Thread: Newbie considering moving to Straight

I shave every 2 - 3 days.
Alum is good if you are an SM kind of guy and enjoy pain. I never use it. Others do. It's a matter of preference.

Btw, you might be surprised about the price difference between the US and Europe. Those things come from here but the euro is much stronger than teh dollar.

I live in Belgium (duh) and the coticule quarry is only 100 km from here. The get sold in a couple of places, including the 'koordenwinkel' in antwerp.
Now, I check this a couple of times, but it is cheaper for me to order a coticule from howard than in antwerp. And that includes shipping.

So that piece of stone is packaged, sent to the US, shipped back to Belgium (insured), the money changes hands 2 or 3 times and there are currency conversions in between, and is is STILL cheaper than what I would pay for the same stone in the shop. and that excludes the money I 'd have to spend on gas to driver to the shop.

In fact, I haven't checked but if you compare prices between shavingshop.com (Belgium) and classicshaving.com(US), I would be surprised if classicshaving is not a lot cheaper.

I use an alum block every now and again. It does tighten things up. It also tingles some when you use it. I actually like using it, I just forget I have it.