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.