Thread: Looking to get started with a DE

Go slowly and treat your face kindly and enjoy the experience. That razor will be just fine with a good blade.
Good luck.

Originally Posted by celestino

Go slowly and treat your face kindly and enjoy the experience. That razor will be just fine with a good blade.
Good luck.

Slow and steady wins the race. (Aesop 226 Perry index). I think choosing a blade is as much voodoo and stochastic processes with some Higgs boson influences as it is a guessing game and personal choice.

I'm a noob regular at the Badge and Blade.

I just suggest you pick up a copy of Leisure Guy's guide to gourmet shaving for starters. Different blades matter. Soaps matter. So do creams, pre shave prep, post shave treatment.

What's interesting to me about this is, something that many of us just took for granted as kids is coming back "into vogue," and is so freaking complicated now with all the choices available, with the same razors available (many at collector's premiums) blade choices, and so on. It used to be easy. Dad and/or Mom got you your first razor, a can of shaving cream, you just put whatever Dad's choice of blade was in the thing and went to it with a few brief lessons. Simple. And wrong. There IS some art to this, and many people dedicated to reviving it. I'm psyched about this. I've shaved five days a week for about 6 weeks with straight razors, and went back to my gillette slim adjustable for two days and the shave isn't anywhere as close as the SR. I got my first DE razor, a gillette super adjustable in 1970 and used it for about five years until I got a single blade injector which I used for another five years, switched to twin blade razors and hated them so much I switched to electrics for about 30 years. I'm tired of rushing. I like the ritual of the wet shave and am partial to Irish Moos or Mitchells Wool Fat soap and Proraso or Floid original aftershave.

Dive in to the deep end and enjoy.

Originally Posted by Gibbs

I am surprised that there is no date code letter - number (1-4) on the underneath of the head even if it is from UK. I thought they all had them.

I'm pretty sure the date codes started around 1950.

I have a super speed that's from the late 1940's, a couple of New razors and others from the teens and twenties and they don't have codes.

Originally Posted by cpcohen1945

FWIW --

Put some lather on your face, put a blade in the razor, and start shaving. One warning:

. . . That blade is _sharp_. Use _no pressure_ on the razor -- it is _not_ like a cartridge.

People will talk about which DE razor is "better" forever. From what I've read and experienced, the old Gillettes were fine. I think, in a recent thread, the Super Speed was called "aggressive", so be extra careful about using _no pressure_.

Charles

PS -- the "Badger and Blade" website is a hangout for people who really, really care about DE razors. You might check it for reviews of the Super Speed. And check this site, as well.

+1 on badgerandblade.com, that is where I started for info on DE shaving.

FWIW, I really like the Merkur Slant. A lot of people say it's too aggressive for a beginner, but I think that's nonsense. As far as a DE goes, it gives the best shaves IMO.

Now you just need to move up to a straight razor and your shaving problems will be over!