Hey all. It's been seven weeks and a day since my first safety razor shave. I'm new here and made a post in the newbie area called Newish Safety Shaver. I thought it would be fun to record a more thorough description of these early explorations . Here goes.
Yes, I had started shaving when I was 15 years old. I didn’t have much of a relationship with my dad. What I learned about shaving at that time was from my older brothers. I remember a small variety of popular cartridges and disposable handles in our bathrooms in the preceding years. I settled into a cartridge system, the Gillette Sensor. See the photos of my vintage handle. At some point the cartridges were getting expensive and were sometimes not available. I started using the fully disposable Sensor.
It’s a pretty snappy system, a good number of bells and whistles. Flexible twin blades, probably quite sharp. Pivoting head, lubricating strip, soft and grippy back handle. Combined with the Edge gel, seemed ideal. And it was, to an extent. I have ok skin so it was a decent shave. Reasonably safe and convenient. But I got tired of it.
It was reasonably close but not close. Shaving was smooth and it also tore up my face. This system worked better on less growth, as a daily shave. Any multiple days of growth would cause much clogging between the blades. I was having to try and pluck hairs out from the blades using my fingernail, after every pull it seemed. If I didn’t do that, it was like dragging a little wire brush over my skin, again and again. Or try and pull the hairs out, again and again. There was just a ton of friction with the cartridge. There was no winning. Because of the height of the cartridge, edging or under the nose was difficult. It was awkward.
It was quick but for the unclogging. But the shave wasn’t close or comfortable. And it was environmentally unsound. And it seemed expensive. It was time to do something different.
I had been seeing ads, for a couple years probably, for a couple new safety razors.
I knew about safety razors, my dad used a safety razor. I hardly touched his shaving stuff because I was told that the blades were very sharp and dangerous. I remember opening it, it was twist-to-open, and looking at the blade. I did think it was sort of scary. I was a cautious kid. But I liked my dad’s shaving stuff. It had dignity, there was a calmness to it. It was masculine. He used a brush and soap, and an Old Spice cup. His aftershaves were Old Spice and Tabac.
I hadn’t seen or really thought about safety razors since the 70s. Even then I had hardly touched one. They were still scary, a bit mysterious to me and still maybe dangerous.
But I had seen the ads. And I wanted a better shave. I wanted to revel in it a little. And I didn’t want to pay for disposables and gel anymore.
Yes, I had started shaving when I was 15 years old. I didn’t have much of a relationship with my dad. What I learned about shaving at that time was from my older brothers. I remember a small variety of popular cartridges and disposable handles in our bathrooms in the preceding years. I settled into a cartridge system, the Gillette Sensor. See the photos of my vintage handle. At some point the cartridges were getting expensive and were sometimes not available. I started using the fully disposable Sensor.
It’s a pretty snappy system, a good number of bells and whistles. Flexible twin blades, probably quite sharp. Pivoting head, lubricating strip, soft and grippy back handle. Combined with the Edge gel, seemed ideal. And it was, to an extent. I have ok skin so it was a decent shave. Reasonably safe and convenient. But I got tired of it.
It was reasonably close but not close. Shaving was smooth and it also tore up my face. This system worked better on less growth, as a daily shave. Any multiple days of growth would cause much clogging between the blades. I was having to try and pluck hairs out from the blades using my fingernail, after every pull it seemed. If I didn’t do that, it was like dragging a little wire brush over my skin, again and again. Or try and pull the hairs out, again and again. There was just a ton of friction with the cartridge. There was no winning. Because of the height of the cartridge, edging or under the nose was difficult. It was awkward.
It was quick but for the unclogging. But the shave wasn’t close or comfortable. And it was environmentally unsound. And it seemed expensive. It was time to do something different.
I had been seeing ads, for a couple years probably, for a couple new safety razors.
I knew about safety razors, my dad used a safety razor. I hardly touched his shaving stuff because I was told that the blades were very sharp and dangerous. I remember opening it, it was twist-to-open, and looking at the blade. I did think it was sort of scary. I was a cautious kid. But I liked my dad’s shaving stuff. It had dignity, there was a calmness to it. It was masculine. He used a brush and soap, and an Old Spice cup. His aftershaves were Old Spice and Tabac.
I hadn’t seen or really thought about safety razors since the 70s. Even then I had hardly touched one. They were still scary, a bit mysterious to me and still maybe dangerous.
But I had seen the ads. And I wanted a better shave. I wanted to revel in it a little. And I didn’t want to pay for disposables and gel anymore.
