Thread: The best part of straight shaving

Straight razor shaving is lot of small parts put together. If we forget honing and just concentrate on shaving there is choosing razor and soap, preparing your face, organize your stuff for shave, making lather, lathering your face, stropping, shaving and after treatments. I guess I am still forgetting something.

My best part of shaving is definitely making lather. I like different fragrances and scents floating around bathroom. I have to sniff lather bowl or brush time to time. It is kind of aroma therapy for me I bought Col. Conk's Bayrum shaving soap and that moment when I first time made lather of it I just couldn't stop sniffing lather bowl. Same happened with Fitjar's Fjellheim shaving soap.

Straight razor shaving is a carousel of small parts or options for a joyful ride. Concentrate on any one and you can get lost in the fun of it. Just like all the beings that make up a carousel so are all of the parts of the SR world. And don't forget the seat if you don't feel like getting motion sickness. Sometimes just sit and look at your gear, your razors, your aftershave, soaps, scuttle, bowl, creams, strop, the stack of hones from man and nature.....just sit on the bench and marvel at what the hell happened.

Originally Posted by WW243

...just sit on the bench and marvel at what the hell happened.

Sums up life in general IMO... ;-)

The best part is enjoying something I hated doing for 40 years. My face feels good and not irritated. The quality of shave is first class. Of course it took 2-3 years to achieve the results almost every time, but in context of 40 years well worth the investment.

For me it's the satisfaction of achieving a BBS shave with a razor that I restored and then sharpened on a natural hunk of rock.

For me it is the peace and quiet of the shave, I have my wife convinced that I can do serious damage if she talks to me. The other day it payed off as we were visiting my mother who started to talk to me whilst shaving. SWOMBO came up to her with a serious look on her face and said "please don't talk to him whilst he is shaving, he has a sharp knife and might cut himself". I almost did because I was trying to suppress a laugh.

The whole process appeals to me. I know it has filled a void beyond needing to shave for me. It frees my mind of all the trivial B.S. in life....well almost....

I just couldn't stop sniffing lather bowl. Same happened with Fitjar's Fjellheim shaving soap.[/QUOTE]

Fjellheim is awesome, as soon as I get a sniff, I feel like I'm at the top of a snow capped mountain with a crisp breeze blowing.

I love the simplicity of putting a near 100 year old piece of incredibly sharp steel on my face to remove the whiskers.

It has been the whole learning curve. Two years ago, I struggled through a shave, the cartridge would clog almost immediately, spent more time rinsing it than shaving with it. By the third shave, it was a real struggle, blunt and uncomfortable. Oh well, replace it with another $4 chunk of junk cart. Now I have a couple of straight razors with over 50 shaves each on them and still going strong, with just a strip of leather, that is the best part for me anyway.