Thread: Hello from Johannesburg South Africa

Hi All,
I'm John, a fairly recent straight shaver, posting from the beautiful City of Johannesburg here up on the sunny Highveld of South Africa.

My road to this forum is a curious one..........

There was a day, about a year and a half ago, when I was reading up online about a La Marzocco World of Coffee Day. La Marzocco are the Espresso Machine Company from Florence, Italy who made it big in the USA and subsequently the world. So it happened that at the La Marzocco World of Coffee Day there was a Proraso stand. I had a look at the Web-link, curious to understand who on earth Proraso was, and what did they have to do with Coffee? Well it turns out they are both Florentine companies and if you've ever met a bearded hipster you'll understand they need barbers to keep their various facial hair patterns in top nick, and in parts of the world, Coffee guys are often Hipsters.

So Proraso had piqued my interest........the whole shaving cream and brush idea seemed quite quaint and what the hell why not shave with a DE razor just for the novelty? Little did I know what I was getting myself into? Proraso was not so easy to come by, but my first shave was with the only DE razor that is to be found in the South African supermarkets, a Lion DE razor, using some green Supermax blades. The shaving cream was a Bodyshop Maca Root Cream that I'd used for years without a brush. Altogether not the best shave, but not so bad that I stopped there, oh no....

Thanks to a local online vendor it was only a little while later that I'd bought my very first brush, a New Forest Finest Badger, a Muhle R89 DE razor and some very excellent local South African soaps. Now a year an a half later I'm almost exclusively shaving with straight razors and I have enough soap and razors to last me a lifetime. Who would have thought that Coffee could have led me down such a rabbithole?

Well, I've figured out that both Wet shaving and making and drinking excellent Coffee or Cappuchino are both very sensory experiences that take keep getting better with practice and passion. So that's me. Looking forward to participating in what looks like a damn fine forum.

Hi, Welcome, Great Story, Might just be somebody close to you with the same interest, Ty

Welcome JHBBlade, great to see another Jozi Saffer here.

Welcome...yep both are addictive.

Hi and welcome aboard. There is a thread for coffee enthusiasts as well. It is surprising how many things there are forums and rabbit holes for.

Hey and welcome to the forum. That Maca Root shave cream used with a brush is no so bad. Enjoy yourself on the forum.

Bob

Thanks for the kind words Addison, MedicineMan, eddy79, BobH, Demetrius, DieselD, Celestino, Phrank, Petercp4e and Proximus26.

..... and to Thug.... imagine finding you here! ;-)

Sent from my SM-N910C using Tapatalk

Welcome to SRP, John! Glad you found the sport of straight razor shaving through espresso. I briefly owned a La Marzocco machine and happened to give up the coffee forums shortly after finding SRP to be such a dramatically friendly place by comparison. There's an extremely low BS factor here you'll find. As much as I enjoy fine espresso, shaving is a 100x more fun. I could give up coffee...but not straight shaving.

I'm also somewhat creeped out that you have confirmed the beardo (much easier to type than "hipsters with freakish beards") trend to now be a worldwide phenomenon. I was hoping that it was confined to the west coast of the U.S..

Welcome to SRP.
I do indeed remark that the members of my French SR forum also have a lot of interest in:
- traditional coffee machines or systems
- traditional mechanical watches
- traditionnal real Scotch Whisky
- motorbikes
- ...

Welcome to the forum John 🙂