Guys, just be careful while using the straight razor. It just takes a second of carelessness to end up with a big cut on your face. I"m sticking to my DE shaver. It's so much safer and gives almost the same close cut as a straight razor.

Thanks for the safety note..

Indeed must be a steady hand and precise cut..

Yeah, else you end up with a precise cut....on your face

This post has been edited by zamorin: Jun 26 2013, 11:05 AM

Wow, so happy to see this thread

I'm from the UK (spot the user name..) and love the Old Skool shaving. My weapon of choice is a vintage 1960 Gillette "Fatboy" Adjustable.

The locally-bought 'Nacet' blades are horrid. Derbys are cheap but not much better than Nacet.

Really I find the blades last quite awhile and I'm *still* using blades from a sampler pack! Typically each blade lasts me around 4-5 shaves. Note though that I shave my head as well as my face.

Currently I'm using 'Shark Stainless' blades. Seem pretty good, nothing special but nothing wrong with them either. Main thing is my razor allows me to adjust just how aggressive it is. With a new blade I use setting 3, as it dulls I wind it up to 4 then 5, taking extra care because more blade is exposed.

I've never once cut myself using the Fatboy, though certainly did using the local Chinese rubbish razors! I had one that cost me 7 ringgit and it. cut. me. every. single. time.

For my brush I have a synthetic Bodyshop thing, which is good for hard soaps, for softer soaps and creams I use a Silvertip Badger purchased from Ebay.

Let me answer some of the more common questions I've seen here:

1. Better than electric? Absolutely better! Note it's not called "wet shaving" for nothing though, as there's a lot more water and lather and stuff. Best done without a shirt on - but if you use electric you also know you can get that horrid grey hair-dust down your shirt, which I think is even worse!

2. Close shave? Part of the fun with a DE razor is you can shave closely but not TOO closely. That means you soon get stubble again but on the up-side you don't get the pimples, razor burn, lumps and bumps and ingrowing hairs that you get with the Mach3/4/5 or 6..

If you want really close than do 2 or 3 passes, first with the direction of growth, then directly against it.

3. Speed. DE shaving is relatively slow, and is about taking your time, taking care of yourself and your face, and refusing to let the world rush you. If you're a real man and in charge of yourself and your life then it's no biggie to get up 20 minutes earlier and enjoy a great shave, true? It's much better than being out of control and needing to slap your own face with a Mach3/4/5/6 and foam in a can, because you "don't have time".

You're a man, you're in charge of yourself and in charge of your time. If you really cannot make 20 minutes for your own face then grow a beard, which is also manly.

4. Straight Razor? I too toyed with the idea but trust me, the potential injuries (to your fingers and other parts as well as your face and neck) are far more serious than you might expect. We're not talking "nicks", you can easily slice veins, nerves and tendons.

You can also get multiple scars on your face from "minor" cuts. One or two scars may be bad-ass and you can say with pride "I shave with a straight razor blade". By 3 scars you're looking a bit silly though and 4 scars just makes you look an idiot. How stupid would you look with 5 scars? 6?

Using something like my Gillette Fatboy on the number 8 or 9 setting will give you all the shaving benefits of a straight razor, without constantly having to sharpen the thing and without the sliced fingers and scarred face.

You still get the old skool traditional gentlemanly feel, you still get to be different, you can still indulge in the luxury soaps and balms and expensive brushes and all that good stuff.

Gillette invented the 'safety DE razor' around 100 years ago. The open "straight" razor is only for a barber shaving someone else. Shaving yourself with it is stupid and dangerous when you can buy a vintage razor, more than 50 years old, which is safer!

Happy shaves!


UKG

Good post UKGuy

Same like you...myself head and face too ..with DEs

Ah...Fatboy....fancying one ...hopefully will manage to win auction or snap somewhere soon...

This post has been edited by ShaveNBeam: Jun 28 2013, 04:00 AM

Guys, anyone interested in buying the Cella Crema Sapone Extra Extra Purissima?

If say I were to buy 1kg and split it up to 150g for sale to spread my costs, anyone here interested?

I dun have much facial hair. cant even grow thick sideburns. i got those typical chinese sideburns. mustache, soul patch n some chin hairs is all i can grow. sparse. but each hair is thick so i need to shave daily.

i used to use a DE razor. i been using disposables for the past 6 months.

I feel like going back to using DE razor or maybe try straight razor but sometimes i think those kind of razors r more suited for guys that have a lot of facial hair. all d pre shave prep to shave so lil facial hair seems pointless n troublesome.

what u guys think ?

What kind of DE razor u using?
I am your typical Chinese guy, little facial hair.
I like pre shave oil when I have hair growing for > 3 days.
U have to wet the hair with very warm water then apply oil, wait a min and splash warm water on it again b4 shave.
Not troublesome for me and I am using muhle R41. R89 is too mild for me already, of I not careful I may get a cut going bottom up when shaving above my lip.

This post has been edited by patryn33: Jul 4 2013, 04:03 AM

A Gillette Super Adjustable (70s model i think).

seems tedious those steps. i seem to be getting along fine by washing face den apply shave gel n shaving with Schick Exacta 2 disposable.

Yes a little more work but I like it more than those disposable. It's also cheaper than your Schick Exacta 2.
15-20 rm can get 100 blades, each can go for 3-5 shaves.
Some ppl don't use pre shave oil at all, just shaving soap!
All u need is a cheap brush and a nice soap.

This post has been edited by patryn33: Jul 4 2013, 06:08 PM

Its perfectly fine to stick with a disposable or cartridge shaving if you are comfortable with it . In fact if you do not have much facial hair, and you don't shave often (once or twice a week), then maybe you will find it tedious, but I personally find using a brush, shaving cream and DE blade to be something much more enjoyable than normal cartridge shaving. I shave every 2 days once.

Are you interested in selling the super adjustable if you are not using? =D

yea i guess i shud just stick to disposables for d time being.

d Gillette has much sentimental value as it belonged to my late grandfather. he left another 2 more Gillette DE razors way back from d 1940s...unused n one even came in a box set with brush. im looking to restore that one as there is a lot of oxidization.

they just dun make razors like they used to.

ah family heirloom . in that case you should preserve it, and do use it from time to time just to keep the tradition going. hopefully one fine day in the future, you can pass that down to your son and teach him wetshaving too

I dont use pre shave oil but quality and type of brush really matters ....my old cheap horse brush feel thorny now...it have end of life from my tools use cycle..lol


soap/cream/gel all works.....there are many options...from cheapest to expensive....just try all...MARCH on and enjoy!

This post has been edited by rupart: Aug 3 2013, 02:28 PM

Bought a can of Old Spice shaving foam from Mydin for RM8.90. pretty big can too, 310g. Made in Canada.

It has a very masculine scent. nothing like the scent of the usual Nivea or Gillette shaving foams. the foam is very dense straight out of the can.

however performance wise it did a slightly better job than my usual Schick n Nivea. it still feels like the foam floats on top of the facial hair n this makes my shaves kinda "dry".

Thats actually the reason why I've started to really like face lathering with a brush. It seems that the lather is right on your skin, at close as it can get, instead of just floating on it =D.

u guys make me feel so jealous ... i wanted to grow my mustache so much !! how to grow it quickly pls inbox me !!! seriously need help my gf complaining i am not man enough so i need to put on fake mustache sometimes ... its quite embarrassing ==

Unfortunately there's no other way for u to grow a moustache my friend.But IMO once u switch to Wet Shaving u definitely will see the improvement of your facial hair growth due to the cutting edge of the hair with a single blade and i have seen a few cases with improvement of facial hair growth with some folks switching to safety razor.U may try

Ironic. I sometimes wish I had no facial hair at all. It's so time-consuming having to shave every other day. Anyway I don't think moustache alone makes one manly.....Bruce Lee didn't have a moustache. Anyway this a genetical issue. Maybe you can try some hair growth tonic.

This post has been edited by zamorin: Sep 25 2013, 01:40 PM

using a Edwin Jagger DE89l. loving it! =D