Shaving

[LaPoint]

JCwit, no offense taken. I have been wearing a uniform and adhereing to a grooming policy for over 26 years. I have a few more to go before I start growing my beard. I won't be growing a Duck Dynasty style beard though, it will be trimmed. I agree with your comment about a large number of our young people (younger than me, which isn't very young) that intentionally dress sloppy. Most of it is an intentional fashion statement and the majority of today's youth are smarter than we were at their age. They just too often are forced/trained to concentrate on learning useless "stuff."

[kfarm]

Deleted

[jcwit]

Looks are always important, it's how you are perceived by others, you may not think so, but in fact it is.

[historicfirearms]

I have been using my grandfathers old safety razor for a couple years and I love it. Blades are cheap, last just as long as those sooper quadruple blades, and shave even better. They don't clog up with stubble like those multi blade razors. I shave while in the shower and it works great. A little touch up is all that's needed when I get out of the shower. Guys, really, quit giving Gillette all your money. Go old school here, it is better than the new stuff.

[Lance Boyle]

I am a DE shaver. I've probably been using them only about 5 years or so.

I too have to shave for work by policy. I don't mind shaving but I also will skip it on my days off if I'm hanging around the house.

My first DE razor was a Merkur HD. A pretty good razor, just throw the Merkur blades away and save yourself the anguish. They're free with a razor but not free from the blood and pain. My second one as a retro one like my dad's old razor, I picked up a vintage slim adjustable, I like the long handled razors and like a bit of heft to them. That was ok but not as aggressive as I would have liked. I picked up an Ikon brand razor made by a guy in Taiwain, all machined stainless steel, it's got heft for sure. Since then I've pretty much only used that razor only trying different blades; Gillette hospital lab blades, Feathers, Gillette yellow wrappers from Europe.

I do have one straight. A German razor. I dropped it while cleaning it post shave and took a chip out of the tip. It sat in the drawer for a year before I took a dremmel and reground the tip, dipping it in water to keep it cool during the process. Resharpened it and it is about as good as new. I still don't use it too often simply because it takes 3 times as long for me to shave with it. Unless it's a leisurely Sunday I go with the DE.

I have used a bunch of soaps and creams. I did give up on the generic canned stuff, I used Edge since I was a teenager. I have used Van Der Hagen and Williams and they work fine for me. I have also tried some of the "good ones" Mitchell's wool fat, Cella, and a bunch of other hoi polloi brands. Only a few didn't work. Some of the fancy ones with fancy scents smelled like fake chemicals to me so I generally avoid them. Just give me a soap that will lather up.\


ETA- my big push to change was the price of refills. I was using a nice Gillette Atra but they pretty much eliminated the blades and you had to go aftermarket for blade refills and they didn't cut as well many times. I was going to be damned before I switched to a new Gillette with refills costing $4-5 a cartridge. Screw that!

[gwpercle]

My father passed a little over a year ago, two Gillette safety razors were one of the few things not sold at estate sale. I brought them home. Last week I got tired of trying to find blades for Persona Slim Twin . Buy a razor and in a few months they stop making them and the blades...I got 4 different handles and can't get blades for any of them any longer. Anyway's I thought about dad's old razors and sure enough there was a package of blades with them....slipped in a new blade and problem solved.
Cool thing is it has an adjustable setting for how much blade sticks out, that way you can you can choose how close you want to take it. AND you can still get them double edged blades....I can't believe they still make those, but they do !
The adjustable one is called the Gillette Fat Boy. Short and heavy. The other is a non adjustable , twist opening model with a longer handle and light weight. I have shaved with both , like them and may have to start collecting them....if you got two , you got a collection started right !
Gary

[Mytmousemalibu]

Just like many of you guys, i gave up on the absurdly expensive multi bladed dog piles years ago. I keep bare skinned and i shave my head. I have a small collection of vintage old DE razors, some are very old. My daily driver is a 51' Gillette Travel Tech. I like the small maneuverable razor. I regularly use full size Tech an a adjustable. If i feel like making a babys butt look like a gravel road, I have a Merkur Futur, a very nice DE but it can slice atoms in half and your skin is no barrier if you get careless with it. My choice brush is a real Silvertip badger. Very soft! My go to blade is Rapira, the russkies can make a great blade, i highly recommend them. They are Feather sharp but way smoother. I also like Gillette 7 o'clock blacks, Silver Blues, Personna Lab Blues and a few others. My favorite soap is Tabac but also use a lot of Arko, Spieck and Proraso. Others I like are LaToja, Instituit Karite, Cella and Palmolive. For store soap Cremo is decent and the only think in a can that would cross my mind is Barbasol. I also like Floid shave oil for my preshave and a Razo Rock alum bar after. Bee Bald makes some nice bald guy stuff that I like for after the shave.

[NavyVet1959]

I *hate* shaving. Always have, always will.

I had to start shaving in high school and often got in trouble for "not standing close enough to the blade".

First razor was the old double edge type. I remember when Gillette mailed out free samples of the Trac-II razor and blades and thinking how nice it was to be able to not cut myself like I would do with the old double edge type blade. I never like the fact that the companies kept coming up with new designs just so they could make you have to buy new handles for the new style blades.

I hate shaving so much that when I was deciding on which branch of the military to join, I chose the Navy since I knew that after boot camp, I could go back to having a beard. So, other than my time in the Navy, I've had a beard and mustache for the last 38+ years. I don't live in a cold climate, so I don't like a thick beard though. I just "mow" my head periodically with my hair trimmer. When I was in the Navy, I used to keep the hair mowed to a 1/2" bulk, but these days, it's probably more like 1/4". On the neck, I just remove the trimmer guide and use the edge of the teeth to cut close to the skin.

[bikerbeans]

Electric only for me to maintain my beard because I am on a mega dose of blood thinners. I bleed so easy I can cut myself with my electric beard trimmer.

BB

[jcwit]

The adjustable one is called the Gillette Fat Boy. Short and heavy. The other is a non adjustable , twist opening model with a longer handle and light weight.
Gary

Take good care of that Fat Boy, if you happen to still have the box and papers it came with and it is in excellent shape, it's value is in the hundreds.

Even just by itself and in good condition many collectors will pay up to $50/$60 bucks.

[7Acres]

My bro in law introduced me to DE shaving a few years ago. I was skeptical. He was kind of a fanatic about it. He loaded me up with a pack of Derby Extra blades and one of his double edge razors he ended up upgrading from.

When I tried it for the first time I thought I'd slice a nice 1/64" veneer off my face.

I was blown away how smooth and close of a shave it gave me. I decided a double edge safety razor was just the thing for me. I run KAI blades in my Feather razor. Best shave ever! I enjoy shaving now.

[reddog81]

I've been using a safety razor for the last 2 years. I'm only 34, so I grew up using the disposable ones. My girlfriend bought a couple of electric razors as gifts over the years, but I would only use them a couple of times because they pulled and yanked on the hairs. One year she decided to try and give my a safety razor setup and I've been using that ever since. I bought a "new" handle at an antique store after the original broke.
This post reminded me to go buy blades on Amazon. $9.00 in Derby blades will last me about 2 years shaving twice a week and using each blade 2 times.
I cut myself less with the double edged safety razor compared to the Gillette Sensor2's that cost $1.00 each.

[Mytmousemalibu]

First time with a DE can feel scary but it also depends on what razor you have and how aggressive it is and the blade used. What works for one guy, another will hate. I'm sure many have been turned away from their 1st experience. Just like guns and the loads it likes, you have to find what works for you. The razor is your gun, the blade is the bullet and the shave soap is the lube, literally! Perhaps that's is why DE shaving was a natural choice for me!

[William Yanda]

Probably my first week in the Army, 1971, processing in, not even assigned to a training company yet. Sgt calls us out of the barracks in the morning. A big, tanned, older guy who we called California came out with stubble. Sgt calls for a razor, took the blade and wiped it on the sole of his boot a couple of times, gave it to California and told him to shave with it. Lesson learned!

[flint45]

Real men dont shave they grow beards! just funnin witchcha.Two years no shaving.

[docone31]

Aside from using a straight razor, I also use the Rolls Razor. That works well also. Got me started years ago with straight razors.

[flyer1]

I use a twin blade disposable from dollar shave club. Works for me at 3 bucks month.

[edler7]

Cleaning out my parents house a few years ago, I found the old Gillette DE I learned to shave with in the late 60's, along with another one I never knew was around. Turns out the one I learned on was a fat boy and worth a lot more than it cost originally.

Finding these made me real happy, as the evolution of razors from manufacturers in the last 15 years or so has produced something that seems to me like trying to shave with a canoe paddle, except they cost more.

I use my grandfather's shaving brush and mug, can't recall the soap at the moment.

[beemer]

I have a full beard but I trim with a DE, have about 30 in my collection so I change out. Most are Gillette but I have a few other styles including a few straight razors, hones and other shaving accessories. A few things belonged my Grandfathers, guess that's what got me started.Dave

[NavyVet1959]

Considering the fact that my father said that when he screwed up, his father would use a razor strop on his ass, I'm pretty glad that he used a safety razor and only had those 2" wide 1960s belts to impress upon me the error of my ways.

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