Thread: What Was Your Inspiration To Straight Shave?

Originally Posted by babbott

I had replaced the handle of a pruning saw with some spalted maple that had been laying around the shop. I liked the look of it, so i did a google search of spalted maple projects and found SRP. I got a few ebay razors, made scales and once i was finishes I had to learn to use them.

Now that is an original reason to pick up straight razor shaving!

I was given a multiblade plastic shaver and when I ran out of cartridges saw the cost of each box, and figured there might be a better way. I found you could strop these things and I got almost a year out of one cartridge. This stropping reminded me of barbershops so I thought of straight razors (I had seen some for sale in the street in a trip to Bolivia). I was lucky I found this site and started lurking around. I bought my first real straight, and I'm sold. Shaves are a lot of fun now.

Originally Posted by vicmaldo

I was given a multiblade plastic shaver and when I ran out of cartridges saw the cost of each box, and figured there might be a better way. I found you could strop these things and I got almost a year out of one cartridge. This stropping reminded me of barbershops so I thought of straight razors (I had seen some for sale in the street in a trip to Bolivia). I was lucky I found this site and started lurking around. I bought my first real straight, and I'm sold. Shaves are a lot of fun now.

Excellent story and well said!

Cheers!

...and then Dad did us the honor of dying in his mid-40s, before he ever got around to initiating my younger brother and me into the Art of Shaving. His gear was nothing spectacular: a 1969 Gillette TTO "Black Handle", some unforgettable brush, and Everyman's shaving-soap/aftershave duo: "Old Spice". But he never got around to teaching us.

My teenage years passed in-sync with the turbulent 1960s, and if/when I shaved my face, it was with someone else's not-too-fresh Gillette "Trac II" and a pressurized can of Gillette "Foamy" shaving cream, with a splash or two of "Brut" or "Canoe." After Woodstock, "the song remained the same" through five years of service in the US Army (Infantry); although, IIRC, I traded the Gillette "Foamy" for Schick's "Hot Lather" (postings in AK and W. Germany).

Then twenty-five years in Israel, with no shaving, then back to the US and a now-"vintage" Gillette "Trac II" with more Gillette "Foamy". And then I discovered "that other wet-shaving forum"... you know, the one that reminds you of that overpriced B&B that your wife convinced you to spend a week at. Yeah, that one. So I got into safety razors: Gillette DEs and Schick SE injectors, I bought a not-inexpensive (but "cheap") silvertip badger shaving brush, along with several cakes of The Gentlemen's Quarter (TGQ) shaving soap (hat-tip to Colleen Hurley, aka Churley) and several tubs of QED shaving soap (hat-tip to Charles). And it was good.

But then, my tattoo artist -- JimmyHAD -- showed me some pre-1800 straight razors he had, that he wanted to sell (No, I didn't buy or try any of them). I wasn't hooked, but was very curious, and discovered SRP and its online forums. I bought my first straight razor in late-November 2006, along with a Russian shell strop; several more straight razors followed in the coming weeks, and "A Star Was Born".

The OP asked about "inspiration" to start straight-razor shaving. I think that, for me, it was the very European "side of the house" which resonated with my Euro-centric upbringing and experiences while stationed in W. Germany and my years in Israel. I looked (and continue doing so) at wet shaving as a genteel, masculine way of doing a routine chore, while elevating it (and me) to a higher cultural level. As an American-born-and-raised male, much of it was culturally counterintuitive: (for example, learning that the #1 male shaving scent -- soap/cream and whatever level of afterscent -- was "rose"). But,as the one said in Monty Python's "The Holy Grail", "I got better". Straight-razor shaving IS "suave and debonair", no question about it. So, I "walk the walk", but I sure don't dress the part; nope, not here, in South Florida. The dynamic is "The Big Lebowski" meets Jermyn Street.

It's become even more enjoyable -- "fun", even -- what with the various OTD threads (Shave and Fragrance, to name but two of many) in which I regularly participate, and all the rest on SRP. But the original inspiration was one of self-betterment, plain and simple. And it worked!

I was a kid, maybe 10 years old, and watching my old man shave with a Gillette something or other. I hadn't seen him in 7 years, didn't remember what he looked like even, as there were no photos. The marriage didn't end well and Mom didn't keep any pix of that one. Anyhow, in passing he told me that if he had his druthers he would rather shave with a straight razor, but because of his vagabond lifestyle it wasn't happening. So I never forgot that offhand remark.

Somewhere around 1972 or '73 my then wife and I were in a shopping center and stumbled upon Hoffritz For Cutlery. I bought a relatively high end badger brush @ $80.00 USD, a strop that was branded as Russian, and a CV Heljestrand with white celluloid scales @ $35.00 USD. IIRC I picked up an Old Spice shaving mug and puck. The razor was very attractive but it didn't offer the shave my DE or maybe it was a Schick injector by then, so I threw it in a drawer and just continued to use the brush. Eventually running out of the puck and reverted to lathering with whaever bar of soap was handy in my palm. Face latherer.

In 1984 I had gotten crossways with my union business agent and if I was going to work it wasn't going to be in the state of FL so I hit the road and found myself in northern NJ. I became friends with a barber who collected straight razors. I caught the bug and began collecting them too. He gravitated to fancy decorated celluloid scales while I was an Sheffield horn and ivory man so our collecting didn't really conflict. I amassed a pretty impressive collection and learned to shave with a straight from a 70 year old barber that worked with my buddy.

I had bought a few coticules from various local barbers, learned to hone, after a fashion, from my 70 year old friend , but he told me to use the 'weight of the blade' and no more than 5 round trips, or I'd "lose the edge." So I guess he must have been referring to touch ups because that method didn't work very well for the stuff I was picking up. I lasted awhile with the SR shaving but as my few shave ready razors got dull, and I couldn't bring them back to shave ready, I took the path of least resistance and went back to the Gillette "Good News" twin blade disposables with my Hoffritz brush and the bar of soap. Shaving after all, was a PITA that had to be done so the quicker and easier the better.

I sold most of my straights, just keeping a couple of dozen of my favorite stub tails, Sheffields and a few Solingen full hollows. Lugged them around until 2006 and decided to ebay them. Regrettably I offed the three vintage coticules as well. My friend JB Horen was a computer whiz and I asked him to look at my listings to see if the pix and descriptions were good. This wound up piquing his interest and the next thing I knew he told me he was going to get into shaving with straights. I tried to discourage him from wasting his time and money in pursuing this inferior and atiquated method of shaving but he is bull headed and I may as well have been talking to the wall.

So he jumped in with both feet and the next thing I know he is shaving with vintage straights and ancient Gillete 3 piece DEs to boot. He told me about the shaving forums and I began perusing them. Bought some DEs, brushes, and eventually, having sold all but one of my straight razor collection, some straights. Thanks to Lynn Abrams and to Randydance, among others, I learned how to hone, and to shave with the dad blamed things. A few years in I was getting shaves equal, or better, than I could get with any other method. I'm now at the stage where unless I'm really running too late for church I won't even consider shaving any other way. No other way to live.

Some of you guys have great inspirational stories. My Dad and Grandpa taught me to shave with straights and to keep them sharp. other than my rebellious/ slob years of wearing a beard and the very occasional DE shaves when traveling I have always used a straight. Ok, barring some "experimenting " in college with a disposable for a couple of shaves (it was not a fun time), that is the short story of my shaving.

enjoy,
jim

For me it's a series of fortunate events.
I learned to shave by myself, my father was ill and didn't live at home. He also shaved with an electric razor, so don't know how much he could have taught me. Electric razors aren't my cup of tea.
The first blades I used were the very cheap disposable ones. But I did have a brush and soap. And now I realize the lather wasn't good at all
Later I moved to the Gilette family, what can I say, I didn't know any better
As far as I know, nobody in my family or none of my friends use a straight razor.
The only one I knew, using a DE razor, was my grandmother. Yeah, don't ask
Now we get to more recent history.

Years ago I read an article about two dutch guys who wrote a book about the art of shaving, a book of which dozens exist I believe
They were also giving shaving courses, you had to send an email for more information and of course I lost the adress.
A few months ago i started looking around again, started at a site of a shop in a city nearby, got to youtube through a link of how Dovo razors are made, got to the videos Lynn made and ended up here.

I just think it's great thing to be able to shave in a way that goes back, very very far.
And I have to admit, doing something a lot of people don't, is just great. Like a secret brotherhood

My interest started while on vacation in Vegas. My wife and I were walking around and I spotted an Art of Shaving in the Venetian, so we went in for a look. I was initially just in there to look at the handles for the fusion I was using at the time, and my wife ended up buying a set up for me for my b-day. While we were there I found out they did shaves, and I had put a straight shave on my bucket list, so I went for one of those too. In hindsight it was probably a shavette and not a straight, but at the time I couldn't have told you the difference.

Months later, after returning to my fusion, the thought of how much better that shave was kept coming back and I tried to track down a B&M store near me. The closest thing I could find was in Kelowna, and as luck would have it, that was where the family reunion was that summer. So I waited, and picked one up just before we left. Then I joined SRP to learn a bit before I put this thing on my face. Some reading, YouTube, and a visit to Rob to have it honed up and I was off to the races.

My first shave was my Movember shave last year, and I initially thought straight shaving would be something to do when I was home, and that road shaves would still be the fusion, but going back to the cart caused my neck to explode. I setup my travel bag with a loom strop and a couple razors and it became the only way to go.

My collection started out innocently enough, after starting with my BQ, I found two razors at an antique store and had them restored so I could have a back up, then I found eBay and things got out of hand. Not helping things any, while visiting my grandfather in Arizona, he showed me where to look down there, and being a collector of things himself, gave me his collection of all things grooming.

The one part of my journey that makes me chuckle is my father. At another family function in Vegas, he and I went to visit Max, and try as I might to get a word in, my father was asking every question I had before I could get it out. After our visit, while we were out on a hike, he asked my to set him up with a kit. So I ended up teaching my father the ways of wet shaving.

Well, my answer is still the same as in an old thread started by Lynn:

Originally Posted by Otto

I’m on a quest for the ultimate shave.
- I started shaving with a DE in 1979
- I also had a "mini-lawnmower", but I gave it up. It was too painfull. I haven't tried one since about 1990.
- About 1988 I got a straight razor shave from a barber north of Seattle. It was just amazing.

A few years ago I bought a straight razor just to try if it was even better than the DE.

Then I found this great site. Got RAD and will never turn back to any other method of shaving.

Thanks Lynn, for starting all of this.

One day quite a few years ago I was talking to an old High School Chum and he just happened to mention if I ever got rid of that ugly scar I had on my leg and it got me to thinking about that time a bunch of us got into a row with a neighboring gang and one of them grabs my chum and held a straight razor to his throat. Fortunately he didn't have the nerve to do any real damage but after we disarmed him and sent his buddies running for their lives we got this dude and I said to him, "you know, I hear tell these razors are made to be used for shaving not for cutting guys up".

We then held him down and proceeded to demonstrate to him the true purpose of a straight. Unfortunately for him none of us knew anything about straights and shaving but we gave him a shave he'd never forget. When we let him go he was a bloody mess and in the tassel I got the scar and as I now recalled the incident something just made me go and look for a straight and actually teach myself how to use it.

I still have that first razor, a TI and use it now and then.