Why did you switch?

I had been shaving with a variety of disposables and cartridges for over 20 years. During that time I also used different brands of canned foam. My shaves were acceptable, but not really enjoyable. Several months ago I switched to a DE razor. I have also jumped into using a brush and a variety of soaps and creams. I still have some cans of foam to use up, but probably won't buy more. My point in telling this is that I have made an assumption. I believe that there are very few people who have ONLY shaved with a straight razor, and haven't ever tried any type of safety razor. Therefore I am assuming that most people here started with a disposable, or a cartridge razor, or even a DE, and probably canned foam.

So, after some rambling, my question is, why did you switch?

I am happy using my DE, and I'm still experimenting with soaps and creams. I am also finding that the cheaper soaps, and even the canfoam still work okay. I am considering trying a straight, mainly because I think it would be fun, not necessarily "better" than my DE. Any opinions appreciated.

Thanks
Don

I have shaved with every type of razor out there
from disposables to electric. I ended up with
the DE and a badger brush and soap, mainly because
I'm into nostalgic things. I found that it gave a
good shave so I stuck with it. I recently stumbled
upon straight shaving, and for the same nostalgic
reasons, gave it a shot. I can say that the
shaves are better and more relaxing and enjoyable.
The routine I have has a calming effect in some
weird way. You definitely have to set some time
aside to do it, but it's well worth it to me.

John

For me, electric razors have always given me the worst performance bar none. The shaves with an electric for me don't last through the day AND I would grow a perennial crop of ingrown hairs on my neck.

Cartridge razors and canned goo were better, but expensive and I would still be prone to razor burn and same crop of ingrowns.

DE was the best of the three and although I use a straight razor exclusively, I'm not entirely adverse to the idea of maybe using a DE when I can't use a straight (if that situation ever arises). Although even with a light touch and the correct blade angle with a DE, it's easy for that crop of neck ingrowns to creep up on me.

Enter.....straight razors. Complete control of the blade and blade angle during the shave. The number of ingrown hairs I've had on my neck since starting with straight razors I could count on one or maybe two hands. Also, my neck, whisker wise, is the cleanest it's ever been. My shaves with WTG and XTG passes (I don't really find a need for ATG) last 12 hours or longer. I liken using a straight razor to driving an auto with a manual transmission (which I do): Complete control. I liken a DE to one of those modified manual transmissions that are really an automatic but you can play with it like it's a manual. Then I liken an electric to an automatic transmission.

Shaving with a straight takes me longer, but if I'm in a hurry and I don't have an important event (appointment/meeting, etc), doing a single WTG pass is not perfectly smooth, but it still looks closer than if you lined me up next to a row of other guys that just shaved with an electric.

Chris L

I've been shaving exclusively with a straight for about a year. Reasons:

1. The ritual. (the adherence to tradition, the skill of the practitioner, the sophistication of the implements, the elevation of the mundane)

2. I got tired of fighting electric razors. They were all expensive junk.

3. To impress my friends with my dangerous, exotic, sexy hobby.

4. After years of being hurried by other responsibilities (wife, job, family) I finally claim this 20 minutes a day for me.

I like the freedom that comes from honing your own blades. I also like to know that I saved almost all of my razors from the rubbish bin and got them ready to go. A little less litter goes a long way ;).

I have to say that I was drawn to the straight razor due to the environmental benefits which is I suppose a new way of thinking about it. I was sick of paying nearly 20 dollars for 8 M3 blades and wanted to get away from so much waste. I was reading a book on green living and it talked about straight razors. After reading this forum I decided to get one and have been loving it. The shaves are better, more relaxing and I am not throwing away plastic cartridges all the time.

I switched because I was tired of paying Gillette for the privilege of increasing the landfill.
I stick with it because it also provides me with a superior shave.

X

Originally, I switched to straights because of the cool factor combined with the history/tradition of it. Mainly, though, I thought it was "sexy." Now, however, I do it because I truly believe I get better shaves with a straight than with a DE.

Also, as I've recently gotten more into straight shaving, I find that I really want to learn to hone in order to be completely self-sufficient. That wasn't a priority when I first switched, but now I think part of the appeal is being able to shave without depending on others (either honemeisters or replacement blades for DEs).

What X said. Although, I must admit that the fiscal consideration was the predominant factor, and the landfill secondary.

I remember saying to myself (and my wife) "Cut throats will be much cheaper in the long run"....:roflmao :roflmao :roflmao

James.

I'm still in the process of switching over completely, but I like most that it requires some skill. No one is really great at it when they first start. It takes practice and some commitment. Plus it is a little out of the ordinary.

To save Money???? hahahahahaha yeah right!!!!!
To save the planet??? nope
Cool factor??? Hmmmm warmer
Can't shave comfortably with anything else??? Yeah that's getting there..
More ME time???? Love that..
Because I want straight lines on my beard, and to get straight lines, you need a straight edge???? Yep thats the one main reason...

Personalization: short of going out and crafting your own gear from raw materials, this is as personal as your shave gear can get

It's on my list of "100 things to do before I die."

Besides, I like doing things the old fashioned way. I write with a fountain pen, I wind my wristwatch (a real showstopper in the middle of a meeting :) ), and shoot film on a camera older than I am, with no built in light meter.

Speaking of the latter, when I make a good photograph, I get a real sense of satisfaction, that I actually MADE the picture, as opposed to some computer chip in the camera making decisions for me (YMMV, of course). I guess the same thing applies to straight shaving, for me.

I was a DE shaver before - I had two main reasons for switching, in order of importance:

a) It just seemed really cool.

b) Not having to replace blades/cartridges (environmentalism and independence).

Since switching I've discovered I genuinely get better shaves, but the truth is I get very acceptable shaves much more easily with a DE. I'd actually be much better off going with a DE for convenience but convenience isn't my priority.

I would tend to agree with several of the other members who have posted already. I tried disposables before, the two and three bladed crap, which did nothing but tear up my face really bad. I then went to the electric lawnmowers for about 9 years, and the shave was horrible, and often led to ingrown hairs. Enter straight razors about a year ago and I have never turned back. I feel great using them, it makes my face feel wonderful, it is the closest smoothest shave without comparison, and the nostalgic feeling doesn't hurt either. Do I still use something else, sure, I will use the DE once in a great while, and that is when I am late for work and have to do the honest-to-goodness 1 minute shave. That happens about once a month, and I spend the rest of the day wanting to go home and re-shave. If it wasn't for the fact that I am afraid someone would break it, I would keep a razor at the office along with a mug and some soap. In my opinion, there is nothing better when it comes to shaving.

I guess that, what attracted me to the straight razor is that most people don't use them anymore, let alone know how to sharpen them. Straights do seem to be good for my skin too. I still use Injectors,DE's and Gem razors but the straight razor is in a class all it's own.
Ernest

+1 to everything above. My main reason wasn't so much price as I forgot to get new blades whenever I needed them, plus I love the ritual.

on a side note I've been trying to get the director of my theater group into it, so I gave him a demo tonight with the straight... the whole cast came up to watch.

All of the ladies were quite impressed... quite. I'll leave it at that.

When they sent me a free Fusion razor in the mail. This thing has 5 blades, for goodness sake. When will it all end? And the cost of refills?
Forget it. Right about then, on another forum, someone mentioned straight razor shaving, and linked to several sites and forums on the subject. I started reading, and thinking, and a few months later away I went.
Straight razor shaving appeals to me the same way reloading my own ammo, casting bullets from melted lead, making beer, etc...does.

I was tired of everything to do with gillette. The pulling the ingrowns the smell of shaving foam. I hate it all and now I have a real challenge that I can tackle every day.
It's an exercise in the mind too which is great. I prefer to think about everything I do carfully rather than avoid it.

shaving with a mach 3 I left blood in the sink... no matter what I did.
shaving was painful and expensive. I could get a better shave with my pocket knife, and often did when camping, but that was still far from satisfactory.
So I decided to try a straight. (Thank god for the members here, and all the great information.)
I threw away my Mach 3 over a year ago and haven't looked back. I also put the knife away, it pulled too much. Honing and custom handles has virtually paid for all (6) of my razors... (at one point I had over 50, but I thinned it down and just kept the ones I use all the time)

reasons for switching
1 $$$ when I started I had 1 razor I honed it on a barber hone till it shaved pretty well, and saved a lot on cartridges...

2 comfort I really want that BBS shave, no other method has gotten close without causing problems

3 cool factor/nostalgia most people don't believe you if you tell them you shave with a straight, once it's confirmed though, you gain some serious respect.

4 independence... I will never have to pay anyone to get a good shave. no disposables, no electricity involved, society could get knocked back to the stone age, and I'll still be clean shaven while everybody else fights over that last pink lady bic... and no more trying to get 40 shaves out of one mach 3 cartridge

Haven't used an electric for over twenty years, and even then I didn't really enjoy it. Just walked around looking like the unkempt youth that I was - inside and out! I suppose my main reason for change, and this just at the start of the year, is partly to do with an appreciation of taking my time over certain things. Willing to put the effort into learning something that you can't do overnight. A sense of achievement and relaxation in the process. I have also got back into fountain pens and thoroughly enjoy the variety of choice and decisions I can take to suit mood and occasion. Nib sizes, ink etc. etc. I guess that a few people here are the same and maybe there is room for a 'Young Fogey' section to cater for this:) . This is all about relaxation for me - suffice to say I am thoroughly enjoying it and that's even at the stage where my shave quite often resembles a badgers arse! At least it smells nicer!!

cheers
Stephen

When I switched from Mach III to DE I found the shaving forums and the wonderful world of Badger Brushes and nice soaps and creams. I was finally getting a great shave and new at that point this is how I was going to shave from now on. Well in the forums there were threads about Straight Shaving and I picked up an interest and soon was trying that. I had already perfected the prep so it was a matter of time and experience before I was getting smoother and closer shaves from the Straight than I was getting from the DE. Now I say this is the way I am going to shave from now on. No looking back.

bj

I've got the worst of both worlds beard-wise. My beard hair is thick, hard to shave and prone to ingrowing. My beard concentration is such that if I let it grow for a few months, I get what can best be described as a shaggy five o'clock shadow.

First I tried finding the right shaving cream. This lead me to brush and bowl methods which gave me a closer and better shave than the best aerosol shave cream.

At the time I was using a gillette two-blade razor. When the Mach 3 came out, it worsened my razor burn. Ditto the four blade versions. Razor burn was also a problem (and the one time I tried electric... eugh, no shaving but tons of razor burn, how does that happen?). When shifting from my CVS-bought Burma Shave boar brush to a nicer brush, I discovered places like classic shaving.

First I switched to a double edge, trying the low-end model and eventually shifting to the Merkur Futur. I was getting a much better shave, much lower ingrowns and razor burn. I still wasn't satisfied with my shave (my face was mostly smooth, but I still looked spotty after a shave), but was put off by the start-up cost of straight razing. Plus, I had a habit of giving myself pretty horriffic nicks with my safety razor, and was worried about doing worth with an un-safety razor.

Eventually I decided to take the plunge and have been kicking myself for not doing it sooner. My face looks shaven after a shave (what a concept!), no razor burn, and fewer nicks which heal faster (I may be the exception here, but most of my nicks with the DE were probably from catching the corner of the blade when trying to get the difficult areas of my face shaven, which would bleed through lunch, the straight nicks are long lines, but are so clean-cut they barely bleed).

The lack of waste is also appealing to me, but is secondary or tertiary. I felt pretty comfortable about the relatively low level of waste my DE produced.

Also, I feel more manly and more of an anachronism. Both of these, particularly the latter, are good things.

As for saving money, as a former pipe smoker I pretty much expect that I'll never have enough straight razors. Since buying my first straight razor and strop, I've purchased a second one of each. I've been using a straight razor for less than a month. (But I had to get a razor that wasn't shave ready so I could learn how to hone, and I needed a second strop to travel with, so really, these were necessities.)

Nostalgia is part of it for me. I can remember waking up every morning around 5:30 am to the sound of my dad making lather in his shaving mug. He always "clinked" the brush handle against the side of the mug. My Mother recently ran across his straight razor and gave it to me, so I thought I would give it a try. He never taught me to shave with a straight though; for me it was a Schick Injector. Dad has been gone for some time but the morning ritual always makes me think of him.

Been using the 2 blade gillette since I started shaving. A couple of years ago, my wife got me a L'occitane boars hair brush and cade soap. Around sept 2007 , I was in Atlantic City and I saw the Art of Shaving store at the Piers. I picked up some pre-shave oil and their sandalwood soap. I also saw some of the expensive razor holders and straights they were selling. After some window shopping, I figured I better do some research before plunking down some money on a straight razor .

I found a video of Lynn shaving on youtube and then I found this forum.. It's all history from there. I now enjoy my shave time and the ritual every three-four days.

I've been fascinated by blades of all types since I could walk, pretty much, so naturally I wanted to try shaving with a straight. My first attempts didn't go so well, once my beard started to come in for real it turned out I was very prone to ingrown hairs. Eventually they got so bad all I could use was an electric that didn't really shave so much as trim close, then Remington stopped making blades for it. Re-enter straight razor and, more importantly, alum block. Now I can get a close shave without looking like a diseased freak. It takes a while, but it's worth it. So basically I came for the nostalgia and stayed for the results.

Everyone asks me "WHY!?" when I tell them. I don't know why. I was bored one day and I have a slightly addictive/collectible personality, so when I stumbled upon something that requires me to learn something AND I could collect it, I jumped all over it. How do I explain that to my girlfriend and family?

"Meh...I'm crazy/stupid. Hey, you're the one who's dating me. What's that say about you?"

The first bladed razor I ever used was the Mach3 that Gillette sent me in the mail when I turned 18. Until that time, I had been using an electric, didn't really know better. I was astonished at how much closer the Mach3 was, just using soap and water. Been addicted to wetshaving ever since.

Last year I was in Walmart buying some shave gel when I saw a little brush/bowl/soap set, and thought, "what the hell" and started using that. Much to my surprise, the vibrating Fusion I was using at the time gave a much smoother (not closer, but slicker) shave with the brushed lather. From there, I sort of got into different soaps, and then eventually found that there were modern manufacturers of straights, and took the plunge with a cheesy Dovo/Conk hone/strop/razor set.

From there it just sort of spiralled into an addiction :)

Why? Well, it's just cool. Straight razors are cool. Shaving with the sharpest sort of blade known to man mere millimeters from your vital blood vessels is manly and awesome. I don't care about the cartridges in landfills thing, nor am I going to delude myself that I am somehow saving money by using a straight. (Coupla hundred bucks so far THIS YEAR, and it's only Feb :-P wife is gonna kill me) Controversially, I really have not found the straight to give me a smoother shave (here come the flames) than a Gillette with a fresh cartridge and a multi-pass shave. I got BBS shaves nearly every time with a disposable, so I can't point to end-result quality as the reason, either. I just think it's cool.

I never shaved with a disposable, and looked in the mirror and said, "damn, this is fun." It was a chore. Not any more exciting or rewarding than zipping my trousers or tying my shoes... just another thing to do before I head to the office. With the straight, I look forward to shaving. It's a treat. It's a challenge. It's just plain FUN. 6 months now, and I still get a smile on my face when I start thrashing up some lather in the scuttle. I find myself planning my schedule so I can have at least half an hour to enjoy a nice leisurely shave. On days when I am too busy to get to shave, I find myself feeling disappointed.

The whole experience is fun. Honing, while repetitive, is soothing to me, sort of like cranking out ammo on a progressive press. Repetitive, but you have to pay attention or you can really hurt yourself. (anyone ever touch off a round that you inadvertently double charged? :eek: you can only make that mistake once) Stropping is a cherished ritual that requires a steady hand and a keen eye. The delightful scents of a dozen different soaps, each more exciting than the last, is a subtle thrill that can't be understood unless it's been experienced. The bracing fire of a spicy bayrum slapped on your freshly shaved cheeks is better than any kind of espresso at getting you going in the morning. The fresh smell and clean feeling you get when you walk out the door with a newly shaven and moisturized face will put more hitch in your giddyup than a fancy shirt or new shoes.

What can I say? I'm a huge shaving nerd.

I saw a statistic somewhere recently about the number of cartridges/refills that end up in the landfills...does anyone remember that number?

I'm excited about the ritual, and I love old-fashioned ways of doing things. Since I have yet to perform my first shave with a straight, I can't answer completely. But shaving with everything else sucks.

I guess the only thing unusal about myself here, is that I am in the process of switching over (or upgrading). The reasons that I have that have not been mentioned already is that I like the idea that I am doing the job the way my father, grandfather and great grand father did before me. Sort of honoring my ancestors by doing the job the way they did. I have several double edge razors that bare a striking resemblence to the razors my father and grand father used, and the straight takes the same idea and goes one generation further with the same idea. My great grandpop used a straight, saw no reason for these "new fangled things" when the straight did such a great job on him for most of his life.

My reason was simple:

I hated shaving, and figured that making it into an art would make me like it more and do it more often.

the price i was spending on razors that didnt make my face feel good was what got me started shaving with a straight and now its an obsession. i just love the way it makes my face feel and all the different ways you can custom a razor. i never got excited about showing my friends mach 3 but i do get excited when i get to show them my straight collection.

I started to save money....(I was looking for cheaper M3 cartidges on e-bay) I though...I'll never have to buy cartidges again. But now I've spent about the same amount I think. It'll even out and in the end I will save money.

But when I realised I just got better shaves...(my neck used to be all red and painfull after a shave) I got hooked. I'll never give it up now. No reason to.