A histrory in shave.

[Mottern Man]

STORY TIME! :D

What got me into wet shaving?

When I was a kid I used to always like going to the barber and getting a hair cut. The atmosphere and the smell really drew me in.

I taught myself how to shave and used my dads stuff (I was about 14 ish), Barbarsol foam and a Bic disposable (the 10 cent yellow razor). At first it was good but then I got older (17 ish) and it did not cut my hair for nothing. So I tried an electric. Still did not cut for nothing. I did not shave much at the time, so I did not care but I had to have a clean shave for wrestling. This was the time the good old M3 came out and was all the rage. It was better then the Bic and electric but irritated the hell out of me. So I just shaved before wrestling matches.

After all of that I joined the Navy and had to shave every day, turned my face to hamburger. So it was years of foam and Mach 3. A few years later I got sick of it and thought "their has to be a better way".

Back to my hometown barber, to get a hair cut, the dude has been cutting hair since after Nam (ever have a Marine take a strait razor to the back of your neck?) and I found out that it was the Clubman scent I loved so much

TO THE INTERNET. To find Clubman so I can buy it, BAM a whole new world emerges on how to shave and blah blah blah, but I don't know how to do it

I order my Pinaud and some brush-less cream, that alone with the old M3 drastically improved my shave (but I was on a ship and the cream was lost). So back to the goo (but I got a boar brush to mix my foam on the face, hearing it may help………….It did).

Fast forward a year or so and I come back to the states (the boat was in Japan) and I get a puck of soap, could not get it to work right so I put it in the microwave thinking it would soften a little, it melted, little did I know it wouldn't come back and I threw it away. Back to the goo.

Got sick of it and went to Ebay to find a DE razor after some mild INTERNET research. So I got a Gillette Super Speed, Personna blades, and a mug with Burma soap and Burma brush.
Got better later but still sucked. So I got Williams mug soap. It got even better lather but it still sucked. The brush shed everywhere and I did not know what I was doing with the DE and blades and cut myself bad. Back to this time a Sensor and Trac 2 (I got a little smarter).

MORE INTERNET RESEARCH brought me to AoS and various other sites. So I got a Merkur HD, Merkur blades, AoS brush, AoS Sandalwood Cream, ASB and AoS Lavender samples………………..it worked great but I still have trouble with the irritation.

MORE INTERNET RESEARCH and what do I find……………a Corey Greenberg a 3 min video, but on that page on U TOOB is where I found MANTIC!!!!
My shave dramatically improved, I still had a little irritation but with Marks vids I found out about shaving forums………..posted, asked one question bout irritation IT SAVED MY LIFE (I believe it was Jim that answered my question )

And the rest is history!

So to say I think it was the nostalgia of a real barber (not a salon barber) that got me into it. That and I think The Duke shaved like this and If it was good for John Wayne its good for me.

Have you got a shave story? post away!

[PalmettoB]

Awww...don't we all feel warm and fuzzy now? :D Just kidding, Will.

Me? I don't remember exactly what it was that got me looking into wetshaving. I think last summer I was in an old-fashioned general store (Mast General Store in Greenville, SC) and saw a brush and soap and mug (Col. Conk stuff). I thought about the nostalgia of it (I'm sort of a history nut) and I had been using an electric shaver because the shaves from the disposable razors and goo I was using just STUNK! Alas, the electric wasn't much better, and it always seemed to irritate. So I bought a boar brush and Col. Conk soap. Even just using the boar brush and Col. Conk Bay Rum soap with a disposable was better than before!

Then I started searching the Internet for shaving, and stumbled on Corey Greenberg's MSN video on Yahoo! After that, a little more research, and I found QED, ordered a Merkur Classic Long Handle, then found TOP, and the rest was history!

[navy_shave]

My story is much the same as yours, Will. Remember my father and grandfather shaving with DEs. I learned how to shave with one, but dropped it rather quickly in favor of Trac II. Stayed with 2-blade cartridges until about a year ago, when I tried my wife's vintage DE just for old time's sake. Even with rotten technique, I was hooked and just had to have my very own DE. I was very impressed with how cheap the blades are, too.

Almost immediately I stumbled on Leisureguy's blog--major snowball effect : simultaneous, multitudenous research on DEs, blades, lather, AS. . .and shaving forums.

And here I am, (only) a couple a hundred dollars lighter, but very happy with my new hobby--and all the great people I'm meeting in the process.

[Smedley]

My drug store used their marketing mail list to send me a free Fusion.

Something snapped inside me. "How many goddam razors am I expected to upgrade to in my life??"

So I started investigating safety razors.

Now I have multiple razors, but, er, they're for collecting. Yeah, that's it.

Also met a lot of nice folks and shaving is now fun as opposed to a dreaded chore. :D

[qhsdoitall]

My history is pretty simple and much the same as millions of other shaving marketing hype suckers around the world. I didn't have a father to teach me to shave and my grandfather was kind of out of it due to some strokes he had when I was young. He used a DE and canned goo though and the roll of toilet paper was always close at hand.

I started at shaving at 15. I used the Schick Injector to start with (Damn I wish I still had that) and then tried a couple of electric razors. I soon abandoned electrics because my face absolutely hated them. So, from there on out it was one cartridge razor upgrade after another. I was smart enough to hang onto my Gillette Sensor. I kept going and tried various 2 blade disposables and then 3 blade and so on since I got free razors in the mail. I always went back to various 2 blades until I found the Gillette CustomPlus Pivot Disposable Razors at Costco and stayed with them for many years. I then just tried to find the best goo in a can I could and settled on Aveeno Shave cream, which I still have a couple of cans of for emergencies in case I need to shave in 5 minutes or less. Even then, my neck would look like a Martian landscape and my skin had all kinds of problems. I am definitely in the sensitive skin department. Water gives me rashes.

So, after 33 years of wandering the shaving halls of misery, I decided to do some research. I could quickly see an AD in the making with all the promises of DE shaving Nirvana. I was right. I am now a bona fide DE shaving convert and well on my way to being committed by my wife for DE AD and the various other ADs I have. This is something that I will be experimenting with and learning for the rest of my shaving days. Do I still use a 2 blade cartridge? You bet. I use a Gillette Sensor for those aforementioned emergencies and on short overnight travel trips but, I bring a brush and soap or cream with me along with the various other grooming and skin products I have learned about in my travails. Will my AD purchases slow down? Yes, I will eventually find the best methods and equipment combinations for me and settle down with those. I'll then budget myself to a certain amount of re-purchase or new purchase items per month as I try and rate items. I keep a database of everything I buy and make notes on them with a rating scale. A true mark of an AD. Happy Shaving!

So, that's my story and I'm sticking to it.