Tell me your shaving journey

I've always enjoyed the ritual of shaving - even with a cartridge razor. Curiosity got the better of me and I started traditional wet shaving at the beginning of 2019. Proraso boar brush, Proraso sandalwood cream and a Merkur 34C. I then lurked on the forums for a few months, purchasing some vintage razors on ebay. My first expensive razor purchase was that same year - a RazoRock 84 Game Changer. £70! If I had been advised a £70 razor at the very beginning of the journey, I'd have walked away. Something I think we need to remember when offering noobs advice. I winced at my £35 34C!

Like @wayne_m , I was bitten by the madness. I've amassed hundreds of soaps and razors. Sold stuff to then buy the same thing again at a later date. I'm a collector (hoarder) by nature and enjoy collecting. I research incessantly and purchase - often buying the next thing before the last purchase has arrived. I enjoy my shaving but my interest in buying shaving related items is waning. Primarily due to the number of disappointments I've bought in the last 18 months. My collection is still large but it's stuff I know I like. Anything that doesn't work for me is sold. I'm not interested in faffing around to get stuff to work for me when I've got items I like within immediate reach. My new Sabre is my last shaving related purchase for a while. I need to caveat this - it's not because I'm restraining myself, my interest just lays elsewhere now.

Pens (again). I'm going at fountain pens like I did my shaving paraphernalia. Same incessant research and buying. It's just my nature - there'll always be something. It's also comforting to see the same bollocks arguments on pen forums as there is on shaving forums (new vs vintage, this material vs that material and common held beliefs that are probably deeply rooted in total bullshit). Do I feel guilty about my purchases? Slightly, I suppose. It's straight up consumerism. It's never at the expense of looking after my family though.

What have I learnt from my journey?:
  • A great shave can be had with cheap items but there is something to be said for having and using nice items.
  • Artisinal does not always mean quality and I've often experienced that price is not commensurate with quality.
  • Group think is really a thing. Not so much here but I've seen it on lots of forums.
  • I've been surprised by the gentlemanly nature of the shaving community. Despite the fact many of us have never met face-to-face, we trust each other with both our money and our expensive assets through loans etc. There can't be many corners of the Internet that operate like this.
 
Boycie83 said:
I've always enjoyed the ritual of shaving - even with a cartridge razor. Curiosity got the better of me and I started traditional wet shaving at the beginning of 2019. Proraso boar brush, Proraso sandalwood cream and a Merkur 34C. I then lurked on the forums for a few months, purchasing some vintage razors on ebay. My first expensive razor purchase was that same year - a RazoRock 84 Game Changer. £70! If I had been advised a £70 razor at the very beginning of the journey, I'd have walked away. Something I think we need to remember when offering noobs advice. I winced at my £35 34C!

Like @wayne_m , I was bitten by the madness. I've amassed hundreds of soaps and razors. Sold stuff to then buy the same thing again at a later date. I'm a collector (hoarder) by nature and enjoy collecting. I research incessantly and purchase - often buying the next thing before the last purchase has arrived. I enjoy my shaving but my interest in buying shaving related items is waning. Primarily due to the number of disappointments I've bought in the last 18 months. My collection is still large but it's stuff I know I like. Anything that doesn't work for me is sold. I'm not interested in faffing around to get stuff to work for me when I've got items I like within immediate reach. My new Sabre is my last shaving related purchase for a while. I need to caveat this - it's not because I'm restraining myself, my interest just lays elsewhere now.

Pens (again). I'm going at fountain pens like I did my shaving paraphernalia. Same incessant research and buying. It's just my nature - there'll always be something. It's also comforting to see the same bollocks arguments on pen forums as there is on shaving forums (new vs vintage, this material vs that material and common held beliefs that are probably deeply rooted in total bullshit). Do I feel guilty about my purchases? Slightly, I suppose. It's straight up consumerism. It's never at the expense of looking after my family though.

What have I learnt from my journey?:
  • A great shave can be had with cheap items but there is something to be said for having and using nice items.
  • Artisinal does not always mean quality and I've often experienced that price is not commensurate with quality.
  • Group think is really a thing. Not so much here but I've seen it on lots of forums.
  • I've been surprised by the gentlemanly nature of the shaving community. Despite the fact many of us have never met face-to-face, we trust each other with both our money and our expensive assets through loans etc. There can't be many corners of the Internet that operate like this.
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bro hug GIF
 
I used Mach 3 for years as it was only one that could fight with my thick whiskers. Usually I shaved every five or six days as it took time to heal from previous shave and shaving earlier just lead up to more irritation and ingrown hair. Once I started working it was a shame to show up with so much growth, more due to my feeling that it is wrong not because I was forced to. I started looking for a better shave and found some cheap boar brush and bought some Palmolive shaving cream. Thing were better but I still couldn't shorten the period between shaves. In 2017 my wife found new unboxed Astra 501 at her late grandfathers house and that was my entry into DE shaves as at that period of time there was literally no DE razor available to purchase in Montenegro, not even Wilkinson sword plastic one.

Soon after that I bought Edwin DE89, omega boar brush and proraso green soap which lead to possibility to shave every three days. After looking some YouTube videos I got more interested in shaving and stumbled upon the TSR and local shaving forum and from that point thing went down familiar way.

After trying many razors, soaps and brushes I settled with about 7 razors, around 15 soaps and synthetic brushes. That was up to the moment I started making brushes which made me more present at the forums and community. Having a hobby within hobby that can fund it lead to getting a few more razors and brushes and a lot more soaps.

Forgot to mention that I soon became daily shaver and that shaving is part of my morning ritual. I'm still enjoying every shave and only on rare occasions I skip one.

As @Boycie83 said community is exceptional and there are a lot of nice people and true gentleman. Every time I go to Belgrade, Serbia I met with fellow wetshavers from our forum and spend quality time together sharing shaving stuff and good talk.
 
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Boycie83 said:
A great shave can be had with cheap items but there is something to be said for having and using nice items.
Artisinal does not always mean quality and I've often experienced that price is not commensurate with quality.
Group think is really a thing. Not so much here but I've seen it on lots of forums.
I've been surprised by the gentlemanly nature of the shaving community. Despite the fact many of us have never met face-to-face, we trust each other with both our money and our expensive assets through loans etc. There can't be many corners of the Internet that operate like this.
Click to expand...

Need to frame that and put it at the top of the page. :cool:
 
dodgy said:
Like so many other forum members, I started out shaving my neighbors pets late at night. Then I figured what the hell, maybe I'll try shaving my own face.

For a while there, many cats were running around with a poodle cut. Yeah, it's a pretty common story I know.
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:ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO: There is always something new learn about the stuff that young blokes get up to at night in the UK.
 
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