Two months later - newbie reporting

[20.9.20.15]

Welcome to the tribe, brother. I’m glad you stuck it out.

I thought you guys were crazy at first and never thought I'd enjoy this. One shave and I never had a second thought about turning back. Gracias brother!

 

[ccpastork]

Yoy have captured the essence early on...good read too.
Welcome to Badger and Blade.

Is your user name a math reference?

 

[ElMatador75]

Yoy have captured the essence early on...good read too.
Welcome to Badger and Blade.

Is your user name a math reference?

Smart man!

 

[alex2363]

Newbie here. I’ve been shaving for two months and really enjoy it. I find this strange because it goes against my natural tendencies to be efficient and minimalize.

My shaving routine used to consist of a few quick passes in the shower with a cartridge razor and shaving cream. The routine took a couple of minutes but the results varied widely depending on the type of shaving cream and cartridge combination I used. I never found a combination I was thrilled with and mostly settled on a schedule for changing razor cartridges that minimized the irritation and bumps. I shave daily and found that I could stretch a cartridge from 4-7 days with 5 being the mean.

It should come as a surprise to no one that cartridges can get expensive therefore I never developed a favorite and frequently used whatever my wife bought on a coupon or whatever brand Costco was carrying. Since I wasn’t particular about the cartridge, I carried a similar opinion about shaving cream although I noticed that the Nivea sensitive skin shaving cream seemed to agree with my skin a little better than the other brands I used. Other than inconsistency, the part that really sucked about using different cartridges all the time is the number of razor handles you end up with and the waste it creates.

Honestly other than curiosity and some encouragement from self-proclaimed wet shaving addicts, which by the way sounds like the entry way into some fetish site, I have no idea why I tried wet shaving in the first place. The initial costs are high, the routine is time intensive, you basically need to learn how to shave again, and your setup increases in complexity.

After some initial consideration and recommendations from the aforementioned wet shave addicts, I decided to buy the following:

1. 10 Derby (Green) Extra Double Edge Blades
2. 10 Personna Platinum Double Edge Blades
3. 5 Astra Superior Stainless Double Edge Razor Blades
4. 10 Derby (Orange) Platinum Double Edge Stainless Steel Razor Blades
5. 10 Derby (Blue) Extra Super Stainless Double Edge Stainless Steel Razor Blades
6. Ming Shi 2000S Adjustable Double Edge Safety Razor. This came with two blades which I have yet to use and will not comment on.
7. CREMO original (red tube)
8. Dr. Harris Marlborough shaving cream
9. Perfecto badger brush

My initial thoughts after two months of trying this.

1. This takes a while and will never be faster or as fast than shaving in the shower. My first shave took almost 30 minutes including cleanup and I managed to get two small nicks. I should have given up right there but for some reason I found the process relaxing and possibly the closest I’ll ever get to meditation. I never took the time to slow down and focus on a trivial task like that and it was insightful what I noticed about my own face than I ever did before.

2. It’s okay to shave against the grain. You might be tempted to play it safe but you may be disappointed when you find that your shave isn’t as close as you’d like.

3. Let the razor do the work. You’ll hear it over and over but it took me over a month to appreciate how little pressure I needed to use when shaving.

4. If you shave at night you might have a 5 o’clock shadow in the morning. I shifted my routine and now shave in the morning.

5. Limit the number of passes; more passes mean a closer shave but you’ll get irritation and razor bumps afterward. Not worth it. Not to mention you’ll look like you spent 5 minutes in a headlock immediately after you shave.

6. Start with suggestions then adjust if necessary. I started by mixing Cremo original (red tube) and Dr. Harris Marlborough shaving cream but found I enjoyed the feeling of Cremo cooling shave cream (blue tube) even more. This wasn’t part of my initial purchase but I found a tube at Target and gave it a try.

7. I’m not sure if I figured the brush part out. My badger hair brush is slowly losing bristles and flares out when I shake it dry. This might be an area where quality really matters.

8. After shave is BS. I tried the kind without alcohol and settled on Nivea Men (sensitive) however it’s not any better than skin lotion. Nothing works better for me than shaving and jumping into a cold shower.

9. Astra superior stainless double edge and Personna platinum double edge blades are wonderful! These blades are very forgiving and gave me a close shave. When it’s time to buy blades again, I won’t hesitate to buy more of these. I heard great things about Derby blades but they don’t come close for me.

Moment of reflection over, newbie out.

Best,

Tito

Congrats

 

[20.9.20.15]

Yoy have captured the essence early on...good read too.
Welcome to Badger and Blade.

Is your user name a math reference?

Kind of...I tried to get the username "Tito" but it was taken. I find that using numbers to reference the alphabet works just as well and is usually available. If that doesn't work I'll use a factorial or a fibonacci sequence.

 

[20.9.20.15]

For some cartridges that could mean, what, a dollar per shave? Frightening!
With a dozen shaves per Astra SP blades, you'll be spending about 1¢ per shave? Okay, 2¢ if you get extravagant.

I took 45-60 minutes on my shaves for the first few months, including the shower for prep and post-shave cleanup. I'm retired, so I can shave any time of day, and enjoy stretching it out. It's what I like to call the "full spa experience".

Exactly! Shaving is the closest I'll get to a spa treatment and I enjoy every minute of it.