when did you start 'wet shaving' and what did you use?

[saj]

hey so i'll get the ball rolling, i used a shavette when i was about 17 and it ended in a blood bath so went back to carts lool
i actually remember using the supermax blades in the shavette

started using safety razors since 2016 and the first safety razor was the black plastic wilkison sword de razor from boots, used the wilkinson swords de blades tuck that came with it

i used the palmolive shaving stick and i think i had a boar brush mustve grabbed whatever was cheap and cheerful, without any real thought or understanding like whats what...
how about you guys?

 

[Old Navy_1]

I've mentioned this before. It was '1967 or '68, I was 13 or 14 and was given a hand-me-down 3-piece OC razor, probably a Gillette of some form or fashion. It was not a pretty sight.

I thought it was 'normal' to go to school with a half a roll of TP around my neck.

On top of that, I didn't realize you had to replace the blades regularly, so I used that same blade for a year.

Yeah, my step-father didn't have the best parenting skills.

I still have an emotional aversion to OC razors.

b/r

ON_1

 

[CANES]

Started with a Trac II in high school. Probably 1990. When I went off to college, my mom gave me her blue long handled Lady Gillette and said blades were cheaper than the Trac II. Jokes on her, though. I wound up (and still do) using both. No money saved at all.

 

[Tillerman]

Less than a year. GC .68 and cremo. Shark platinum. It was the best shave I've ever had to that point. Now have .84 oc for the GC and a Lupo .72. 3 brushes. 6 a/s and 600 blades. Not to mention 5 pucks and 2 shave sticks of What the puck soap? Was gifted 3 unscented soaps two of which are tallow based.
I'm determined to be set for this next year so joined yearly shave sabbatical.
Be seeing you! #4

 

[Phoenixkh]

I used two of my mom's razors when I was 16 or 17: a Schick Injector G8 and a Gillette TTO of some sort... My dad started me out on an electric rotary razor when I was 14, I think... then I went overseas to Indonesia for two years after HS and had a beard there.

When I got back in the Spring of 1973, the Trac II was out and I followed Gillette's new designs and settled on the Fusion Power for a long time. They altered the head design and I switched to the Fusion Power Ball Head, I think it was called.

In any event, I didn't start traditional wet shaving until Feb. 15th last year: 2022. Our youngest son sent me 100 Astra Green blades and around a week or so later, the RR Lupo Aluminum showed up. That's what I used on Feb. 15th. It was horrible for me because I was clueless. My ESC showed up on Feb. 18th... March 1st I found and joined B&B and have been having a blast since then. So much to learn.. and enjoy.

 

[BigJ]

I started with a hand-me-down Slim in the 1960s (wish I had kept that razor)!

Then I moved to ‘modern’ carts for decades before returning to ‘traditional’ wet shaving.

 

[Quaznoid]

1973. Brand new Gillette SuperSpeed. I use it still

 

[rbscebu]

I can't even remember how old I was 10 years ago. How do you expect me to remember my first shaved?

 

[steveclarkus]

1965 - Gillete adjustable

 

[saj]

I've mentioned this before. It was '1967 or '68, I was 13 or 14 and was given a hand-me-down 3-piece OC razor, probably a Gillette of some form or fashion. It was not a pretty sight.

I thought it was 'normal' to go to school with a half a roll of TP around my neck.

On top of that, I didn't realize you had to replace the blades regularly, so I used that same blade for a year.

Yeah, my step-father didn't have the best parenting skills.

I still have an emotional aversion to OC razors.

b/r

ON_1

How was the blade coping after being used for so long?

Suppose might've got away with it as your whiskers probably weren't as thick or strong like what the sort of facial hair growth most of us guys go through at that sort of age

 

[saj]

Started with a Trac II in high school. Probably 1990. When I went off to college, my mom gave me her blue long handled Lady Gillette and said blades were cheaper than the Trac II. Jokes on her, though. I wound up (and still do) using both. No money saved at all.

That's cool that your mum didn't tall for the carts craze and actually told you to go for de blades and to use that razor too

Don't know much about the lady Gillette razors, what's the aggression on them like?

 

[saj]

Less than a year. GC .68 and cremo. Shark platinum. It was the best shave I've ever had to that point. Now have .84 oc for the GC and a Lupo .72. 3 brushes. 6 a/s and 600 blades. Not to mention 5 pucks and 2 shave sticks of What the puck soap? Was gifted 3 unscented soaps two of which are tallow based.
I'm determined to be set for this next year so joined yearly shave sabbatical.
Be seeing you! #4

Nice, that's a fair bit within the first year but hey at least it will last you ages so defo get why you're on a sabbatical lol

Just curious which blades did you get?

 

[JCarr]

Started about five years ago with:

Taconic Bay Rum shave cream
Astra SP blades
QShave butterfly double edge
Pinaud Clubman VIBR aftershave

Only thing that's remained from that list since then is Pinaud Clubman VIBR.

 

[mikhou]

I grew up on 2 bladed plastic cartridge razors and eventually moved to the Gillette Sensor and then the Mach3. A little over a year ago, I decided to give a DE razor a try. I bought a Feather Popular, Nivea cream, and awful Derby Extra blades. Since then I've tried a number of other razors, including a Lord, Baili, multiple Gillette Techs, a Merkur clone, The Winning Razor, and my favorite a Henson AL13. I'm down to 2 razors because if I don't love something, (in my mind) there's no point in keeping it. I've tried a bunch of different blades and some I like and some I didn't. But I'm getting to a pretty consistent set of hardware and software that I could keep using for years if I wanted to.

 

[Dobric]

I started with Nivea foam
Mach 3
I was 15 or so
5 y ago I switched to DE and this was my blade for about 3 years. I never knew all this heaven existed untill recently

 

[KQY61]

Hi,

1976. Age 15. Dad handed me his old pre-war Tech and his spare Rubberset brush. He used either Schick or Gillette blades. One brand was Platinum Plus, the other Plus Platinum. I can't now recall which was which. Suffice it to say he equated the two and it was what grocery stores carried. One or the other. And Yardley soap, now long gone.

I still have the razor and the brush. I also have his post-war Tech and the other Rubberset brush. I might even have a few of those old blades kicking around. No Yardley, but I have the last of the Old Spice soap we switched to when Yardley disappeared. He had two OS mugs with soap still in them when he passed in 1995.

You can see his Tech and Rubberset on the far right in this photo of my daily shave stuff:

IMG_20180129_114048.jpg

• KQY61
• Mar 4, 2022

Stan

 

[Old Navy_1]

@saj ...at that age it was Peach Fuzz. I probably could have used a plastic knife. LOL!

b/r

ON_1

 

[Raven Koenes]

I started out using a Gillette Slim in 1975, age 16. I used Barbasol. A friend of mine had cases of Arko sticks. I used them for a while. Somewhere in the 1980s, I started using Schick disposables and then the Gillette Sensor. By the late 1990's I used a Gillette Mack3. When I became a Buddhist monk I used Bic disposables for my face, and the Thai version of disposable Kamisori for shaving my head every two weeks, basically a shavette. When I disrobed I went back to Mach 3. In 2015 I purchased a Micro Touch One, as seen on TV, out of nostalgia for my misspent youth. A co-worker into DE shaving talked me into buying a Merkur 34 and Astra Platinum blades. He introduced me to B&B. He was a long-time lurker and told me there was good information here. My collection evolved into an obsession with Fatips. Not one for being into lurking here I am.

 

[timetofly]

Have always been a wet shaver my entire shaving life.

2010 I became a TRADITIONAL wet shaver. Started with a Merkur 23C, Astra SP blades, EJ BB brush and some Colonel Conk soap.

I have come some way since then, but not to the level of some of the other fine gents here at B&B.

 

[dmshaver]

I started with an electric in the early 70's. I switched to carts in the 80's. I switched to de about 5 years ago. My first de set-up was a Parker razor, TOBS Sandalwood cream & a cheap Perfecto badger brush.