Hi everyone. I'm told that there might be some interest in reading my shaving history. Well, about 35 years ago my father gave me a battery operated razor which actually did a good job. Let's face it ( no pun intended ) when I was just starting to shave there wasn't lot of stubble to remove. I remember my father had a safety razor but I stuck with the old battery model for a while, then moved on to mains and then rechargeable when I could afford them. When I eventually tried a wet shave I used a Gillette single blade disposable ( I think it was called the Gillette Blue ) and some gunk from a can. It was better than the electric. As Gillette brought out newer razors I tried them but always went back to the blue as they were the cheapest and did a good job. For many years I used the Gillette Sensor, and then the Sensor Excel. I also started to use David Somersets shaving oil. Really good. I then purchased a straight razor. I really have no idea why other than I wanted to try it. You probably have no idea the damage you can do to a straight razor with a bad honing technique. You can guess the damage you can do to your face if you try to use a badly honed straight razor. It went on to ebay with a warning about what I'd done. Yes, I'm an honest ebayer. I've bought some more straight razors since and even shaved successfully, but it's not a good experience for me. A couple of years or so ago I bought a Merkur Vision and tried it for a while. I had read it was the best razor around so it had to be better than the Sensor's I was using. Apparently not. I couldn't get a shave to match the Sensors so I put that on ebay too. Last year I started to use the Mach 3. It was fine, particularly with the Somersets shave oil, but the price of the blades was getting silly. Having read some more ( and seen Mantic's videos ) I now realize it wasn't the safety razor shaving badly, it was me. Now I have: Merkur Futur from Naked Man Merkur 34C from Connaught Shaving Blade sample pack from Connaught Shaving Silver tip brush from Shavemac Woods of Windsor shave soap ( really cheap end of line offer ) Palmolive shave stick ( not used yet ) Kent shave soap ( cheap, from ebay ) Wilkinson sword shave soap ( Sorry I can't post links yet as I'm under five posts. ) I have in the past used Trumpers shave cream and have been to their premises for a shave. I was actually disappointed to learn they shave with cartridge razors. Steven.
Welcome, and glad to hear your shaves are much better. I too think mantics videos are very informative.
Welcome to TSD. The Kent shave soap you have is the same tripple milled superfatted soap as Mitchels Wool Fat, which is IMHO the best soap ever made. I load my brush with it and whatever cream I think will smell good that day.
