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Shaves to the Gilette Company
HoA-player
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Shaving! All of us men and some of you women have to do it, some starting earlier in life and more often then other but still everyone has to shave at least once in a while.
Of course there a many different ways to shave the most common nowadays is probably to use a modern electric razor:
They come in different forms and shapes with lots of additional functions like self cleaning and maybe even little lcd screens. Shaving with one is quick and convenient but personally I never got a real close shave with doing this.
Alternative to electric shaving is wet shaving. Wet shaving is a very broad subject that can be separated in modern and traditional wet shaving.
I will start with modern wet shaving as it is the more common version.
A picture of a modern razor:
The main idea with modern razors seems to be the more blades the better and if you're really fancy they vibrate too! Most men, or rather boys start shaving with this because of commercials telling them that this is how real man shave, by slathering their face with goo out of a pressurized can and then dragging 3 to 5 blades all across their face. At least that's how I started with wet shaving but again my personal experience wasn't so great. The shave was closer but with that close shave came razor burn, dry and itchy skin.
So I wasn't really happy with shaving and didn't do it very often but that meant having to grow one of the dreaded neckbeards you see so often. Until about a year ago that is when I found traditional wet shaving.
Traditional wet shaving is by far the most complex method of shaving. First of all you don't smear the shaving cream on your face using you hands, no you use a shaving brush:
These come with three different kinds of hair badger, bore or artificial. Each of the three kinds has slightly different characteristics badger is softer and retains more water, bore is harder and retains less water. The artificial is somewhere in the middle.
Badger hair brushes are considered the best of the bunch but are also the most expensive.
Now you need something to apply with that brush and here you have the choice between shaving cream of shaving soap.
Choices abound! Instead of just uniform goo from cans you can pick and choose from dozens of different scented shaving cream or soaps most still produced after recipes from the late 19th century or early 20th century.
Here I prefer Sandalwood Shaving Cream from Taylor of Old Bond Street but I also tried Proraso Eucalyptus Shaving Cream from Italy which was also very good.
Now to the shaving part.
This is a typical early 20th century safety razor. These are fed with single disposable razor blades. Shaving with this is very different from modern razor as you work with far less pressure which leads to far less skin irritation but is a bit tricky to learn after getting used to pressing a modern razor to you face and dragging it all over the place.
I bought one like this last year when I first got into traditional wet shaving and after getting used to it I had some good shaves.
You may ask yourself now if the razor is from the 20th century but the shaving cream is 19th century then there has to be an even more traditional method of shaving, right?
Right! Shaving with a straight razor.
This is the oldest and if you following the progression in this post the most complex method of shaving there is. Aside from the straight razor itself you'll need a leather strop for stropping the razor.
This prepares the razor for the shave by slightly honing it.
I got a set of straight razor and leather strop for Christmas this year and started shaving this way but like I said it's the most complex method and I still need some training with it before I can get a really close shave but so far I like it.
So for those of you who actually read all that, how do you shave?
Of course there a many different ways to shave the most common nowadays is probably to use a modern electric razor:
They come in different forms and shapes with lots of additional functions like self cleaning and maybe even little lcd screens. Shaving with one is quick and convenient but personally I never got a real close shave with doing this.
Alternative to electric shaving is wet shaving. Wet shaving is a very broad subject that can be separated in modern and traditional wet shaving.
I will start with modern wet shaving as it is the more common version.
A picture of a modern razor:
The main idea with modern razors seems to be the more blades the better and if you're really fancy they vibrate too! Most men, or rather boys start shaving with this because of commercials telling them that this is how real man shave, by slathering their face with goo out of a pressurized can and then dragging 3 to 5 blades all across their face. At least that's how I started with wet shaving but again my personal experience wasn't so great. The shave was closer but with that close shave came razor burn, dry and itchy skin.
So I wasn't really happy with shaving and didn't do it very often but that meant having to grow one of the dreaded neckbeards you see so often. Until about a year ago that is when I found traditional wet shaving.
Traditional wet shaving is by far the most complex method of shaving. First of all you don't smear the shaving cream on your face using you hands, no you use a shaving brush:
These come with three different kinds of hair badger, bore or artificial. Each of the three kinds has slightly different characteristics badger is softer and retains more water, bore is harder and retains less water. The artificial is somewhere in the middle.
Badger hair brushes are considered the best of the bunch but are also the most expensive.
Now you need something to apply with that brush and here you have the choice between shaving cream of shaving soap.
Choices abound! Instead of just uniform goo from cans you can pick and choose from dozens of different scented shaving cream or soaps most still produced after recipes from the late 19th century or early 20th century.
Here I prefer Sandalwood Shaving Cream from Taylor of Old Bond Street but I also tried Proraso Eucalyptus Shaving Cream from Italy which was also very good.
Now to the shaving part.
This is a typical early 20th century safety razor. These are fed with single disposable razor blades. Shaving with this is very different from modern razor as you work with far less pressure which leads to far less skin irritation but is a bit tricky to learn after getting used to pressing a modern razor to you face and dragging it all over the place.
I bought one like this last year when I first got into traditional wet shaving and after getting used to it I had some good shaves.
You may ask yourself now if the razor is from the 20th century but the shaving cream is 19th century then there has to be an even more traditional method of shaving, right?
Right! Shaving with a straight razor.
This is the oldest and if you following the progression in this post the most complex method of shaving there is. Aside from the straight razor itself you'll need a leather strop for stropping the razor.
This prepares the razor for the shave by slightly honing it.
I got a set of straight razor and leather strop for Christmas this year and started shaving this way but like I said it's the most complex method and I still need some training with it before I can get a really close shave but so far I like it.
So for those of you who actually read all that, how do you shave?
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I have been looking into traditional wet shaving for a while now.
I am tired of blowing like, $20 for the disposable cartridges on the one I use now.
i just use it to shave my upper lip and most of my neck, growin my beard out right now
but i have used my hunting knife before and that just sucks
So far out of shaving 4 times I only cut myself once the very first time :P
I am satisfied with my cheap-ass mach 3.
Then I ran out of cartridges and didn't feel like buying more, so I just went back to using 2-blade disposables.
Which is why I let my facial hair grow to embarassingly patchy, teenaged bushiness.
I have since switch back to steel, using disposable three-blade razors and it's going a lot better than it used to. I used to have huge irritation problems but more blades really does help out.
I also started using Neutrogena for men products for prep and shaving and I really like it. Better than Nivea for men in my opinion.
The internet mostly but some of the fancier shopping places in Germany still carry them too.
Works pretty good
Hell yes they do.
I'm at the weird stage, where I have to shave because, yeah, it'll grow out, but just enough to look shitty. I can't grow it thick enough yet to actually look good.
My god, what else might they know?
Turns out it is an excellent method for disposing of one's enemies.
Or if you are particularly hungry.
i've been at that stage for a few years now and it annoys the piss out of me
My guess is that they hired a private detective to find out any dirt on me they could
so they probably know all about my war profiteering
Since I don't shave my upper lip it's much more likely I'll loose an ear.
I embrace the neckbeard
It's a typo, shut up.
Also because that is a big-ass sharp thing. Only I get to put sharp or pointy things against me.
Fuck those electric razors though. They're rubbish.
plus i'll probably eventually go sweeney todd on a bitch
You're a braver man than I
uh-oh
you'd better hide your secret nazi blood diamonds inside a safe at the bank that you own that nobody knows about, except somebody does and they dress up everybody else just like them in order to throw confusion of the theft of your safety deposit box and subsequent revelation to the public that you are a bad person
are those those little things for trimming unsightly hairs on the ladies
it's krusterrific, johnny Unitas! But is my upper lip supposed to be bleeding?
Probably.