Come Join FRUGAL FRIDAY!!!

[Big_T]

Post up your frugal shave right here every Friday!

Rather than set a dollar limit, please use your own judgment on what's frugal. Think of shaving with a Wolfman razor, $40 soap, and a $250 brush....and go in the opposite direction from that.

There are lots of good yet inexpensive ways to shave. Let's see yours!

Bought an old Tech at a flea market? Sure! Got a Baili or a Weishi razor? Yup. A cheap shavette? Absolutely. Maybe a Lord or a Dorco? Yes! A Toggle you win in a PIF? Ummm ok I guess? As I said, use your own judgment on what's frugal. Also plenty of ways for lather; use a brushless cream, shave stick, and even lather up a bar of Pears soap.

Use your imagination. No shaving with cut-up rusty tin cans or broken glass though, please.

I'll start. Here's what I'll be shaving with in the morning. A Lord L6 razor loaded with an Astra blade, Arko shave stick face lathered with a $7 brush from Amazon, and some Gold Bond lotion for aftershave.

I hope to see you here every Friday for some Fun Frugal Friday Shaves!

 

[edw]

Not Friday because most Fridays I don't shave.

But I did something like this last Tuesday.

No brush

Cream and after shave about US$ 1.20 each tube.
Razor about US$ 0.20 each.

Despite horrendous shaving cream, no lather at all, just a cream difficult to apply all over the face, at the end of process a fine shaving.

 

[Big_T]

I'm gonna bump this up just this once hoping that all get to see it and we get some participants in the inaugural Frugal Friday.

 

[Ron R]

Sometimes certain time of the year the Forums are slow because of other great distractions out there to do with family holidays and friends I have observed over the years.
Some Newbies and seasoned shaving Folks like these type of threads because lots of us flaunt our high end gear but a lot of us started with razors that were $1.99 US when first introduced into the market in the 50's and 60's.
You still can purchase very good new razor heads and razors for $10< even today if you know where to look that will give excellent shaves IMO.

 

[5whiskey]

I love this concept. It depends on what your definition of frugal is, but I think it fits. I will be shaving with an excellent example of a George wostenholm pipe razor (7/8 half hollow), a semogue brush I spent 15 bucks on, and chiseled face Sherlock soap (perhaps the least "frugal" of the mix, but $15 for a 1+ year of lathering isn't bad). I paid under $15 for the razor (I bought it in an 8 razor lot for about 70 bucks but 2 of the razors were garbage and one is borderline, hence my valuation of money in) and its in great shape so I could shave exclusively with it the rest of my life I believe. And still have a decent razor to pass to a grandkid.

I'm a pretty frugal guy. Despite my RAD affliction the past 2 years I still have saved money over the past 15 years of wet shaving compared to my cart days. I shaved with Mach 3 carts, and could make one last for nearly 2 weeks (it hurt to shave with it when I finished it out though). A can of Barbasol would last almost 2 months. An 8 pack of carts 4 times a year and canned goop (admittedly almost as cheap as even a cheap puck of soap and super cheap brush for a year of shaves) ran me around $100 bucks a year. I wet shaved for nearly 10 years for less than $200. For the longest time I was a 1 brush, 1 soap, 1 razor, and 1 100 pack of blades kinda guy. I used the same cheap brush (a tweezerman boar for about 13 bucks) the whole time, same razor (a cheap parker) until it broke (then I bought another cheap parker), a 100 pack of Derby Extra blades for 25 bucks, another 100 pack of sharks later for even less, and generally cheap Soaps about yearly (usually proraso).

Now I'm still a one soap at a time kinda guy. I have 3 brushes, but generally only use 1. The primary brush is a semogue, I still have that old tweezermam, and I have another new semogue still in the box as a backup. All I spend money on is vintage straight razors, and I view them as more investments. When I'm 75 years old I highly doubt 200 year old razors (at that fime) will be found in great shape for $15.

 

[StewB]

My Frugal Friday for today: The Winning Razor* from the Wet Shaving club (made by Yates Precision) and no bowl, brush, or lathering. Three drops of Shave Secret pre-shave oil followed by Hempz shave gel and a Dorco ST-300 blade provided a smooth, comfortable, and relatively speedy DFS+ (if not outright BBS) shave. After that some Nivea aftershave. The whole shave took about 10 minutes, so frugal in terms of time too.

*The Winning Razor is not a sub-$50 razor in terms of cost (purchase price), but for me it's frugal in terms of efficiency.

 

[geneaut]

Some of us shaved all April with $30 kits. Maybe some of those members will see this and chime in. I didn’t shave this last Friday but I’ll try to participate next Friday.

 

[RonScott]

I’d rather look at it as traditional than frugal, but regardless what you spend on your basic equipment, just stop buying more. Look at it this way: If you can’t be satisfied with a Fat Boy and a decent quality brush, buying more razors and brushes isn’t going to make wet shaving any better for ya.

 

[StewB]

A Fatboy might not be for everybody. I haven't tried one, but I have tried a Slim and could not get a decent shave with it no matter which setting I tried. Not sure I would get along with a Fatboy.

 

[nickm]

Rapira Swedish Super Steel, Rapira Red, White and Blue with a kilogram of CELLA Milano Extra Extra Purissima and a Goodlines brush. Old Spice Classic deodorant, same as the aftershave. Shave bowl is a wide mouth cappuccino mug. It's also my best shave! If I feel like a change then it is What the Puck shave sticks and some Booster After Shave.

 

[LJBraaten]

I used a Gillette early postwar tech that I got in a $15 lot of three razors. My Feather blade has been used for 43 shaves. My B & M soap was a discard from a friend. My brush soaking cup was left behind by the last resident. My scuttle is a repurposed plastic Philadelphia Cream Cheese container. I heated my prewash and shaving water in containers placed in the sun on our deck. The most expensive item was my reknoted Ever-Ready 200 brush, purchased for around $25 on eBay 2 years ago.

 

[Old Hippie]

A devette, a puck of homemade soap, and a cheap boar brush.

Which is pretty much what I shave with every time at the moment.

O.H.

 

[Big_T]

A devette, a puck of homemade soap, and a cheap boar brush.

Which is pretty much what I shave with every time at the moment.

O.H.

@Old Hippie are all devettes homemade or were there any factory-made? I know nothing about them except there is no safety bar or comb.

I hope you'll join us here with pictures every Friday!

 

[Old Hippie]

are all devettes homemade or were there any factory-made? I know nothing about them except there is no safety bar or comb.

There's some interesting reading here on B&B about them. It's an old idea. Some of the Gilette guys used to cut one bar off (what we call a "half-sider") or both. The idea behind the half-sider was a fast first pass and then using the bar side for a smoother cleanup or just going with the one-and-done. My impression is that if a guy had a razor that was too mild for him in those days, he'd make a few modifications rather than go out and drop another five bucks on a more aggressive razor.

Here's my take on it, made from a RazoRock BBS SB:

There was at least until recently (haven't looked in a while) a devette for sale on Ali, so not all are homemade. That one looked both cheap and dangerous to me, but since I haven't used it I really can't say.

Just like every other facet of wet shaving, devettes have their fans and detractors. "Devette" is a contentious term, being a melding of "DE" plus "shavette." While we tend to call any replace-able blade straight razor a "shavette" that's actually a Dovo trademark. But like kleenex and xerox we don't get sued by the company over it so that's what its name is.

There are also "sevettes" made from various single-edge razors.

Some people would say I'm a bit of a sissy because I left the frame ends in place. That's so the blade is held up when placing the razor on the counter or a towel. Others would question my masculinity for using an actual modified base plate instead of taking it off entirely and just putting a small steel washer there to tighten the handle against. That's fine.

My main goal was to get a naked edge for shaving my head, in a format that allowed me to hold the razor safely while also being able to see what I was shaving. I also have some shavettes in both Western and kamisori style and while I like them this devette gives me a more confident shave because I don't have to build new muscle memory around it.

O.H.

 

[tjsgarden]

I am in the July GRUME group practicing personal restraint from buying more shaving items this month. Maybe someone will want to join us.
Friday, I plan to be a minimalist/ restraint shaver and use some of the items I first purchased on my wet shaving adventure.

 

[geneaut]

When I did the $30 kit challenge earlier in the year I started a google spreadsheet trying to get a good kit together and came up with a few. I'll probably roll with the following this Friday:

Yaqi Flipside razor ( $7 ), Ali Express synthetic brush ($5), Derby Shave stick ($2), Skinbracer AS ($5), Rosewater and Aloe facial mist ($1) or Dollar Store witch hazel ($1), and Pears facial soap ($1) as a preshave. Blades are variable since most tucks are usually less than $2 for the most part. If I was playing in the lower price point pool for blades I'd be looking at Astras, Lord Silver Stars, Sharp Titaniums, Gillette Wilkinson Swords, Derby Premiums, etc. Even most of my premium blades come in less than 20 cents a blade purchased in bulk.

I have some ideas for the following Friday as well.

 

[Big_T]

I had an excellent Frugal Friday shave this morning using my King C. Gillette razor bought on sale for $12, an 8 cent Astra blade, a dab of Stephan brushless cream, and Witch Hazel.

Let's see your Frugal Friday shave!

 

[Multum in parvo]

Not Friday because most Fridays I don't shave.

But I did something like this last Tuesday.

No brush

Cream and after shave about US$ 1.20 each tube.
Razor about US$ 0.20 each.

Despite horrendous shaving cream, no lather at all, just a cream difficult to apply all over the face, at the end of process a fine shaving.


View attachment 1480813

Never seen a shaving creme from Bic before

 

[Multum in parvo]

Not really intentional but as I’m currently on vacation…
I guess the whole kit is between 25-30 including the very nice Turkish copper bowl.

 

[LJBraaten]

I used a Gillette early postwar tech that I got in a $15 lot of three razors. My Feather blade has been used for 43 shaves. My B & M soap was a discard from a friend. My brush soaking cup was left behind by the last resident. My scuttle is a repurposed plastic Philadelphia Cream Cheese container. I heated my prewash and shaving water in containers placed in the sun on our deck. The most expensive item was my reknoted Ever-Ready 200 brush, purchased for around $25 on eBay 2 years ago.

I will repeat this routine today (as every day) with an exception. I will be using my Boar brush (Omega 48) which I consider a freebie, since it was thrown in with a used razor & brush stand I purchased a couple of years ago. Also I should have mentioned in the last post the way I fill the water containers that I solar heat. We typically only use hot water twice a day, before taking showers and doing dishes, and we have to run a liter or more down the drain to get the hot water to the sink. I now use that otherwise wasted water to fill the containers for my solar heated shaving water. Also, while shaving I need the vanity lights over the sink, and I now turn off the overhead light, which is unnecessarily redundant.