What's new

Reflecting on the journey so far... how about yours?

Esox

I didnt know
Staff member
+1
Practicing my technique, over time, made once-difficult areas of my face much easier to shave. It just took a time investment and perseverance. Having a superbly honed instrument to work with does make this incredibly easier than just a moderately sharp razor. To me it is night-and-day better. I now can understand why straight razors have such a dedicated following because there really isn't anything quite like the experience of shaving with one, once you have your technique down - and - you have a razor honed to its potential sharpness.


I've never used one, unless a stropped skinning knife counts haha, but I also believe that a straight will, ultimately, give the best shave.

I wish I had the patience to learn to use and maintain one.
 
I was surprised by how using extra virgin olive oil as a pre-shave and post shave makes my skin feel incredible. Not greasy. Just an amazing conditioner - especially during the winter months that can be brutal on my face when I'm outside in the freezing cold.

If your shaving time isn't just a means to an end, but a pleasant ritual similar to a micro spa day, you might consider tailoring the oil for you. Internet searches on carrier oils, carrier oil properties, and specific carrier oil properties can help you make oils for dry, oil, and normal skin, along with beard oil, and help deal with any problems you might have, i.e.: beardruff, acne, etc.. The same searches can be used for essential oils to help even further, but I prefer going to Central Market and snuffing at their samples to determine ones I want to try based upon scent not homeopathic uses. Further research on EO blending, families, notes, and specific EO "blends well with" searches allows you to make your own scent. Research into Fragrance oils would allow you to make the scents longer lasting, like colognes.

BTW, this was my first rabbit hole after I started wet shaving, still with a cartridge that week.:001_302:
Started by only being able to find a shaving brush in AoS's Sandalwood Trial 4 elements set. Loved that scent, not the cost.
 
Last edited:
It can however, bring inner peace. ;)
+1
My journey started at around the same time my wife became terminally ill. 18 months of illness and more than 14 months without her. During her illness, the shaving ritual provided a brief respite from the difficult times. After her death, the shaving ritual gave me a sense of familiarity when my whole world changed. I can still feel her hand on my face almost every morning. I hear her advising me to “buy it if it will make you happy”.

My collection of razors, brushes and soaps grew and has now diminished some after giving away a razor, blades and brush to a coworker, a brush and several tins and tubs of soap to my 90+ year old father, and trading several razors for a new artisan razor. I think I am now content with my shaving equipment but also not afraid to make new acquisitions should the desire arise.

Would I go back to an electric to have my wife back, with no hesitation, but that can’t be. I can only make the best of the situation I am in. So yes, it can bring some measure of inner peace and for that I am grateful.
 

Esox

I didnt know
Staff member
+1
My journey started at around the same time my wife became terminally ill. 18 months of illness and more than 14 months without her. During her illness, the shaving ritual provided a brief respite from the difficult times. After her death, the shaving ritual gave me a sense of familiarity when my whole world changed. I can still feel her hand on my face almost every morning. I hear her advising me to “buy it if it will make you happy”.

My collection of razors, brushes and soaps grew and has now diminished some after giving away a razor, blades and brush to a coworker, a brush and several tins and tubs of soap to my 90+ year old father, and trading several razors for a new artisan razor. I think I am now content with my shaving equipment but also not afraid to make new acquisitions should the desire arise.

Would I go back to an electric to have my wife back, with no hesitation, but that can’t be. I can only make the best of the situation I am in. So yes, it can bring some measure of inner peace and for that I am grateful.

I'm sorry to hear of your loss Steve.

I did something similar when my father died, Dec.28 1992.

For the following 3 days I sat in my sisters basement, drinking coffee, smoking cigarettes and reloading rifle shells with my brother in law popping in and out often. My father and I hunted together since I was 5 and the very precise and methodical routine of reloading rifle shells kept my mind occupied while my subconscious worked through things.

After those 3 days I was much better fit to dealing with what had to be dealt with. Its a bit strange to me that when you focus so closely on a particular task everything else seems to melt away, while at the same time being processed to a manageable level.

Going back and reloading again years later I was always reminded of the good times we had together.

Shaving is a lesser Zen experience for me, but that close focus is there, if for a short time. It does however, depending on the soaps scent, bring back a lot of memories of times spent hunting.
 
My first experience with DE razors resulting in me getting a severe cut . . .


wish I knew how to do the spoiler things . . .


after the very light touch . . .


of about a 4' drop . . .


on my big toe . . .

I think I was 10.


I was showering in the 3/4 bathroom (built in shower) in a 1 & 3/4 bath house. I knocked my mom's razor from the soap dish reaching for a bar of soap.

Fast forward about 40 years. As I aged, my sjin grew thinner. This resulted in me and my trusty Mach 3 moving from dry, to water, to Noxzema (cleanser), to canned goo while trimming and mowing through beards with months or years of growth. After a particularly bad, low-cost can, I researched options, and stumbled upon several YouTube videos by a man with the moniker Mantic59. Wet shaving sounded promising, so I searched for a brush for a few weeks, finally stumbling upon one at Sam's in the AoS set mentioned in my previous post. Sending me down my first rabbit hole.

From YouTube, I followed my way to Sharpologist. Thought I might give DEs a try. They had been right about wet shaving, plus it has the retro, nostalgia (can you be nostalgic for something you haven't done?) thing going for it. Bought a VDH TTO from Kroger's, only razor I have been able to find locally. Wanting to find better blades, brushes. etc., and to get others opinions, I followed the links from Sharpologist to these forums.

I signed up shortly thereafter, and had 1, razor, 3 shaving brushes, a sample set of 17 razor blades brands, 4 carrier oils, 3 Essential oils, 2 shaving soaps, and 3 shaving creams. 3 weeks into wet shaving. 2 additional weeks, bring us to now, and I have another razor and brush, 25 types of razors, with 5 types in the mail, 2 more EO, 1 more SS, glycerin, and shea butter.
 
...I started reading about wet shaving online and stumbled upon a recipe for making my own shaving soap. It didn't look very complicated at all, so I thought what-the-heck, and made my first batch of hot process shaving soap/croap. I was so surprised to find that I liked that better than the products I had been using that I ordered online. Plus, it was fun to experiment with different shaving soap recipes - and finally I began making my own recipes... this was about the time my wife looked worried about me and this shaving thing...

That is one area I would like to eventually explore perhaps when I am settled down career-wise and have the free time to dabble. Right now I work 6 days a week so spare time is not a luxury for me.
 
Great story!

My case is similar to many above, perhaps a bit advanced: I needed the 2018 Shaving Purchase Sabbatical!
 
That is one area I would like to eventually explore perhaps when I am settled down career-wise and have the free time to dabble. Right now I work 6 days a week so spare time is not a luxury for me.

It is so easy, and the initial investment is peanuts. A batch of shaving soap that will last me a year, takes me about an hour to make. I ended up making our shower/bath soap now also. It just feels so good on my skin to have a conditioning soap that is hand-made and tailored to what I like.
 
My first experience with DE razors resulting in me getting a severe cut . . .


wish I knew how to do the spoiler things . . .


after the very light touch . . .


of about a 4' drop . . .


on my big toe . . .

I think I was 10.

LOL, hey I can so relate to that. My worst cuts wet shaving have not been to my face. I always feel like a klutz when they happen due to an accident :)
 
Top Bottom