Thread: What got you interested in str8 shaving?

Whenever I'd see a straight razor used in a movie, I'd think, "Cool!" There's just something so badass about them, you know?

A couple of years ago I thought about getting into it, but for some reason or another I never got around to it. But this past August I saw a straight razors on a couple of television shows: an old 1994 re-run of The X-Files (the hateful spirit of an old man who used to carve up women with his ivory-handled straight razor manifests itself in his grandaughter, who begins doing the same), and on CSI (a girl had killed herself by cutting her wrists with one).

It was a sign! I was destined to purchase a straight razor, cut some people up with it and then kill myself!

...but then I decided to just shave with it, instead!

Also, I collect antiques quite a bit, and the fact that a lot of these razors are old is really interesting to me. I mean, shaving with the same blade a soldier carried with him in the trenches of the Great War is as easy as going to the right antique store. I really like the history of this past time... this art.

And then there's the collecting aspect of it... and the relaxation... and the fact hardly anyone else does it... and how it makes your bathroom really cool-looking.

I could go on.

I was always a DE shaver since I started, and I inherited a Rolls Razor from my grandfather, which I used occasionally. I have always been interested by how things were done before modern "Conveniences" came along, I have also been rather disgusted with the growth of the disposable culture and the stupid new products that it creates. So I started looking into shaving with a real razor. It seemed like it might get a bit expensive to start, so I held off buying one. After a few months, I was taking a writing class and the assignment was to write an article (on any subject we chose) and then try to sell it to a magazine. Here was the excuse I needed to to plunk down my money! That was (I think) about 6 years ago. I've never looked back. I never did get any magazine to buy the article, though.