Young B&B users?

[sorasevilbro]

I started coming to this forum about 3 years ago, in my freshman year of high school. I wasn't active and didn't have an account then and could hardly even shave anyways, but I was interested and curious after a friend of my brothers' had shown me this forum and his method of shaving, which was drastically different from the way I had watched my father do it for years. Now I am in my junior year of high school, and I surf this forum daily. Since I've started, I've managed to scrape together the money to buy what I wanted by doing my chores, getting birthday and Christmas gifts, and saving my money.

Since I joined those many years ago, I have acquired, as far as brushes, a Wee Scot, an Omega Pro 49, and a Shavemac #177 silver tip 23mm knot. In razors I own a Merkur HD and an Art of Shaving Dovo 5/8 straight, which I have also learned to use, though I am by no means a pro. In soaps, I own a puck of MWF, Sir Irisch Moos, Tabac, Mamabear's sandlewood and Drakkar scented, Razorock XXX, Omega, Williams, and VDH deluxe. In creams I have Taylor's avacado, C.O. Bigalow, and all 3 Gillette European creams that were discontinued. I also own a Dirty Bird Bill Bowl, A bottle of witch hazel, a small bottle of home made pre-shave oil, one bottle of Nivea sensitive aftershave balm, and one bottle of Pinaud Clubman.

My friends and people at school all think that I have the weirdest hobby ever, and I still get strange glances when I tell them what my hobby is. I was wondering if there were any other users on B&B with a story like mine, or if I am that lone, strange high schooler with a really strange hobby?

 

[ZackP]

I am nineteen, so not exactly still in high school, but I think I'd count as a younger guy.

 

[goatee]

i wish i would have had all this info. at my finger tips when i was in high school.

 

[ZackP]

Reglarfella, it's good stuff to know for sure

 

[kirk 988]

im 16
and my friends think im crazy

 

[Doubledgeislife]

Not a strange hobby. My father sold all of his personal belongings prior to his passing to hopefully pay for extreme medical bills. He said, "If it were to bring more money, or, any money for that matter, well, let's sell the stuff off." I guess he was right, I just picked a superspeed up on Ebay . ( as painful as the price was ) and hope to happily carry on the tradition. I have noticed months before, That I was spending way too much on shaving and noticed the Wilkinson Sword blades At Wally world and decided after much research, I WAS GONNA GIVE IT A TRY! 20 or 25 bucks for 10 cartridges? Are you kidding me? 1.76 for a pack of 10 is more like it and I can totally groove on that. P.S. If you wanna try DERBY BLADES, I will give you what I have left. Just as a PIF. I Do not like them like lots of others around here do.

 

[sorasevilbro]

I have never tried Derbys, but I would love to if I could. They are pretty cheap as I understand, so if I like them, that would be awesome. Just PM me and I can give you the shipping info. Thanks a bunch.

 

[kirk 988]

also i must state its addictive

well i started with 1 razor and now its over 60
brush wise i only own a couple of vintage boars and a semogue 1470.

 

[cpeter47]

You should tell them that your other hobbies include:

Playing dead, appearing in the background on tv, suing, grooming dogs to look like other animals, and knitting breasts.

Then they won't think your shaving hobby is so weird.

http://www.oddee.com/item_97171.aspx

 

[kmain]

I started coming to this forum about 3 years ago, in my freshman year of high school. I wasn't active and didn't have an account then and could hardly even shave anyways, but I was interested and curious after a friend of my brothers' had shown me this forum and his method of shaving, which was drastically different from the way I had watched my father do it for years. Now I am in my junior year of high school, and I surf this forum daily. Since I've started, I've managed to scrape together the money to buy what I wanted by doing my chores, getting birthday and Christmas gifts, and saving my money.

Since I joined those many years ago, I have acquired, as far as brushes, a Wee Scot, an Omega Pro 49, and a Shavemac #177 silver tip 23mm knot. In razors I own a Merkur HD and an Art of Shaving Dovo 5/8 straight, which I have also learned to use, though I am by no means a pro. In soaps, I own a puck of MWF, Sir Irisch Moos, Tabac, Mamabear's sandlewood and Drakkar scented, Razorock XXX, Omega, Williams, and VDH deluxe. In creams I have Taylor's avacado, C.O. Bigalow, and all 3 Gillette European creams that were discontinued. I also own a Dirty Bird Bill Bowl, A bottle of witch hazel, a small bottle of home made pre-shave oil, one bottle of Nivea sensitive aftershave balm, and one bottle of Pinaud Clubman.

My friends and people at school all think that I have the weirdest hobby ever, and I still get strange glances when I tell them what my hobby is. I was wondering if there were any other users on B&B with a story like mine, or if I am that lone, strange high schooler with a really strange hobby?

Hey thats cool, I didn't start as young (I just turned 30!) as you I remember starting with disposables in high school and graduating to multiblades Mach 3 (I used this for years!), Fusion, FusionPro Glide (don't like it), Shick Quattro (horrible it got clogged constantly, used ONE time) to Schick Hydro 5 (loved it at the time!).. didn't know what I was missing out and I don't really think of DE/SE/Straight razors as a "hobby" more or less a smarter way to do things with more selection. Where as before I'd go into a grocery store look at the package of 4 or 5 Gillette blades for over $20. Now I can go and spend that money I save on quality shaving products such as a new brush or soap I wanted. So I don't think its weird, in fact to me it means the person cares how to treat there face. We only get one so why spend years dragging multi blades across my face? Besides shaving was getting boring in the military and a lot of people hate it... but since switching to DE I no longer feel that way and its something I look forward to.

My collection is not big but I'm trying to not buy anything else at this point... I might dabble in a vintage razor or perhaps a real straight razor later...

Razors;
Parker Shavette
Merkur Futur
Merkur 34C

Soaps;
MWF
Cella
Tabac stick

Creams;
Proraso green
Palmolive
Nivea

Pre-shave;
Hattric

Post-shave;
no name Alum bar
Speick
Tabac Men
Nivea

Brush;
Vulvix pure badger brush
Men-u synthetic brush


People will always think things are weird due to it being a minority compared to mass-marketed used multiblades, I should know for years its all I used for my 20s then suddenly quiet by accident I happened upon DE razors on Amazon then looked into 3rd party vendors such as WCS as they would ship overseas military bases and I could go to them for everything. ShaveNation is also good...

Here are supposed "young" hobbies/trends that people perceive as cool or "do it this way, and no way else or its weird."

Cartridge razors because cool/young/hip people use them! Look at the advertisements it must be true! Some people at young ages don't even really have to shave because there growth is not noticeable... plus growing up you can go your entire life and never see a DE razor because US stores don't stock supplies for them anymore unless you go looking around for it. So formula "easy to use" + "mass marketing" + "cheap initial investment" = profit.
Baggy cloths
iPhone or any Apple product (Come on people its made in Shangzhou China by underpaid assembly line workers, open your eyes)
Going to crowded bars to "hunt for p***y"
Alcohol but you have to drink "man" drinks such as Vodka, "Jack", Makers Mark, Budweiser, "Natty Light". (God forbid you want to try German beers when your in Germany people!)
Sport cars that have been modified
Going to clubs/partying/playing beer bong/drinking games
Low morale standard when it comes to females


Sound familiar? How about things that are better but people perceive it as weird especially to someone in high school or early to late 20s and even the 30s...

Buying a DE/SE/Straight razor because you did your research and determined it was a better way to do things rather than follow the sheep.
This is where people think its weird because they BELIEVE cartridges/electrics are better because of marketing and mass-user adoption due to this. They BELIEVE DE/SE/SR are obsolete technology that is for "old people" or people out of touch. Imagine for a moment Gillette suddenly mass markets double edge razors throws millions behind it now. Which they won't because the profits aren't there unless they did a drastic product make-over. However people are slow to change you know, because that $2 can of gel is less work and less expensive than that $30 MWF but its not true you can buy palmolive shaving cream for 0.89€ here and Nivea for around 1.25€.
Buying a different phone because you researched the technical specifications and can argue why for example the Samsung Galaxy S2 is better than the iPhone (but the iphone is cooler!)
Like to drink but prefer to choose products and analyze there flavor such as specific German beers or wines.. rather than choose whats cheap and gets you "drunk" faster
Wearing respectable cloths that project a more mature person. (tucking your shirt in, wearing less baggy cloths)
Treat woman with respect and don't see them as a whole rather than bathed in some sort of sexual light
Begin to think clubs are for kids

Basically growing up!

 

[duck dive steve]

I think you have got your head screwed on just right. Like someone said they'll catch up to you eventually and realise just how ahead of the curb you were .

 

[duck dive steve]

The other thing one the female front, when it comes to aftershaves you will have much better tastes then the usual crowd of CK, Boss etc. You'll have something distinctive like T&H or another brand nobody in your school wears. Girls are pretty bored of the standard brands of aftershave. Smelling nice does wonderes for your interactions with the ladies.

 

[kmain]

Not a strange hobby. My father sold all of his personal belongings prior to his passing due to Pancreatic/liver cancer. He said, "If it were to bring more money, or, any money for that matter, well, let's sell the stuff off." I guess he was right, I just picked a superspeed up on Ebay . ( as painful as the price was ) and hope to happily carry on the tradition. I have noticed months before, That I was spending way too much on shaving and noticed the Wilkinson Sword blades At Wally world and decided after much research, I WAS GONNA GIVE IT A TRY! 20 or 25 bucks for 10 cartridges? Are you kidding me? 1.76 for a pack of 10 is more like it and I can totally groove on that. P.S. If you wanna try DERBY BLADES, I will give you what I have left. Just as a PIF. I Do not like them like lots of others around here do.

Derbys worked well for me, so much as I bought 2 100 packs... no need to try anything else.

 

[Rorpen86]

I am 31 and my friends think I am crazy. And I am required to shave almost everyday for work and they still think I am crazy to invest so much time and money so that I can enjoy something I have to do.

 

[kmain]

You should tell them that your other hobbies include:

Playing dead, appearing in the background on tv, suing, grooming dogs to look like other animals, and knitting breasts.

Then they won't think your shaving hobby is so weird.

http://www.oddee.com/item_97171.aspx

I don't recommend this.

 

[coachschaller]

I started coming to this forum about 3 years ago, in my freshman year of high school. I wasn't active and didn't have an account then and could hardly even shave anyways, but I was interested and curious after a friend of my brothers' had shown me this forum and his method of shaving, which was drastically different from the way I had watched my father do it for years. Now I am in my junior year of high school, and I surf this forum daily. Since I've started, I've managed to scrape together the money to buy what I wanted by doing my chores, getting birthday and Christmas gifts, and saving my money.

Since I joined those many years ago, I have acquired, as far as brushes, a Wee Scot, an Omega Pro 49, and a Shavemac #177 silver tip 23mm knot. In razors I own a Merkur HD and an Art of Shaving Dovo 5/8 straight, which I have also learned to use, though I am by no means a pro. In soaps, I own a puck of MWF, Sir Irisch Moos, Tabac, Mamabear's sandlewood and Drakkar scented, Razorock XXX, Omega, Williams, and VDH deluxe. In creams I have Taylor's avacado, C.O. Bigalow, and all 3 Gillette European creams that were discontinued. I also own a Dirty Bird Bill Bowl, A bottle of witch hazel, a small bottle of home made pre-shave oil, one bottle of Nivea sensitive aftershave balm, and one bottle of Pinaud Clubman.

My friends and people at school all think that I have the weirdest hobby ever, and I still get strange glances when I tell them what my hobby is. I was wondering if there were any other users on B&B with a story like mine, or if I am that lone, strange high schooler with a really strange hobby?

No strop? Great den you have there

 

[CharlieFoxtrot]

i wish i would have had all this info. at my finger tips when i was in high school.

This is a big +1.

 

[El-a-Menthol]

You should tell them that your other hobbies include:

Playing dead, appearing in the background on tv, suing, grooming dogs to look like other animals, and knitting breasts.

Then they won't think your shaving hobby is so weird.

http://www.oddee.com/item_97171.aspx

 

[Wendy]

The other thing one the female front, when it comes to aftershaves you will have much better tastes then the usual crowd of CK, Boss etc. You'll have something distinctive like T&H or another brand nobody in your school wears. Girls are pretty bored of the standard brands of aftershave. Smelling nice does wonderes for your interactions with the ladies.

I think you have given him a valid point here!

 

[ateace]

John -- Thank your brother's friend for showing you this site. It is a hobby for many of us, but the root of it is learning how to get the best possible shave for your
particular needs and situation. It's a fun way to hone your grooming skills and tastes -- something that will last your whole life.