Getting a teenager interested in wet shaving

Im curious how you guys got interested in wet shaving. My son is 13 an starting to get some good peach fuzz. Ive introduced him to my style of shaving be it DE an straights. He doesn't seem to be very interested in shaving, (yet). So was wondering how everyone else got interested or how your dad got you into this way of shaving? Im more excited about getting him going than he is. I have his razor picked out of my collection an ready to get him interested. In the next year hes going to have to start shaving. Advice would be much appreciated. Thanks

try the "Go Manly" route. Let him pick a few things to make it part of his decision. He will be more apt to own it if given some options. My father told me when I finally started shaving, "just go with the grain." That was it. Funny, when I used cartridges I only did ATG passes. WTG did nothing...

Didn't think about letting him pick some stuff out. That opens a entire different door. He will want MDC for his first cream LOL. An I did the exact same thing with carts. ATG all the time. That's what I don't want him to go thru. I want to teach him the best way an save him a ton of headache.

Ask him if he know if any of his friends are shaving yet. You might be surprised by the answer. I'm mentoring a 17 year old in another state that's been shaving since he was 13. A curious, intelligent kid that searched the web and found SRP. He had a problem with skin and irritation. Settled that for him and we have been corresponding (with his parent's permission) for a number of months now. His enthusiasm has spilled over on to his dad and a brother who are now looking at DE's. The kid is a straight razor enthusiast.

What really peaked my interest in wet shaving years back was my great grandfather Cecil's shave mug. That led to shave soap and losing the canned whipped. Which led to Gillette DEs and SRs,and so on.

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I have an 18 year old. What got him interested and dedicated to wet shaving was the fact that he can fiddle and tinker with 'his' own gear. It has a value to him but not in $$. He had ZERO interest in my stuff lol. As to my gear, he can use, borrow, or have any of it whenever he wants and knows this. :)

One of my sons really likes the restoration aspect of things , be it razors cars guns etc. So his interest was there even before he needs to shave lol

Two boys that are both adults, both started on their own path. One day the older wanted to check it out, I bought him a razor and a strop and he has never really got into it. The other one day said I want to learn, jumped into it with my gear and has been shaving with a straight ever since. He has his own strop and uses my straights. They each have their own path and that's fine with me. I am happy to hone and share if anyone wants it. The older one is stuck on quick and easy and doesn't want to learn, in the end it is his face.

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Originally Posted by HaiKarate

What really peaked my interest in wet shaving years back was my great grandfather Cecil's shave mug. That led to shave soap and losing the canned whipped. Which led to Gillette DEs and SRs,and so on.

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What a great family keepsake. Looks like it has his initials on it. Lucky man.

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Originally Posted by RollinCoal69

Didn't think about letting him pick some stuff out. That opens a entire different door. He will want MDC for his first cream LOL. An I did the exact same thing with carts. ATG all the time. That's what I don't want him to go thru. I want to teach him the best way an save him a ton of headache.

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Who says that he gets to pick out ANYTHING ;)

Give him a choice of a couple of things that meet your approval. It gives them a choice and lets them own it. Later on when he gets a job he can get some MDC (and then share it with you!!!!)

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Originally Posted by RollinCoal69

Im more excited about getting him going than he is...

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Go lightly. I settled on sleeping in and wearing a beard, probably because my dad got up and shaved every morning.

I got into this thing strictly on my own. When I started shaving my dad gave me his old Sunbeam Shavemaster Electric.

You really can't push someone into Straights or DE's and typical folks won't have anything to do with either. You can make a case for either but in the end they will do what the crowd does.

it takes a real individualist to join our fold.

Tell him that straight razors are too dangerous and you absolutely forbid him from using them.

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Originally Posted by HarleyFXST

Tell him that straight razors are too dangerous and you absolutely forbid him from using them.

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This is a sure bet. Lol.

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Originally Posted by MisterMoo

Go lightly. I settled on sleeping in and wearing a beard, probably because my dad got up and shaved every morning.

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Originally Posted by HarleyFXST

Tell him that straight razors are too dangerous and you absolutely forbid him from using them.

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Originally Posted by Redcane

This is a sure bet. Lol.

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I am on this bandwagon!

I don't know what would have happened were my dad to have instructed me to be honest! Heck, I don't even know if I was in boarding school or living in his house when I started shaving! All I know is one day about three or four years ago, I looked down at my cart while in the shower and scoffed! Two bazillion dollars later...

Anyway, I guess it depends on your relationship. But like anything, if you are full of anticipation... hence why I am on the bandwagon lol!!

I don't want to push him or be forceful in any way. I remember my grandpa using a DE an that's what sparked my interest. Then I started some research, yes I am one of those guys. I research every thing in depth before making a decision. One shave with a DE an Ive been hooked ever since. I hope that he will be interested enough at least to try it a few times. I am for sure going to open my collection up to him to pick from. In the end I know its his choice. Just hope he makes the right one :D

When I was starting to shave: I didn't really care how to do it just that I wanted to be rid of the moustache. I used an electric for, I guess now, two decades before moving to DE.

I'd let him pick his own route (even if it is electric).

I'd also offer to let him pick a well-loved razor and learn to hone it up (or a WD). It might be kind of fun as a resto-project.

I don't think there's a right answer to this. So many ways to do it depending on the individual. I do think the best thing here I've read is the idea of doing a father son restore on a pair of razors, prehaps over the summer...you could both learn along the way and if the boy is interested in shaving with the newly restored blade, so be it.

He's a teen, prone to rebellion via one form or another...it's all part of his quest for identity which often means anything other than yours. Don't take it personally, he, like many of us, will find his path and may be surprised to note how closely it comes to his father's.

I think the best way to go about it is to let it be known that whenever he wants to start shaving, he should come to you for advice. I had to start shaving at age 13 aswell because I was enroled in army cadets and that was a mandatory thing. But there will come a time when he will say, I gotta get rid of this boy mustache either through pressure at school, girls etc... at that time he needs to know who to go see, and thats dad.

I went to my father for advice too and it was a great bonding experience. He bought me a simple wilkinson boar brush and showed me how to make lather out of shave gel. I didnt have any issues with using the 2 blade cartridge at the time and you shouldnt push the straight on them early on. Lets be real, a simple mach3 will easiliy destroy any peachfuzz your boy may have and provide an decent iritation free shave going with the grain. Its a good first step.

At least, he will know how to make lather and remove hairs from his face, when he will see you using straights I am sure you will find the way to explain how and why they are better. You can then make it a morning weekend activity together when he wants to start learning, it would be fun to mentor him through it if he wants to go with straights.

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Originally Posted by SpikedLemon

...I'd let him pick his own route (even if it is electric)..

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They're not that safe.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...d_My_Flesh.jpg

my father never got me into any shaving ..lol.. I could count how many times I shaved until learning how to wet shave !!

my first child task at hand was my 12yr old daughter .. she has no interest in a straightrazor but I have lost a brush , 2 DE razors , and a couple soaps out of my collection .. she just loves it !! I started her with a Gillette tech then lost a super speed to her grasp and then my x wife snatched a super speed do to my daughter giving the x the courage to use one !! then I bought her a mint Gillette lady TTO with the blue stars ..lol

I have DE razors set aside for each my younger boys that I will pass on when they start shaving and then offer them to try a straight ...

good luck with your approach !!!

I am now 28 and just started using a DE and a straight. It just took a combination of seeing James Bond (Daniel Craig shaving with a straight, My Hero) Being tired of throwing money away on cartridge razors, and knowing that sometimes the good old fashion way works better. I have always been a firm believer in taking pride in your appearance. You cant teach that to someone, you either care or you don't. Hopefully your son will care and take pride in the way he shaves:rock:

I just started myself (47) with a DE. My son, 19.5 yrs old, has been shaving for a couple of years. I played several of those shaving videos with the old-time jazz background music, etc. He wanted to jump straight to the straight razor. I know why. Its the whole 'shaving like a man' thing. He tells his friends. He loves it. He does it every day. Plus, it clears up his acne. he is hooked at this point. i told him now was the time, since his facial hair is not too thick yet, by the time it thickens, he will have it down. His mom likes it (not at first) because he is extremely neat in his shaving area in the bathroom for the first time in his life. He has a razor, cup, brush, etc. He thoroughly cleans it each day and stacks it up neatly. His mom is pleased. He feels some ownership.

We did the same with his first vehicle (little truck) being a standard shift instead of automatic.

I figured he can always change his shaving habits later, but its like riding a bike....or driving a stick. He will always be able.

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Originally Posted by RollinCoal69

Im curious how you guys got interested in wet shaving. My son is 13 an starting to get some good peach fuzz. Ive introduced him to my style of shaving be it DE an straights. He doesn't seem to be very interested in shaving, (yet). So was wondering how everyone else got interested or how your dad got you into this way of shaving? Im more excited about getting him going than he is. I have his razor picked out of my collection an ready to get him interested. In the next year hes going to have to start shaving. Advice would be much appreciated. Thanks

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Don't do what my dad did! He let me use his electric razor and said, just go over it, you aren't going to get all of the whiskers but let the rest go.

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I couldn't stand the poor results so I went for every newfangled, multiblade "solution" I could find the next 40 years. When I couldn't stand the multiblade it was back to the electric.

I didn't get good shaves until 2010 when I finally got my second DE razor (the first was defective). But I couldn't leave well enough alone and persevered until I mastered the straight razor.

Conclusion: don't present shaving as a necessary evil like my dad did to me. Present it as a new phase of every man's life, but a positive way to look sharp, feel sharp, and be sharp (where have I heard "look sharp, feel sharp, be sharp" before?).

I have a tech that needs restoring. Its in the original box with some blue blades. I think if he is interested may let him have that one an he can restore it while I restore a gold one band I have laying around.