Thread: why did you take up the straight shave?

I am curious why people on here started shaving with a straight. before taking up the straight i shaved maybe 2 X a week as I hated it. And if i shaved much more frequently my neck turned to hamburger.
I wasnt that interested in geting a close shave. Ive proudly shown stubble in my professional job for years. I am not THAT environmentally concience to worry about the so called landfill problem, and evenif i was i could always use a DE and recyle the blades. Even though I am old fashioned in a lot of ways I did not feel that I needed another connectio to the past. I started straight shaving moslty so that I could say that I shaved with something I sharpened myself. Its been slcoe to 3 months now since i bought my first flea market razor and sharpened it with my arkansas surgical balck stone and some rifle bore leaning compound and i am proud to say that since then a modern cartridge razor has not touched my face. I have moved on since then and purchased one of Tony's fine haning strops. aquired a norton, smeared diamond paste on some balsa wood. and got my wife to get me a coticule for my birthday. My shaves are much better now then they were when i first began, i remeber my esceitement i had when i first honed a razor to the point i could pas the HHT. I also remeber the difference i had when i added a [pasted "strop" to the mix. all in all it has been an extreme learning experiance. Honing consistantly, i have found, is not a skill easily mastered.

I love it when people ask this question out loud because I get to keep expressing my refined answer. There are a number of reasons and in no particular order, they are;

a) I got tired of making Gillette richer.
b) I wanted to stop loading up the landfill with toxic plastic.
c) I'm old fashioned, a classicist at heart and it suits my sensibilities.

Of course the best answer is to the question never asked. Why do I keep doing it?
I'm done with seeing shaving as a chore to be accomplished in as short a period of time so I can get into the rat race, and I love getting the closest, most comfortable, most enjoyable shaves of my life!

X

When I got out of the Army over 30 years ago, my grandfather took me for a straight razor shave from a barber. I didn't have to shave for 2 days and after that, I was hooked. Bought my first straight razor from Chicago Cutlerty ( Still have it) and the rest is history......lol. I used to send my razors out to be sharpened from the cutlery services and sometimes I could shave with them and sometimes not. About 8 years ago, I started to look for honing resources. There wasn't much. After a couple of years of searching, I started SRP and the rest is history......lol again. This is the best sport I have ever participated in. Have fun. Lynn

I alwasy hated shaving and have always been looking for getting one that was:
1) more comfortable
2) closer
3) cheaper

I guess that with 2 out of three I'm pretty happy.

I was in a Lush soap shop and boiught their Ambrosia. I quite liked it. After that I started looking around ebay for better things to shave with and read a Paki ad. Bought the thing with a strop (strop is ok, paki=in the trash) because if that was a closer shave then I wanted it. Started looking things up on the web. Ran into the forum eventually and now I'm hooked. I'm not bidding on any more razors for at least 6 months though. I have too many to restore as it is.

Originally Posted by trapperjohnme

I am curious why people on here started shaving with a straight.

Because it's the right thing to do -- and a tasty way to do it!

Originally Posted by Ben

Because it's the right thing to do -- and a tasty way to do it!

Hey, that ad lib from my old buddy Wilford Brimley sold a lot of oatmeal and paid for a lot of his ranchland in Utah.

In my case it's because I do have some old school tendencies. The decision came out of the blue. I got a pakistani (small p as a sign of disrespect for the razor not the country. I actually have a couple of friends who came from Pakistan) with a matching strop. After 4 scars and countless wtf's, I started researching this topic, came across the srp and I learned to do it right.

Two words:

Gillette Fusion. It set off my bullshit detector. Also, I like to make the everyday things enjoyable somehow. I find that is the secret to happiness.

Originally Posted by dennisthemenace

Hey, that ad lib from my old buddy Wilford Brimley sold a lot of oatmeal and paid for a lot of his ranchland in Utah.

Congrats to the both of you!

I had that with the Gilette M3 Power. I tried it and didn't notice a better shave than with the M3 turbo. So I figured "these guys don't know what they're talking about." Plus I used to scrape my face open with it when trying to get a smooth shave. (there's this little spot underneath my jawline that all my life I could never get free of hair....untill now)

Originally Posted by Locarius

Two words:

Gillette Fusion. It set off my bullshit detector. Also, I like to make the everyday things enjoyable somehow. I find that is the secret to happiness.