How has your shaving journey evolved?

[Sideburns]

Are you kidding me???

Dirt cheap!

It’s only a bargain if it’s what you want and of course the prices may reflect the balance between supply and demand.
I don’t know how tuned in folks are over here to the vintage shaving scene. i honestly didn’t think about it until a few months ago.
In my naivety I think I overpaid on my Gillette 195 - that wasn’t cheap.

 

[Vacumatic]

That’s a coincidence - Mrs Sideburns has recently provided me with a pot of Clarins to moisturise my face before going up the wooden hill to Bedfordshire.

There may be a hidden message there, it may be best not to explore.

 

[Sideburns]

There may be a hidden message there, it may be best not to explore.

That is sage advice.

 

[Twelvefret]

It’s only a bargain if it’s what you want and of course the prices may reflect the balance between supply and demand.
I don’t know how tuned in folks are over here to the vintage shaving scene. i honestly didn’t think about it until a few months ago.
In my naivety I think I overpaid on my Gillette 195 - that wasn’t cheap.

Exaclty, what are you willing to pay regardless of what me or anyone else thinks.

My first razor belonged to my grandfather. It was a Schick Krona from the '60's. To my delight, I found plenty available on eBay for less than $20, some even less than $10 circa 2017. I had been using a DE I found at a beauty supply made of pot metal which failed over time.

For me, that I could find 100-year-old blade holders and use them effectively was fun and interesting. This led me to GEM and other makers. I found the 1930's designs to be my favorite era. I postulated that men of this era were used to straight razors and had acquire the muscle memory to use sharp edges. Later designs were increasingly more mild and these old guys died off and a quick and safe shave was the market demand.

Thus enter the era of the Superspeed Gillette which evolved into the Red, Blue, and Pain tips then onto the adjustable era allowing the man to dial in their preferred shave. Finally, the market had a voice and the makers were listening.

Instead of beard mapping and multiple passes, the industry convinced us that multiple blades were how to get a good shave. These clogged with hair and the nonsense creams and gels that were produced. Every now and then a person will discover that there exists a better way and then come to understand that way has been known for over a century.

 

[Mark12]

I was thinking the other day about this thread and how my shaving journey has evolved and like many in their first 15 months I have tried different sorts of razors, brushes, soaps and splashes etc. but one thing that struck me that it’s not as easy for me to see is the subtle changes in pressure, angle and direction of shave let alone the endless technique refinements which must have gone on since I was cutting myself regularly in the early days to now when a shave just happens.

So how has my shaving journey evolved… Quite imperceptibly I guess.

Oh and I’ve also joined forums and met some really kind, generous and supportive folk and that has been better than the shaving at times. The social journey for me has been fabulous.

 

[Twelvefret]

I was thinking the other day about this thread and how my shaving journey has evolved and like many in their first 15 months I have tried different sorts of razors, brushes, soaps and splashes etc. but one thing that struck me that it’s not as easy for me to see is the subtle changes in pressure, angle and direction of shave let alone the endless technique refinements which must have gone on since I was cutting myself regularly in the early days to now when a shave just happens.

So how has my shaving journey evolved… Quite imperceptibly I guess.

Oh and I’ve also joined forums and met some really kind, generous and supportive folk and that has been better than the shaving at times. The social journey for me has been fabulous.

It's good to have you here and I promise that your apotheosis is forth coming.

 

[Sideburns]

Exaclty, what are you willing to pay regardless of what me or anyone else thinks.

My first razor belonged to my grandfather. It was a Schick Krona from the '60's. To my delight, I found plenty available on eBay for less than $20, some even less than $10 circa 2017. I had been using a DE I found at a beauty supply made of pot metal which failed over time.

For me, that I could find 100-year-old blade holders and use them effectively was fun and interesting. This led me to GEM and other makers. I found the 1930's designs to be my favorite era. I postulated that men of this era were used to straight razors and had acquire the muscle memory to use sharp edges. Later designs were increasingly more mild and these old guys died off and a quick and safe shave was the market demand.

Thus enter the era of the Superspeed Gillette which evolved into the Red, Blue, and Pain tips then onto the adjustable era allowing the man to dial in their preferred shave. Finally, the market had a voice and the makers were listening.

Instead of beard mapping and multiple passes, the industry convinced us that multiple blades were how to get a good shave. These clogged with hair and the nonsense creams and gels that were produced. Every now and then a person will discover that there exists a better way and then come to understand that way has been known for over a century.

My route in to DE shaving was as a result of finding a razor that once belonged to my father, a Gillette Flaretip made in England. Coincidentally, I recall as a fairly young teenager spending some money from my paper round on a Schick razor - I knew very little about it, but it was a Father’d day gift, I think it may have had a lever on it that could be rotated to advance the spring like blade inside. I’ve probably conflated that feature with the passage of time, I really don’t know. I do get a wry smile every time I hear mention of the name Schick.
I find myself very much at home with adjustables - they’ve allowed me to reduce my passes to only 2. I like being able to have a more aggressive first pass before dialling it back for the second pass. It seems to work for me so far. To that end, I’ve found the Gilette 195 to be a very mild razor.
At the risk of repeating myself from something I may have written elsewhere on a thread, I can see me heading in the direction of a smaller lower profile head with rounded corners to help make the access easier to get to the stubble in the nostril cleft area.

 

[Twelvefret]

My route in to DE shaving was as a result of finding a razor that once belonged to my father, a Gillette Flaretip made in England. Coincidentally, I recall as a fairly young teenager spending some money from my paper round on a Schick razor - I knew very little about it, but it was a Father’d day gift and it had a lever on it that could be rotated to advance the spring like blade inside. I don’t know anything else about it, but I do get a wry smile every time I hear mention of the make Schick.
I find myself very much at home with adjustables - they’ve allowed me to reduce my passes to only 2. I like being able to have a more aggressive first pass before dialling it back for the second pass. It seems to work for me so far. To that end, I’ve found the Gilette 195 to be a very mild razor.
At the risk of repeating myself from something I may have written elsewhere on a thread, I can see me heading in the direction of a smaller lower profile head with rounded corners to help make the access easier to get to the stubble in the nostril cleft area.

Look no further than a Schick Model E injector because it will fit inside your nostril. Later versions may as well.

 

[DesertIguana]

I learned TECHNIQUE is more important then cost of tools.

IMHO

 

[Twelvefret]

You can have great technique but no tools, just saying!

 

[Sideburns]

You can have great technique but no tools, just saying!

Oddly enough, my growth line is deep into the nostril cleft, though I bend my big nose to try to flatten the area as much as possible, it’s as if the corner of the head prevents the blade from getting into that area. I get by, but it’s not pretty, hence why I mention a head design where access to the blade is a little closer to a rounded corner - it would probably give me the extra few thou of blade access I need.