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What was your Ahh Moment?

We all came to wet shaving from various paths and different reasons. My question to y'all when was the ahh moment that you knew that traditional wet shaving was for you?


Mine came within the first month of switching. My face felt clean shaven better then any cartridge razor gave me. I loved the feedback from the razor. It was fun to make lather, so much better then the can goop.

I knew that was I hooked early on I began adding brushes, razors, blades, soaps, etc. Shaving become an enjoyable experience every morning.
 
When I was standing in the PX looking at the price of cartridges and saw DE blades for 1.07$ a pack.
I bought them all.
 
My first wet shave. The lather I made wasn't that great, I cut myself a couple of times, but I knew it was for me.
 
First from electro mover to DE shaving and soon later to carts :blushing: :
"wet shaving does not smell bad (opposed to dry electro-shaving) and feels much nicer".​

Many years later, from carts back to DE:
When I tried to get off a 10 days growth with a cart razor...

Of course it did not work well at all, so I tried to use the hair trimmer of my electro mower which then, due to overloading almost immediately died! :lol:

Then because I could not find my old, cheap plastic DE razor I was forced to trim my beard with scissors and then had a tough fight using up the remaining carts... :scared: :cursing:

The following decision was a no-brainer!
 
My first DE shave was it. I loved the feel of the brush on my face, and got a great shave first time out, and thought I'd just reduced my shaving expenses for the year by half (from about $100 to $50)

One year later, it's been the best tripling of a personal care budget I've ever spent!
 
Originally I switched to wet shaving because I'd been struggling with ingrown hairs. Nothing seemed to help. I knew wet shaving was for me immediately after my first shave. It was fun and didn't feel like a chore. A week later, I noticed that ingrown hairs were no longer an issue. Can't imagine ever going back to carts.
 
I was standing in Wal-Mart, looking at M3 carts and thinking vile thoughts about their pricing. I knew disposables sucked, and was trying to think of another alternative. Into my mind's eye popped my Dad's (I now know) Gillette black short handled Super Adjustable. Wal-Mart still carried blades for "old razors," as I had mentally cataloged them! A few days later when I got home from a trip for work I headed to the antique shop in town, and picked up a couple. Never went back.
 
I was standing in Wal-Mart, looking at M3 carts and thinking vile thoughts about their pricing. I knew disposables sucked, and was trying to think of another alternative. Into my mind's eye popped my Dad's (I now know) Gillette black short handled Super Adjustable. Wal-Mart still carried blades for "old razors," as I had mentally cataloged them! A few days later when I got home from a trip for work I headed to the antique shop in town, and picked up a couple. Never went back.

Man you must live my story. This is exactly what I did. I was in Wally World one night, and knew I was going to need some Mach3 carts soon.

I stood there looking at a $30 price tag *IN WALMART* and said no way.

I bought a pack of the Wilkinson blades hanging there and came home to look for a razor to use them. I just wish I could find Dad's old razor and brush, but they're nowhere to be found.

No worries though. I have a Slim and a Ever Ready 100T from my shopping. I use the Slim daily, but I lather with an assortment of brushes. The old 100T is kind of thin.
 
As soon as I bought and used my first DE razor in 50 years. The first time, 50 years ago, it was a pain in the b..t. Now I seem to be somewhat obsessed with shaving and collecting goodies.
 
There are so many Ahh moments in shaving, that's why it's so much fun.

As an adult, my first shave was an epiphany for me - it was a pretty good SAS, but it was close enough to my memories of shaving with a found Super Adjustable.

Despite a weak Willams lather whipped up in a bowl with a scratchy Tweezerman brush, a very aggressive Parker 91R with a Personna Red Pack IP, it was pretty good. I had watched enough Mantic videos to know that it would get better. It did get better, much more than I could imagine.
 
I've always preferred wet shaving. To me it just seemed cleaner. Maybe I was just raised watching my dad wet shave that in my mind that's just how it's done. The blade has always existed in my life in some form and in various forms. To me there was just something stylish and manly about using a real razor and applying real shaving cream or soap. It's something not a lot of guys do anymore these days and I love the satisfaction I get from a traditional wet shave. It's just always been there and I can't imagine changing it for any reason. I used a Braun electric for 3 months about 13 years ago and that was purely out of necessity, being right handed and having my right wrist severely broken and in a cast. It was freakin awful!!
 
Man you must live my story. This is exactly what I did. I was in Wally World one night, and knew I was going to need some Mach3 carts soon.

I stood there looking at a $30 price tag *IN WALMART* and said no way.

I bought a pack of the Wilkinson blades hanging there and came home to look for a razor to use them. I just wish I could find Dad's old razor and brush, but they're nowhere to be found.

No worries though. I have a Slim and a Ever Ready 100T from my shopping. I use the Slim daily, but I lather with an assortment of brushes. The old 100T is kind of thin.

My dad's razor too is gone to where ever unloved and unsupported razors go. As far as I'm aware, he hung in there until he couldn't buy DEs anymore, maybe just until he couldn't find his preferred English Wilkinson Swords. At any rate, he generally sported a beard in some state for the rest of his life. He would periodically shave it off, but it always came back.
 
My dad's razor too is gone to where ever unloved and unsupported razors go. As far as I'm aware, he hung in there until he couldn't buy DEs anymore, maybe just until he couldn't find his preferred English Wilkinson Swords. At any rate, he generally sported a beard in some state for the rest of his life. He would periodically shave it off, but it always came back.

Yeah, Dad stopped shaving pretty much when he retired, and wore a beard the rest of his life. When we cleaned up I did find a few disposables and such. But not a sign of the old Gillette or Ever Ready I remember so well.

Frankly Dad always used the left over slivers of bath soap instead of shave soap, so I suspect shaving wasn't all that great for him anyway.
 
My Ahh moment had nothing to do with DE shaving. I have been wet shaving, albeit with a cartridge, for years now. The thing that brought me back to shaving, period, was the discovery of quality lather and the addition of preshave oil. Both the result of visiting AOS many years ago.

Everything else, including the eventual conversion to DE shaving, has been incremental to that initial Ahh, or Ah Ha! moment.

And yes, shaving with a cart is actually wet shaving provided you use water.
 
When I tried my first TOBS cream (avocado ) and I discovered what really good lather feels like. That was about a month into DE shaving. I almost have up since I was inexpirienced and getting bad/unprotective lather from VDH soap.
 
I've always preferred wet shaving. To me it just seemed cleaner. Maybe I was just raised watching my dad wet shave that in my mind that's just how it's done. The blade has always existed in my life in some form and in various forms. To me there was just something stylish and manly about using a real razor and applying real shaving cream or soap. It's something not a lot of guys do anymore these days and I love the satisfaction I get from a traditional wet shave. It's just always been there and I can't imagine changing it for any reason. I used a Braun electric for 3 months about 13 years ago and that was purely out of necessity, being right handed and having my right wrist severely broken and in a cast. It was freakin awful!!

Ambidextrous shaving FTW! Ever since I started shaving I would switch hands to shave either side of my face with the appropriate hand. I carried that over to DE and it still works well, and it prevents you from ever getting a worse shave on one side on account of the "reach around".
 
Zoning in on my routine after I started using Noxema and avocado oil as a pre-shave in between each pass....irritation free now with any blade.
 
I was buying groceries and also picked up 3 packs of Mach3 blades since they were on sale. Later, I was looking over my receipt at home and realised that even on sale, I had just spent about the same amount on 3 packs of blades as I did on three bags full of groceries. It got me thinking, that is ridiculous, I wonder how much they might cost on Ebay if I bought a 100 of them?

Did a Ebay search on "100 razor blades" and as you would expect, all these 100 count sleeves of DE blades came up for what was a ridiculous low price compared to Mach3 blades. That was my Ahh-ha moment and with more research, the rest is history.
 
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