How I taught my dad to shave.

Hey gang,

Been meaning to write this up for a while now, finally got around to it:

As I mentioned in my welcome post to this forum, I never got taught how to shave as a kid. When my older brother and were growing up, my dad always always used an electric razor to shave his modest stubble, and, by the time I started growing bum fluff, I had to adapt a way of shaving with a cartridge razor from TV ads and tips from my brother. After many years of cartridge razor shaving, my partner got me a DE razor kit after I gushed over a hot-towel barbershop shave I got before I was a Best Man. I was an easy convert and very quickly moved onto shavette and then straight razor shaving from there.

My dad turned 60 last year, and, having long ago abandoned the electric razor (he started to get skin infections) had been hacking away with the latest Gillette razors on a daily basis. I got him for his birthday a Merkur HD, best badger brush and soap and, while I was staying with my folks over Christmas, taught him how to use them.

Every time I catch up with the old man, he'll tell me how he's going with his new gear and says that he loves the ritual of building a lather and wielding the DE (Mum says she also appreciates the smooth shave afterwards :P). He's found he likes Astra blades as much as me, so I was able to load him up with my surplus to keep him shaving.

I know it's not the usual way the story goes, but I'm glad I was able to pass on something that I've enjoyed so much to my dad for his birthday. This forum has been enormously helpful to me right the way from building my first lather to dabbling in honing and restoring straights, and has definitely played its part in gaining traditional shaving a late-but-eager convert.

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Cheers!