What do you use to shave?

[St.Ignatz]

Since I live in drought stricken California I have regressed to using an electric. But if the water table comes back I can get back into wet shaving. But I use proraso and Astra blades with my old Gillette safety razor. I just need to figure out how to get the soap more foamed up. Do you need a special mug or something?

Mike

Try backing off on the water. I soak mine in hot tap water while showering then a flick to rid it of excess water. Work the puck or cream and if needed a drop or two of water at a time. Rich lather is sure to follow.

Tom D.

 

[1930artdeco]

Maybe I am doing it all wrong to begin with. I soak in hot water while I take a shower. The dump, flick the majority of the water off and grind it into the puck. Then I go back to the bowl and with some water (drops at at time) swirl. Am I supposed to leave the puck in the bowl and swirl?

Mike

 

[St.Ignatz]

When using a cake or puck I get best results loading up the brush and lathering on my wet face. No need to grind the brush as you will more than likely greatly shorten it's life. You're working too hard.
Tom D.

 

[Benzadmiral]

I sport a "Commander Riker" style beard, but still need to shave. For many years I used an electric, until I cut myself with one.

No kidding. It takes real application to cut yourself with an electric, but I managed it. It was a Braun with the foil head. I'm shaving blithely away one day, and feel a sting as though I'd pulled a hair. Then I see the thin line of blood on my face. The foil had separated and a little spur of metal was sticking up, enough to leave a thin scratch.

I went with a Norelco rotary after that, and once in a while a cartridge razor. But about two years ago I shifted to a Merkur long-handled DE razor and various blades, from the ultra-sharp Feathers to Gillette 7 o'Clocks and Personna Reds. I'm not into the brush and shaving soap routine yet -- I use one of the gel foams, with a can of good old Barbasol as a backup. (Barbasol goes back a ways: A song lyric in Guys and Dolls from 1947 mentions it.) One pass against or across the grain for cheeks and lower lip, then two passes on the throat, and I'm done.

Just today I bought a vintage Gillette adjustable on eBay. Now I'll have something more to play with!

 

[St.Ignatz]

Those feather blades are unforgiving. I prefer the Astra superior stainless over the platinum. Annual beard comes off feb 18th (pitchers and catchers report). Think I'll go with a straight this time.

Tom D.

 

[Benzadmiral]

Those feather blades are unforgiving. . . .

Tom D.

True enough. I'm none too fond of seeing my own blood at the best of times, though I'm sure a vampire or a mosquito would disagree. Then one night I was changing the blade in my razor, put the used Feather down in a wrapping of toilet paper, then forgot which end was which when I picked it up. Ouch. To paraphrase Lady Macbeth, "Who would have thought the bearded guy had so much blood in his fingers?" And, I repeat, that was a used blade.

I may try them again with the least aggressive setting on the adjustable when I get it. But I'll be careful.

 

[Benzadmiral]

I never got a decent shave with an electric razor. Lots of my friends love it, but not me. I dunno…it just doesn’t work well for me.
Here’s a link to an article that I read when I made the switch. It has excellent information. J
http://www.artofmanliness.com/category/dress-grooming/shaving/

This is probably the best link on the topic though. J
http://www.artofmanliness.com/2008/01/04/how-to-shave-like-your-grandpa/

This is an excellent website that features articles about a whole variety of isses relating to men. I read it religiously. Hope you enjoy it.

I read several articles on there yesterday, and tried some of their suggestions. Primarily, not to shave against the grain if you can help it. I wasn't getting any razor burn, but it seemed like I was putting in more effort than I should have to. So this morning I tried first going with the grain on my cheeks and neck, then going across.

It seems to produce a closer yet less irritating shave.

ETA:
I tried the vintage Gillette adjustable this morning, and I'm quite pleased. The blade I used was Israel-made (the eBay seller had bought a pack to make sure modern blades would fit the 1962 razor, and then he sent them along as a freebie). With the setting at 3, I was aware of bristles being cut; at 5, a little more sensation. At no point was there irritation, and I never felt out of control, even though the Gillette has a much shorter handle and the weight setup is different from the Merkur.

There were good reasons why Gillettes were big sellers in those days, and good reasons why people are willing to buy them now.

 

[bwchase]

I like to use both a de and cartridge razor. Lather up with Old Taylors, (soft cream in a tub), badger brush nice warn lather. First pass is de with the grain, relather and go across the grain with the de.
Relather and use the spendy fusion for against the grain. Very close, only have to change the cartridge about once every three weeks or so. No nicks, cuts or burns. Change the de every other shave.
Very enjoyable, a good experience, not just a necessary function. A little taylors aftershave of the same variety of cream and I am in a great mood! My old yellow lab likes to lay on my feet when I shave.
He doesn't like the electric, neither do I. Electric is a function, blade is a happy experience.
Shaving for over 50 years!
As a kid I remember my grandfather standing in front of the mirror with his bib overalls, one strap loose and using a straight razor. He would ask my grandmother to strop it for him before he started. Many times she shaved him with it. "Don't get no ideas now, Marie!"
Berma Shave in a can. They had berma shave signs along the road in front of their little farm.

"Around the corner, likely split, beautiful car, wasn't it! Burma Shave"

 

[jkingrph]

Whats the current consistency? Watery?

I use an old, wide jam jar with a large hole at the top which I swirl my brush around inside. While unorthodox, I find it works quite well and after enough swirling creates a nice foam.

I also tend to submerge the jar into hot hot hot water up to half way up the glass, that way when it comes to applying the soap, it feels so lovely and warm.

I have an electric razor which I only use when I'm running late. Otherwise, I have a modern gilette razor alongside a chrome safety razor, which I purchased pretty cheaply on amazon. I should invest in a slightly better one soon.

Jar in the hot water sounds like a scuttle, which is a shaving mug , basically a ceramic or pottery mug within a mug, to create a jacket to hold hot water. They work quite well in keeping lather warm, I picked up a couple of nice custom made ones some members over at the Badger&Blade forum no longer wanted, and have a smaller Moss scuttle. I have gotten rather lazy as of late, and just swirl my wet brush on a open container of hard shaving soap or crème, or rub a shaving stick on my damp face, then use the brush to work up a lather on my face. It actually keeps the lather on my face longer and seems to soften the beard a little more, plus giving the face a good scrubbing.

My wife gave me a Remington electric back in 1972 as a wedding present, so I used it for a couple of years until it wore out, went back to wet shaving with some kind of cartridge, then my father gave me a Norelco, and I went through several of them until I decided I had enough of the noise and heat of the shaving heads against my face, and went back to a new type Gillette cartridge and canned cream. My wife and I were in a local antique mall and I spotted a nice looking Gillette double edge razor with a long handle, which actually turned out to be a Lady Gillette( this one was a champagne gold, instead of the more feminine pink or bule model, and I started back with it, learned about brushes and got one.

All that started me collecting, I picked up the rest of the colors for the Lady Gillette, plus slims, fatboys, new, aristocrat's ect,ect, Gem, Schick , and then some older Kampe Star lather types, which are my favorite ( with a Gem blade) I also have some Rolls and Darwin types which have a hollowground blade which must be resharpened and stropped before use, a couple of Wilkinson 7 day razors ( they have a blade labeled for each day of the week), and then there are the brushes, some new, plus a lot of old ones that I bought and dug the old bristles out and installed new brush knots. Somewhere along the way I found some occupational shaving mugs, got one for me, a pharmacist, one an attorney for my son.

I have slowed down on the collecting, more due to a lack of space to store and display any more than anything, but keep an eye out for something interesting.

 

[greatestescaper]

I started shaving with a fancy gillette razor when my whiskers first appeared in 6th grade. I shaved maybe once per month then...By the time things started filling in so much that I needed to start shaving daily I found it was damned expensive to keep replacing those blades as frequently as I wanted to. Finally, after much reading, the desire to try my hand at straight razor shaving over came my fear. I've not shaved with anything but a straight blade in some years. For one thing, I find it a fantastic shave, for another it leaves me feeling ready to take on the world. Maybe that's due in some part to the thrill of starting the morning a blade at my throat.

In recent weeks my 4 month old has become fascinated with my shaving. He'll lay there silently watching my every move from start to finish. I'm going to have to come up with a safe alternative for him to join me during my morning routine. Perhaps I'll fashion him a wooden trainer razor.

Also, as a rule, I cold shave. My first experience was out of necessity, sometime after that I had read an article posted on the Art of Manliness about the benefits of cold shaving and so the habit stuck. In fact, after about a month of Monday to Friday cold shaves I tried a warm shave. A few strokes in and I stopped what I was doing to prep a cold shave. I find it much more invigorating, satisfying, and even a smoother finish to shave with cold lather. Has anyone else on here found a similar experience? Or is warm shaving the standard?

 

[Benzadmiral]

I've jumped a little more into the hobby/experience: a relatively inexpensive badger brush, a tube of Palmolive shaving cream (Ian Fleming had Bond using the stuff in From Russia with Love), and a tub of Taylor of Old Bond Street (TOBS) sandalwood cream. I'm still experimenting. It wasn't until today I realized you have to *smoosh* the brush up against your face to build up some lather with the cream. Brushing or whipping lightly with not much more than the tips of the badger hairs didn't work. Anyway, a very nice experience with the slick Palmolive stuff. Tomorrow I'll try the TOBS cream!

 

[Snortman45]

Someone on local Craigslist is selling a vintage de razor and travel bag for 25 bucks. Without a picture, does that sound like a good deal?

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[Benzadmiral]

Someone on local Craigslist is selling a vintage de razor and travel bag for 25 bucks. Without a picture, does that sound like a good deal?

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It would depend -- as with cars, hats, and many other things -- on the condition and model. The bag might well be worth it even if the razor is in lousy condition.

 

[Snortman45]

That's what I was thinking, but I wasn't sure in general how much people had paid for vintage double-edge razors that were in decent condition. Somebody also posted a vintage straight razor for sale on local craigslist, but IMO it would only be worth buying as a collectible, the blade looked like it was in pretty rough shape. No way I would let it touch my face.

 

[Dirk Wainscotting]

This is the scuttle I use:

It's 70s 'Clarice Cliff'. Not like one of the 'open', often metal, scuttles, but it's the best for keeping the lather hot in-between applications. Filled with hot water the ceramic warms up; the brush resting in the upper chamber stays warm and excess water drains through the holes. The brush is simple boar bristle, which has become very soft from long use.
I stopped using pucks because they necessitate extra work. I use a shave stick from the Turkish brand, 'Arko'. The packaging is nice and old-school:

Routine is: proraso pre-shave, Arko rubbed on chin and jaw, hot brush to bring up the lather. I can use one of these shave sticks for at least six months, or more, shaving 6 days a week. Aftershave is Floid (vigoroso) or a Lime cologne; sometimes even 4711 (I keep a bottle in the fridge).

The razor is a no name DE I found still packaged at a flea market (still boiled it before use!). I prefer this to using some of my older razors, but prior to this I always used a 1955 Gillette Rocket and still do now and again. On technique...with the Rocket there was a tiny, folded paper shaving guide originally sold with razors, which advised to take a very slight diagonal, rather than straight up or down. I imagine a lot of people who pressed too hard cut themselves doing this, but I find it works.

 

[Snortman45]

I am going to check with my dad to see if he still has his old DE razor in a drawer somewhere. I also think i will be buying an old German straight razor from a guy next week.

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[Benzadmiral]

That's what I was thinking, but I wasn't sure in general how much people had paid for vintage double-edge razors that were in decent condition. Somebody also posted a vintage straight razor for sale on local craigslist, but IMO it would only be worth buying as a collectible, the blade looked like it was in pretty rough shape. No way I would let it touch my face.

EBay has a wide range of prices. Earlier this year I paid $55 including shipping for my 1962 Gillette adjustable, but then it came with the original plastic clear/white/red Gillette case, and he threw in a packet of Israeli-made DE blades. As the razor works flawlessly and enhances my shaving experience, I think it was a bargain.

 

[Dirk Wainscotting]

Unless someone specifically wants a vintage model, for a first DE razor there's probably a better deal to be had on a new model. Like the Parker razors which are only €20 (or similar). For one thing you're guaranteed to still have all the nickel-plating present.
I prefer the older two-piece (or is it three-piece) razors rather than the butterfly mechanism and many of the second-hand models I've had from online had minor splits in the metal handle sheath.

 

[bwchase]

Well, always searching for a better shave, decided to try an "Above the Tie" Kronos m1.
This was on the recommendation of the owner of said company from my description of how I currently shaved.
My Mekur has a handle that is really too short.
After two weeks, I am getting used to it.
First shave was brutal, haven't seen blood in years, seemed to take too much on my neck and upper lip.
This was with the grain only, well it changes direction there, and was ready to send it back!
Tried the astra blades that came with it after a few days rest, and it went great. Now I am starting to like the way it shaves.
Personna blades and astra blades work well, still use a gillette cartridge to finish under nose and around lips.
Expensive and heavy, but I think it is a keeper. Have the option of getting different heads which I may try later.
Probably sell the Mekur to someone with smaller hands.
Anyone else using their razors?

 

[Cooperson]

When I have enough time in the morning, this is me: Edwin Jagger DE & Badger, Astra Platinum blades and my all time favourite TOBS cream 'Mr Taylors' - just love the smell of this stuff!