What Was Your Most Memorable Shave? Not Technique, Not New Gear, Just Memorable. Romantic? Difficult? Dangerous? Or Just Absurd?

[Alum Ladd]

Anyone recall any shave that just sticks in the mind, for whatever reason, even decades later?

A person's mindset while shaving is strange. I know mine kind of goes like this.
It is either autopilot, and it is erased from memory, like 99.9% of the time or there is one that seems always to come to mind, even years later.

Contributions welcomed!

 

[Ravenonrock]

Two firsts come to mind. My first shave with my first straight razor back in 1990. A lovely Dorko, new to me, still using it today. Looked like I was on the loosing end of a knife fight. Got pretty cut up, terrible shave, struggled with it for a few weeks, grew my beard back. Second memorable shave went way better. My first DE was a Merkur 38C. Loaded with a Feather blade, my first stroke was a revelation. I had to check there was a blade in it, as it was so smooth and effortless. I was hooked.

 

[Kyle89]

My first safety razor shave for sure. It was with a 5 dollar TTO I found at the store. I first bought it just as a curiosity and to maybe show my dad at some point, but ended up buying a blade sampler in order to give it ago. It may have been a derby blade for the first time but I forget what blade it was. I ended up doing 2 passes and took me probably an hour. I cut the crap out of myself and remember sweating profusely. I felt so accomplished once it was over though and was able to stop most of the nicks before I left the bathroom. My girlfriend at the time was getting agitated about the amount of time I spent in the bathroom and once I came out, I was so proud that I finished the shave.


Her first impression- "Kyle, it doesn't look like you did anything".

 

[Eben Stone]

That one great shave I achieved using a Derby Extra. I felt like I had accomplished the impossible. King of the mountain and all that. When I look back I have absolutely zero ideas about how I managed to accomplish such a feat. All attempts at repeating that success have resulted in probably my worst shaves ever.

 

[Anu]

I have two mentionable epiphanies, one being my first shave - surreptitiously using my fathers G2000, a.k.a. Knack across the Pond - and the second one being the awe I felt during a GNLC shave, the thought of which, gives me shivers to this day...

 

[Alum Ladd]

For me 2 incidents come to mind. one from 79, the other maybe 82. It wasn't the shaves I recall so much in either, it was that the act of shaving was given a significance by male role models. Almost coming of age moments.

The first was spring of 1979. Last year of high school and my O level exams were on me. I don't know what the U.S equivalent is. Anyways, I had had a very torrid relationship with the most beautiful, stunning girl in the school. (Seriously ). A couple of weeks before the 8 exams I was to do, she dumped me. I still feel how bad that time was. I was obviously having a breakdown.
My first exam was scheduled for 10am but I thought 'xxxx it' So I didn't go in. Till about 9.45am when there was a knock on the front door. It was a teacher who I really liked, and seemed to think I was ok. He was old school. 'You have 15 minutes Simon' he said. 'Now go and shave(!) it makes a man feel better. I will be outside in the car. c'mon son.' Damn. That act got me through that rough time.

The second was during my time in college. I got in one morning, late as usual. I had brought my can of Gillette foamy and crappy BIC in my bag. I was looking rough and decided to shave. My first 'public' shave in the College washroom. I thought this was daring.
Anyway, I was sitting with some mates, smoked a cig or 3 and drank tea, then announced I was going to shave. G****e, a good guy, laughed in my face. 'Why you going to do that??' he said. Another guy W*ll, who was slightly older than us, and a real N.C.O in the T.A (National Guard) said, 'Because that's what men do'. We respected W*ll. These were Cold War days, and T.A were on permanent 72 hr. readiness to go to Germany to hold the line and get nuked. He became an officer and transferred to the regular army after college.

Damn that made me feel good. Funny that both incidents come to mind, not as shaves, but as shaves as recognition of my place in the world as a 'man' by guys I respected.

Strong emotions of those little memories.

 

[rfm8os]

Mine is probably in the absurd category. I was on a vacation to Quebec with my wife, brother and sister in law and a few of my cousins and their spouses. We were staying at the Frontenac hotel. One evening we were going to a fancy restaurant so I decided to re-shave beforehand. Don't remember which razor or blade I was using but I was rushing a bit as we were running late. I was doing an XTG pass from my mustache area across to my right sideburn area when I somehow overshot and clipped the little triangular part of my ear. The "tragus" is the medical name of it.

Took a pretty decent chunk out of it and it bled a ton. I could not stop the bleeding. I was running out of time so had my wife call my brother from the room next door to see if he had a lighter as I didn't have one. He did, so I used the lighter to heat up the tip of the file part of a nail clipper I had and used that to cauterize the cut while my wife, brother and sister in law watched the proceedings from outside the bathroom. It was embarrassing but also kind of funny and provided an entertaining anecdote to share with the rest of the group over dinner that night.

 

[Darth Scandalous]

Many years ago, in my first marriage, I was shaving with a cartridge of some sort and my bride was curling her hair next to me. I was shirtless (I always shaved right out of the shower, still do). As I was finishing up she thought it would be funny to grab the razor off the counter and shave a patch of hair at the top of my belly. Ok, it was funny, actually.

But it never grew back! To this day there is a bare patch just below my ribcage. Something to remember her by, I guess.

 

[samhain666]

My most memorable shave was my first time using DE razor. It was Wilkinson Sword plastic razor with included blades accompanied with Wilkinson Sword brush and soap in blue tub, I could get better soap (Nivea or Palmolive cream) but I didn't know our stores stock them, I just picked up first products I saw on shelves. I didn't do any research regarding technique so I tried to use that poor piece of plastic on a week of growth and with cart pressure.

I don't think I have to tell you that razor as just too mild to take on a week of growth, which resulted in a lot of poorly shaven areas and MAJOR case of razor burn. My face was glowing red, I had to apply enormous amount of Nivea balm and then I opened widows to have some draft in apartment which was cooling the balm on my face to soothe my skin a bit.

 

[EclipseRedRing]

I remember not long after I had started shaving, my older brother saw me and asked what I was doing. 'Shaving' I said, 'I didn't know you had started' he replied; we argued a few years later. I have not seen him or spoken to him in 30 years and no longer care to; one day it will be too late.

 

[Billy T.]

I used to shave with the Rockwell 6S with plate 3. One day for some odd reason I decided to switch to plate 6 and use a Bolzano for the first time. Well it gave me an incredibly easy BBS. Sadly I was never able to replicate that shave and I've since sold the 6S. That's probably the only shave that I think of from time to time.