Ah, the newbie excitement and enthusiasm has gradually worn off during the past two years of straight razor shaving, and now I'm "just shaving". I have used no other method since I started. I fully committed to the bare blade from the beginning. I tossed all my cartridge gizmos a long time ago. If I don't have the 15-20 minutes it takes to shave like a man before I go to work, then I don't shave. Fortunately, my office is a "shave-optional" workplace, so nobody has a problem on those few days a month when I come in with stubble.

But the real point is that I no longer feel the need to go around smugly telling people (mostly other guys) that I shave with a straight razor unless the topic of shaving comes up in normal conversation (rarely). To me, I'm just doing something perfectly routine and normal when I whip up a lather with my badger brush, strop my razor, and make the whiskers go away.

I've also been fortunate not have contracted a major case of Razor Acquisition Disease (I only own 5 straight razors, with the most expensive one costing about $80, which doesn't even put me on the RAD Scale). For that, I am grateful (so is my wife). Besides, one of my main motivators for wanting to switch was thrift, so to remain true to that end, I've had to resist temptation after temptation (not easy). My sympathies to those with hardcore RAD.

Sooner or later, I'm sure a lot of straight razor shavers get to the same point as me. I'm not saying that I don't feel a personal sense of pride in knowing how to do something that so few men (and women) know how to do; I just don't go around putting it into people's faces any more (no pun intended). Perhaps that's why I got an Email reminder from SRP that I hadn't posted anything for a while. It's not that I'm disinterested, I'm just not all that excited or enthused any more about this rare skill that I share with so few other other men (and women) who, fortunately, share their knowledge and experience through postings to this website. We are privileged as a group to have this valuable resource of information.

Nonetheless, with all that said, the bottom line for me is that I'm at the point now where I'm "just shaving". Does anybody else feel the same way?