Be Excellent To Each Other

Electric razor fiends! Formerly wealthy cartridge razor advocates! You should be using a double-edged safety razor.

About a year ago I finally took the plunge (and subsequently forgot to talk about it) and got myself a decent DE Safety Razor, a badger brush and a bowl. It has changed my life. Well, it has made my face smoother, my wallet a little bit fatter and I don't get nasty razor burn any more. Yay!

I started out with this bad-boy:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Merkur-Futur-B ... 903&sr=8-1

It's an excellently engineered, weighty, stylish bit of kit, and it allows you to adjust the angle of the blade from aggressive to SLASH YOUR FUCKING FACE UP. It's great, but recently I bought a second razor:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Merkur-Heavy-Do ... 894&sr=8-1

This one's by the same people, and therefore incredibly well built, but crucially, it's a little smaller, less cumbersome and much easier to use. You don't get the adjustable blade angle feature, though, which I didn't ever use on the other one anyway.

So, that's £35.

Next, you want a quality badger brush. You can get synthetic ones (which is what I started with), but the ones with proper badger hair are approximately 73x better at holding water and producing a good lather. I have an Edwin Jagger Pure Badger one or something. It was about £50, but it'll last you a lifetime if you look after it - as will the razor above.

So, £85. Next, you'll want a bowl. £15 will get you a nice one - this is for lathering up your shaving cream.

£100.

Now for consumables. You'll want a nice glycerin based cream and some blades. I recommend Geo F Trumper's shaving cream - I use one that smells faintly of lime. It's lovely and you'll want to eat it. It's like that stuff you get on top of a key-lime pie. Mmm. This is about £10 a tub, but I've had my tub for a YEAR. A fucking YEAR.

For blades I'm currently using Feather:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Feather-Hi-Stai ... 908&sr=8-8

These are Japanese steel and they're sharper than anything I've ever encountered. Each blade will last a long time. It's difficult to say exactly how long because beards vary, but for reference, I'd go through a Mach 3 cartridge every two or three shaves - any more than that and it'd be blunt and I'd wind up with even worse shaving rash than with a new one. With these Feathers, I'm getting five or six shaves, and even then I'm changing them out more out of newfangled-ness than them being blunted. Oh, and you might notice that you get 30 for around a tenner.

So, initial outlay is £100 for the kit, plus another £25 for cream and blades which will last you over a year. That's quite a bit cheaper than the mainstream cartridge blades which used to cost me probably £25 every couple of months.

Further, the actual shave is INSANELY close and I no longer suffer from horrible red spots and marks on my neck as a result of shitty cartridges. I would recommend switching to a DE razor to anyone. Does anyone else shave like this? If anyone is genuinely interested, I can go into explaining how exactly you go about shaving with this kit - because it's a little bit different to a normal shave. So yeah. It's good. Also, I may or may not be a DE shaving "enthusiast" at this point.

NB: I'm not going to lie. This is not going to beat the convenience of shaving with an electric razor, which is admittedly really quick and handy. BUT - and I've tried some of the more expensive electric razors (my Dad has one with all the bells and whistles) - you will not get a closer shave than this without visiting a Turkish barber. It's incredibly refreshing and smooth.

I recently switched to soap-and-brush, although it's a synthetic brush. Finding it a big improvement over aerosol gel. Investigating safety razors is on my list (but I have a lot of cartridges to get through first).

Which is nowhere close to the convenience and speed of shaving with a mach-whatever each morning in the shower. No lather needed, no mirror, literally takes less then a minute.

Good move! I actually found that the switch from gel/foam to soap & brush was a much larger improvement than when I finally moved from cartridge to safety razor (if you get what I mean?). But, as I say, the safety razor is cheaper and that little bit closer than your multi-blade cartridges.

I'd definitely recommend upgrading that brush to real hair, though! It was like night and day. Out of interest, what brush are you using? I was using one called "mu" or something - it was about £15. It did the job, but the badger brush I have now is incredibly good.

Ah, but you must have a leatherback turtle for a face! There's absolutely no chance in hell my pathetic baby skin would stand up to that sort of treatment!

I grew a beard to stop myself slicing my face open each morning. But thanks for the article WTB: I've always liked the idea of 'proper' shaving so will return to it someday if I decide to go beardless again.

Out of interest, do you shave before or after showering/washing? I've heard people recommend both.

Does it take much longer to shave / set up that it would with an ordinary Gillette setup?

I'm an advocate of the King of Shaves shaving oil - it's cheaper than gel, lasts longer and works better. Try some out.

I always used to shave before a shower because I liked to get rid of the foam/hair properly. However, it's recommended by most, and now by me, to shave after showering because obviously your pores are open and - crucially - your beard is nice and soft, making for a much smoother shave. Just be careful not to get foam in your ears and you're set!

I wouldn't be so sure about that. I have extremely abrasive facial hair, and sensitive girly skin, and I've found shaving in the shower causes me less facial harm than shaving with gel and a mirror.

Again, not going to lie - it adds a good five minutes to your morning routine, but it has for me at least, genuinely made me want to get up a bit earlier because it feels so good. It's like a manly spa treatment. Or something.

The extra time is mainly down to whipping up your cream in the bowl, which takes about 90 seconds and is obviously a bit more of a faff than squirting it out of a can/tube. Plus, you'll have to rinse your bowl/brush afterwards. The actual shave is obviously more or less just as quick.

There's your problem, use a razor!

Well, YMMV! Like I say, I've tried it in the shower before and it's just too awkward. I guess I could make it work if I lathered up as I normally would, only in the shower. In fact, that'd probably give a closer shave than what I get after a shower. However shaving without any lather in the shower would cut my face to ribbons.

Not at all, I actually have really sensitive skin Try it, your skin will never be softer than when you are standing directly in the ultimate heated humidifier, all the oils and soaps and lathers in the world are trying to do, is emulate what you get for free when in the shower.

I really recommend people try it if they haven't before, it just works.

He's here all week folks, don't forget to tip your fish and try the waitress.

I have done! Like I say - without lather, I'd be in agony! I can definitely see the benefits were I to lather up, and shave in the shower, though. Your lather does more than just protect your face remember - it also helps the hairs to stand on end, which results in a closer shave.

Yeah, here all week shaving his massive face.


Sorry DavPaz.

What razor did you use? I use a mach 5 (or is it 4? who cares?) and haven't cut myself in over 5 years, ever since I started the shave in the shower routine in fact. I regularly use a razor daily for at least a month, till well after the strip has turned white, and find it impossible to cut myself, no matter how sharp or blunt the razor, or how lazy I am in my technique.

I bet you always shave with the grain too...

Unless you have a goatee to trim around!

Yeah, the same brush, bought cheap in Boots on a whim (it was about £8 in some sort of x-for-£y deal).

This is the soap I'm using. It appears to be a lifetime's supply; in several months I've barely taken the embossed logo off the top.

Oh - I never cut myself. It's razor burn that is the problem. It's basically tugging on the hairs instead of cutting. It causes a painful/unsightly rash. I don't get that with a DE any more, but the cartridge razors were terrible for it - mainly because the multi blade mechanism isn't as amazing as the adverts make it out to be, and its bad points far outweigh any benefits. But again, it totally depends on your skin. Some people could shave with a broken bottle and never have any problems.

For reference, I've used all of them - Mach 3, Fusion, that King of Shaves one, Wilkinson Sword. I had a real problem with them - hence my delight at finally finding something that doesn't ruin my morning!

But even if you don't suffer from these problems, there's still plenty of money to be saved in buying ordinary blades rather than expensive cartridges, plus they're much sharper and shave much closer.

Ooh! I have a similar soap to that! It's great! But, it was a Christmas gift and I've only used it once because the cream still hasn't run out. Invest in that badger brush and it'll last two lifetimes!

Yep - on the first pass. Then I sometimes lather up again and go across and finally against - if I want a face like a baby's buttocks. But yeah, my skin is terribly sensitive.

I use an electric in the shower. Or clippers, as I'm really very lazy and it's harder to tell that you've not shaved if you have a beard.

With my super-abrasive hair, I normally get only 1-2 shaves out of a brand new cartridge razor, which makes shaving ludicrously expensive. Also, I can't shave on consecutive days or my face will fall off.

Shaving is annoying. The only shaving grace is that I have largely blond facial hair, so it looks like I have shaved even when I haven't.

If you have any kind of facial topiary then shaving in the shower is impossible. I've just been lazy lately and have used my beard trimmer sans guard.

I'd definitely recommend a DE razor for you, good sir! Step this way!

Also, if anyone is interested in technique, whether it's for lathering up or the actual process of shaving with a DE razor, check out these two guys on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/user/geofatboy
http://www.youtube.com/user/mantic59

They've basically taught me everything.

Tramp hi5!

I might investigate this new crazy shaving method, but I would probably either slice my head off or leave the razor out within grasping distance of the baby...

As much as I love you, you're sounding incredibly gay today.

Do you pull your balls down or to the side?

Oh, and in case I didn't make it entirely clear - the Merkur HD DE Razor I linked to above (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Merkur-Heavy-Do ... 894&sr=8-1) is absolutely excellent, and the one I'd recommend to anyone. I started off with the slightly more expensive Futur because it had the adjustable feature, but it turns out that it may be a step too far in the "necessary features" department. The HD is ultra simple, solidly engineered, and gives a fantastic shave. It's based on the same design as the classic Gillette "FatBoy" razor as far as I'm aware, which is (was) the de facto "daddy" of DE razors back when your grandad was a lad. So you can't go wrong, really. Unless you get a reconditioned Gillette off eBay.

They're long and heavy enough to get out of the way of their own accord.

I bet you pull them through his legs and run downstairs singing, "look mummy I'm a girl!".

I use the King of Shave, razor and gel. It does not lather, so I guess it is similar to the oil that Grim uses.

I shave in the shower, I shave every 2 days, but have to go with the grain under my chin or I get shaving rash. This means I have to use an electric razor to finish off under my chin. Sadly the electric razor isn't good enough to cut the rest as my hairs are so soft. Razors last me ages (as anyone who has met me might be able to guess).

True dat. But nobody with any sense of style has one of those these days, do they...

Has WTB bought up the UK's supply of Badger brushes or something? He is doing a damn fine job of selling them, at only £50 a go


or is he just farming badgers and has a crop about ready?

He just wants us all to tell him what we do in the shower, the dirty pervert.

Nah, not at all. The oil comes in a tiny bottle and you use about three drops of it per shave.


http://www.kingofshavesdirect.com/Oils-CUK_110/

That little bottle is about the height of a Zippo lighter.

I think I've had to change razor blades maybe 7 times. This is rather handy for the wallet. Unsurprisingly, I put little thought and less money into shaving, so I'm finding this thread rather bemusing.

Depends how frequently you bother your arse. I too have pathetic baby skin - skin that readily heamorrhages claret at the slightest scrape - but I can shave once or twice a week using a shitty disposable razor without having to mummify my head in bog roll.

It rarely renders the colour of the hair invisible, though, so I suppose you're paying for the true smooth-as-a-baby's-bottom quality.

Being too clean-shaven makes you look like a paedo, though.

Is that what you really meant?

Some drunken arsehole once shouted "paedo" at me from a considerable distance. I think that was because I had a full beard (and long hair), though. You can't fucking win.

(That was a traumatic event, actually. Lots of people around. )

It was probably the little boy you were vigourously fondling that did it, to be honest.

DAGNABBIT!

I mean in teh way it does not lather...

Shaving is such a chore.



(rpt.)

I've found that one of these lasts well over a year, as you only need a tiny blob of it.