Thursday, June 15, 2006

Happy early birthday

I got my birthday present from my Mom yesterday and its spectacular. She got me all the supplies I need to wet shave. What is wet shaving you ask. Well its the way shaving was done when it was a skill and not a chore to lazily and sleepily hack your way through. Here is an excellent article explaining wet shaving.

For my birthday I got a Merkur Hefty Classic Double Edged Safety Razor, a badger brush, some soap and a jar. I've always wanted to be able to shave with a straight razor but I don't know where to learn and the razors are expensive. Around $100 or more for the razor plus you need a leather strop and you need to know how to sharpen it. I figured a D/E safety razor was interesting enough and fairly cheap too.

I wanted to give this a try for a couple of reasons. I've heard that you get a much better shave with these and because it is only one blade edge you can make multiple passes without irritation. Cost is also a big factor. 10 good quality Double edged razor blades are around $5 US verses $32 CDN for 8 Gillette fusion blades or $25 for Mach 3 blades. At the end of the day I feel like I'm doing something for the environment aswell. I'm not throwing out plastic blade cartridges, I'm only throwing out metal blades that will eventually decompose. The last reason is it just seems more manly to do it this way than to use a bright orange plastic gillette fusion razor.

Even if I was going to stick with my Mach 3 I think I would have switched over to a brush and soap to shave with. I have been using Prince saving cream from Lush and been happy with it but the badger brush is much nicer for working the lather into my face. Either work well but I'm going to stick with the brush. I've actually found the Prince makes a great aftershave. I put it on my face like a lotion after shaving and it soothed and smoothed my face.

If you are tired of paying through the nose for razor blades then check out a D/E safety razor. Here are some good links:

www.classicshaving.com - They sell everything you need plus there is a great howto section
http://groups.msn.com/thewetshaversgroup - a good group about wet shaving. They can answer any questions you have
http://www.shavemyface.com/
http://www.qedusa.com/

4 comments:

Jacqui and James said...

Isn't your birthday in September?

Zack said...

It is indeed. That is why it is titled Happy early birthday :P

My mom ordered this stuff and really wanted to check it out so I got it early. We're all weird like that.

Anonymous said...

I use a Shick Quattro. Wet shaving provides for the cleanest cut of the hair shaft, though. Shaving with an electric razor provides for the worst!

Zack said...

I've tried pretty much every way of shaving and I like wet shaving with a DE saftey razor the best. I really wasn't a fan of the electric razor and it was the worst for irritation.