If only I’d had SRP all those years ago!

More than a few years ago, having misplaced a parent or two, my “learning to shave experience” pretty well consisted of people throwing (cheap) gear at me. Thus did I give much blood to the DE god! Even I could figure out that this sucked so off to my barber who sold me a shave, a decent used straight, a well used Illinois strop and a few instructions for all of $5. Probably because my beard was finer then, I gave little blood and got a great shave – easy – despite using hand soap! A cheap boar hair brush and English Leather soap and life was good. Mind you, back then cartridge razors were “new and improved” so I was (not for the first time) weird, if perfectly happy.

Fast forward: demonic forces gathered and convinced me (foolish mortal) to leave my str8 home on a trip around North America … but cotton cloth and Hoppes #9 could not ward off the NW rust monster resulting in the burial of my now holey razor (a Lakeside). No str8s crossed my path as I did the usual random walk through continents, marriage and work. Wasted commuting time tempted me into almost two decades of electric razor semi-shaving my way through traffic - nobody really cares what a scientist looks like anyway. Little good comes from politicians at the best of times, but they did force me back to straight razor shaving. Yep, just don’t improve the roads for years while the traffic increases several fold … then blame the increase in accidents on “the drivers” and make daring to hold anything in the car an anti-social activity accompanied by a mandatory donation to the charity of their choice (themselves) … suddenly, I’m back wet shaving at home!

Taking stock, I realised the best shave I ever had was with my old straight razor, so for the last year I’ve been lurking and absorbing … chasing razors (all stainless!), learning about badger brushes (a huge win!), amazing soaps/creams and sorting through all the advice I can find. In truth, single threads on SRP contain far more useful information than I had in total for years and years. I just wanted you folks to know it is appreciated and it is being used.

B+

Welcome! Where in the Northwest are ya? We are having a meet in Spokane towards the end of summer if you are interested it is listed under any posts by gssixgun. Hopefully someone else can post a link as I am on my phone. You will learn more at a meet than anywhere else.
You have definitely come to the right place and I hope you enjoy your time here as much as I do.

Welcome to SRP.

You should've stopped lurking and posted earlier - that was rather entertaining to read :)
So what razor did you replace that Lakeside with?

Folks,

Sorry for not contributing earlier. Reality has been that the answers to most of my questions already exist, so I've chased the archives ... and tried things. Truly, I don't feel much competency to contribute given the expertise of many here.

I grew up all over the NW (and Canada) as my dad put in logging roads, hence the "all over" as you don't need to put in roads twice! Probably longest in the Port of Angeles, Washington, but chasing other angels took me way over the rainbow to Oz. Life in the South Australian deep desert is rather different, said the crow-eater. Family means roots in the sand, although I will probably get back up north the end of summer, so will have a look at the meeting dates.

One of the current loves of my life is a Henckels Friodur 78 1/2 as well as the discoveries of Castle Forbes lime creme, the joy of scuttles, DO1 badgers whatever species they are ... and the rest of the very steep learning curve one rides by listening and learning.

Good fun and more to learn ... just 35 years late.

B+

You have done well! Friodurs, Castle Forbes, Shavemacs, and scuttles are just a few of my favorite things in this shaving world.

Glad you came in from the sand.