Thread: What are your friends/familys reaction to you shaving w/straight rzrs

My wife rolls her eyes when I talk about it, but secretly she loves it since she was the one who got me into it (Christmas present). The most recent reaction was "oh, that's very 19th century of you."

I love the fact that NO ONE I know personally does it. I put it on my resume under "Interests" and it turned into a nice conversation piece during an interview one time. It went somethin like:

"Ok, I've got to ask about 'Restoring Antique Straight Razors'. I've been doing this for a long time and I've never seen that on a resume before..."

...too bad I didn't get the job

"Still trying to convince one person"... well, as a member of this forum you were part of my conversion to straights... I wasn't sure until I saw this site and started reading everyone's comments. Admittedly it took a while, I viewed this site and read posts for a few weeks before joining a week ago, and I have now ordered razor, stop, brush etc. Just waiting for it all to arrive. My dad thinks its nuts and will cut my head off, but Im sure with practice and help from this site, Ill eventually get it down to a good, safe shave

Originally Posted by AndrewJM

"Still trying to convince one person"... well, as a member of this forum you were part of my conversion to straights... I wasn't sure until I saw this site and started reading everyone's comments. Admittedly it took a while, I viewed this site and read posts for a few weeks before joining a week ago, and I have now ordered razor, stop, brush etc. Just waiting for it all to arrive. My dad thinks its nuts and will cut my head off, but Im sure with practice and help from this site, Ill eventually get it down to a good, safe shave

That's always a little disappointing to hear that people, especially men, have that general attitude towards using a cut-throat (just because I call them that, don't make it true) razor. I've had far less issue with nicks and cuts from using a proper razor than I ever did when using those mass marketed bits of metal and plastic cr@p. The majority of nicks came in the first two weeks and resulted from my lack of knowledge in correct technique.

Of course the potential for a bad cut is there, but as far as cutting your own head off, more likely it would be caused by something like dad barging into the dunny with a case of diarrhoea from eating a bad prawn on Christmas day, and slamming you in the elbow with the door just as you place the razor to your throat for an ATG pass, or something just as unlikely...


Mick

SWMBO thinks i have enough razors and it scares her when she sees me use one, funny thing is that now that i'm having fun shaving and do it on a regular basis she can't complain about me not shaving.(like she did when i used an electric and hated it). Still haven't heard the words "i sure like your smooth face".

My wife rolls her eyes at me and says don't cut your self every time I go into the shave den Shea already tells me I'm crazy on a regular basis but the reaction I enjoyed the most was my step dad who has been straight shaving since the 70s and had to stop in the past few years due to Parkinson's so initially I didn't want to tell him I was thinking of doing it and I amassed all the the things I thought I would need mostly from advice posted here at srp once a realized how much I liked straight shaving I told him about it and he had a smile from ear to ear. I was afraid it would make feel bad that he couldn't do it any more but I think he's just glad I'm enjoying it and I left I'm using a razor he gave when I was a kid and was to young and dumb to pick it and use it. Sorry for the long post.

My wife just looks at it as an extension of my sharps addiction, (knives, machetes, axes), so it's not a problem with her. My kids like to feel my cheeks when I'm done shaving, haha. I'm blessed to have an understanding wife, she's always let me do my thing from breeding reptiles and keeping other creepy crawlies, to my bushcraft, leatherwork, and knife collecting. My other family members, however, can't see what the big deal is about SR shaving. I just think about how nice it feels and smile.

I'm very much a newbie but my wife thinks it's great. In fact she encouraged me to try it. My 14 year old son thinks it's very cool. He has always shown an interest with my brushes, soaps and other DE gear. He can't wait to be able to start shaving.

My better half likes that I'm getting a better shave, and have less ingrowing issues, but she dislikes the fact I occupy the bathroom for 45min at a time.

Everyone else has responded the same way.... "Badass!"

I have had several people of late compare it being as "cool" as getting a tattoo. I have nothing against getting some ink (seeing as how I live near Seattle and have ink myself) but shaving is much less of a public statement to my way of thinking.

Raised eyebrows. Slightly smirky looks. A look of concern about having a Sweeney Todd razor. That's mostly from the women.
Then there's a sense of impressed curiosity from some of the men. You actually shave with that and don't slash yourself? Hmmmmm....