SMF

What brought you to this means of shaving?

I started shaving in 1964. The only other viable option was electric.

The first time was in the late 60s and it wasn't pretty. I moved to cart's (of the day, they weren't the carts of today) and hated them, but I got OK results as long as I didn't go ATG. If I did I got ingrowns.

This latest time I rebelled at the price of cartridges and looked for an alternative. Here I am today years later.

J T wrote:I started shaving in 1964. The only other viable option was electric.

+1.....tried the electric, didn't like it, still don't.

I estimate that I started shaving in 1967, with a Schick Injector Type L and Noxzema aerosol lather. I used the Injector for around five years until I grew a beard. Another five years later, I started shaving my neck with a Gillette Adjustable DE. (I still have the beard and still shave my neck.) I also used a brush and shaving soap or cream at different times, though I never learned to make good lather.

Around 1980, while living in Portugal, I switched to a Gillette Contour (Atra in the US), which was my first experience with cartridge shaving. I eventually moved on to a Schick Tracer, also twin-blade, and settled on that. When the Mach 3 came out, I tried it, but never could make it work for me. It always felt like it was going to catch and tear the skin, so I never tried anything else with three or more blades. I also got into electric shaving. I was perfectly happy with the shaves I got from the twin-blade cartridge razor and from the electric.

In 2006, I found on the Internet that one could still buy new DE razors. Motivated by nostalgia, I started poking around and found my way to SMF. Here I learned about the skilled wetshave and I finally learned how to make good lather. I learned to get a good shave in the traditional style, but it wasn't any better than what I had achieved previously with the Schick Tracer or the old Braun electric.

Now, I'm getting lazy again. I normally do a proper wetshave, with brush, soap, and DE razor, on Sunday night. For my other two shaves during the week, I use a brushless gel with a DE or I use an electric. All three approaches work equally well. Varying the approach like this leaves me with less skin irritation than I get from three traditional wetshaves during the week. When I do use a blade, I now prefer the feel of a single blade to that of a twin-blade cartridge.

- Murray

Sometime in the late 80's I started using a cream that aramis put out ( have no idea what the name was, but the girl behind the counter at macy's was hotttt just in case you're wondering ). I used my fingers to apply the cream Not that long afterwards, again trolling the malls, I came across a shop that had a few brushes and soaps which i bought. I believe the soap was either valobra or taylors. The brush was a floris. It was many years later in 2006 when the floris was on its last legs and i was looking for a replacement that i found smf and all the wonders within. Up until then i used whichever was the latest and greatest from gillette. It was all downhill from there!!

clive

off topic, but a quick goog about aramis found this little nugget:

Aramis Lab Series Shave Cream was reformulated and the benzocaine which numbed the face was removed.

J T wrote:I started shaving in 1964. The only other viable option was electric.

Me too.

When I started getting some whiskers I gave my dad's Gillette Tech a try and after using his stuff for a while, I bought my own Slim and that was that. Went into the service and left the Slim at home and got a Krona both of which I still have, in addition to my dad's razor and gear.

My dad and my granddad both were wet shavers, I could see no reason to do anything different. Four years in USMC were all wet shaving-- even 25 months in Vietnam. My dad gave me a Tech, some blades and an Old Spice shaving set for my 14th bday(still have original gear). I have never looked back and have continued daily shaves for over 55 years. Never tried carts, electrics, or straights. I used DE's for all but the last 12 years, which have all been vintage SE's. I purchased one shavette and tried to comfortably use it several times, arthritic wrists do not seem to have enough painless movement to perfect this method(safely!!). I really enjoy wet shaving and have converted many employees and relatives over the years. SWMBO even uses a Tech, soap, and a brush and loves it.

Mike! Shipmate! I was USN in the Mekong. Inserted and extracted SEAL teams via PBR's. Anyway, I carried two Schick injectors a model L and J in my shave kit (I still have both razors) consisting of Williams shave soap and a tube of Palmolive shave cream. It served me very well.

My britherAt first my brother used an electronic razor for a long time, but very often he was irritated or he was simply not satisfied with the work. He don't like it still, and now he use wetshaving technic.

Ms Brown has been posting spam ads for students to employ someone to write their college essays for them. She is gone.

There seems to be a new trend in spammers with western female names, an IP spoofed to appear to come from AZ or NY, and dreadful English.

C.

I used an electric razor for years - probably until I was in my late 20s - until I got tired of having that buzzing contraption heating up my face and neck every morning.

For the next thirty-odd years I went through the cycle of two-, three-, four-, and finally FIVE-bladed cartridge razors, but after I bought one that vibrated I discovered that I had been suckered all along.

In late 2017 I discovered the resurgence in traditional (DE) wetshaving and found SMF. The rest is history (albeit a very short history). In 6 months I've managed to accumulate enough soaps and creams to last me five years!

edit: spelling

Pinched my Dad's electric*. Tried it, and didn't really do well with it - face felt dry and raw. Switched to Gillette cartridges and got caught up in their upgrade ladder.

Finally, Googled how to get the best shave and found you lot.

BTW would have to say my favourite cartridge was the Atra.


*returned.

I always used older razors, inherited from my father and grandfather - mostly Gillettes, and one Schick. (My dad tended to get whatever razor was current, which meant a Tech, a Super Speed, and a couple of different adjustables. My grandfather had a 50's or 60's Eversharp Schick injector with a short yellowish handle.) I even used a mug and cheap boar brushes, partly in order to avoid aerosol cans. I tried some cartridge razors here and there, but didn't go beyond the Mach 3, balking at the price of blades. I was always curious about razors. For instance, in the 80's, I bought a pack of Gem blades because of the $1 offer on the back for a Gem Contour II razor.

Shavemyface helped me learn about better equipment and techniques. Finding this forum in the mid-2000's coincided with my buying and selling razors on eBay, where I could indulge in RAD without spending much money. I'd buy something out of curiosity, and often resell it once my curiosity was satisfied. However, many razors from eBay razor lots have stuck to me for years that I'm finally starting to sell off.

J T wrote: ↑Sun Aug 20, 2017 6:43 pm I started shaving in 1964. The only other viable option was electric.

The Tech, the Super speed, and the Slim, were available from Gillette, and Schick and others were available.

My old man and brother used Gillette razors, so it was just natural I guess. I still have my old man's OLD type, and it's still my favorite.

After slapping down a few 20s on the counter for 4 multi-blade cartridges I got home and half the package was ruined due to plastic encrusted in the blades.

So there had to be a better way...

Someone recommended mantic59's youtube posts and that's all I can recall for specifics...

I recall posting something about this a very long time ago on SMF. For me it all started with my beloved Shick injector adjustable when I was 16 (1975). Kept with that model until I was a young father at 26 and switched to a Remington foil electric which I can't for the life of me remember the model now. Then I moved to cartridges about 6 or 7 years later, moving on to a vintage DE in 2003. Like many of us, at that point, I went nuts and bought as many different creams and soaps as I could fit in our bathroom cabinet. As the collection started to explode, my wife suggested that I could have one shelf and had to fit everything on that ....... then I started keeping new unused supplies in one of my dresser drawers. Over time I have become less product impulsive.