Greetings, shavers of the world! My name is Marcus, and I'm from Sweden. I would like to introduce myself and tell you a little bit about who I am and how I recently got interested in wet shaving.
I have always valued a good, close shave. Had I been gifted with thick and strong facial hair, I very well may have chosen to sport a beard or a stache, but it was not meant to be.
Like many other men whose facial hair isn't as thick or full as that of the average man, I spent many of my teenage/early adult years hoping I was just a late bloomer, and that the thick beard I was supposed to have would one day catch up with me and magically appear. As the years went by and the beard failed to grow, I felt as though I was cursed or inferior, or somehow less of a man.
As I matured I came to accept that if I wanted to look presentable, a nice clean shave was my only viable option. Several attempts to "just give it more time" only ended up with me looking like I had just entered puberty.
Today, I am 28 years old. While the amount of hair on my face has increased, it's still on the lighter side; but as I got older, my earlier insecurities faded away, and now I feel confident in my appearance and comfortable in my masculinity; somewhere along the way I came to understand that a beard does not a man make.
Anyway, enough rambling.
As I said, a close shave has always been important to me, but despite trying a bunch of different cartridge razors and blade "systems" I was never satisfied, and it was always one of two things:
1) My skin was feeling irritated, or
2) The shave just wasn't close enough.
This eventually caused what little joy I found in shaving to disappear, and I just came to see it as a chore that I'd rather not have to do. I had always wanted shaving to be an enjoyable activity, but it just never happened and eventually I gave up trying.
Then one day I was thinking about maybe trying an old school safety razor - I had always liked how cool they looked. The very same day I found myself browsing one of the many Arab-operated dollar stores in one of Stockholm's suburbs, not looking for anything in particular. Suddenly something as unexpected as a display box of safety razors caught my eye. I had never before seen one in person, but I recognized the shape right away. Granted, they did not look quite as shiny or glamorous as they did in the pictures, but since they only cost 35 SEK ($3.75) a piece, there wasn't much to think about, so I bought my first safety razor and a tuck of the only blades they had: Lord Super Stainless.
Little did I know, I had just purchased the infamously cheaply made and aggressive Turkish Yuma razor. Many of you have probably heard about it, but since this happened before I had discovered B&B or researched wet shaving at all, I was not aware of its reputation - or indeed much of anything concerning safety razors.
I hurried home, and being the impatient and impulsive little boy I am at heart, I did not bother to read even the most basic outline of how to go about using it - fueled by my enthusiasm for a new toy I simply popped a blade in the Yuma and plunged head first into my very first DE shave. Without even lathering my face. Oh, and going against the grain, of course.
Luckily, I later discovered that without even knowing it, I had just happened to hold the razor at more or less the correct angle without applying excessive pressure. In combination with the rather mild Lord blades, and thanks to my not so thick beard, I managed to finish my shave without slicing my face right off.
Actually, apart from a few minor nicks on my chin, I was rather happy with how it all went. Encouraged by the success of my first try, I decided to give this whole wet shaving thing a serious try.
This was almost three months ago, and I have learned a lot since. I have purchased a boar brush, one shaving cream, two shaving soaps, and another two razors (actually I bought two almost identical Lord L5 razors by mistake).
I am currently shaving daily or every other day, using the Lord L5. If I'm not mistaken it's the one with the Gillette Tech head. I got it for something like $6 in another Arab shop.
I am happy to say I have been enjoying every minute of this. From reading about the history of the Gillette company and learning angles to trying new techniques and seeing the quality of my lather improve.
Not to mention I am consistently enjoying the very best shaves of my life - both the pleasure and relaxation of the shaving ritual itself and the resulting irritation-free baby *** cheeks, so deliciously smooth it makes me question if there was ever any hair there at all.
Lastly I would like to apologize for the length of this introduction; I got just a tiny bit carried away because of the enthusiasm I feel towards learning this hobby and being a part of this wonderful community! I hope someone can get through this wall of text.
I have always valued a good, close shave. Had I been gifted with thick and strong facial hair, I very well may have chosen to sport a beard or a stache, but it was not meant to be.
Like many other men whose facial hair isn't as thick or full as that of the average man, I spent many of my teenage/early adult years hoping I was just a late bloomer, and that the thick beard I was supposed to have would one day catch up with me and magically appear. As the years went by and the beard failed to grow, I felt as though I was cursed or inferior, or somehow less of a man.
As I matured I came to accept that if I wanted to look presentable, a nice clean shave was my only viable option. Several attempts to "just give it more time" only ended up with me looking like I had just entered puberty.
Today, I am 28 years old. While the amount of hair on my face has increased, it's still on the lighter side; but as I got older, my earlier insecurities faded away, and now I feel confident in my appearance and comfortable in my masculinity; somewhere along the way I came to understand that a beard does not a man make.
Anyway, enough rambling.
As I said, a close shave has always been important to me, but despite trying a bunch of different cartridge razors and blade "systems" I was never satisfied, and it was always one of two things:
1) My skin was feeling irritated, or
2) The shave just wasn't close enough.
This eventually caused what little joy I found in shaving to disappear, and I just came to see it as a chore that I'd rather not have to do. I had always wanted shaving to be an enjoyable activity, but it just never happened and eventually I gave up trying.
Then one day I was thinking about maybe trying an old school safety razor - I had always liked how cool they looked. The very same day I found myself browsing one of the many Arab-operated dollar stores in one of Stockholm's suburbs, not looking for anything in particular. Suddenly something as unexpected as a display box of safety razors caught my eye. I had never before seen one in person, but I recognized the shape right away. Granted, they did not look quite as shiny or glamorous as they did in the pictures, but since they only cost 35 SEK ($3.75) a piece, there wasn't much to think about, so I bought my first safety razor and a tuck of the only blades they had: Lord Super Stainless.
Little did I know, I had just purchased the infamously cheaply made and aggressive Turkish Yuma razor. Many of you have probably heard about it, but since this happened before I had discovered B&B or researched wet shaving at all, I was not aware of its reputation - or indeed much of anything concerning safety razors.
I hurried home, and being the impatient and impulsive little boy I am at heart, I did not bother to read even the most basic outline of how to go about using it - fueled by my enthusiasm for a new toy I simply popped a blade in the Yuma and plunged head first into my very first DE shave. Without even lathering my face. Oh, and going against the grain, of course.
Luckily, I later discovered that without even knowing it, I had just happened to hold the razor at more or less the correct angle without applying excessive pressure. In combination with the rather mild Lord blades, and thanks to my not so thick beard, I managed to finish my shave without slicing my face right off.
Actually, apart from a few minor nicks on my chin, I was rather happy with how it all went. Encouraged by the success of my first try, I decided to give this whole wet shaving thing a serious try.
This was almost three months ago, and I have learned a lot since. I have purchased a boar brush, one shaving cream, two shaving soaps, and another two razors (actually I bought two almost identical Lord L5 razors by mistake).
I am currently shaving daily or every other day, using the Lord L5. If I'm not mistaken it's the one with the Gillette Tech head. I got it for something like $6 in another Arab shop.
I am happy to say I have been enjoying every minute of this. From reading about the history of the Gillette company and learning angles to trying new techniques and seeing the quality of my lather improve.
Not to mention I am consistently enjoying the very best shaves of my life - both the pleasure and relaxation of the shaving ritual itself and the resulting irritation-free baby *** cheeks, so deliciously smooth it makes me question if there was ever any hair there at all.
Lastly I would like to apologize for the length of this introduction; I got just a tiny bit carried away because of the enthusiasm I feel towards learning this hobby and being a part of this wonderful community! I hope someone can get through this wall of text.
something similar happened to me, but buying at an online Chinese store, I've been enjoying and learning a lot in this forum since then, about two years ago.
