Thread: your first few shaves?

was wondering how everyone started shaving.. what age you were and what your setup was..

personally.. i'm the only man in my entire family.. was raised by my grandmother.. so when i noticed 4 hairs growing on my upper lip at 14 years old.. i made her go out and buy me a shave kit.. i picked it out myself.. a gillette sensor and a can of barbasol.. even though i only had 4 hairs.. i shaved my entire face and neck for about 2 years before i started growing a chin strap..

switched to a mach3 and a brush and soap when i was 18.

I started shaving when I was about 13 0r 14. I used a regular multi-blade disposable because that was what my father used. After a few tears I switched to an electric razor because it was faster and I was working and had to get to work on time. Since I have been retired/disabled in 2008 I went back to a muti-blade disposable until I got the straight razor bug in 2009 and bought my first straight on Ebay. It was then that I found this forum and started out talking to Jimmy Had and was fortunate that he works at a tattoo shop only about a half hour away from my house. He has helped me out with a lot of pointers and even honed a few razors for me. He has been a great help with alot by answering straight razor questions and honing for me.

Mark

I was maybe 17 when I first shaved with a blade. I had an old shaving mug that a neighbor had given my older brother to play with. I carved up a bar of Ivory soap to fit it. I used my father's old shaving brush from WWII. It had a very small knot of bristles that were dark brown and hard as iron. I could never really make a decent lather with that setup so most of the time I used Gillette foam-in-a-can.

I think my first razor was a Personna injector. Spare blades came in a magazine of sorts. A bar on the back of the magazine fit into the back of the razor head. You pushed the loading slide with your fingers toward the razor and a fresh blade slid into place, pushing the old one out into the waste bin. The selling point was "You never have to touch a blade!" (I know Schick made an injector but I'm pretty certain mine was Personna.)

Even back then in the 60s every razor manufacturer was touting "dramatic new breakthroughs" to improve your comfort, closeness, sex appeal, etc. I tried them all. Wilkinson Sword was a favorite for a while. Then along came this oddball razor. The disposable cartridge head contained a coiled band blade several inches long. You "changed blades" by rotating a lever on the back of the cartridge 360º to wind the used part onto a second internal spool, exposing a fresh section of the band. That thing was the most miserable piece of crap I ever shaved with. After the third cartridge I threw the darn thing out.

I eventually wound up using a Gillette double edge razor, the kind with the 1 - 13 adjustment. I got the best shave with the blade fully exposed but my God did I bleed!! That wasn't the razor's fault though, that was my own. Neither my father nor my older brother felt the need to school me in shaving so I had to teach myself. I employed the philosophy I had developed to shoot pool with my buds at the Teen Drop In Center: "If you can't shoot good -- shoot hard!!!" I continued to gouge my face and go through styptic pencils left and right until I was 40 y/o & had an epiphany of sorts. It just kind of dawned on me one morning that the intent of shaving was to cut the whiskers, not the skin. I shouldn't be using my razor like hoeing a garden.

Sorry, got a little off topic. Though the Ivory soap and hard-as-iron shaving brush never produced a usable lather, It served me well as part of my first kit, ultimately leading me here.
Namaste,
Morty -_-

My story is pretty boring I suppose-Started shaving at around 14/15 years.
My father had always used electric razors and i followed suit as old D/E razors in the bathroom cabinet didn't even raise my curiosity.
I used my dads handed down old electric phillips razors until I bought my own Braun electric at 18-(first wages).
Sadly used electrics for 45 years until I read an article somewhere that said the noble art of shaving with cutthroats was making a comeback.I figured that at the age of 60 I ought to at least learn the "proper" way to shave-hence in Dec 2010 bought a Parker "Knightsbridge" D/E along with a boarhair brush and some shaving soap plus alum.
After shaving for about 2 mnths i decided to look at cutthroats on Ebay and classifieds and bought my first razor from Neil Miller in Feb 2010.

Joined SRP in Mar 2010- and the rest you know.

Told you it was boring-
Regards

Noggs

I started about age 14 with my fathers old antique Sunbeam Electric and then got a Norelco. I used electric's most of my life.

My first shave was with my father's DE. I was too embarassed to let anyone know and used to be terrified someone would walk in the bathroom and catch me. (They must have known though, from the band-aids). I think I was 14. On my next birthday, by brother gave me a Gillette techmatic, my first very own razor. For those who don't remember those, the blade could be adjusted to "shave by the numbers". The blade was actually a belt which could be advanced when the section in use lost its edge. Very high tech stuff.

I started shaving at around 14 with a Mach 3, then moved to a Quattro, then a Fusion (coz more blades means a better shave right? WRONG! ) and I also got an electric as well. All were average to terrible shavers, and I used to use the canned goo as well.

Fast forward a few years and I had a few ingrowns around the base of my neck and got terrible razor burn each shave. I used to only shave once or twice a week, or use the electric which seemed to pull the hairs out rather than cut them.

I started looking into alternatives last year and found DE's were supposed to help, so I got a Merkur DE and blades from Amazon. I started researching proper shaving technique, lathering and so on and got a Trumpers brush and soap. I carried on researching and found my way here.

Then I went for a proper wet shave at Trumpers, bought my first straight razor and strop and never looked back!

I was 15 years old and had a crush on this girl. So I thought shaving off the peach fuzz I had would be a great way to show her I was interested. I had a disposable Bic razor and used some of my dad's shaving cream. When I was done I came out to the living room and asked my dad and sister if they noticed anything different. "Nope," they said, leaving me downhearted. Later when I saw the girl, I asked her if she noticed anything different. "No, what is different?" After telling her I shaved she kind of giggled and said, "Isn't that cute." Not the reply I was really hoping for.

Used my Dad's DE at 13 and, second or third shave in, gave myself the worst cut I've ever had. Then moved through electric to multi blade disposable, canned goo etc, but avoided shaving like the plague until I was 45. Three times a week was rare and every six months or so I'd grow a beard just to give myself a rest from the painful tedium of business. Fast forward to the present and two years on from starting with straights, it's rare that I miss a day. Only regret regarding straight razors is that I didn't start earlier (much earlier).