Well before I start I'll give you all a bit of back story about the beginnings into the world of shaving. I never really cared for my fathers approach to shaving: wet face with cold or hot water; what ever came out of the tap first, slap on some Equate shaving (75 cents a can at Wal-Mart) or if it was on sale it would be the higher class stuff, namely Barbasol or Noxema shaving foam. He then proceeded to use the cheapest disposable razor on his face and attack it with ferocity, another place of water and dry. Not my thing. So when I was in 8th grade and I began to shave every other day I began using a Sensor or Mach III (still have both) with Gillette or Edge Gel, I wet my face with warm water and learned about grain directions so that was never a problem, followed by the some Gillette moisturizing after shave gel. Did that until until 10th grade. Now I use a Gillette adjustable (anxious to try my new Superspeed) with a Schick blade. My cream right now is Taylors Almond, although I prefere the "thinner" lathers of Truefitt and Trumpers (a thin lather such a thing with English creams?) I use Marvis toothpaste, Listerine, Tom's of Maine Deodortant, Vinola and Floris soaps. Not alot buy I am a bit on a shoe string budget, also I am upgrading to a Simpson Chubby #1 in the near future. My main colognes are T&H Grafton and Creed Orginal Vetiver.
So what were you using back in the day in high school (I know it might have been a while ago for some of you , but try to remember).
Most guys now use the Mach III comfort gels along with the Schick Quattro or Mach III Power and attack their faces like madmen which results in very nice cases of ingrown hairs and razor burn. The cologne of choice (if they wear something other than Axe) is usually Curve or some other crap, most won't bother with anything else, not even a step above like Armani Black Code,etc. The future of good grooming with my generation seems to be a lost cause....
Pat
"Patriotism means to stand by the country. It does not mean to stand by the president."
-Theodore Roosevelt
Pat, good grooming is an art apparently lost on most men. Consider these statistics, obtained from the Gillette website:
• Men spend, on average, $23.00 for blades and razors per year.
• Men spend, on average, $26.00 for blades, razors and shave preparations per year.
Now, let's consider a couple things. First off, $23 is not a lot to spend on blades a year, let alone blades and razors combined. If we consider a 50-cent Merkur blade lasts about a week, on average, $23 would see us through maybe 46 weeks, or 2.5 months short of a year. Now, consider that most Gillette cartridges are running around $2 each, and $23 comes down to about 12 cartridges a year. At 56 weeks a year, that means the average man changes his cartridge only once every 4.6 weeks. Of course, this is a very skewed way of reading this statistic, as it doesn't take into account those who use less expensive options, such as disposable razors, etc. Still, it helps put things in perspective. Then, it seems that most men, after they get done wasting their money on overpriced cartridges, spend a measely three dollars a year on shaving preparations. Now, consider that this is just an average, and that guys like you and me spend a heck of a lot more on shaving preparations than the average, and that means that a lot of guys have to spend less than $3 to balance us out. So don't fret about others in your generation. They're more the norm, and we're the exception. We're practicing the high art of grooming, and like any high art, its appeal is limited to those who take the time to learn and appreciate it.
When I was in high school, I used a cheap Remington electric, with a dry powder stick designed especially for use with electrics. It was a horrible combination, but it was all I knew at the time. Right around the time I graduated, I switched to the Sensor and Edge gel. As bad as this combo was in its own right, it was a revelation compared to that medieval torture device I had been using.
It's interesting you mention the M3Power as being one of the razors of choice among men in your age group. Gillette has been pushing that razor hard with television ads for the holiday season, saying it offers the world's best shave. I couldn't help but muse over how this will be the last holiday season Gillette will say that about the M3P, because in just a few weeks, they will be saying that about the Fusion, and the M3P will be relegated to the dust heap of past ideas, and day old news.
Pat,
In high school I used a Remington electric razor and sometimes I used my dad's Gillette double edge, William's Mug Shave soap and an Eveready badger brush. Shortly after high school I got a Schick double edge, my own Eveready badger brush and English Leather shave soap. I have been using a brush and mug off and on since college. For the last 10 years or so I have used nothing but a brush and mug.
Pat, Never you mind, I remember very clearly. I started shaving at 15years old, in 1964. Although the town was quite upper crust, it was also quite small. Had I been in say, New York, I well might have searched out superior options, as I was pretty into doing it well, but my choices, and knowledge were limited. Right off, I bought a Gillette long handled adjustable DE. At first I used Gillette blades, but quickly switched over to the ( then ) excellent Wilkinson Swords ( the blades were colored black in those days ). Bought some Gillette Foamy Lemon/Lime, and then went to the Yardley aerosal foam, which was better. Good Yardley hard shave soap was available locally, but I neither had a brush, nor knew how to use one, nor knew anyone who did, teenager or grown-up. I did only one pass, N/S, with the grain. Rinsed with cool water, and that was it. An article I'd read had cautioned against alcohol aftershaves, and that was about all that was available then. I used Yardley Black Label cologne as a regular thing, and over the next two years, also collected Hermes Eau de Cologne ( which wasn't even available in the US at that time ), Dunhill for Men, 4711, and St John's Lime. I also got into Yardley bath soap and talc.
I was a pretty well groomed high school student. But then, in college, I turned weird.
Regards,
Gordon
Going back in time to the wonderful 60's...
My first razor was either a Gillette “Techmatic”, or a Schick "Auto-Band". It’s was so long ago and the two razors are so similar to me, that I can’t be sure. Shaving cream was whatever canned foam my Father was using and my first aftershave lotion was English Leather; which I probably got as a birthday or Christmas present, because I surely couldn’t have afforded it on my allowance.
It was easy for me--my face stayed smooth as a baby's butt until college. The funny thing is that my parents gave me an electric razor as a present for my 13th birthday, apparently oblivious to the fact that nothing resembling a whisker was to be seen anywhere on my face. I put the razor in a drawer, and there it lay for about six years before I started using it.
Maynard, maybe your parents weren't so oblivious. My dad got me my Remington when I was 14, when I had peach fuzz profuse enough to braid. The Remington did a pretty good job with that, and that's about all it was good for. It was useless on whiskers, which I found out a year or two later, when I actually started to grow some. So that razor your parents got you might have been perfectly appropriate for the downy fuzz on your face at that age.
I used a Gillette Atra. Shaving cream was Colgate or Barbasol. For an aftershave, Old Spice, or Brut.
Randy
"I won't be wronged. I won't be insulted. I won't be laid a-hand on. I don't do these things to other people, and I require the same from them." J. B. Books
I started with a Gillette TTO non-adjustable with Wilkinson blades. Shortly after I began shaving, Wilkinson came out with a single razor with a cartridge, and I switched over. I don't remember what the Wilkinson SE was called.
I used whatever hand soap there was in the bathroom, or once in a while, my father's canned Palmolive cream.
I started with at 13 with a Gillette Good News disposable and a can of Foamy. I don't think Edge gel had been introduced yet. When it was, I swtiched to that and Schick Slim Twin disposables. It wasn't until college that I started using a cartridge razor (Sensor).
i had barbosol or colgate shave cream in an aeresol can and i am sure i used some sort of shick or gillette DE razor. this was 1974 or 1975 which i started shaving. you can be sure i switched to gels and the first plastic razors when they came out
Lets see. I started shaving around 14. I had some growth, but not a lot. I resisted shaving until I got a job at Burger King. The manager said I could have a moustache, but not a beard.
I started using Noxema shave foam and an Atra. I remember that the Atra had twin blades, but no strips on the blade. It's big claim to fame was that the head moved with the contours of your face. I remember it so well because it gave such a lousy shave. I then began shaving with a brush and soap combo a couple of years later, still with the Atra, but the brush and soap gave a better shave so I dumped the Noxema.
Whenever a major razor company announced a new razor I always picked one up hoping aginst hope that this would be the end of all the bloodshed and irritation. I also tried various soaps, foams and gels.
My most recent combo is a Merkur HD with either Trumpers Violet or Rose creams or Crabtree and Evelyn's soap in a bowl or St Charles New Spice soap.
I find that years of pressing a razor into my face like trying to shave off slices of cheese is taking longer to unlearn than I had thought. I'm getting good to great shaves with the HD, but I still have some irritation afterwards. Anyway, thats my progression through the years.
You know your father would never lie to you or misdirect you in any way. I didn't have much to shave in HS....but I started with a Gillette DE and a can of foam. Later it went to the twin blades and finally to the M3.
While in my yout I asked Dad how long should one of those cartridges last. He told me a bout a month. So I could buy a 10 pak and almost be set for the year. Darn, those things are expensive, too. But you know, now that I look back on these days, perhaps that is why I use to get irritation and ingrown hairs
I have blades galore, and if I want to change in midweek, so be it. The shave is worth it
best regards,
mark the shoeshine boy
we have 52 weeks a year in southeast missouri....
SHAVE AND A HAIRCUT...WAIT A SECOND WHAT ABOUT A SHOESHINE, TOO ????
I don't really want to remember, but I will force myself.
I started out with a package of Good News disposables, and a bar of Ivory. My dad was the type who believed that the burning sensation of the aftershave was proof it was working, so it was Aqua Velva or English Leather after shave.
The first Christmas after my 16th birthday my folks bought me a rechargable Braun, and some Stetson after shave. MAN, was I hooked up! I tried that face burner for about 3 months, with my dad telling me everyday that my face just needed to "adjust to it". I think he bought it for me hoping it wouldn't work out for me so that I would give it to him!
After that I started buying Edge gel and experimenting with different disposables. I am not sure if it was HS or College, but I remember when I bought my first package of Bic Metals. I was at home, so it was either HS or summer break, and my Dad happened to see them before I used the first one. He took one look at them and said "Careful son, those look like they could slice the skin off your face really easy." I was shaking like a leaf in an Oklahoma tunderstorm when I tied the first one!
To think I was scarred of a Bic Metal, knowing that I can safely shave my face with a straight razor now!
Jim
Good friends, good books and a sleepy conscience: this is the ideal life.
Mark Twain
Well Pat back when I was in High School in the Good Old Days. Back when we walked to school 5 miles up hill both ways in sub-zero weather and 3 feet of snow. I used a Schick Injector. I wish I still had that razor. It would be worth a bundle on Ebay. I got my cream from a can. Whatever was on sale was what I used. I changed blades when I couldn't get the old blade to work any more. I remember using Old Spice aftershave in the milk white bottle, splash on, and it burned like hell.
I started with disposable razors and shave foams (Gillette, Williams, Mennen). but back then I didn't have a lot to shave (just the mustache)
Now, It's Aveeno or Nivea gels during the week, and Truefitt/Bodyshop for the week-ends. Razor is M3P and A/S nivea sensitive.
I started with a Norelco and also tried the Gillette Atra and Bic disposables a few times my first year in high school. Primarily I used the Norelco. I bought my first straight razor while I was in high school, but since I didn't know how to use it, it laid dormant until March '05. Now I only use a straight and a DE. After my Norelco stopped working during my sophomore year in college, I never used another electric ever again.
I'd be willing to bet that more young guys don't use a straight or a DE because they really don't know about them or have easy access to them. What a shame that the vast majority of guys have never and probably will never experience a truly great shave. Same goes for a real barbershop shave.
I am interested in what you used back in the day in HS? Your the straight razor aficianado (sp) around here so I'd be interesting to know where you started.
Pat
"Patriotism means to stand by the country. It does not mean to stand by the president."
-Theodore Roosevelt
, but try to remember). 
I tried that face burner for about 3 months, with my dad telling me everyday that my face just needed to "adjust to it". 
I think he bought it for me hoping it wouldn't work out for me so that I would give it to him!
