Thread: How did you get hooked?

Hello, everyone:

I wanted to shave with the straight razor as far back as I can remember. Why exactly I don't know. For sure I did not think about the benefits of using a straight, or the savings.

I think it was because of the romance in shaving with a straight razor, much in the way I would have liked to live next door to Dickens, Chopin and all the rest of the good guys from the 19th century.

One day, several years ago, I made my decision and proceeded. Except for a short interruption because of physical problems with my hands, I haven't stopped. Now I stand before the mirror every morning and nod with much pleasure for having made one of the best decisions of my life.

Regards,

Obie

I was interested in knives and keeping them sharp, which eventually sent me over to this forum. I got hooked just lurking around here.

I've only been into this for a little while, about 6 months or so. I was introduced to it by my bro who is in the USMC. Actually, he tried to introduce me to DE shaving, as he was introduced to it by a buddy of his while in Iraq.
I started looking into DE shaving and found a lot of SR stuff coming up, which piqued my interest. Being the older brother, I, of course, had to "one-up" my bro, so I decided to take the plunge. One of my other bros had a couple of brushes and some creams that he wasn't using, so he sent them to me, along with a small selection of DE blades, and I went out and bought a shavette from a local beauty supply store and started in.
The shave was O.K., nothing to write to mom and dad about, but I stopped getting those danged ingrown hairs on my neck and lower lip, so I said "This is for me!" Plus the brush and cream felt so much better than the canned crap. Now I've got 3 traditional SRs that I rotate through and love every minute of the shaves. In fact, if I don't have time to take my time with the shaves, I will just skip it until I do.
As so many others here, I have taken a vow that I will never, ever use a cartridge razor again. In fact, I'm not even going to allow my boys to use one, once they get old enough to shave, I'll be teaching them with a SR.

I'm a former Marine myself, and I've got to admit I started playing with straight razors for the same reason I joined the Corps... It's cool/ comes across as dangerous/ something the average Joe wouldn't dare to try