Ego tondeo ergo sum.
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I almost feel sorry for the young people here.
- Thread starter aldomarino
- Start date
Some things come pretty natural, shaving is one of them IMO. You will know immediately if your angle is correct or wrong; wrong will produce no shave to very rough scraping, the correct angle being between those extremes where it's comfortable and cutting hair. Just like any other exercise that takes a bit of dexterity, too much advice can send you so far awry it might take a long time to get back.
Establish your personally comfortable technique before you look for too much advice, a little starter advice is OK. You might get an occasional nick but so what, we all do even after years of practice and certainly we all did starting out.
Establish your personally comfortable technique before you look for too much advice, a little starter advice is OK. You might get an occasional nick but so what, we all do even after years of practice and certainly we all did starting out.
I would imagine that most members of the "younger" generation are completely used to having a bizillion internet factoids instantly available for pretty much any topic that comes to mind ... since they've been surfing the web for nearly their whole life. They'd probably only be intimidated if that stuff didn't exist. Personally, I wish I'd had the internet around to help teach me how to shave 40 years ago.
And I'm definitely glad all this information is around today. Without B&B and YouTube I would have never have had the courage to pick up a straight razor for the first time this winter.
And I'm definitely glad all this information is around today. Without B&B and YouTube I would have never have had the courage to pick up a straight razor for the first time this winter.
+1 Also, ask questions if you are uncertain about anything after accomplishing A and B!
I remember doing a presentation in college and poking fun about this. I think I referred to the time before google as the "dark ages" and not much was known was about it except information was scarce and hard to come by. Than both me and my teacher went on in a rant about the annoyance of finding information in the library and other places compared to the internet. Funny thing is they were looking at me as I am in my mid 20's but in my youth internet wasn't as widespread as it is now so I got a taste of things before internet became prevalent in schools. The class was full of 18/19 year olds, it's amazing how much a few years made in technology as they all looked confused about how we used to find books in the library without a computer and research in general.
Anyway back to topic, you have to love the information overload now days. It is 1000x better than not finding the information, I don't want to go back to those days. I'm not sure if I could even find a book on shaving at any of my local librarys even if I tried.
One doesn't have to be young to be overwhelmed, I know because I was a newbie just a few short years ago. What I do know now is that switching to the wet shaving method is one of the best things I've discovered in a long time. I still look forward to every shave. Like Warren Zevon said, "Enjoy every sandwich".
Like the man said " don't kill yourself boy".
Don't slice your face off, kid.
Questions are good, and being overly inquisitive can be a good thing. But good old trial and error works best for anything in life.
I came to this website and was intially overwhelmed at the stuff I did not know. I had no clue where to even start. This book put everything in perspective for me. I am better with a book than a "Wiki" but that is me.
I am in my forties and I had used all the Gillette 1 blade, 2 blades, 3 blades, (was the a 4?), 5 Blades and never had a good shave. I did not even know about going ATG in over 20 years of shaving. I have a pretty ruff neck grain and I could not tell you how many shirts "pilled" due to my beard. I recieved a brush a few years back and decided to try to old DE when I was at Merz Apothocary last year. What a difference. The internet has changed the way we do things that is for sure.
I actually was thinking the exact opposite of the OP at how much infromation is avaialble at the touch of a button for this (or any) hobby. I am envious that there are people who show you proper technique. My father did pretty much te same thing. Here is a can of Gillete Foamy and a disposable razor, now have at it. What a different world we live in today.
Brain surgery?
Playing classical piano?
Building a house?
Avoiding poisons?
Selecting prescriptions?
Trial and error has a place, but it's clearly not best for everything.
Yeah the internet is loaded with information, some of it's actually true but just try and figure out what is true. I have watched some of those YouTube shaving 101 videos and while a couple are helpful, most of them make me cringe. There have been a few generations of shavers that preceded the net and we all did just fine.
The YouTube straight shaving videos definitely don't all offer good advice, though some of them do. When I watched them I was surprised at the variety of shaving approaches some of the people used. I filtered out the things that seemed to make sense for me.
The main thing, though, was that watching them reassured me that straight shaving wasn't really an impossible skill to learn, and that I wasn't going to kill myself if I tried it. Gave me the nerve to go for it.
The main thing, though, was that watching them reassured me that straight shaving wasn't really an impossible skill to learn, and that I wasn't going to kill myself if I tried it. Gave me the nerve to go for it.
I agree. I came back to DE shaving because I was tired of not finding any Sensor carts in the stores, and Amazon had the EJ89 displayed on a page when I was looking for carts online. I bought one with 100 blades and took up DE shaving again. Using Ivory soap. A mild bit of razor burn at times, or some less than quality shaves, but it didn't take long to get good shaves.
It really is not that hard. It never was, and never will be. Just get a DE razor, a bunch of blades, and shave. My Dad and just about every other shaver in the world in the 50s would be stunned at the pre-shave rituals folks discuss here.
who says its the young pups just getting into it? ive just joined at 50 and only just discovered this world of wet shaving, vintage razors and choices choices choices
Same here, just turned 50 in December.
Trial and error wouldn't bother too much on those. I'd be more worried about hang gliding, flying a plane and sky diving. Any significant error and you'd be done trialing.
Kids of today are very smart and educated, they learn quickly. if they can play those sophisticated computer games all day long then they surly wont have any problems reading a few pages in the wiki on how to shave and what gear to buy.
Well said!
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