Thread: I just got the best shave of my life... with a Mach3!

Last week my wife had two of her friends over for dinner. I showered and shaved and arrived in the kitchen just after the friends arrived. The spousal unit came to check my BBS face, smiled, turned to her friends and announced, "He's shaving with a straight razor now. Check it out."

The friends oohed and ahhed as their fingers carressed the surface of my freshly shaven visage. SWMBO smiled a wicked smile of superiority, as if daring her friends to compare my shave with the Norelco buzz of their men.

Why do I shave with a str8? Chicks dig it!

To paraphrase EB Sledge, cartridges are for "women and small children."

Dave the Beardinator

NB: The above is a true story. The names have been changed to protect the innocent and facts have been altered for a more interesting story.

yeah i like the Mach3 also. with proper technique the shaves are just as good as with the straight razor, but straight razors are much cheaper and more convenient, and doesn't clog. Mach3 is only good for maybe 2 shaves, and doesn't give you as much control over how close of a shave you want or allow you to do beard-etching designs.

I shaved with a Norelco electric when I was 16, then a Mach 3 from 17 to 22, and now just got my first badger and blade (a dovo), Christmas this year. My problem with the Mach 3 was the following: I was consitantly able to speed up the shave, such that by the time I was 21, I wouldn't even use shaving cream. Just warm water, and one, quick against-the-grain pass, and that was that. However, once I turned 21 and I started paying more attention to my quality of life, I began a concerted effort to slow it down, because frankly, life is just too short to not enjoy as many of the things you do as possible. You have to shave, so why not enjoy it? So shaving with the Mach 3 may render a very close shave when done with proper technique, but was it as meditative and relaxing an experience? Did it give you enough time alone with your thoughts? Did shaving with the Mach 3 seem as personal or intimate, knowing that the only difference that can exist between your Mach 3 and mine is that yours may be black and chrome and mine may be grey?

If you answer yes, then one wonders why you'd shave with a straight at all. However, something tells me you didn't answer yes.

Lastly, head over to the "general" threads and look for my post entitled "technique or hardware?" and throw your 2 cents in, because its in the same vein as this thread, and its getting a little one sided over there :P



For bpave777: LIVERPOOL, STILL ATOP THE TABLE!!!

Edit: Steven Gerrard arrested? Oh dear. Once a scouser hoodlum, always a scouser hoodlum lol.

Whatever you find works for you. Yes this is a forum devoted to shaving with a straight razor, but my personal opinion is, whatever works for YOU....great, keep doing it. Someone could say they've found that they get the best shave of their life with a burning ember held by their face and I'd say.....whatever works, my man!

Personally, I enjoy shaving with straight razors more than any other type to the point of excluding all others; A crowd of burning ember guys, Mach 67 guys, electric whatsis guys won't change my mind on that. But, if it works for them....you get the idea.

Chris L

Congratulations on your progress. As you have discovered, a great shave is made up of more than just using the "right" razor. As some of the guys have pointed out, once you add mastery of a straight to what you now know, the results will be spectacular. More than just a smooth face....you will have a real sense of satisfaction. I know I did.

Thanks for the post, and keep us up to date on how you are doing. You know where to come with questions.

Originally Posted by Tonsor

Last week my wife had two of her friends over for dinner. I showered and shaved and arrived in the kitchen just after the friends arrived. The spousal unit came to check my BBS face, smiled, turned to her friends and announced, "He's shaving with a straight razor now. Check it out."

The friends oohed and ahhed as their fingers carressed the surface of my freshly shaven visage. SWMBO smiled a wicked smile of superiority, as if daring her friends to compare my shave with the Norelco buzz of their men.

Why do I shave with a str8? Chicks dig it!

To paraphrase EB Sledge, cartridges are for "women and small children."

Dave the Beardinator

NB: The above is a true story. The names have been changed to protect the innocent and facts have been altered for a more interesting story.

right on you gotta love it. when me or my wife tell folks that i shave with a srt8 thier response "you shave with a what " or no way id kill myself with one of those never gets old. i am all the time trying to get people i know to switch right now im lucky if i can one out of 20 to try a straight but i have got a couple of people started i explain all of the benifits from a great shave and if they still arent convinced i direct them to srp to be enlightened

I can't count how many times I have agreed with a poster saying that they love shaving now but it used to be a disagreeable chore. I am Slant-Fan on the other shaving forums. I got into the wet shaving after decades of using a Gillette Good News and a Bic once in awhile. I have always been too cheap to buy the multi blade mach this and that.

I had been using a shaving brush since '73 as I was too cheap to buy canned goo. So I got into the wet shaving and soon spent a small fortune on vintage Gillettes and then slants. I love the Merkur slant, the Apollo, Ben Hur and various no names.

I had tried straights in the early '80s but gave it up as I couldn't catch on to honing and never did get as good a shave with a straight as I got with the Good News. Then a year ago I was introduced to this forum and learned to hone well enough to get a razor to where I can get a better shave then I did with the alternatives.

Better isn't necessarily closer. It is as close and maybe closer sometimes but it is definitely smoother and more comfortable. Rarely get a nick or a weeper. Weepers were common with my beloved Slant and a Feather.

As much as I love my slants I haven't gone back to one yet even once. Not that I might not take one out for a spin one day but I am still so infatuated with straights that I feel as if I would be wasting a shave to switch even for one day. Needless to say I love straight razor shaving.

It is nice to take a vintage Gillette HD Rocket or a Merkur slant and load a blade in it, lather up with a high quality soap or cream and wipe the whiskers off but anyone can do that. The total involvement I have with my straight in honing it to a scary sharp edge, stropping and then manipulating it to shave my face is far more satisfying to me. I kind of bond with some of my straights in a way I never could with those other contraptions.