Thread: So What's Your Story?

I like to think everyone has at least a little bit of a story to explain why or how they began straight razor shaving. So go ahead and share your story so that it won't be forgotten! Here's mine:

About 2 years a friend go me started on using the brush and soap you can get from Walgreens. He mentioned straight shaving but he didn't do it so neither did I. Then I went to college at the end of the year and started back on canned goo after the first semester (I wasn't getting the lather right because I didn't know better so I didn't realize how wonderful it is). My Mom knew I had been using a brush and soap and didn't know that I had stopped. She went on vacation with some friends and went into some small shop. She saw a high quality brush and Pre de Provence cream in the shop and bought it for me. About a week later I watched Sweeney Todd. This was strike 3 and by then I had quite the interest in the subject. I then started googling and youtubing to find more information on straight shaving. I stumbled upon Lynn's amature shave video he made. The video led me right to SRP. Once I found SRP there was no going back, I was hooked. Hope you like my story and I hope to read some interesting ones from everyone else!

Happy shaving and Happy Halloween!
Brent

It has always been one of those 'bucket list' things for me. It just so happened that I found SRP while I was looking at pictures and here I am shaving straight. There was nothing profound in my story, I didn't start to save the earth or to get a better shave....I just wanted to try something new and adventurous.

In the late 1970s or early '80s, I was at the mall and they had an "antique" (junk) sale in progress. I bought a straight for something like $20. I was already using Aramis shaving soap as well as their mug and brush. Strop it? Hone it? I had no clue.

Fast forward to early this year. I found SRP and a razor in a lot of BEF (British Expeditionary Force) gear I picked up. I had Lynn hone it, and I was off to the races.

About 15 years ago (maybe more) I bought an old cut-throat from an antiques shop as I'd fancied one for a while, tried it and gave up (wasn't sharp and I was clueless).
Carried on with my electric philishave and a cartridge razor now and again when I wanted a closer shave.
About a month ago I saw a cut-throat in my mums display cabinet and thought it was mine she'd pinched - it wasn't but made me hunt for mine. Found it, gave it a hone up (not a very good one) and had a go with some nomal shave goop - what a disaster. Bought a cheap brush and some shaving soap.
Found B&B on the net, then here. Read up on honing and stropping etc. Had more success with my second shave but not great. Dug up another hone - this time it was flat and after a good go on that plus a good stropping I had a nice shave, one I felt good about.
Then I looked though the classifieds on here and bought a TI. Now I'm hooked and my electric razor is confined to a drawer - the cartridge razors might as well get slung..
Don't know why I didn't do this years ago - well, I know why - I didn't know what I was doing. Thanks to this place I've got a good start.

I wish my start had a more "family" setting but alas it was just dumb drunken luck. I was in Vegas in the Venetian for a week of meetings. One night I won repeatedly at the blackjack table (no such luck here online) and decided after about a dozen straight wins that my luck couldn't hold, so I gave up and cashed out. Being somewhat buzzed - OK quite hammered from the free scotches at the tables - I wandered up to the shops on the second floor to poke around. I wound up in The Apothecary store that has an Art of Shaving section in the back. Having a pocket full of $100 bills I decided a straight razor shave would be nice. After the shave and more than a little talk about straight razor shaving I left with a new TI, brush, pre-shave oil, and shave cream. The next evening in my suite I decided to shave with it (no strop) and managed to get a fairly good shave - until I got to my chin and upper lip area. Lots of blood and some explanations to my coworkers the next morning. Someone in the group was online as I was explaining that I had not been in a knife fight and he found SRP. Later that night I started reading articles and posts here and continued to read and lurk for a few months while still practicing on my face and buying strops, soaps, brushes, and more blades. Sometime later I finally signed up here. The start was easy, getting good at it took time, practice, reading, asking questions here, and some large amount of cash (well, I guess the outgoing cash was just RAD, HAD, and a few other ADs....

My (late) great grandfather had been a barber. As a kid every so often my dad would get a shave while we were out for a visit (actually only lived about 20someodd miles from them). I can remember watching the whole process and thinking "why bother?". Any way got older & pretty much forgot about that but I had grown a set of sideburns that I just couldn't keep the edges square on. I started looking for a straight just for that reason. I poked around a bit but most of what I found in the antique shops were either way too expensive or just junk, sometimes both. Move along again to where I chopped the burns off. I was talking with my kid sister and she said that mom was looking for a picture she had in storage somewhere from when our G-grandfather was at the barber school in L.A. and it had him lathering a guy up for *da-ding* a straight shave. She still hasn't found the pic but that got me going. Wasn't sure where to pick up the necessities so just went to amazon and got a shavette, Fredmeyer groceries had the soap & VDH brush so I was off. I had actually come across the forum a few times but thought why bother? So here I am. Haven't used anything else since that first shave.

I've always been interested in knives and sharpening, so about a month ago someone in the blade forum sent me over here from something and I was just fascinated. Kind of combines good grooming with an element of danger.

I asked a bunch of questions, bought the minimum I needed (still quality) and today was my third "partial" shave with a straight.

I don't think it's too hard to turn a knife nut into a straight razor shaver.

I got tired of paying for cartridges and the multiblade razors getting clogged with gunk while shaving in the field. I recalled seeing a double edge razor in my grandfather's medicine cabinet about 10 years ago. Though not a straight it led my mind down the different routes other than cartridges. Since I didn't want to pay for cartridges I ruled out the double edge and decided that I would go with a straight, no replacement blades or electricity necessary, plus it can't get clogged. It was also economic after conducting a net present value analysis the initial outlay will pay for itself in about three years...that is, if I don't buy scads of soaps and razors

On vacation with the family I was walking through this little town called Carpenteria, CA. I walked by a barber shop and saw some writing on the window that showed prices for a haircut and prices for a shave. I thought to myself, getting a shave with a straight razor sounds nice.

I didn't get a chance to get a shave from that barber but I started to wonder if it was still possible to get supplies to shave with a straight razor, it just seemed like something interesting to do.

Well I'd never even heard of anyone straight razor shaving at this point so I looked it up on line to find out how it all works and eventually came across this site. It was all downhill from there, somehow from the moment the idea popped into my head, for some reason, I had already decided this was something I was just going to do.

I was really happy and surprised to find an entire community of people with the same inclination.

It is interesting how something that seems as insignificant as a sign in a window can lead you down a new path sometimes. Although I still have yet to get a shave from a barber, maybe next vacation.

Hated (but hated) shaving from the first time I had to. From DE to electric to disposable to multi-blade. Always hankered after a better way and figured that straight was it, liked the aspect of a reusable tool too. Was put off by silly stories for years, but one day, took the plunge. Spent far too much money but knew from the first that I'd found a technique that I respected. After a short time, I was enjoying it, and, it didn't hurt to shave every day.

It got better, and continues to do so, from there on in.