What are Your Favorite Parts of our Shaving Hobby?

[Captain Pre-Capsize]

My favorite part of the shaving hobby is that - thanks to our customers - I have a small business!

 

[rsp1202]

I always enjoyed the bloom of a new badger after first wash/lather. In the case of synthetics, it's instead when the fibers "relax" after a few uses and the lather flows as it should. My previous Savile Row and Thater brushes (years ago), and more recently my now-departed Semogue Mistura and Finest were good examples of the former, the latter my current STF exploding with lather after about the fifth use.

 

[euro]

What are your favorite parts of our DE or SE shaving hobby? This can be anything from starting or taking a break from your day for zen like 10-20 minutes while shaving to specific elements of the process or the types of hardware (e.g. razors) or software (e.g. soaps, creams, blades that we use. I'll start.

My favorite two elements are:

• DE shaving provides a relaxing 15 minute break from the day-to-day that is quite relaxing as I focus on each step of the process from my pre-shave face wash to the creation of great lather and then executing the shave itself. While shaving anything else is tuned out.
• Lather Creation from Shaving Soap, this is the one element were we actually create the final finished good, the shaving lather. I really enjoy experimenting with all the different elements that are part of this from choosing a soap (or blending one), deciding on which brush will work best and then adjusting the variables such loading or adding water that effect the lather quality.

Early on I did experiment with different blades but found that, with my beard and technique, they shave in similar fashion with the exception of actual blade longevity (# of shaves). Regarding software I was able to, over my first year, settle on the two synthetic and one boar brush that allow me to create great lather from any soap. Also settled on a couple of razors that really work well for me and see no need to experiment further.

What do you enjoy most about our hobby?

I would say:

- The results: I could never ever achieve a full BBS with a cartridge system, I hated shaving a lot until I found out about DE shaving.
- Scents of the soaps/creams, aftershaves this hobby got me into fragrances.

All of this makes me wonder: why did people gave up their DE razors for those cartridge razors? I have converted 3 people to DE-ism. None of them regretted it. We should become like Jehovah's witnesses and knock on people's door to promote DE shaving.