimmed the beard up and shaved my full face. Only 1 cartridge came with that fusion though lol. I went with my wife to wal mart to buy some more and I was blown away at the cost. I didn't buy any replacements. The cost for those things is insane.

I'm not sure where I got the idea to try a straight but I looked at some videos on youtube and then found SRP. I bought a GD razor and strop from ruprazor.com and figured that I would give a go at that thinking that over the rest of my life I would come out cheaper than buying replacements for that fusion.

I'm still struggling to get the hang of a straight but I guess I could always grow the beard back.

It's really not working out to be that cheap though... I keep buying soaps and after shaves and razors but I think I have the razor purchases under control now.

 

Firstly, my father asked me to buy him a DE razor just like the one from the USSR times he owned for years and recently lost. We live in Latvia, and there is no corresponding stores at all. So, since I preferably buy from the internet, I quickly searched through and decided to buy him a Merkur HD. I personally haven't shaved my my beard for six or so years - just trimmed - because I was finding it kinda cool to have a goaty, but also I had an irritation from the Mach3 and every time I was out of new cartridges I was finding a bunch of reasons just not to buy next pack - they are unbelievably overprise. So, a couple of months after giving my father the HD I started to thinking about pros and cons of migrating to double-edge shaving. I was terrified with open blade and I kinda thought it might be a waist of money if I wouldn't get used to the new style in shaving. Then I found mantic59's videos and he just inspired me with wet-shaving spirit. It looked so natural and pure - to shave pre-Mach3 era-style. And in the end I melted and bought myself another Merkur HD - 34C. First time I used it with some canned shaving gel and a Derby blade. Of course, I cut myself several times, but all the same I was so impressed with the process and results (except blood) that even did shave my beard off. From then, I shave regularly using Shaving Shack's basic pure badger brush and Mitchell's Wool Fat soap. And will never get back to cartridges or electrics.

 

As much as I loved my dad, he did not teach me how to shave, but simply told me what to do to shave. He walked in one day with a new Ever-Ready brush a cake of Williams a coffee cup and a brand new slim adjustable and some blades, handed them to me and said;"Wet the brush, work up a lather, put it on your face and use the razor to shave."

Being the obediant son (yeah right), I did just that with the razor set at "9". I remember cranking down to lower numbers, but it just took too long and I had never ever remotely thought about more than one pass, so 9 is was and WFO I was. I was raw for years.

I went off to college and happilly grew a beard, but ironically I shaved the line on my neck with an old straight from an uncle of mine with my brush and soap. Then I had to shave the beard to get a job and found the multi blades numbers that came out in the '70s. I used them for years, and every time they came out with a new one with another blade, I bought one.

A couple of years ago, fellow member and good freind of mine Slidden Jim was up at my house in the N GA hills and noticed an old SuperSpeed that my dear dad had left there. He asked if I wanted him to clean it up and maybe have it look nice.....maybe use it? I told him how terrible those things were 35 years ago and that age hadn't made them any better.

Jim smiled and took that one and my old original adjustable and cleaned them up, gave me some blades, a copy of Gourmet shaving and a couple of good soaps, and the rest is history.

Now for me it is time that I take for myself and the blades today are fantastic compared to what we used to get. The shave is great, but for me the nostalgia, the time for myself is the deal for me. It has gone from a chore that hurt to an all around good experiance, and I have passed that on to my son who is now an avid traditionalist wet shaver, and several others.

Long story, but I smiled all the way through it!

Will N.

 

happy097:happy097

goshawk

 

got tired of the really bad shaves with all other razors.

 

The ridiculous prices of replacement cartridges. Plus, the latest Schick and Gillette "systems" are redundantly designed. Seeing web sites like this made me realize that shaving can be a hobby and joy as well as a part of every day grooming.

 

I went from Schick to electric razor. The battery eventually died and I researched straight razor. Came upon Classic Shaving site and embarked on new journey.

 

I like old stuff that works better than the new stuff. I feel our society needs to look to the past for our future to be better. Cheaper, better shaves with older tech over new tech is simply that idea.

 

Well, I've posted a bit about it in my intro thread in the Newbie files, but I can expand here a bit, I guess.

In high school I didn't really pay much attention to shaving. I had zits anyway, so it never occurred to me that I might be making it worse by taking about 30 seconds every morning to run a double-bladed disposable across my mug. I decided to grow a beard shortly into my freshman year of college, but eventually decided a goatee fit me best, so I would still shave the chops, jawline, and neck. I finally figured out that some kind of cream would actually help with my zits, but I just got cheap stuff in a can and it never really worked all that well. I eventually quit shaving altogether, got a trimmer and just took the guard off and went with the stubble look.

Of course, that worked about as long as I didn't have to look for a job, shortly after graduation I started again with the shaving. I got a Fusion as part of my graduation present, but soon realized the cartriges were just prohibitively expensive so I went back to disposables. After a few years of working crap jobs I got an ok job at a TV station as the overnight equipment babysitter (aka master control operator). They didn't care what my mug looked like, so I went back to the trimmers and stubble.

Now that I'm working on my MA at the seminary I've started seriously considering going to law school. I still have the goatee and keep it trimmed, though I've started getting it trimmed at a local barber shop (which I MUCH prefer for getting my hair cut as opposed to the mall salon I used in Evansville for the about 3 haircuts every 2 years I got during my 10 years there), but I decided that if I was going to get serious about doing something other than service sector work after seminary I would need to keep a more professional look - aka sans the stubble. Since I can't afford cartriges and don't want to keep buying disposables (my wife was a geography/environmental science major and took me to a seminar on the giant trash island in the Pacific where a huge amount of our plastic eventually ends up and the fact that plastic now outnumbers monocellular plankton by a ratio of as much as 10:1 by some estimates), I started thinking about ways to look good and be ecologically responsible as well. A friend and former roommate of mine was starting to get into straight razor shaving, and I thought that sounded kinda badass, so I started doing some reading on the subject - which has brought me here.

I haven't actually touched a straight razor to my face yet, but have ordered some supplies (GFT soap, a generic brush for now until I can justify dropping the $ on a good one, a middle-of-the-road strop and a TI razor someone was offering here in the forums) and am looking forward to cautiously exploring this new world.

One of the things I've talked about a bit in the newbie forum is my desire to find ways to slow down, to escape to some degree the busyness of modern life - something I know will be at an even higher premium if I go into law practice. To that end I've developed an affinity for gardening and pipesmoking, and hope that shaving can become a part of my daily ritual as a way to relax and find pleasure in the act, rather than the act simply being a means to an end - looking for intrinsic, rather than only utilitarian value (a similar attitude to how I've tried to approach my education).

I'm looking forward to what happens next!

 

I like things old school, the solid metal razors from Gillette are a charm to look at. I cannot compare their beauty for anything made today for everyday use.

I also wear classic old automatic or manual wind watches like this one from an Indian company HMT. Fortunately though unlike the Gillette razors these watches are still made in the classic way for sale in India, just like the Shulton Old spice !!

 

My Dad. I have been shaving like this all my life.

 

I saw an ad for, I kid you not, The Rolling Razor. I'd never had a shave I much liked, although the mach 3s weren't too bad, they were too expensive, so I, like many others, would keep reusing the same blade well past it's lifespan. The rolling razor looked interesting, but I decided to be smart before I bought it. I looked up independent reviews. The reviews on said razor were... AWFUL. One review linked to a wetshaving site, suggesting that as an alternative for people who want to try a "new" way of shaving that's better. I read and bought a slim and badger on ebay, as well as a blade sampler pack. I wasn't disappointed.

 

Yeah, but isn't that girl just the livin' end? :love055

I wonder how many of those silly things she's sold?
I'm betting alot!


goshawk

 

Great ... now you are going to get me hooked on another hobby