Curious about "High End" shave items

[s1mp13m4n]

Hello everyone. Those who know me know that I am a value/bang for the buck person. However I am curious as to why say Cyril Salter may be better than VDH/Arko? What makes the $80 shave brush better than a cheap $10 boar or badger? I am not trying to start a flame war, I am actually curious about this. Is the lather that much better on a $25 soap? Are you paying more for importing from another country in its price? Is it the packaging or the fragrance? I want to try some "high end" items just to see the difference just to know. My wife loves DR Harris where as I am happy with VDH. Thanks for the help.

 

[jackmormon]

All of the above and....

Kinda like buying that Porsche or IWC Watch......because you can!

 

[xgunterx]

Yes, more expensive products are more or less better than the cheaper ones, but generally not in the same ratio compared to the price difference.
Marketing, more expensive ingredients, status of the manufacturer (read: name), market segment and other variables makes one product more expensive than the other.
But there are a lot of exceptions on the objective and on the subjective side.
Read the reviews or use the archive to look up whether a product is worth buying.

 

[baba]

Hello everyone. Those who know me know that I am a value/bang for the buck person. However I am curious as to why say Cyril Salter may be better than VDH/Arko? What makes the $80 shave brush better than a cheap $10 boar or badger? I am not trying to start a flame war, I am actually curious about this. Is the lather that much better on a $25 soap? Are you paying more for importing from another country in its price? Is it the packaging or the fragrance? I want to try some "high end" items just to see the difference just to know. My wife loves DR Harris where as I am happy with VDH. Thanks for the help.

There are inexpensive cheap products that everyone loves and there are expensive high quality products that everyone hates. Your mileage may vary, as they say.

I love my 2 dollar Arko shave stick almost as much as my 20 dollar Tabac shave soap, I love my 1 dollar Williams almost as much as my 30 dollar Geo Trumpers...I just look at each product, that I find worthy, as a tool to finish a job.

Each one has it's place and purpose, and it's fun to find out how and when to use each one.

 

[s1mp13m4n]

I am happy with my value items that I own. I get as good a shave with VDH as I do with Irish Moos. The Irish Moos shave stick is the most expensive item that I own. I have tried Feather DE blades and they are very sharp (to me) and yet I use the redbox IP's on a day to day basis. I have found that I prefer a soap/shave stick to a cream. I have never used a "high end" product so I simply do not have anything to compare my VDH and Tweezerman with. The most expensive AS that I own is Pinaud Clubman @ $6. I am not trying to pay too much LOL I am just curious. I understand the idea about the more you spend does not mean a huge increase in quality, it is like that with home audio gear.

 

[baba]

While it is true that both a rusty old tricycle and a Ferarri Testarossa will get you from point "A" to point "B"...

...which ride gives you more pleasure however, is entirely up for debate.

 

[Bertilak]

While it is true that both a rusty old tricycle and a Ferarri Testarossa will get you from point "A" to point "B"...

...which ride gives you more pleasure however, is entirely up for debate.

I think we might be able to work a trade!

 

[baba]

I think we might be able to work a trade!

 

[coolbluewater]

To me it's whether I enjoy using the product or not; damn the "cost".

 

[xgunterx]

While it is true that both a rusty old tricycle and a Ferarri Testarossa will get you from point "A" to point "B"...

...which ride gives you more pleasure however, is entirely up for debate.

Bad example because that old rusty tricycle might prove to be more dependable.

 

[troy1979]

i agree its because you can................

 

[SiBurning]

Even at the high end, a shave is relatively low cost. Amortize that $200 brush, toss your DE blade after one shave, add in a miniscule splash of a $150 cologne, then add the cost of an expensive soap and you're still hard pressed to spend 1 usd on a shave. My guess is the actual price is closer to 50 cents, and likely less than that for most of us. It's just not worth it to me to worry about the cost. I'd rather use Czech & Speake and turn off the hall light to make up for it.

 

[BillC]

Even at the high end, a shave is relatively low cost. Amortize that $200 brush, toss your DE blade after one shave, add in a miniscule splash of a $150 cologne, then add the cost of an expensive soap and you're still hard pressed to spend 1 usd on a shave. My guess is the actual price is closer to 50 cents, and likely less than that for most of us. It's just not worth it to me to worry about the cost. I'd rather use Czech & Speake and turn off the hall light to make up for it.

That would be true if I ever used up any of my products - the fact that I have enough soaps to shave every day for the next 10 years and still want to buy more makes that a more complicated equation

 

[Crawford Montizano]

This is one of these YMMV questions. Well if the soap works for you it works for you. Keeping the wife happy though is a whole other thing. There is a difference in quality of ingrediants, mixure let say of Williams versus Trumpers but only you face will know.

Now brushes there is definately a difference. With my current brushes I have Edwin Jager, Delong, and a Simpsons bought in that order. Clearly each brush was superior to the last. I using my Simpsons more than the other two because it does a supurb job of holding water, producing lather over the other two brushes. But again it depends on what work for you.

 

[s1mp13m4n]

OK so if I were to try a higher end product (my birthday is coming in May) where would I start...a better soap, brush, razor?

My soaps are:

VDH
Williams
Irish Moos
Arko

Razors:

Lord Merkur Tech
57SS
Gillette Tech

Brush:

Tweezerman

 

[Uncle Erik]

Even the expensive stuff isn't that expensive compared to most hobbies. I like being able to buy the best and getting a lot of use from it. Buying a $100 cologne once a year really isn't that expensive, nor are the Feather and Iridium blades. Short of SBAD, brushes last for years and years, so do razors. The upfront costs are occasionally high, but this hobby is very inexpensive once you have your basics.

 

[xillion]

Go for a Savile Row 3824, Rooney Finest, or Simpson's 2 band. As for razors an Edwin Jagger DE89L or Bull Mastiff.

 

[DESkydiver]

Hello everyone. Those who know me know that I am a value/bang for the buck person. However I am curious as to why say Cyril Salter may be better than VDH/Arko? What makes the $80 shave brush better than a cheap $10 boar or badger? I am not trying to start a flame war, I am actually curious about this. Is the lather that much better on a $25 soap? Are you paying more for importing from another country in its price? Is it the packaging or the fragrance? I want to try some "high end" items just to see the difference just to know. My wife loves DR Harris where as I am happy with VDH. Thanks for the help.

I’ve used a VDH or Omega boar brush for years, simply because it’s cheap. The same goes for the VDH soap, Old Spice soap, and William’s soap, along with the Old Spice, Jovan, Aqua Velva, Brut type after shaves. When money is tight, you must have the discipline to not over spend, and besides… shaving is shaving! It’s a travail that most men must perform daily; or so I thought.

The kids are grown, my expenses have decreased, and I finally got completely out of debt. I was looking at things on how to make my daily routine more pleasurable and came across this web site. I remained a guest for some time, like a fly on the wall reading the various comments and decided to try DE / wet shaving again after 35 + years. So I purchased a couple DE razors, some blades and one pure badger hair brush, some “high end” soaps and creams and came to the realization that there really is a better way to shave than the old disposable Gillette’s and Bic’s and various cartridges as well as the Braun or Norelco electrics that I had used for so many years.

My first realization was that the pure badger brush is infinitely more comfortable than any boar brush I have used. Then I tried a few more, from different manufacturers, different loft and knot sizes, and different grades of badger hair. I think the brush is so much more important than the soap or cream, and found little difference between best/super as compared to silver-tip, other than the water retention. Since most is shaken off anyhow, as long as the density and loft is comfortable for the style of lathering you prefer, that’s all that matters. And I have two fantastic best badger brushes that combined were under $90. Yes I have other ‘higher end’ Kent, Dovo, Vulfix, Rooney brushes, but I am more than content with my Simpson’s Wee Scot and Case.

I have found that for me, having a variety to chose from has been much more pleasurable and made my daily encumbering something to look forward to rather than having a distain.

Could I have remained oblivious to the renewed wet shaving method and ‘lifestyle?’ Of course I could, but having ‘seen the light’ I am so much the better man for it. I have a better attitude in the mornings after I shave, I spend literally a few more minutes of “me” time and find that to be a more relaxing way to start my day.

If I had to do it all over again and remain within a reasonable budget, I would get the Simpson Case brush, the Merkur Progress razor (I like that I can adjust settings for different blades), some MWF pucks, and some GFT Skin Food. The rest is just fluff, so to speak.

To answer your question… are you paying more? For the most part, yes, but it’s worth it to find out what you’ve been missing.

 

[SiBurning]

OK so if I were to try a higher end product (my birthday is coming in May) where would I start...a better soap, brush, razor?

brush or soap. xillion gave some brush recommendations. For soap, give AoS or C&S a try. C&S comes out to about 37 cents / gram, AoS 22 cents, and a gram is quite a lot. I think those are the two best current production tallow soaps.

 

[xillion]

I posted a couple brush size comparison photos in this thread:

http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showthread.php?t=140705

Also, +1 on C&S or AOS soaps. Both are fantastic products.