Thread: A hello from London

I've got a month of exams and waiting before heading off to uni to do engineering, and several times recently I've had my interest in straight shaving piqued so I thought I may as well give it a go.

After reading through the FAQ and the beginner's guide, and pages and pages of other info, I figure I'm ready to start shaving. I haven't got the money right now to get the full razor, strop and everything kit so I instead I decided to buy the cheapest bits of the kit first.

I found a vulfix badger hair shaving brush for fifteen odd quid so I snapped that up and then I bought some taylor of old bond street rose scented shaving cream. As a straight razor and strop would set me back around forty pounds, I picked up a five pound DE to last me for a week or two until I can pick up a set because I'm loathe to use my gillette fusion even once more.

Have to say, this is one of the most useful forums I've found for any of my hobbies, it's helped me immensely so far and I bet it will in the future too.

Cheers

Hello, bassbrother:

Welcome to Straight Razor Place. You have done some reading in the Wiki already and that's a good thing. The Classifieds might have the good and inexpensive razor you need. Please peruse the offerings. Beyond that, any questions you have, please post them. By the way, we have several members who live in the London area.

Regards,
Obie

Welcome along. Reading up here is a great start. So many just fire straight off with questions that can be answered with a quick search!
A week with the DE will give you a little time to get the hang of the brush & lathering. The classifieds are a good place to find quality gear around your budget.

Thanks for the kind welcome, I found a handy little pdf when I was first looking into it:

http://www.shavemyface.com/downloads...azor-Shave.pdf

I read through that to get a basic understanding and to get that initial daunting feeling of having to learn and also buy lots of new things over and done with. Came back to it this weekend and I'm making some more sense of everything I already read.

When I'm sure I can't find an answer to the questions I have right now I'll post in the beginners section.

Welcome, bassbrother. +1 on what has been said already. I'd be interested to know what razor and strop you have in mind for £40 - if these are new items I'd urge you to be very, very cautious. It is pretty much essential that you start out with a shave ready razor, otherwise your first experience of using a straight razor may well be miserable.

Welcome to SRP bassbrother. Pleased to have you aboard.

I see that other SRP members have already offerd their welcome as well and offered you a host of helpful suggestions about getting started in the world of straight razor shaving.

As for the DE...That's a good move imho--along with picking up some decent shaving cream and a Vulfix brush. That is how I began my journey into sraight razor shaving. The DE will help you ease into straight razor shaving by teaching you the correct angle of the blade against face and the with, across and against the grain type of shaving that works best with both a DE and a straight razor. The DE is also good for those mornings when you have to rush and don't have the time to devote to a straight razor shave.

Again, welcome to SRP. Take care--and smooth shaving.

Originally Posted by Arrowhead

Welcome, bassbrother. +1 on what has been said already. I'd be interested to know what razor and strop you have in mind for £40 - if these are new items I'd urge you to be very, very cautious. It is pretty much essential that you start out with a shave ready razor, otherwise your first experience of using a straight razor may well be miserable.

You're right. I must have misunderstood the explanation of delivery charge on the site I was looking at.

It was about £42.50 without postage for this strop: Hand Made Razor Strop - Tallow Tan Leather

and this razor: Vintage Tea Garden Straight Razor

With postage it's £48.57. Might as well go for the golden dollar and filly strop for that price:

RupRazor - Gold Dollar Razor and Filly Strop

Especially, as it looks like the pound's beginning to strengthen against the dollar. Maybe I'll wait a few weeks after I've got the cash together to save an extra ten pence.

Originally Posted by jhenry

Welcome to SRP bassbrother. Pleased to have you aboard.

I see that other SRP members have already offerd their welcome as well and offered you a host of helpful suggestions about getting started in the world of straight razor shaving.

As for the DE...That's a good move imho--along with picking up some decent shaving cream and a Vulfix brush. That is how I began my journey into sraight razor shaving. The DE will help you ease into straight razor shaving by teaching you the correct angle of the blade against face and the with, across and against the grain type of shaving that works best with both a DE and a straight razor. The DE is also good for those mornings when you have to rush and don't have the time to devote to a straight razor shave.

Again, welcome to SRP. Take care--and smooth shaving.

Thanks, I like the look of the old DE safety razors and it'd be nice to have one anyway even if I end up only using a straight razor.

I'm surprised how long my concentration lasts on reading through the wiki and threads just with a little help from some Bill Evans and RainyMood.com running in the background.

That's Neil's site. He's a member here. They should be good & a safe bet.

With postage it's £48.57. Might as well go for the golden dollar and filly strop for that price:

Before you commit to the Gold Dollar, read the update to the wiki first on acceptable and unacceptable brands/types of razors.

Just my 2 cents.

I have no hesitation in recommending Neil Miller whatsoever: he will certainly get you off to a good start.