What did we do before Forums, U-tube, and Message Boards?

[DesertIguana]

Last night was one of them nights when I did not sleep, and brain runs wild with adventures, and miss adventures of my life.

As the Sun was trying to come up was thinking about first few time I shaved, as I was raise by single parent who did not shave face, so I was on own.

Back in early 60’s the day came, went to corner drug store, bought Gillette razor, Gillette Blue blades, shave brush, and puck of soap. Last item was a pirated coffee mug to make laster from kitchen.

Recall local Barber making hot lather, shaving mu neck & area by ears, as a clean up after haircut, with straight razor. Recall the straight making sound of sandpaper as hair were removed, and periodically he would rub razor on barber paper to remove soap.

Think the first time I tried to shave it was a learning by doing, no one was there coaching or stoping blood flow form nicks, that was accomplished with bit of Toilet Paper stuck on nick and cuts to stop bleeding.

Today we got Forums, U-Tube, and I am sure someone has or will right a book, or DUMMYS BOOK on how to Wet Shave. Funny thinking back, learning but doing, nicking, bleeding, and finally shaved one day with no blood letting. This was not BBS, this was No Blood Shave.

At times I chuckle at people questions as I think of days I had no one to answer many questions, I learned by trial, error, and giving blood.

 

[shave/brush]

I started shaving about 1964. I didn't start off with a brush and puck, I used canned stuff, one called Rise. Soon after I got a cheap badger brush and a Old Spice mug and Old Spice soap. My father was a little help. I learned by trial and error.
I found B&B in 2011 and that changed everything. I used to use an electric razor most of the time, but not anymore. It's a fun hobby that also serves a purpose. I enjoy being here.

 

[mcee_sharp]

My first exposure to "social" like media was newsgroups when I was in university. Hung out on the physics one quite a bit, and probably some of the geology ones, some interesting characters. George E Hammond was VERY interesting, can't argue with a hypothesis, but his scientific method fell apart after that.

Wet shaving wasn't on my radar then.

 

[BigJ]

My Dad used an electric. In the end I basically taught myself using a hand-me-down Slim from one of my Uncles. (And how I wish I had kept that old razor!! )

 

[emwolf]

I started shaving in the mid 70s. I was listening to Sirius comedy radio and this routine came on. Thought it was appropriate.

 

[Mustard Seed]

Before this forum, I saved a lot of money.

 

[gsurko]

Things were much simpler.

 

[DesertIguana]

Well I recall my first shaving experience was with a old electric razor my uncle gifted me.

Recall him showing me how to take apart the head, use special brush to remove the peach fuss.

Electrics always cause redness, so as beard became darker, stiffer. Think my face did not like electric razors.

So as I said I move on to first Gillette, and like became better wet shaving.

 

[MrSpeedy]

My Dad handed me canned goo (Barabasol? Gillette Foamy?) and some sort of cartridge razor and told me not to cut myself. That was pretty much the extent of my "lesson". Had to figure everything out on my own. Had mostly painful shaves and hated shaving until 2013, when I found B&B.

I quickly fell in love with using a DE razor, soap, brush, and aftershave. My shaves are 100% better, I enjoy shaving, and my skin looks better. So I am eternally grateful for B&B and all the members (past and present) who helped me learn.

Special shout out to Nick Shaves on YouTube, whose videos taught me the lathering technique I still use.

 

[Qanzoq]

I usually did this

 

[Bsamps]

Learned by trial and error.

 

[jetboy]

Didn't many of us get our start with the legendary shaving 'zines of the 80s?

 

[Quaznoid]

It was so different than today that I wonder if those in their 20’s and 30’s can imagine such a place.

As I wrote before, in the pre-internet world folks were isolated to the place where they lived. You became aware of products only if they were advertised on tv, radio, magazine or newspaper in your locale or word of mouth, and you could only buy the product if it was available in a store near you, an actual brick and mortar store that you traveled to. You might have seen an ad for the Wowzer 500, so you went out to find it, maybe traveled to multiple stores but if it wasn’t there it wasn’t there and that was the end of it. No Wowzer 500.

It wasn’t as sad as all that because, generally speaking, we didn’t know what we were missing. Not buying a product you didn’t know existed was no loss. You could always find a Gillette, probably a Schick, even a Gem, Williams was around, and canned foam was everywhere. It dictated our shaving choices. We shaved with what we could find and didn’t feel like we’re missing anything. It was better in that way.

 

[KQY61]

Hi,

When it comes to shaving, it was 1976, I was 15, and Dad taught me. Supplies came from either the grocery or drug store. Easy.

When it comes to forum like communications, it was 1969, I was 8 and I earned my amateur radio license. Not quite as easy as learning to shave. In those days, one took a fairly easy exam and initially used Morse code on the air while learning a good deal more to then upgrade the ham license to use phone (voice). And there were round-table discussions and nets.

Ham radio still works the same way, except the entry level license gives voice right way and the Morse code is optional, not required. The nice part is that it does not need the internet and is structured to keep on going after any form of disaster (save the total destruction of the planet).

 

[Mojo88]

For my house it was always a rush to get in and out of the bathroom as we had 5 people and one full bath. Someone was always there waiting and time was limited. Prep was nonexistent, I was always taught to shave first then shower. We all went to school with toilet paper on little cuts to stop the bleeding.

From there it went to electric primarily for years with most of the information coming from commercials. I think Gillette got back in the game with foamy and multi-blade razors.

One interesting thing is you don’t see much in the way of advertising for Braun or other electric razors. Usually around Christmas the push was on and multiple commercials were part of their marketing. Now it seems companies like Harry’s, Gillette and Dollar Shave Club dominate the landscape.

I think we all just used what was the quickest and most advertised.

 

[Old Hippie]

Dad walked into my bedroom one day while I was grooving on some tunes at age 14. He put an old electric razor and a stick of deodorant on my desk, said, "Time for these" and walked out. Seemed pretty straightforward from there.

O.H.

 

[KQY61]

Hi,

Yep. Works and works well.

In my case, I was 15 and already using the deodorant so all he needed to say was, 'Son, you need a shave'.

Yep. Pretty straightforward. An old pre-war Tech of his and a new blade. We shared the brush and soap. I was pleased as punch that it wasn't a pre-war blade!

Stan

 

[Hairy Callahan]

17 years old. I was on the delayed entry program for joining the Army. At a stoplight a buddy made the comment, "better clean up that peach fuzz or Sergeant Hulka's gonna kick yo ***". I asked *** and he said, you got a damn jungle growing under your jaw. Never realized it until that comment. Went home and sure enough, there was a disgusting amount of peach fuzz growing near the neck/jaw. Shipped out and upon arrival, got marched to the PX. Was told to buy toiletries. When choosing razors, I bought the old white handled Bics. A chainsaw without a chain. Scraped everything out of its path. Skin, whiskers, peach fuzz. Didn't matter. Mowing machine. But it's what I'd seen on the sink when I was a kid, so that's what I picked. Bic no longer sells this model in the States. They only market the yellow handle "sensitive". The white handled ones are more for zoo animals or scraping steel wool off of Chuck Norris. That's how I was introduced to shaving, however. There was a lot of soldiers when I was in the army that used to carry a white handled Bic in their pocket, and they would use it to dry shave if an emergency formation was called. I carried one but never had the nerve to dry shave with it. Wet shaving was enough. You'd have to be mentally ill to scrape that thing across your dry face.

 

[AshleyC]

Not just for shaving. Two years back I finished up some electrical work at a customer's basement and my co-worker and I drove to another house on the other side of Columbus to tie up some stuff there.

I put the address in my phone...and a half hour later we were in front of the next house. I looked over at him and said, "Do you realize how amazing a thing I just did? Remember when getting here would've required a city map from a gas station and hand-written instructions from the homeowner over the phone? Maybe over a pay phone?And asking people on the street for directions?"

He was only a couple years younger than me, so he knew of The Time Before the Phone.

But Quaznoid pretty much nailed it in a thread weeks ago about shaving back then. Before the Internet, we had...TV commercials. That's how we learned about new shaving gear. And what we knew about was limited to what we could see on the shelves at the store.

 

[htownmmm]

Started around 15 after several months of working my 1st job as a bagboy in a grocery store. Picked up a can of Gillette Foamy and a Fatboy razor w/ blades. Peach fuzz didn't last long, but since no one taught me (my dad used Magic shave and a butter knife ) except for TV commercials, I had no clue what I was doing. This led to years of bad to worse to horrible shaves. Tried an electric as that would be better- nope! Even attempted the gold can of Magic shave (which resulted in 1st layer of skin removal in less than a minute) with subpar results-stubble was still there but skin was gone!

Ended up on a shaving profile while in the Army and grew a short beard. There are probably pictures of me still floating around in numerous dermatologist offices of the worse examples of Pseudofolliculitis Barbae known to man.

marty