Your First Traditional Shaving Kit ?

I started many moons ago with a Gillette Sensor and Barbasol foam. Dissatisfied, I moved to various electric razors and then back to some kind of three bladed cartridge thing.

When I finally began wet shaving, it was with a 47 Gillette Super speed (to this day my greatest eBay purchase) TOBS Avocado cream, an Ecotools Kabuki brush and Shark Super Chrome blades and, of course, the ubiquitous Clubman styptic pencil.

When I initiated my stepson into the wet shaving fold, it was with a 1956 Gillette blue tip, Shark Super Chrome blades, KMF Cool Mint cream, and the same Ecotools Kabuki brush. As far as I know he is still one of us, and I am proud.

 

Up until a couple of years ago I mostly used disposables or a Gillette cart of some sort.
I hated shaving as it was always painful. (I even dry shaved sometimes...)

I inherited my Dad's old kit which I tried to use once, it didn't turn out well but it lead me to my first modern kit.

Merkur 20C.
Wilkinson Sword blade.
VDH deluxe kit with the little green & blue bowl, synthetic brush, and deluxe soap.
No balm or witch hazel, because I didn't know any better.
Never used aftershave.

 

I've always been a wet-shaver. When I started about 30 years ago, it was with a Bic disposable and Gillette canned foam. I switched to a Trac II before long and over time "upgraded" to the Atra, Sensor, Mach 3, and Fusion. I also used Edge gel for a long time. Never thought an old DE would be the answer to many years of irritation from mandatory daily shaving. So my first traditional shaving kit was:

Body Shop Maca Root cream - still use it and love it
Body Shop synthetic brush - quickly upgraded to a VDH boar
Muhle R89 - still use it and love it
Derby blade - luckily from a sampler - PIF'ed the other 4 blades in the pack.
Aqua Velva - still my favorite AS.

 

Mid-70's
Gillette Black handle Super Speed
Gillette blade
Cheap drugstore brush
Shave cream in a tube (I don't recall the brand)
Mennen Skin Bracer or Mennen 'Afta'

No fancy-pants soaps, pre-shave lotions, nor imported alum blocks....

 

My first was a black handled SS, Wilkinson blades from the drug store, and a can of Barbasol. That was back in the '70s. When I started back recently it was a Blue Lady Gillette, Family Dollar Dorco blades and a can of Barbasol. Then I found the VDH Premium kit. No pics, but all fairly basic stuff. Still use that kit, at times even the soap. It does the job fine.

 

First shave:
Gillette Sensor Excel
Barbasol (Origional)

First DE:
Merkur 34C
Van Der Hagen Luxury Set
(boar brush, apothecary mug, stand & soap)
Pinaud Clubman

 

My wonderful wife bought me a Rooney safety razor set with best badger brush. For soap she got me a truefitt and hill sandwood soap in a wooden bowl after. Now I don't use any of those but that started me in my journey a few years ago. This came with merkur blades.

 

Funny that a few of us broke in with the black handled Super Speed. From what I remember it was basically a very forgiving razor and not at all intimidating, even to the peach-fuzzed plebe that was me. `

 

My starter kit is fairly basic. For Christmas last year by brother-in-law got me a Lord L6 razor, my wife got me the Van Der Hagan Luxury set and my mother-in-law got me a Semogue 1305. After some trial and error I grabbed a cereal bowl from the kitchen which I still. That formed my basic kit, with the Semogue being my go to brush now.

 

Merkur 41c
Blade Sampler
Beeline Boar
VDH Deluxe Soap
No aftershave

 

My wife found this M4 in a junk box at a farm sale a few months ago.
It cleaned up well and is a very good shaver.

 

I think there are a lot of folks that need to read the rules. Great PIF, I'm not in thanks for posting it.

 

Hmmm. It's only been 5 months, I think I remember...

EJ DE89
Van der Hagen bowl
Van der Hagen boar brush
Proraso green shaving cream
Aqua Velva AS.

Bowl and brush are gone... Sold already. Have 15 razors now and 3 brushes. Damn this is fun!

 

I switched to traditional shaving 6 months ago. Before that I cart shaved for 18-20 years (can't really remember). I purchased my razor from the Classic Shaving bricks and mortar store in Palm Springs as I wanted to see and hold my razor before buying it (weird, I know). The rest I purchased from fendrihan online as I thought this was the only site that shipped for free to Canada (had not yet discovered IB).

Razor - Parker 91r

Brush - Vulfix Pure Grey Badger

Bowl - Fendrihan apothecary mug

Pre shave - Proraso white Pre

Soap - Proraso white

Blade - Merkurs (ouch; came with my razor) and sampler (derby, Wilks, feathers, Astra SS, Astra SP).

AS - The old Proraso green (from my barber shop)

Parker 91r is still my daily driver. Love my mug also. I use Proraso white soap at least once a week. The Proraso green AS still gets used. I throw in an Astra SP every once in a while.

 

My first kit:
Edwin Jagger DE89
Shark blades
Proraso Sensitive
Semogue 750
Alum. Dickerson WH
AVIB

 

This is not a PIF Patrick. Are you pulling a Dapper-Dan ?

 

My dad insisted that I learn to shave properly, so my first kit consisted of a Fromm straight razor grandpa got before WWI, one of dad's boar brush's and an old spice mug with old spice soap, that was 1975.

 

Hmmm,

Lord L6
Some cheap pure badger
Real Shaving Company cream
Derby blades (awful, dull things!)

Nowadays the L6 is paired to a quality handle. Even though I went on to eventually buy upwards of 50 razors, I still use that L6 regularly - in fact, its one of my top 3 razors! Of course we have progressed to quality soaps and creams, a dozen brushes, and real blades, Like Polsilver and Feather....

 

My first kit, a little more than a year ago, was a Ri Mei razor, an Ecotools kabuki brush, C.O. Bigelow cream, an Israeli Personna blade and a plastic bowl from Target.

I have since PIF'd the brush and traded the cream.

Edit: my *first* shaving kit, 27 or so years ago, was a Trac II handle, a Trac II cart and a can of Barbasol.

 

First "traditional" shaving kit:

Popular TTO I got off of Amazon, that my son is using now a days.
Store bought Wilkinson Sword and Personna blades
Van der Hagan Delux shave soap.
VDH Boar brush. } VDH shave kit was purchased from either CVS or Rite Aid
VDH Green ceramic lather bowl
Proraso preshave
Nivea sensitive Post Shave Balm.
Aqua Velva and Skin Bracer AS's