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.