Thread: A feather for the ladies, and some gents...

Wow, must have hit a nerve… So, for clarification, notice that I said the feather is a downgrade from any “quality” straight.

Now unless you’ve spent a couple grand on proper straights, hones, and strops or unless you’ve spent at least a couple hundred on reworked straights that have been professionally restored and/or honed, and unless you’ve spent more hours than you can count on learning the art of the straight shave, you’re not in a position to compare the feather with a quality straight that has been professionally honed and stropped.

Some background on me so you know where my opinion is coming from-
I shave because I have to, not because I want to or because I enjoy it. Quite frankly, I don’t understand why any man or women would shave any part of their body if they didn’t have too. I actually prefer a woman being furry all over to shaven and don’t think being “clean” shaven makes a man or a women any cleaner or sexier than those who go a’ natural. I would love nothing more than to grow a nice long beard, but I can’t. I suffer from eczema and for what ever reason, growing a beard exasperates it to the point of feeling like I just shaved with a dull straight. Add to this that even with the best of straights, I can’t shave every day and still suffer at least some razor burn. I have extremely sensitive skin and insanely thick facial hair that grows in waves, not all at once. I also have several (no less than 15) basic directions in which the grain of my facial hair grows with some areas where the hair actually grows in different directions in the same spot.

Now. Before any one tries to give me any advice on technique, razor, strop, prep, preshave, after shave, skin food, etc. etc…. ladies and gents, I have tried them all. Through much trial, error and developed skill, I have come to the conclusion that some beards simply weren’t meant to be shaved. Having said this, I have chosen the shave over steroids and other questionable medications that don’t seem to work that well for my eczema. Although I still hate shaving, I have learned to love the straight. By using a straight, my eczema is nearly non existent and my razor burn is a minor fraction of what it used to be.

Now regarding the feather. Scary sharp? I don’t think so, but then I don’t even consider quality straights to be scary sharp. When you’ve handled hand flinted, prismatic blades of obsidian (natural glass) that have a blade edge only a molecule thick (sharper than any straight or surgical scalpel can be honed to) then you will know what “scary sharp” really means. The term “too sharp” is really a misnomer, it is a term that refers to a blade edge that has been improperly honed and/or stropped. No problem with a straight, but I’m not into honing or stropping disposables. Call me lazy or wasteful, but when I’m traveling with out my gear, I’m not into trying to MacGyver my way out of a bad disposable blade, I simply toss the bad blade and reach for a new one. I would say that on average, I only get one or two bad blades per package of professional supper blades, which is really not that bad at all. Still, at least for people like my self who have sh!tty skin and cave men beards, the feather does not hold a candle flame to the quality of a straight that has been well honed and stropped.

If you find the feather works as well for you as a good straight, it probably has more to do with your skin/hair type or you’re ability to hone and strop a quality straight. If you enjoy your feather, please continue to do so, but understand that as a disposable it will never be as good as a well honed quality straight. It’s rare to find anything manufactured and quality controlled by machinery that stands up against the quality of some thing created and fined tuned by the hands of a true artisan.

So, while not as good as a “quality” straight, the feather is certainly superior to even the best of disposables.

As far as pink goes, it remains the most popular selling color amongst girls and young women. It certainly isn’t my favorite color, but many chicks dig it and this was the reason I added my original post.