Evening All,
I've been looking in on this forum for several months now and thought it appropriate to do a proper first post. As many of you have, I've been wet shaving since I was a teen (20+ years, I'm a kid by most standards I know) but only recently fell down the rabbit hole of the classic DE wet shave. I blame my father.
He's mostly always been a cartridge man (Gillette Sensor when I was a kid, and then a brief electric stint, now a multi-blade Mach type) and a fervent mug and brush proponent . One bright and merry Christmas he procured for me an excellent gift of a Taconic mixed badger brush, chrome lather bowl, and a tin of Scottish Fine Soaps shave soap. From there the fever slowly took hold.
Now, some 4 years later, I've gone from using the most basic of 2 blade cartridges (telling myself at the time it would be better than 4 or 5!) into the realm of my wife opening the bathroom closet and telling me "Babe, it looks like a barber shop in there...". Now I'm not a snob, and for the most part I can't be bothered to wander into world of high end razors as of yet. If anything, you can call me a vintage junky. I started out as many do with a Muhle R89, however, my most recent tools for shaving have been alternating between vintage Gillettes (1964 regular Super Speed, 1955 blue tip, and a 1962 Slim which has yet to get a proper audition).
I'm currently deep in the blade auditioning phase, spurred on by many including @lasta and his excellent Blade Biting Notes. I've found that for me the R89 does well with sharper blades (Perma Sharps, Nacets, GSBs). But the Super Speeds are still going through their paces, and so far it seems that the smoother end of the blade spectrum is working best (Astra SP, Gillette Plats (light blue), Dorco Primes, 7 o'clock yellows).
I love classic soaps (Tallow Tabac, MWF, TFS Red, Palmolive). And recently I've been testing some of the artisans (PAA has been and is doing some amazing things, who else is making homages to Skin Bracer? Aqua Velva? Seaforth?). I also love the Italians and early on a puck of SV literally blew my mind (Flying Mango from Phil at Bullgoose).
I'm a recent boar brush convert, and lately I've been really impressed with the Semogue SOC. This brush seems to be doing nearly everything right, and it's only partly broken in. I was originally a face latherer only, but am now getting my best results from a combination bowl/face lather (it kept my boar brushes from eating lather so quickly and I can easily get the lather nice and thick when needed).
Anyhow, at the risk of getting long-winded, thank you all for the forum and I look forward to working with you all in the future!
-Marsh1
I've been looking in on this forum for several months now and thought it appropriate to do a proper first post. As many of you have, I've been wet shaving since I was a teen (20+ years, I'm a kid by most standards I know) but only recently fell down the rabbit hole of the classic DE wet shave. I blame my father.
He's mostly always been a cartridge man (Gillette Sensor when I was a kid, and then a brief electric stint, now a multi-blade Mach type) and a fervent mug and brush proponent . One bright and merry Christmas he procured for me an excellent gift of a Taconic mixed badger brush, chrome lather bowl, and a tin of Scottish Fine Soaps shave soap. From there the fever slowly took hold.
Now, some 4 years later, I've gone from using the most basic of 2 blade cartridges (telling myself at the time it would be better than 4 or 5!) into the realm of my wife opening the bathroom closet and telling me "Babe, it looks like a barber shop in there...". Now I'm not a snob, and for the most part I can't be bothered to wander into world of high end razors as of yet. If anything, you can call me a vintage junky. I started out as many do with a Muhle R89, however, my most recent tools for shaving have been alternating between vintage Gillettes (1964 regular Super Speed, 1955 blue tip, and a 1962 Slim which has yet to get a proper audition).
I'm currently deep in the blade auditioning phase, spurred on by many including @lasta and his excellent Blade Biting Notes. I've found that for me the R89 does well with sharper blades (Perma Sharps, Nacets, GSBs). But the Super Speeds are still going through their paces, and so far it seems that the smoother end of the blade spectrum is working best (Astra SP, Gillette Plats (light blue), Dorco Primes, 7 o'clock yellows).
I love classic soaps (Tallow Tabac, MWF, TFS Red, Palmolive). And recently I've been testing some of the artisans (PAA has been and is doing some amazing things, who else is making homages to Skin Bracer? Aqua Velva? Seaforth?). I also love the Italians and early on a puck of SV literally blew my mind (Flying Mango from Phil at Bullgoose).
I'm a recent boar brush convert, and lately I've been really impressed with the Semogue SOC. This brush seems to be doing nearly everything right, and it's only partly broken in. I was originally a face latherer only, but am now getting my best results from a combination bowl/face lather (it kept my boar brushes from eating lather so quickly and I can easily get the lather nice and thick when needed).
Anyhow, at the risk of getting long-winded, thank you all for the forum and I look forward to working with you all in the future!
-Marsh1
