I remember my first shave, I was assisted by my older brother which was slightly worrying due to him insisting I tried a dry shave first rather than a wet shave. Older brothers will always devise a plan to harm there sibling which genearly invovles them helping you out. cue scene Me: Mum he has just cut me with a razor. Brother : "ehhh I was just trying to assist him in the art of shaving".
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| Looks sexy |
My weapon of choice at the time did vary depending on the funds I had at the time, so if I was flush it would be a super duper triple blade 5000 as used by a famous footballer (yawn) or your budget Bic one blade wonder guaranted to draw blood type thing and then there was the shaving soap which again depending on the funds which would be shaving foam in a can or my mums palmolive soap (not good).
I would say I ran with this formulae for about 15 years, then something changed, that thing was a very deep recession in this country and it called into question how my wife and I could save money and one of the many ways to cut back was shaving equipment. I dont need to tell you how ridiculously expensive modern razor blades are these days, its a rip off basically, but totally justified by the big companies due to the amount of thought and technology that goes into creating these ultra thin mega sharp blades. Is it necessary? we are just shaving our beard right? or did I miss something. I dont think i did so no, all this effort, which we pay for is really not not needed when a swiss army knife will do hehe just kidding.
So thanks to a couple of forward thinking lads on a wonderful forum I belong to offhandforum.com the idea was to go back to the original safety razor which uses one single blade and a 2 piece shaver.
The initial cost of a safety razor can vary and I stress traditional shaving is not for everyone, so I did not want to fork out loads of money initialy in case it was not for me, so I managed to pick up an unsused vintage gillete from the 60's still in its case for 50p. There is a sense of irony here becasue its the main brands like Gillete that have priced me out of the modern shaving market and now here I am picking up one of there older models to save money.
So Welcome to the world of traditional shaving.
Using a safety razor can be a bit daunting especialy like me you are used to using the modern shavers. You can hack away untill your hearts content with a modern razor This is not the case with a safety razor, a steepish learning curve aided by some youtube videos was the way forward from this point and also some advice about the different types of soap and balms to use and the very important shaving brush, do you go for real badger or man made. No idea! This was starting to get quite interesting, confusing and also fun.
I wont go into the techniques you can adopt when using a safety razor, I will leave that up to you becasue they do vary and is really down to the individual, length and time you have to spend shaving your face. These are all factors in this new world I have entered. Anyway things went smoothly with my new approach to shaving so I decided to sell the old Gillete on Ebay (£7 kerching) and invested in a Merkur razor which is the nuts. I am saving a fortune now in shaving soap and blades which in comparison are £3.50 for a pack of 10 japanese blades or £8 (could be more not sure) for a pack of 4 fusion type blades. No brainer. The recession for me and my profession has passed for now and could I probably afford to buy the David Beckham specials, but my cost cutting methods are well in place and the way I consume and view the things I buy has changed lus i am having fun shaving and dont really see it as a chore. We want value for money not bling. We want to find out and discover new things ourselves rather than be told by adverts or clever marketing companies.
Shaving Starter Kit from the Traditional Shaving
Company onllne shop
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