Thread: What Was Your Inspiration To Straight Shave?

started by being tired of every canned product breaking me out. bout a grocery store brush and a puck of burts bees bay rum. Got a merkhur de as a Christmas gift a few months later. first shave no nicks no burn I was hooked. I was fascinated by straight razors as a kid and took the leap with a dovo ebony spike. fast forward two years and am restoring and honing for myself and others and love it. Still have my de for quickies and the Heck of it.

Well, I had deep vein thrombosis which developed into a pleural effusion. I was on blood thinning medications for awhile and stopped shaving all together. You do not want to cut yourself while on blood thinners. I mean the likely hood of a cutting myself bad with a cart would be low but why risk it. Anyway, about a year after that I started getting involved with church again. This religious organization prefers its members to look clean cut and wholesome. Once,during an interview process, I was scolded for maintaining a beard.Wow, I was pissed but I acquiesced. I decided if I was going to shave again I was going to do it the 'right way' and scars be damn. I even thought to myself, 'I am going to name every cut after President so and so. I mean how dare he tell a grown man how to look. OK, maybe not the healthiest way to enter into this world but I am here now and I am not going back.

Yeah I hate canned crap. The first thing I ever shaved with was an electric. Worst shaving experience I've ever had, and had to use it for about a year. I hated "shaving" then. My first shave with a straight was pretty good and I know each subsequent time will get better and better. I also love the soaps and creams because you have unlimited possibilities with scents, lather thickness, etc. With the canned crud you only have a few choices and whatever scent they have it has HEAVY chemical smells and a mix of god knows what, sometimes I thought with all the different chemicals in it that having all those on my face when I finished shaving my face would look like the joker! Seeing it a shave stroke at a time until I was done and looked like this



Kinda Looks like an advertisement for canned shaving cream doesn't it? Lol

But with new and improved Joker brand, you'll get a grin again and again.

I originally started researching for a way to not have to buy cartridges all the time. For a while I was only shaving every 2 or 3 days just to keep from spending the money. As I was researching I realized there were many other benefits so finally took the plunge in October. I wish I would have done it a long time ago. I still shave about every 2 or 3 days but that is now because the shave is so close I don't need to shave more often (unless I really need a very clean look that day for work).

Indeed Mephisto!

It was nostalgia for me.

It actually started as a desire for a barber shave, which didn't go well. I found SRP and discovered that it wasn't just barbers that used straights but that men all over the world were using SR's to shave themselves. I slowly started buying my kit and that was that

I think it was because I had decided to shave everyday for work by choice.
I had lot of free time and decided to get a straight, bought an ebay mistake, found srp, bought a not mistake from oz and I was up and running.
Though those events may have not quite happened in that order, but boredom, daily shaving, free time, ebay and srp we're all involved somewhere.

Seems to me there was a similar thread a while back asking the same question. For me, it was a decision to make my dermatologist's work a little easier as he had to sort through my full beard to find all the little spots he likes to freeze off at every visit. Went to a goatee as a compromise (no spots on chin). Can't say I was unhappy about losing a full 40 years of growing a beard - change is good - since I found a new, albeit expensive, addiction on the right side of the law. I now look for cheaper ways to sate my addictions within str8 shaving.

Originally Posted by Razorfeld

Seems to me there was a similar thread a while back asking the same question. For me, it was a decision to make my dermatologist's work a little easier as he had to sort through my full beard to find all the little spots he likes to freeze off at every visit. Went to a goatee as a compromise (no spots on chin). Can't say I was unhappy about losing a full 40 years of growing a beard - change is good - since I found a new, albeit expensive, addiction on the right side of the law. I now look for cheaper ways to sate my addictions within str8 shaving.

Hmm, perhaps I should have checked out my answer from there, it might be different, or correct, I think this answer is correct, I definitely had all of the ingredients, just not sure of the order.