Thread: Why a straight razor?

Pain in the backside?

You are a brave man asking a question like that on this forum. Its like going to a gun forum and asking if people really collect and shoot guns and why do they do it.

Rather than try and answer your question I would just invite you to stick around and read the posts on the forum and your question will be answered.

In my view, cartridge razors should be ejected from the discussion. All they are is a very expensive, wasteful plasticky repackaging of a traditional tool, the safety razor (DE). Their market dominance has been secured by making millions of men forget a very basic skill: how to use a DE with light pressure and a modicum of finesse. It took a generation or two to wipe out this skill so that people would start paying $20 for a four-pack of ridiculous multibladed thingamajigs. The good news is that any man who figures out this scam can then relearn the skill in about a week's worth of shaves.

My point being that shaving with a ten-cent DE blade is exactly the same as shaving with a $4 cartridge, once you figure out what you're doing. It doesn't taken any longer, the strokes are the same, and the shave just as good if not better.

Now, DEs versus straights. Straights are indeed a pain in the a** if you're not into it for other reasons (tradition, meditation, skill, whatever). A straight is theoretically cheaper in the long run, but it almost never works out this way because by the time you've ascended the learning curve you're hooked and start buying more gear than you need. The shave is comparable, I think it's fair to say. Some veterans of the straight will tell you the shave is much better and I believe them; for my part I've been shaving well with a straight for two years and love it, but the end result for me is indistinguishable from what I get with a high-end DE blade (say, an Israeli personna or a feather).

Bottom line as far as I'm concerned: If using and maintaining straights doesn't appeal to you as a hobby or pastime, then a DE is the most logical, economical, efficient, and effective way to shave.

Take a good luck at your box of old straights. Do you like them, find them fascinating or beautiful? Do you like the idea of shaving with them? If the answer to these questions is shrug, not particularly, then get yourself a DE and a sampler pack of DE blades to figure out which brand works for you.

I think almost everone here has some connection to the nostalgia of it all. That's mostly what got me into it. I did also think it was very cool, and the macho thing of only using a bare blade against the skin with only your skill and wits to keep you from harms way, did come into it. I still get a closer shave from a mach 3, but I stick with it because I get a much more comfortable shave with a straight. No razor burn. Very few ingrown hairs. And I too was one of those peeps with a red patch on my neck that I just thought was bad skin. I thought that was just the way it was until I saw the light.

I'm pretty new to Straights, only a couple of months and so far they are a royal pain in the a**!
I went to DE with a Merkur Futur and Feather blades because mach3 thingys are like £3 each, I soon realised that DE was closer, smoother and less irritating (although still got occasional razor burn) and CHEAP!
'However' somehow I ended up in the SRP and I am addicted!
I can't get a BBS shave like I can with a DE, but I get NO razor burn from a straight, my beard kills the edge on a straight so i'm forever touching them up (the razors that is). I've spent more on straights, hones, strops in the last couple of months than a lifetime supply of mach3's! but its just not the same is it!
One day I hope to get the hang of it!
I used to hate shaving, putting it off as long as possible, but now I LOVE it, I look forward to my next shave!
And I have the SRP to thank (or is it blame? haha) for this addiction!
The Info here and willingness to help is incredible and I would of given up by now without the SRP!

Stick with it!

... because we can

You don't clog up a str8 even if you have a lot of growth, a week is no problem. A disposable would have major problems dealing with it.

The reason i started shaving with a atr8 was for work. I started working for bmw and at the time i hated shaving and did it about once or twice a week. i got horrible razor burn and bumps from cartridge razors. i tried electric and they burned me up but no bumps. I hated shaving and consantly had a scruff. My boss started breaking my balls and telling me oi had to start shaving everyday. I started researching and found so much info saying that str8s didnt give the burn or bumps. I knew that my late father had a str8 and i dug it out of his stuff. It had a pretty dam good edge on it for sitting so long. it must have been put away sharp. Also with it was a swaty barber hone. I went to wallgreens on the way home from moms i bought a boar bristle brush and a cake of williams and went right home to shave. It took me about a half hour i took my sweet a&* time and got the smoothest best shave off my life. I dont think most people are as lucky the first time around than i was. After i was done i threw out my 4 bladed artridge razor and never used one again. that was a while ago and im still using a str8 EVERY MORNING. I hated shaving with a cartridge but i LOVE shaving with a str8 and my face has never been clearer

Originally Posted by devilmonkey

Hi chaps, I'm new here. I want to know if you are using these straight razors because you actually think they work better than a good old Gillette, or are you using them because of he Kudos associated with using them?

Be honest - I think it is quite something to say you use one and we're keeping the tradition alive, but lets be honest, they are a pain in the backside.

I'll be honest. They are a pain the backside... when you don't know how to use one.

Your opinion may change down the line.

I think yer all crazy and that straights are a "Pain in the Backside" all the stropping, all that honing, all that trouble....

Therefore I will only make this offer once, I will trade you your PITA straights, even Steven, for a Gillette disposable any time you would like !!!!!!

Here's another cool thing. If you get tired of your Mach 18 or whatever they have now, "What's the resale". If I get tired of one of my str8's, I can sell it for what I paid for it, more in some cases..