Traditional Wet Shave
Book Guy
I write it like I mean it, but mostly they just want my money.
Casualguy posted in another thread that he had trouble getting a good shave. Me too! But then I learned how to do it right. :)
For the longest time, I had a HUGE problem with shaving -- it was so irritating that I couldn't do it daily, not even every other day really. So I couldn't look very professional unless I either grew a beard (which was sometimes my solution; but I don't like it, and my whiskers are splotchy, with gaps and spaces) or arrange this elaborate 30-hour rotation, starting on Sunday night, with electrics at lunch on odd days, etc. It was a nightmare. I like my face, girls tend to find it visually appealing, but with a poor beard and yet a professional suit on, I just looked like the kid from the mail room who didn't know to shave every day.
Most guys simply don't have these problems. It's a combination of my skin type, hair type, whisker type, the heat I live in (New Orleans), and lots and lots of misinformation. I've heard of guys who just sit down in the sauna and run a blade over their face using only sweat as a lubricant. Me? I'd bleed to death if I tried that. Some work colleagues were unsupportive and rather unsympathetic, when I tried to explain it was MEDICAL dammit, and I could tell they were presuming I was out late partying and therefore not being "responsible" about work by getting up to shave early, etc. It was a bit of a professional handicap. (And yes, those guys were assholes. But that's a different issue.)
Then I discovered the concept called a "traditional wet shave," learned what I was doing wrong, gave up on the damned multi-blade razors ("one blade lifts the whisker, the other cuts it" IS the problem) and canned shaving creams and gels (propellants CAUSE dry skin). I am now excited about my shaving, love doing it, spend lots less money, get an excellent result, baby-bottom smooth and NOT irritated at all, and I can even "touch up" for a night out and not get any problems. I wake up looking forward to it!
Also, I get to collect "vintage" items like 1940s Gillette Aristocrat single-blade razors like your grandfather shaved with, and those fancy badger-hair barber's brushes. The new creams I use (traditional "English" shaving creams in a tube or tub, whipped with the brush up to a buttery consistency) are pleasant, even pleasurable, to apply, like a buttery stripper's thighs on my face. :)
There are wonderful things to learn about shaving, if you want to try. I highly recommend it, and I'd have to say it's changed my "attitude" toward work, dress, professional tooling (kind of like getting my first "real" pair of business shoes -- ya feel like a man!). Here's two starting points:
1. Go to the Shave My Face forums (shavemyface.com) and read the newbie guide. I'd suggest you don't tell them I sent you there, they're a bunch of "gentlemen" who might disapprove (or approve?) of strip clubbing.
2. Go to YouTube and look up the how-to videos by a user / guru named "Mantic." (Be careful not to go into the "method" shaving, not yet. That's advanced. Just use "traditional wet shaving" info for starters.)
I really can't emphasize enough, just how misinformed I was. And how delighted I am at the new developments. I'm happy enough to feel like sharing. :)
For the longest time, I had a HUGE problem with shaving -- it was so irritating that I couldn't do it daily, not even every other day really. So I couldn't look very professional unless I either grew a beard (which was sometimes my solution; but I don't like it, and my whiskers are splotchy, with gaps and spaces) or arrange this elaborate 30-hour rotation, starting on Sunday night, with electrics at lunch on odd days, etc. It was a nightmare. I like my face, girls tend to find it visually appealing, but with a poor beard and yet a professional suit on, I just looked like the kid from the mail room who didn't know to shave every day.
Most guys simply don't have these problems. It's a combination of my skin type, hair type, whisker type, the heat I live in (New Orleans), and lots and lots of misinformation. I've heard of guys who just sit down in the sauna and run a blade over their face using only sweat as a lubricant. Me? I'd bleed to death if I tried that. Some work colleagues were unsupportive and rather unsympathetic, when I tried to explain it was MEDICAL dammit, and I could tell they were presuming I was out late partying and therefore not being "responsible" about work by getting up to shave early, etc. It was a bit of a professional handicap. (And yes, those guys were assholes. But that's a different issue.)
Then I discovered the concept called a "traditional wet shave," learned what I was doing wrong, gave up on the damned multi-blade razors ("one blade lifts the whisker, the other cuts it" IS the problem) and canned shaving creams and gels (propellants CAUSE dry skin). I am now excited about my shaving, love doing it, spend lots less money, get an excellent result, baby-bottom smooth and NOT irritated at all, and I can even "touch up" for a night out and not get any problems. I wake up looking forward to it!
Also, I get to collect "vintage" items like 1940s Gillette Aristocrat single-blade razors like your grandfather shaved with, and those fancy badger-hair barber's brushes. The new creams I use (traditional "English" shaving creams in a tube or tub, whipped with the brush up to a buttery consistency) are pleasant, even pleasurable, to apply, like a buttery stripper's thighs on my face. :)
There are wonderful things to learn about shaving, if you want to try. I highly recommend it, and I'd have to say it's changed my "attitude" toward work, dress, professional tooling (kind of like getting my first "real" pair of business shoes -- ya feel like a man!). Here's two starting points:
1. Go to the Shave My Face forums (shavemyface.com) and read the newbie guide. I'd suggest you don't tell them I sent you there, they're a bunch of "gentlemen" who might disapprove (or approve?) of strip clubbing.
2. Go to YouTube and look up the how-to videos by a user / guru named "Mantic." (Be careful not to go into the "method" shaving, not yet. That's advanced. Just use "traditional wet shaving" info for starters.)
I really can't emphasize enough, just how misinformed I was. And how delighted I am at the new developments. I'm happy enough to feel like sharing. :)
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17 comments
After shaving it off, I decided that I liked the way I looked better with the goatee - gray and all, so I'm starting another streak of years with facial hair.
Anyway, I also shave 'down below' though it's been a while and I haven't tried my new traditional wet-shave techniques. In fact, I think the type of irritation which multi-blade cartridges caused on my neck and face isn't necessarily present down below for me; and I certainly don't do it daily down below; so I wouldn't need to upgrade to the vintage equipment like I needed to for my face.
The biggest worry I had (whether above or below) about traditional Gillette safety-razors (like this: -) was, that it seemed to me like it would be a "bed of one nail." When you press weight onto a bed of MANY nails (for example, three nails, or blades, in the Mach3 cartridge), the weight is distributed so that no one nail cuts through the skin. With a safety-razor, though, there's only one blade. I worried that this 'single nail' would cut in because the pressure would not be distributed more widely. It turned out, my worries were quite unfounded. I can irritate myself, IF I TRY, with a safety-razor, but it doesn't just cut in right away merely because the blade is there and alone. I had worried it would.
So, I like this new thing. I could use the fancy cremas, and a brush, and all sorts of unguents and salves, with a Mach3, sure. But for me, the transition FROM a Mach3 is the biggest improvement. I like the other stuff -- warm lather, smells like sandalwood, smooth baby's face afterwards, all that stuff. But mainly, leaving behind the multi-blade cartridge is the biggest improvement. If I travel, I'll use a single-blade disposable and some tube cream. But I won't go back to the Mach3's 'hysterisis' procedure of two- or three-blade action.
This is because the "one blade pulls it up, the next whacks it off" has an effect of 'stumping' the whisker. I want it to be removed at exactly the skin-level, or a little teeny bit below. The amount that the pull with a Mach3 creates, is MUCH too much, so that the follicle gets irritated. First, it's irritated because the whisker is pulled up along with some skin, so some of the skin at each follicle gets cut by the following blades. Second, it's irritated because the whisker is pulled too far out, causing pain. Third, it's irritated because the whisker gets cut at its 'extended' position, which means it retracts and then, as it grows, it can't squeeze through the follicle. It gets stumped like a little boiled egg. That's a lot of reasons not to use the "one blade pulls it up, the next whacks it off" method.
So, for me, I used to have to shave only every 30 or 36 hours, because shaving dug too deep. Nevertheless, I never looked well-shaven, not even immediately after I had shaven, because there were whiskers sticking out and there were painful red or rashy portions of skin, BOTH. I had to work out something that would work with a traditional work schedule at 36 hours (Sunday night with a blade, Tuesday morning with a blade, Wednesday at noon with an electric at work if I could take a long lunch, look bad Thursday, Friday morning VERY PAINFUL with a blade, no more until Sunday). And I had to buy all sorts of 'soothing' balms to reduce the irritation. And guess what? The balms aren't all that soothing relative to "traditional wet shave" products!
By the way, it's no surprise, that the people who make the razor that irritated me, also make the balms to make the razor a little more bearable. Now that I know their game, I don't buy EITHER set of products, neither the damaging razors nor the supposedly healing balms.
OK, I'm off my soapbox. Oh, and speaking of soaps, for your face, look for those based in glycerin and tallow (animal fat), not palm oil. Much less destruction. :)
http://www.countrycc.com/gillette_super_…
I can understand that it would be new for many, but it certainly isn't for me. I had a beard from the time I was 21 till I was 56. Shaved what I needed that way. Now, after almost two years, I am going back to the beard. Two reasons, one, no shaving (except for just a bit) and my SO likes them. The hell with the gray!