Its been a year now that I've taken up wet shaving and I really feel now that I've accomplished my goal with a DE razor. I am getting consistent good shaves with great shaves several times every week. Typically when I am not getting a great shave, I am able to review my routine and isolate where I may have slipped. I've started to experiment a bit with different blades now and I've even come to identify the "sweet spot" in certain blades I use. For instance, with the Derby's the first shave is usually very good, the second is almost always my best chance for a great shave. With the Feathers, the first and second shaves tend to be a bit harsh, but shaves three to five have given me some of the best I've ever gotten.
Now, I'm ready to take on my next challenge. Last year I started to flirt with straights, but I never completely followed through. I bought a couple from guys on the board and though I've tried them a couple of times, I haven't felt comfortable with the technique or equipment to really go all the way. Plus, I never bought a strop or any hones. So now, I've got one month until my birthday and I've already planted the seed with SWMBO about what I'm wanting. One of Tony Miller's heirloom strops will find its way into my shave den if I get my wishes.
After that I'll have to decide on whether I'm going to learn to hone or find someone to hone my razors for me. I know that the skill set and concentration needed to shave with a straight is going to be a great leap from using a DE, but if the results are as great as advertised, it'll probably be worth it. only time will tell.
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Friday, July 25, 2008
Is it a Lifestyle? Hobby? Grooming Technique?
I've been wetshaving for almost 8 months now, and i have settled into a nice routine and comfort level with my shaves. I've been reading and writing (sporadically) about shaving during that entire time. It got me to thinking about what wet shaving has become in my life.
At the very least, the obvious answer is that it is a grooming technique. For most men these days, shaving is a regular part of the routine as important as showering and getting the hair cut. But I view my shaving time in a much different light than I did when I was using the sensor and foam. Its no longer a chore that I wish I didn't have to do. Now its a time I look forward to. To me its almost like a meditation. I can focus my attention on the action, blocking out the other thoughts of the day. In that end its a lifestyle, or at the very least, a lifestyle technique. To risk sounding trite, in today's stressed out, time crunched world, its nice to have some time to focus on myself.
The fact that I take the time to read the shaving forums, to write a blog and have this barely controlled desire to buy new shaving toys can only be explained by calling this effort a hobby. Otherwise how could I justify the time I put into it?
At the very least, the obvious answer is that it is a grooming technique. For most men these days, shaving is a regular part of the routine as important as showering and getting the hair cut. But I view my shaving time in a much different light than I did when I was using the sensor and foam. Its no longer a chore that I wish I didn't have to do. Now its a time I look forward to. To me its almost like a meditation. I can focus my attention on the action, blocking out the other thoughts of the day. In that end its a lifestyle, or at the very least, a lifestyle technique. To risk sounding trite, in today's stressed out, time crunched world, its nice to have some time to focus on myself.
The fact that I take the time to read the shaving forums, to write a blog and have this barely controlled desire to buy new shaving toys can only be explained by calling this effort a hobby. Otherwise how could I justify the time I put into it?
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
Travelling through Life and Shaving Along the Way
Occasionally life gets in the way of our plans for life. That's what has happened to me for the last couple of months, but things are settling down a bit and I'm going to continue posting. The whiskers keep growing, however, so the shaving never stops. That's the coolest thing about this hobby (habit? obsession?) of mine.
One thing I've had to deal with in the past few months has been travel. Some of it expected and planned, some not so much. I've traveled both by air and by land, each presenting its own little challenges to maintaining my shaving routine. I still don't have a good answer to either one, but I'll recount my adventures here and maybe someday laugh at how silly I was during my first travels with wet shaving.
I had to take one long trip that entailed driving 600 miles to drop the family off at the in-laws, spending a couple of days there, then flying across country on a business trip, flying back to the in-laws and driving back home. I'd been starting to play with straight razors, but decided to stick with the DE for this trip in order to minimize hassle.
I packed my HD, a couple of blades, my brush, tube of C&E Nomad cream and Nivea after-shave. In retrospect, I may have chosen a different cream, because I ended up having to leave some of these things behind. But I do have the Nomad shaving soap too, so its not a complete loss. I decided that for the flying portion of the trip, I would pack the shaving supplies in my roll-aboard and check it to avoid the carry-on restrictions. This ended up being the right decision from a shaving point-of-view, but the wrong one from a travel perspective. Due to flight-delays and changes and such, I ended up flying stand-by on an earlier flight than my scheduled flight which actually took off 30 mins after my scheduled flight. And, of course, my bad never made the change. so I ended up having to wait for my bag to arrive on my original flight, completely defeating the purpose of getting the earlier flight.
Because of this, I ended up disposing of my remaining shaving cream and aftershave and carrying on my bag for the flight home. I ended up in the same situation but this time had no baggage problems. So my lesson was, keep your bags with you at all times and only bring items which meet the carry-on guidelines. Now, I am not sure how this will work for razors, but my next scheduled business trip will only be a one nighter, so I'll shave before I leave home and won't bring anything along.
The other real challenge was working my shaving routine into the limited time and space allowed when visiting the in-laws. Between sharing a room with the lovely wife and toddler twins, using a bathroom with a pedastal sink and not having much time to myself there was not much hope of a smooth shave. So I lowered my standards and skipped a pass, trying to be very attentive on each pass to making sure no spots were missed. Typically my first pass is focused on general beard reduction and I don't worry too much about how my face looks when its done. But in this time crunch, I took more care in trying to get as much out of the first pass as I could, using the second pass as a finishing pass. Given that I lowered my standards, it was a pretty effective method, though I did cut myself a couple of times, which I hardly ever do at home.
So I'm learning to be flexible and hopefully future travel experiences will be smoother (pun definitely intended.)
One thing I've had to deal with in the past few months has been travel. Some of it expected and planned, some not so much. I've traveled both by air and by land, each presenting its own little challenges to maintaining my shaving routine. I still don't have a good answer to either one, but I'll recount my adventures here and maybe someday laugh at how silly I was during my first travels with wet shaving.
I had to take one long trip that entailed driving 600 miles to drop the family off at the in-laws, spending a couple of days there, then flying across country on a business trip, flying back to the in-laws and driving back home. I'd been starting to play with straight razors, but decided to stick with the DE for this trip in order to minimize hassle.
I packed my HD, a couple of blades, my brush, tube of C&E Nomad cream and Nivea after-shave. In retrospect, I may have chosen a different cream, because I ended up having to leave some of these things behind. But I do have the Nomad shaving soap too, so its not a complete loss. I decided that for the flying portion of the trip, I would pack the shaving supplies in my roll-aboard and check it to avoid the carry-on restrictions. This ended up being the right decision from a shaving point-of-view, but the wrong one from a travel perspective. Due to flight-delays and changes and such, I ended up flying stand-by on an earlier flight than my scheduled flight which actually took off 30 mins after my scheduled flight. And, of course, my bad never made the change. so I ended up having to wait for my bag to arrive on my original flight, completely defeating the purpose of getting the earlier flight.
Because of this, I ended up disposing of my remaining shaving cream and aftershave and carrying on my bag for the flight home. I ended up in the same situation but this time had no baggage problems. So my lesson was, keep your bags with you at all times and only bring items which meet the carry-on guidelines. Now, I am not sure how this will work for razors, but my next scheduled business trip will only be a one nighter, so I'll shave before I leave home and won't bring anything along.
The other real challenge was working my shaving routine into the limited time and space allowed when visiting the in-laws. Between sharing a room with the lovely wife and toddler twins, using a bathroom with a pedastal sink and not having much time to myself there was not much hope of a smooth shave. So I lowered my standards and skipped a pass, trying to be very attentive on each pass to making sure no spots were missed. Typically my first pass is focused on general beard reduction and I don't worry too much about how my face looks when its done. But in this time crunch, I took more care in trying to get as much out of the first pass as I could, using the second pass as a finishing pass. Given that I lowered my standards, it was a pretty effective method, though I did cut myself a couple of times, which I hardly ever do at home.
So I'm learning to be flexible and hopefully future travel experiences will be smoother (pun definitely intended.)
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Preventing Disease
I've been under the weather for the last few days, but while I was sick I was thinking about how to prevent other diseases and disorders, most notably for this blog preventing the various acquisition disorders that infect those who get into wet shaving.
The allure of trying new things is hard to resist. When I started looking into buying my first kit, there were so many options to decide from. As I've mentioned before, I got the Merkur HD. But I also really considered a nice vintage Gilette Superspeed. And then there are the adjustable models that I'd like to try now that my technique has improved and I'm getting consistent shaves.
Now I'm also getting the thought to start straights. So I've gotten a vintage straight from a member at straightrazorplace, and I've got a newer straight on the way as well. And just looking at all the beautiful razors that are out there, I start feeling the need to get my hands on more.
And these things aren't even the worst of them. I'm really enjoying the idea of different scents, whether they be shave cream, soap or aftershave. The thing that I'm finding with the scents is that after a couple of days in the same scent, I can't really smell it anymore. So that's when I want to change. But its certainly no fun to keep switching between the same two scents. Now the samples I've picked up are helpful, but I really want to get a few more good scents into my rotation.
And I haven't even mentioned brushes, or the stops and hones I'll need to keep up my straights. So how do you control it? Well, I can't say that I know the answer yet, since its still early, but here's my idea and we'll all see how it goes in the future.
The key to it for me is not to buy anything unless I know I'm going to use it. So for now, the razors are going to wait. I have what I have now and I'll continue to use them, but I'm not going to buy any new razors until I feel comforatble using the ones I have. Now for the scents, I want to keep the same criteria. Which means, I don't want to buy anything that I haven't tried before. So samples are going to be key to me. If I had any readers on this blog I'm sure I'd have retailers throwing samples at me, but since I don't, its going to take some legwork and good customer service for vendors to get my business.
So hopefully these guidelines will prevent me from overloading myself in the early stages of this endeavor, and I'll keep in mind that this is going to be a long trip, so I'll have plenty of time to keep trying new things.
The allure of trying new things is hard to resist. When I started looking into buying my first kit, there were so many options to decide from. As I've mentioned before, I got the Merkur HD. But I also really considered a nice vintage Gilette Superspeed. And then there are the adjustable models that I'd like to try now that my technique has improved and I'm getting consistent shaves.
Now I'm also getting the thought to start straights. So I've gotten a vintage straight from a member at straightrazorplace, and I've got a newer straight on the way as well. And just looking at all the beautiful razors that are out there, I start feeling the need to get my hands on more.
And these things aren't even the worst of them. I'm really enjoying the idea of different scents, whether they be shave cream, soap or aftershave. The thing that I'm finding with the scents is that after a couple of days in the same scent, I can't really smell it anymore. So that's when I want to change. But its certainly no fun to keep switching between the same two scents. Now the samples I've picked up are helpful, but I really want to get a few more good scents into my rotation.
And I haven't even mentioned brushes, or the stops and hones I'll need to keep up my straights. So how do you control it? Well, I can't say that I know the answer yet, since its still early, but here's my idea and we'll all see how it goes in the future.
The key to it for me is not to buy anything unless I know I'm going to use it. So for now, the razors are going to wait. I have what I have now and I'll continue to use them, but I'm not going to buy any new razors until I feel comforatble using the ones I have. Now for the scents, I want to keep the same criteria. Which means, I don't want to buy anything that I haven't tried before. So samples are going to be key to me. If I had any readers on this blog I'm sure I'd have retailers throwing samples at me, but since I don't, its going to take some legwork and good customer service for vendors to get my business.
So hopefully these guidelines will prevent me from overloading myself in the early stages of this endeavor, and I'll keep in mind that this is going to be a long trip, so I'll have plenty of time to keep trying new things.
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
My First Impressions
I had done a lot of reading online and watched a lot of mantic's videos during the first couple of weeks before I ordered my kit and got it all together. The first thing that struck me was the size of the equipment I got. I don't know why, but somehow I pictured everything to be ... bigger.
The C&E brush that I got certainly felt nice, but the pictures I'd seen on some of the boards made it look larger than it is. I understood this, because I figured that to get quality at that low price, its just smaller. Less of a good thing, you know?
Then I got the box with the Merkur HD in it. Actually, first my wife got it, since she's home with the kids and I'm at work. She opens it up and called me. "I think there's a piece missing," she said, "why is it so small?" I got home and opened it up. Yep, it looks like the ones in the pictures only smaller. Maybe I should have gotten the long handle model. Hmm, well, I'm not one to judge before i tried, so I used it anyway.
So the next morning I got up early for my first "real" wet shave. i'd been using some of the prep techniques with my Mach3 earlier in the week to practice, but this was going to be the real deal. I'll go through all my steps in a separate post, but once I got started I realized that I liked the "small" razor. It allowed me to use a gentler touch on the handle and I think helps me use less pressure on my face.
Et Voila, I lathered up and finished my first pass. The next surprise... even though I read about the multi-pass beard reduction method, I was shocked at how much stubble was still left on my face. Now, the sink had plenty of little hairs in it, so I know the razor was working, but still it caught me off guard. Second pass, much better. I went for a third pass, started thinking about going against the grain, but then thought better of it and just did another across.
I rinsed and then rubbed some after shave balm on my face. I was pleased, there wasn't any redness, no irritation. It wasn't a perfect shave, especially around my neck and chin, but my cheeks felt fantastic. And the last thing I felt was, man this smells good. I remember sitting at my desk later that day enjoying the scent and feeling excited about the adventure.
In the end, I was glad I did the research before trying to shave this way, because I either would have been very disappointed with the immediate result, or I would have hacked my face to death pressing the razor hard on my face to get the last bit of stubble. I've since gotten better, but that is more for another day.
The C&E brush that I got certainly felt nice, but the pictures I'd seen on some of the boards made it look larger than it is. I understood this, because I figured that to get quality at that low price, its just smaller. Less of a good thing, you know?
Then I got the box with the Merkur HD in it. Actually, first my wife got it, since she's home with the kids and I'm at work. She opens it up and called me. "I think there's a piece missing," she said, "why is it so small?" I got home and opened it up. Yep, it looks like the ones in the pictures only smaller. Maybe I should have gotten the long handle model. Hmm, well, I'm not one to judge before i tried, so I used it anyway.
So the next morning I got up early for my first "real" wet shave. i'd been using some of the prep techniques with my Mach3 earlier in the week to practice, but this was going to be the real deal. I'll go through all my steps in a separate post, but once I got started I realized that I liked the "small" razor. It allowed me to use a gentler touch on the handle and I think helps me use less pressure on my face.
Et Voila, I lathered up and finished my first pass. The next surprise... even though I read about the multi-pass beard reduction method, I was shocked at how much stubble was still left on my face. Now, the sink had plenty of little hairs in it, so I know the razor was working, but still it caught me off guard. Second pass, much better. I went for a third pass, started thinking about going against the grain, but then thought better of it and just did another across.
I rinsed and then rubbed some after shave balm on my face. I was pleased, there wasn't any redness, no irritation. It wasn't a perfect shave, especially around my neck and chin, but my cheeks felt fantastic. And the last thing I felt was, man this smells good. I remember sitting at my desk later that day enjoying the scent and feeling excited about the adventure.
In the end, I was glad I did the research before trying to shave this way, because I either would have been very disappointed with the immediate result, or I would have hacked my face to death pressing the razor hard on my face to get the last bit of stubble. I've since gotten better, but that is more for another day.
Monday, February 11, 2008
My Start-Up Kit
The hardest part of getting started in wet shaving for most guys is putting together a kit that won't break the bank, but will give you enough quality that you won't be too frustrated to continue. I did a lot of reading on the shaving forums and realized that I didn't want to go the cheapo route, nor did I have the leeway with the wife to spend a couple of hundred dollars on the top of the line equipment.
Obviously there are a ton of choices out there and I'm not saying that my decisions were the only right ones, but I am enjoying my wet shaving experience so far, so I'd like to share how I put together my kit, where I got it all and a few of my thoughts on what I've gotten.
Being a part of the "instant gratification" generation that grew up in the 80's, I prefer to run out to a store and come home with everything I need. Unfortunately that's not really possible, because I have yet to find a Brick and Mortar store that sells quality safety razors or straights for that matter. So I was forced to order from online retailers.
I made the following orders from online retailers. I bought a Merkur Heavy Duty Classic razor from classicshaving.com. Then I bought a razor blade sampler pack from westcoastshaving.com. Both retailers were responsive and I received my goods within a week of placing the orders. I came to find out that the proprietor of westcoastshaving.com was the author of the article that piqued my interest in wetshaving to begin with, so I took the opportunity to thank him.
I have since found blades at Dollar General, Walgreens and Publix all at reasonable prices. I haven't tried most of them yet, so I can't vouch for quality, but that'll come in the future.
Classicshaving was chosen because they had the item I wanted in stock. I had originally attempted to contact Lee at Leesrazors.com for some information, intending to buy my entire kit from him, but despite the raves on the boards about his service, I never received a reply. Probably got lost in the holiday shuffle. It was a shame because I had heard such good things about his service.
So once this stuff was ordered, I twisted the wife's arm and dragged her kicking and screaming to the mall. I stopped at Crabtree and Evelyn and picked up the Best Badger Brush for $35. It is by far the cheapest price for a quality brush that I found. There are a lot of good brushes available, heck I've even seen some going for upwards of $300. But to start up, I couldn't find anything that had reviews better than this bursh for the price. While there I also picked up a tube of their shave cream, a jar of After Shave Balm and a soap in a bowl, all in the Nomad scent. The scent of course was picked out by my wife. Of these, my only current regret is the soap. So far I haven't had much luck getting good lather from the soap. Everything else is so new, I haven't really had the desire to pick it up and do much trying. I am enjoying the lather I'm getting from the cream too much.
I also picked up as many samples as I could from Nordtroms (Art of Shaving Sandalwood cream, excellent, Kiehl's creams, not so much) and L'Occitane. I also saw the C.O. Bigelow shaving cream at Bath and Body works, but this is the same as the Proraso, and I'd ordered a tube of that with my razor for $10.
So that was it, in a week I picked up brush, blades, razor, creams and aftershave. I had spent $35 on the razor, $15 on the blade pack, $35 on the brush, and about $75 on creams and ASB. $160 to start, which could have been brought down to $90 if I hadn't gone overboard on the creams in C&E, but I'm blaming that on my wife.
6 weeks later, I think my usage patterns are showing that this stuff should last me at least 6 months before I'll need to reload on shaving cream. So if you're looking for the cheap way out, you could definitely get started with quality product and a good experience for way under $100.
Obviously there are a ton of choices out there and I'm not saying that my decisions were the only right ones, but I am enjoying my wet shaving experience so far, so I'd like to share how I put together my kit, where I got it all and a few of my thoughts on what I've gotten.
Being a part of the "instant gratification" generation that grew up in the 80's, I prefer to run out to a store and come home with everything I need. Unfortunately that's not really possible, because I have yet to find a Brick and Mortar store that sells quality safety razors or straights for that matter. So I was forced to order from online retailers.
I made the following orders from online retailers. I bought a Merkur Heavy Duty Classic razor from classicshaving.com. Then I bought a razor blade sampler pack from westcoastshaving.com. Both retailers were responsive and I received my goods within a week of placing the orders. I came to find out that the proprietor of westcoastshaving.com was the author of the article that piqued my interest in wetshaving to begin with, so I took the opportunity to thank him.
I have since found blades at Dollar General, Walgreens and Publix all at reasonable prices. I haven't tried most of them yet, so I can't vouch for quality, but that'll come in the future.
Classicshaving was chosen because they had the item I wanted in stock. I had originally attempted to contact Lee at Leesrazors.com for some information, intending to buy my entire kit from him, but despite the raves on the boards about his service, I never received a reply. Probably got lost in the holiday shuffle. It was a shame because I had heard such good things about his service.
So once this stuff was ordered, I twisted the wife's arm and dragged her kicking and screaming to the mall. I stopped at Crabtree and Evelyn and picked up the Best Badger Brush for $35. It is by far the cheapest price for a quality brush that I found. There are a lot of good brushes available, heck I've even seen some going for upwards of $300. But to start up, I couldn't find anything that had reviews better than this bursh for the price. While there I also picked up a tube of their shave cream, a jar of After Shave Balm and a soap in a bowl, all in the Nomad scent. The scent of course was picked out by my wife. Of these, my only current regret is the soap. So far I haven't had much luck getting good lather from the soap. Everything else is so new, I haven't really had the desire to pick it up and do much trying. I am enjoying the lather I'm getting from the cream too much.
I also picked up as many samples as I could from Nordtroms (Art of Shaving Sandalwood cream, excellent, Kiehl's creams, not so much) and L'Occitane. I also saw the C.O. Bigelow shaving cream at Bath and Body works, but this is the same as the Proraso, and I'd ordered a tube of that with my razor for $10.
So that was it, in a week I picked up brush, blades, razor, creams and aftershave. I had spent $35 on the razor, $15 on the blade pack, $35 on the brush, and about $75 on creams and ASB. $160 to start, which could have been brought down to $90 if I hadn't gone overboard on the creams in C&E, but I'm blaming that on my wife.
6 weeks later, I think my usage patterns are showing that this stuff should last me at least 6 months before I'll need to reload on shaving cream. So if you're looking for the cheap way out, you could definitely get started with quality product and a good experience for way under $100.
Thursday, February 7, 2008
Pace Yourself
Today was one of those days when I had to stop but it was hard to do. Time was tight so after my second pass, the kids were already running around and my "me" time was over. To I looked in the mirror and realized that, even though it may not feel as good as I want it to feel, my face still looked pretty good. Good enough to go to the office without anyone thinking that I slept until five minutes before I got there.
It brings me back to my childhood, before free refills were available of every soft drink in every restaurant. I would be lucky enough to be allowed to order a coke with dinner, but that one glass needed to last the whole meal. So instead I had to pace myself, and not go for the entire glass at once, no matter how tempting it was.
So today I had to pace myself. I wanted to keep going and shave for that BBS, but alas it was not to be. I still haven't tried those samples from T&H yet, but I will soon. And I have too straight razors on the way, looking forward to trying them out soon.
It brings me back to my childhood, before free refills were available of every soft drink in every restaurant. I would be lucky enough to be allowed to order a coke with dinner, but that one glass needed to last the whole meal. So instead I had to pace myself, and not go for the entire glass at once, no matter how tempting it was.
So today I had to pace myself. I wanted to keep going and shave for that BBS, but alas it was not to be. I still haven't tried those samples from T&H yet, but I will soon. And I have too straight razors on the way, looking forward to trying them out soon.
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