I get quite a few PM's and the only topic we ever discuss is shaving. My life is very sad for many reasons, I know. However, if I can be of assistance I'll try to help. Rape Ape, hudson, etc. are also very knowledgeable (guys, don't be mad at me for starting this thread ). I'm going to burn the first few posts to have a "compendium" of sorts. I don't claim to be an expert, or even right. I'm just trying to be helpful, and alleviate the "congestion" in other threads when people send an @ TYdeFan05 notification. Please let me know if there's any dead links, misinformation, or unclear points. A lot of these products are "your mileage may vary" type stuff, so personal opinions will be a factor. A good reference/blog: http://sharpologist.com/ By Mantic59 (now a registered user on TMB). Recent converts. If these users go more than 24 hours without posting, assume the worst :SweeneyTodd:. If they live, hopefully they'll provide a short review and I'll link it here for those with reservations about getting started. Let me know if I've missed anyone. Lou Holth Post #574 PeterGriffin Post #734 Bo Bridges Post #965 EagleDuck Post #658 slogan119 broXcore Post #782 Parab00n Post #552 IceNHL hoebekec Post #683 Vedderman87 OopsPowSurprise Post #692 Tigers FriendsofJtyler Post #792 RJF-GUMP Where Eagles Dare DollarBillHokie bricktop Post #929 BayouMafia #2316 Other very helpful reviews: Wilbro Marshall Here
Things you'll want to get started: Double Edge Razor Blades Brush Shaving Soap or Cream Bowl or mug Face washing soap to pre-wash your face (or just shave after a shower). Washing your face is a/the key to getting a get shave. ---Anything beyond this is optional, but will add to the experience.--- Aftershave Balms Styptic Pencil Alum Pre-shave oil Getting started for "cheap": Spoiler Razor: $30 I would go with either an Edwin Jagger DE89L ($30) or Merkur 34C ($44). The Edwin Jagger is every bit as good as the Merkur in spite of the price difference. The Weber gets honorable mention in this "cheap" category. Very good razor, but at $55 it's a bit steep. For anyone committed to wet shaving it would be an excellent all stainless steel addition. Brush: ~$15-$45 Depending upon your dedication to wet shaving, this is the most flexible. Boar brushes can be had for $15 or less and some people use them exclusively. Some brushes cost more than that, but they are badger and a little more soft etc. Brushes don't have the resale value of other gear so this one is where I'd consider spending a little less until you formulate an opinion. Also, you can find a Van Der Hagen/Tweezerman brushes at places like Walgreen's/CVS/Wal Mart/Target for about $8. Those are just fine for a starter brush. Semogue, Omega and a few others make $15 to $20 brushes that are fantastic. Check at this video, especially around the 3 minute mark. However, some agree that starting with a decent Badger brush is key. Edwin Jagger makes a good starter badger brush for around $45. Blades: $20 Buy a sampler pack. Every razor/blade combination fits people differently (which is why samplers are a good idea). I like Feathers, Gillette 7 O'clock (yellow and dark blue boxes), Astra Super Platinum, Shark, Gillette Super Thins, Personna Medical Prep etc. just to name a few. Soap/Cream: $5-10? Some prefer soap. Some prefer creams. Some prefer soft soaps that are a nice middle ground. Me personally, I own probably 90% soaps because they last a long time and they are easy to maintain. Creams can dehydrate. No big deal, especially if you get a tube. Just squeeze and almond sized amount into your bowl and work up a lather. For hard soaps I just lather on top of the puck. Good starter soaps: Van der Hagen, Cyril Salter and anything in your budget listed below in the "more detailed reviews" section. Good starter creams: Proraso (can buy this in Bath and Body works in the men's section under the C.O. Bigelow brand.) Kiss My Face is also usually available locally. Styptic Pencil: $3 For cuts. Alum Block: $5 Totally optional. Cheap and lasts forever. Tones the skin and disinfects. Bowls and mugs: I usually face lather. I'll soak my brush, work it on top of the soap for a few seconds, then lather on my face. It's quicker and less mess. However, if I'm using creams or I just want to use a mug I'll go with a big coffee mug. Like a cappuccino mug on Friends. Regular coffee mugs are just too small (narrow). A cereal bowl will also work. The main thing you want is heat retention so a heavier one will hold more heat.
More detailed reviews: Soaps: Spoiler Figure 0.5 to 1 gram per shave. Martin de Candre--What some consider to be the pinnacle of modern soaps. D.R. Harris- ($15 @ 100 grams) I'd suggest Arlington or Lavender scent. Arlington is probably "manlier" Queen Charlotte Soaps-- ($15 @ 100 grams)Green Irish Tweed or anything that sounds interesting. Damn good soaps and a really nice guy. Pre de Provence-- ($15 @ 150 grams) Excellent stuff with no "tallow". Tabac-- ($15 @ 125 grams) wonderful soap. My only reservation here is you may not like the scent. It's a love it or hate it scent. (Tabac is short for tobacco, and it does smell a little like spiced pipe tobacco). I personally love it. Irisch Moos--($14 @ 100 grams) Made by the same folks as Tabac but it smells like Irish Spring soap. Only available in stick form for face lathering though. It's the one that stays in my travel kit. Mitchell's Wool Fat--($13 @ 125g) Tricky to lather at first, but once you figure it out it's excellent stuff. Provence Sante--($10 @ 100 grams) Just like Pre de Provence, no tallow but great stuff. Art of Shaving--($26 @ 95 grams) Great soap but really expensive. Sandalwood soap from AoS is a gold standard imo. Calani-- ($16 @ 65 grams) Small batch soap and hard to get your hands on but it's good stuff. Expensive. Valobra--($9 @ 50 grams) Art of Shaving soap is actually made by Valobra. They only sell Valobra in stick form but it's awesome. (the soft soap they make is pretty good.) Arko--Cheap but smells very lemony (almost chemical). However, if you unwrap it and let it air out for about a week it's just a good soap with a nice scent. Van der Hagen's--cheap soap you could go buy at Wal Mart, Target, or CVS right now. It's a perfectly serviceable soap. It lathers and shaves well. It's just not as good as the ones listed above. Cyril Salter--Good clean smelling soap, inexpensive and provides a nice shave. Palmolive Shave Stick--Probably the "best buy" combination of performance/good scent/low price if you are willing to learn to use a shaving stick. Momma Bears--Glycerine based soaps with lots of glide. Very affordable with great scents. Feel free to use the sample option because the oils used to scent some soaps my bother you and others not so much. Col. Conk--Just like Momma Bears, this is glycerine based and fairly inexpensive. If you want a bargain soap with lots of good lather then go for it. I'll add more later. I know that's a lot to choose from, but feel free to ask questions. Creams: Spoiler I don't use them as much, but here's the ones I own. Castle Forbes--Top tier but Expensive Penhaligon's--Top tier but Expensive Truefitt and Hill--Their scents are excellent and performance is up there with the best. They have a sampler pack that's worth the investment for new guys. I actually keep some of those on hand for travel. 1805 and Trafalgar are my favorites. Geo F. Trumper's--These are excellent, but the colored varieties (Rose, Violet) can stain your brush for a few days. No big deal though. D.R. Harris--Love their soaps, their creams are good but not top tier. Art of Shaving--Underwhelming for the price. That's not fair to say, it just doesn't do it for me personally. Many people swear by them. Inexpensive but great performers: Old Spice--make sure you get the Shulton version from India if you can find it. Godrej--Their take on "Limes" is better than Truefitt & Hill Limes imo (at a fraction of the price). Arko--cheap as hell but really good stuff. Palmolive--Like Arko, cheap but very good Musgo Real and Lavanda--made by the same company. They discontinued Lavanda for about 4 or 5 years and people wrote them letter until they brought it back. La Toja--Good performance but I can't rave about the scent imo Soft Soaps: Spoiler This are not hard soaps but they aren't as soft as shaving cream. About the consistency of shortening Acqua di Parma--Very nice soft soap with a hard to describe (citrusy) but likable scent. Cella--Smells like coconut and cherries. Queen Charlotte Soaps--I've never gotten a bad product from this guy. His soaps and creams (I classify his creams as soft soaps, which is why it's listed here) are excellent and made in small batches. He also has small sample jars where you can try different creams. His Green Irish Tweed scent for soaps and creams is close to the Creed Green Irish Tweed scent. One of my favorites. Aftershave: Spoiler That's a very personal thing. This is where you are most likely to find scents that bother you and applications that irritate the skin. Aqua Velva: Nothing fancy but it does its job. Taylor of Old Bond Street: Mr. Taylor's--My first nice aftershave. Doesn't really tone the skin as much as I'd like but it gets the job done Geo F. Trumper's: Arlington: Good stuff but overpriced for my budget. Vitos: I've tried the whole line and none of them thrill me. Floid: Probably my favorite aftershave. Known for being the "classic barbershop smell". Blue is my favorite. Orange is almost as good. Unfortunately, they only come in 400 ml "jugs". Aftershave Balms: Spoiler Truefitt and Hill: Try the sampler pack and see which scent you like. The balms perform the same, just smell different. I have all of them and use them more frequently than any of the other aftershave products. Oddly enough, none of them give me a headache. RazoRock Aftershave Wax: Smells like lavender and is really good stuff. Just more expensive than what I'd use every single day. Note: I know little or nothing about aftershave products so ask questions, but I probably won't be much help. Brushes Spoiler Hair goes from: Pure (least expensive), Best, Silvertip (most expensive) Simpson's--Good company with a wide variety of brushes. The Berkeley model is small but it's a great soap brush. I use it for travel and could seriously use it every day. The Chubby 2 is a great brush too but more expensive. The Colonel and Duke are some great intermediate models that many have as their only brush. Rooney--The Rooney 2XL is my favorite brush. Truefitt and Hill brand brushes are just rebranded Rooney's fwiw. Plisson--Overpriced for what they are. And that's saying a lot for a guy with as many brushes as I have. If you find one on sale you'll be happy with it. H.L. Thater--German company that doesn't get a lot of press. Great brushes with lots of backbone. Not a whole lot of variety with the knots, but lots of variety with the handles. Tried one for a while and passed it along. Will probably buy another one. Shavemac--Hard to get your hands on but great brushes. Rudy Vey--He's a one man show. An immigrant, but he types in English well.. He'll use any knot you pay for but if you don't specify he'll use a knot from The Golden Knib. He frequently has Shavemac knots on hand too. He's a great option because he'll use any material in any color to hand turn any style handle you want. He and Lee Sabini mentioned below are the two best buys in my book. They're just a little harder to track down. Morris and Forndran-- Made by Lee Sabini at his own shop. Takes about 2 weeks to get to the US, but he's reliable. His English is not so great, but he can communicate his point. He used to work at Rooney and is partially responsible for their recent success. He just decided to go his own way. He was brought in to help Rooney, and he did it by bringing in some new designs and ideas. That's why some of his brushes and the Rooney line will look very similar. Kent--These are great brushes but just have a little more flop than some people like for soaps. Edwin Jagger--Starter brush prices with permanent brush quality. That's just an overview. Check out Mantic's buyer's guide. Also, Boar hair brushes are a good entry level option. Check at this video, especially around the 3 minute mark. Some vendors I've used: Spoiler http://www.bullgooseshaving.net/ http://www.shaveabuck.com/ http://www.westcoastshaving.com/ www.razorbladesandmore.com http://www.italianbarber.com/ http://www.royalshave.com/ http://www.vintagebladesllc.com/ http://www.straightrazordesigns.com/ Amazon is always an option too. If someone uses a product and wants me to include it here just let me know.
Youtube videos. http://youtu.be/-qSIP6uQ3EI This guy's channel, especially those videos across the top, are how I learned. http://www.youtube.com/user/mantic59?feature=chclk They are linked here in the spoiler. Spoiler http://youtu.be/xjhIy9rgWQU http://youtu.be/y4ezJNJfygw http://youtu.be/wPLfCyGMm9o http://youtu.be/ufG1dPmVo8Q http://youtu.be/Dd7Aj9vwrtc I also used to refer people to geofatboy and his channel. His earlier videos are very informative, but his later stuff (after he started his own business) is more of an infomercial. Search for him on youtube. He does have some good videos. Example: http://youtu.be/2IuA8HGacJw
team wet shave Spoiler the authors of this thread helped free me of 21 years of shit shaves.....now i look forward to shaving
I don't use pre-shave oil unfortunately. Pre-shave products can gunk up brushes and don't really do anything for me. Hopefully someone who uses them can chime in. I have that some people use Shave Secret as a pre-shave and love it. I used to shave with it before I found wet shaving and have no complaints.
i went through 3 jars of this before i went nuts in AoS one afternoon loved the AoS but i'm a huge fan of the menthol in the proraso products
I do not use them, either. never found the use as I think in seeking out a higher quality brush it helps me massage the lather in properly and helps to bring the hair to attention, so to speak.
if you purchase AoS off of amazon you can save a little bit(generally 2-5 on purchase price), but I take it you might not be relegated to ordering everything from websites like I am.
I didn't know there was so much to shaving. I shave in like two seconds usually. I do get the occasional razor burn, but i just shrug it off. I usually don't even wait for the water to warm up. I use some gel and a mach 3 type razor. Tell me the benefits of doing it the right way. It just seems time consuming.
This thread is like if I would have been introduced to @00:06 and all of his incognito browser's bookmarks before I've went through puberty.
you will get razor burn never it's only time-consuming until you get the hang of it it's manly as fuck. think about it, chicks use that shit to shave their legs and beaver. your face is more important than either of those.
I don't know, I always thought the manly way to shave was with like a giant ass fuckin bowie knife in the woods or like while riding a horse or a motorcycle or something. That's the way Custer did it
From another thread: Bottom line, if you're interested, please stick around and ask questions. If it's just a "chore" then you're out the door then this isn't the thread for you. As some on here will attest to, once you have a job where you have to shave daily it can make life a little bit better (to me).
well the benefits are a cleaner, smoother face via a quality shave and the cost benefit from not buying cartridges so insanely overpriced it's almost cheaper to buy a new razor each time. you will never get the same shave from a multi-blade disposable that you will get from traditional wet shaving, it just won't happen. time is simply up to the user. an experienced wet shaver can start and finish in about 10 minutes, possibly less depending on how many passes he decides to make. it's not something to be rushed but as usual practice will improve your skill so you just get better. I take about 30-45 seconds to build a proper lather and probably another 30-45 to apply and massage it in. after that I usually make 2-3 passes(possibly 1 more if I'm headed somewhere nice and want the uber closeness of the against the grain shave), wash off, clean my gear and I'm done. it seems way more involved than it really is. it's absolutely slower than your usual gel shave with a cartridge razor but you sacrifice time for the finished product.
I'd say 7-10 minutes is average for me. 5 if I'm in a rush and only do one or two passes. I used to shave in the shower so it's hard to compare times for me.
tydefan you tell me exactly what razor, brush and everything to buy. I will buy it and try it, but I have no idea where to start and no preferences.
Others can pitch in on the products and I posted a youtube channel for Mantic59 up top. He taught me everything I needed to get started with those 5 or 6 videos across the top of his channel. As for products, absolutely none of us would agree on those. I did post some ideas in post #2 under "getting started for cheap". Read that and see if it gets you started.
i grow back hair and it sucks. i hear nairing burns too bad. what other options do i have? i use an electric currently and it leaves much to be desired. is there an amazing product/wax out there?
yea i get my gf to but its with an electric and sucks. if i use a razor it gives me painful razor burn. any tips on preventing that on my back and neck?
I edited that post. What I was saying was, check out post #2 under "getting started for cheap" and see what you think.
ill have to look at this tomorrow. it definitely interests me. it seems manly to shave and also gay like were pampering. i am so excite for this gay manliness.
I shave with a pre Civil-War straight razor when I have the time. There's nothing gay about that...unless you're weirded out by the acheely FatHead I have on the bathroom wall.
That would actually make me feel more comfortable. This may seem like a dumb question, but how much skill is required with some of these razors. Will I lose life and limb?
If you watch those videos by Mantic59 and take your time it will be very easy. I watched those a couple of times while I was waiting for my products in the mail. I did a practice run with no blade in the razor just to go through the motions. Focus on applying no pressure. Let the weight of the razor do the work. Also, wet shaving is more "beard reduction" than a one pass clean shave. The first pass reduces the hair, the second pass gets you smooth, and the final pass gets you smooth as glass. Some are happy with only one or two passes though. Just don't go in trying to "scrape" all the hair off on the first pass. Also, when I started with a blade in the razor, I settled for a socially acceptable one or two pass shave for a few days. By the end of the first week or two, my times were down to 10 or 12 minutes and I was getting extremely close shaves.
I'm always to scared to shave against the grain. Is that what you do? I also use just some salicylic acid face wash every day, will that affect my shaves?
That face wash will be fine. Shaving against the grain is optional. It will get you the "best" shave, but you don't have to do it. However, I never shaved against the grain with a mach 3 or Fusion. That always lead to irritation. With a safety razor and a sharp blade I've never had problems.
I'm interested to get feedback from those who get started based on advice in this thread. We'll do our best to update and amend our advice to be more clear and less intimidating. I've managed to get quite a few people wetshaving using PM's, but I lost most of those during the transition to 3.0. I hope some of those folks will visit and share their experience.
I'm definitely going to get under your wing and be guided. I've always wanted to shave against the grain, but I've been afraid too. Plus I get complaints from the lady that my face is too rough and it hurts her.