Thread: Raconteurs' Recounts

Originally Posted by dwessell

Sometimes.... Group members send me whiskey for work..

Send more..

I feel sober..

How do you top this! Actually my story is closer to Lynn's. While stationed in Korea in '77 we had a barber shop out back behind the hut, it didnt matter wether you had just spent 10 days on the GPs(w/o water) or a month in the field, I would come in clean the weapon, get some hot grub, a hot shower and mosey to the barbershop and get the works, shampoo, haircut, massage and a straight shave. You would walk in there feeling like a whipped pup and walk out feeling like a king! There was nothing that could compare to it, absolutely nothing!

I got tired of throwing away pieces of plastic and metal every few shaves...and getting a lousy shave to boot. Being a hands-on kind of guy, I figured I would give it a try.

After reading many many posts, for many months on these forums, I decided I better join instead of lurk. There you go!

I suppose I should share my story again too. Here it is in exquisite detail.

In The Deep End » Blog Archive » This Dying Art

X

Evening Gentlemen.
This is my first post on this forum, I registered a while ago but until now i have been lurking.
After years of "shaving" with one of those electric hair trimmer things and having an assortment of goatees and beards I grew a handlebar moustache. It somehow just seemed fitting that I shave with a straight razor. What really surprised me was that I discovered that I actually enjoyed shaving whereas in the past I found it an unpleasant chore. Like many on here I now find myself a little obsessed with it.
Bill

Thank-you for honouring my thread with your first post. it's good to have you here at SRP.

X

The devil made me do it.

How comes this thread sounds a bit like an SRAA meeting (straight razor addicts anonymous)?

I often feel modern urban life lacks a sense of craftiness. While I indulge myself in the benefits of modern technology, at the same I feel as if I have payed for that with a certain lack of self-sustainability. Growing my own tomatoes, hand planing a table top, turning off the central heating and firing up the wood stove,... all those things allow me to tune in with a sense of humanity, that I feel modern life seriously lacks.
Shaving with a straight razor has that crafty quality. It takes old fashioned commitment to learn. And because of that, it is rewarding in a way money can't buy.
I did not expect that when I started out. But it is the reason why I got addicted to this method of facial hair removal.

As for what led me to picking up the straight razor, that was just the desire to finally manage to give myself a decent shave. For years I used a beard trimmer, mostly avoiding close shaves. In 20 years time I went through two packages of DE blades. Never had one decent shave. I had no real idea what to do. One day, after another debacle while using my very last blade, I decided to do the home work I should have done 20 years earlier. My research plan was to find a proper method to shave with a DE, but I stumbled upon the idea of shaving with a "real" straight razor (although I discovered SRP only a few weeks later). The idea immediately appealed to me and I ordered a Dovo, a strop, a brush, shaving soap and a book about using the straight razor. I haven't looked back ever since.

Bart.

My quest for a close, comfortable shave began many, many years ago..... My grandfather, whom I never knew, was a barber. His son, my dad, was also trained as a barber, and he did this type of work to help make it through college. As a kid growing up, my dad would, on occasion, cut my hair and shave my neck with one of the old straight razors he and my grandfather used, I always liked them, and I vowed one day to try shaving with them.

When I was in high school, I tried shaving with one of the razors. It didn't go well, as I knew nothing about them, and so I forgot about using the razors. From what I remember, it wasn't that close, and I recall it tugging quite a bit. On through college I wore a beard and shaving wasn't on my mind...and so the story continues...

When I was in the Highway Patrol Academy, we had to shave every single day,and in a big hurry. I wasn't keenly aware of against the grain shaving, and so, when one of my poor shaves resulted in a "dry-shaving" experiment, I knew there had to be a better way. One of the instructors suggested a Mach3, and the comfort level was markedly increased from the old disposable razors I had been using.

I shaved with a Gillette Mach 3 for about 5 years. I noticed that I still had ingrown hairs, but if I shaved in the shower, I had a decently comfortable shave. Then, one day, my supply of blades ran out. As my wife had always bought me a year's supply for Christmas, I had no idea how expensive they were. When we went out to Sam's club, I walked over to the blade section. I was shocked....and I vowed never to waste that kind of money again.

I asked my dad about the old ways of shaving, and he gave me some of his old DE Gillette razors. I asked about the straight razors, and he said not to bother since they were kind of tricky, and so I began my DE adventure. Over the span of a few months, I got better and better shaves. I found out from Mantic59 and the guys at B&B some of the fine points of performing a daily chore....and I was hooked. But I still wanted to try a straight razor.

....and so I came here. I went to Classic Shaving and bought a Thiers-Issard, and found Straight Razor Place. Over a year's time, I have gotten progressively better, and now my shaves with a straight are undoubtedly the best I have ever gotten. Period. To top it all off, my dad now has become reinterested in the old ways.

So, my initial goal of saving money has fallen way short....but it has been fun, and I feel like I've accomplished something quite important each and every day that I shave. Sorry for the ramble, but I do appreciate the opportunity to tell how I ended up here.

I watched my Dad use a straight and often as a child, I would watch men being shaved in the barbers shop while I got my hair cut. Si I just took it for granted that that was the way to go.

The bottom line is that I haven't ever found another form of shaving that gives the same satisfaction as a good straight razor shave. There are quicker ways and even more convenient ways, but not better.

Nowdays, I have a good brush, good soap and a choice of a few quality razors that work for me. I suppose I take it for granted a bit.

Incidentally, I've never ridden a horse or rounded up cattle and so I hope its OK with you guys that I carry on using my cut throats.

I was about 10 years old and I was watching my father shave with a DE. I asked him something about shaving and he told me that his preference was to shave with a straight razor but ...... I can't recall what the reason that he didn't was but he never owned one as long as I knew him. That planted a seed that took years to germinate but I never forgot it and was always fascinated with straights from that day on.