Thread: DE vs. Straight

It comes down to the fact that shaving with a straight razor is an art, which can only be appreciated by a practitioner. There is no art to shaving with a plastic disposable or even a DE, and little enjoyment, either. When King Gillette invented the first safety razor, most men abandoned the straights, who were looking only for convenience and speed in their shaving. A few diehards were left, who appreciated shaving with a straight razor for it's own sake; men who actually enjoyed shaving. We are the spiritual descendents of those diehard iconoclasts. I acheive BBS often, but whether I do or not, I enjoy shaving. That is all there is to it.

Practice, practice, practice...

bigspendur made a good analogy with the auto vs. manual thing. Once you've mastered the manual, chances are, you're going to prefer it.

Oh yea, and no pesky traffic while shaving with a straight...

Originally Posted by isshou

Interesting, and during those 2 years you kept shaving just with the straight, or did you have some shaves with a DE ?.

Myself, due tu irritation, haven't been able to keep shaving just with the str8, and keep coming back to the DE, afterwards I feel lazy to start again with the str8.

For the shake of my collection, I've got to become proficient with str8 shaving, but it is taking me a very long time.

thanks

Sorry had to step away from the computer. I used to use a DE many years ago so I know what to expect from them but it may be that I was not as proficient as you guys. Guys like Mantic have really advanced DE shaving so I can't say that I was as proficient as I could have been. That said, once I started with the straight I quit using any other razor and that includes shaving the back of my neck.

You have to get past the irritation part. One thing that helped me was Nivea Extreme Comfort Balm. It is the best of any balm that I have ever used for razor burn and it is fairly cheap, like $7, and carried in my car...everywhere. I hope you are not allergic to it because a good coating will work wonders.

A couple of things may be the problem. Lay the razor down to as low an angle as you can, for one but you have to have a sharp and polished edge to get good cutting action. The other thing is that your razor can roll an edge, if you are not careful, when you strop and it will cause unbelievable irritation. When an edge is rolled the blade feels like it is scraping the skin no matter how flat the razor is. I know what a rolled edge feels like on the first stroke and that just takes experience. Honing is a very large part of using a straight. I used a paddle strop with diamond paste the first year that I shaved and it helped a lot because it was easy and gave a very reasonable edge. Until you have mastered a one pass shave then go to more. You really will look very good with only one good pass and nobody will probably be the wiser.

Hope that is not to long winded!

Take Care,
Richard