Thread: Hello from Southern California / How did you get into wet shaving?

Hello everyone, a new member here from Southern California!

I caught the wet shaving bug without expecting it several years ago. I got married and purchased each of my groomsmen a nice DE razor and sample blades. Of course, I had to try one myself to be sure it was a fitting gift right?

Made the switch and never looked back! It was an amazing step up in smoothness from the cartridge razor I was previously using, but with no irritation! Of course one thing led to another and the canned goo went out the window for soap and a brush.... shavettes and straight razors came into the picture... you know how it goes...

Anyhow, nice to join the community finally. As an ice breaker I would love to know- how did YOU make the switch?

Welcome to SRP! I'm originally from Mission Viejo, if you know where that is. Geographically speaking, you're very lucky to be in Southern California. There are a lot of senior members and mentors out there who can teach you everything. If your razor isn't shave-ready, i.e. professionally honed, then you should definitely send it out to one of the honemeisters. It'll make a huge difference.

To answer your question, I made the switch just over a month ago after having very deliberately planned it for two years. I like things that I can be proud of, and I definitely did not feel that way about my electric shaver or the disposable cartridges I had been using. As I'm the kind of person who dislikes waste, I waited for my electric to die—which it sure enough did after its 3-year lifespan—and I immediately sought out all the tools I'd need. Like you, I haven't looked back.

Well honestly? I was poor and outraged at the cost of replacement triple blades for my gillette, so I bought some straight razors from an antique shop, one from a store (not honed) and learned from scratch how to hone and shave. Coming up on 10 years next year.

Basically the same reason as most members here........cartridge price. Switched to a Gillette DE for about 6 months then was dared to try a straight, which I did and have not looked back. For 35+ years I shaved with a Gillette Track II and hated every minute of it, I dreaded the very thought of having to shave. Now I actually look forward to it.

Originally Posted by DoughBoy68

Basically the same reason as most members here........cartridge price. Switched to a Gillette DE for about 6 months then was dared to try a straight, which I did and have not looked back. For 35+ years I shaved with a Gillette Track II and hated every minute of it, I dreaded the very thought of having to shave. Now I actually look forward to it.

I too hated shaving, and now I always look forward to it. It surprises me that you say most members switch because of cost- The cost is lower at first, but I would think RAD would claim far more dollars in the long run!

My thing was the cost of the blades. This really sucked. I went down to wally world and got me a Van Der Hagen DE. I also got some Gillette DE Blades and have not looked back. I really like the cost of the DE blades are so low and they can be recycled easily. It has also given me some of the best shaves I have got in a long time. My co-workers are all asking me about it and I am making converts to the OLD SCHOOL every day. I also like the shaving creams and getting samples to see what I like, big fan of CF, GFT, and TH. I am going to be putting in an order for my first STRAIGHT next week from SRD and it will be interesting to try that out.

Originally Posted by VAPDGUY

My thing was the cost of the blades. This really sucked. I went down to wally world and got me a Van Der Hagen DE. I also got some Gillette DE Blades and have not looked back. I really like the cost of the DE blades are so low and they can be recycled easily. It has also given me some of the best shaves I have got in a long time. My co-workers are all asking me about it and I am making converts to the OLD SCHOOL every day. I also like the shaving creams and getting samples to see what I like, big fan of CF, GFT, and TH. I am going to be putting in an order for my first STRAIGHT next week from SRD and it will be interesting to try that out.

Good luck with the straight, hope it works well for you!

Hi and welcome. Always was interested in straight razors and brought one from a antique shop. Couldn't get it sharp and it sat in a drawer for years. Got sick of irritation finally brought a really cheap(crap) set off ebay and tried to get it honed. Barber wouldn't touch that crap razor but honed the antique one and its been down hill since then.

The seed was planted much like most, tired, tired, tired of paying $25 Cdn dollars for a pack of Mach 50000000 carts, and canned chemical goo, then just happened to see a video on some site, and then I couldn't get it out of my head, two weeks after seeing this video, I had ordered my first starter kit from Classic Edge here in Ontario.

First I thought the guy was going to shave with the butcher knife on the wall, guy in the video was a member on this forum many, many years ago, enjoy:

Welcome to SRP!

I started with a shavette after seeing some show on PBS that talked about them and I realized that I had one. (I honestly thought it was some kind of carpet knife up to that point and had been using it to clean gasket sealer off of engine parts). So armed with the knowledge that I had a shavette, I did some research and decided to hone it up and shave with it. It was a closer, smoother shave than I was used to and later that day I realized that I didn't have irritation. I was hooked. More research on shavettes kept leading me back to posts here on SRP so I finally went to the home page to see what this site was all about. Then I made the mistake of clicking on the razor database and saw all of the pretty, shiny, sharp razors. Down the rabbit hole I went...Two months of research on straights and I bought a Dovo best, strop, and 12k hone. I haven't looked back since.