I am over shaving, so I am wearing a beard for the time being. Seems like the hip thing to be doing these days anyway.
I’m approximately 1/20 of the way through my old chicken stock tin with a horizontal slit-like hole cut into it near the top rim after about 5 years of safety razor shaving. Theoretically someday, I (or my descendants) will hammer the top of the can down, sealing the hole, and recycle the whole thing.
I wrap my old blades also and then place them in an old bandaid box and marked it with a skull and have it in my end table drawer next to my bed. My son is getting married early next year which made me think I am going to have to move those blades somewhere safer if I ever get any grandkids.
Why do you keep them?
Actually, I was worried about the garbage picker uppers getting cut by accident. So thought I would store them and figure out a way to protect anyone who might have to sift through garbage when I do throw them away.
I used to work with garbage in my college summer job, so know that people throw some wacky things into the trash and the moment you forget to use your gloves you can get hurt.
That’s more or less the idea behind the tin can storage solution, as a matter of fact!
I actually had no idea until I met my friend from England this summer and he said beards were all the rage there. I guess this phenomenon has been going on for a few years now? Living in Japan, I had no idea. I’m about two weeks into a new beard and I think I’ll keep this one until the end of the summer.
And Uniliver just bought Dollar Shave Club for a cool billion dollars.
Wow. That’s gotta be a nice pickup for the investors. DSC was having to spend heavy on advertising to grow its audience, and we’re already talking about a really low-margin business, so $1 billion is probably a pretty good deal for them.
Well, I picked up one of these Russian Saiver razors from ebay to use on my legs. Unfortunately the hubby stole it for his face. Pretty cool design - takes two razor blades (one whole blade, one snapped in two).
He’s getting great shaves from it. BBS in a couple of passes. Also it’s quite a mild razor.
That is fascinating! Never seen that particular design before. Mind, my shaving gear “collecting” days are supposed to be over, but it’s still fun to read about new stuff (or in this case probably very old).
Lately I’m using clippers to shave. I buzz my face and neck about twice a month, and I love some stuff about it, but some parts suck. I love how my chin and cheeks feel all bristly after a shave. I love that I can buzz it off dry and it doesn’t irritate my skin the way an electric does. I love the hairy look, but that can also be a disadvantage, depending on what I’m trying to get done at work or if I’m looking for work. Most of the time, a quick clean up the night before looks professional enough for software. But, really, the big downside is that my clippers occasionally need to be “sharpened” which just involves taking the cutting head thing off with a screw driver, cleaning it up, and adjusting it. It’s a pain in the ass (or neck, especially if you use clippers that need adjusted – yeow!)
Does anyone else like clippers for shaving? What do you use? I’m using a pair of clippers we got from Costco for buzzing my son’s head in the summertime when he was just little. That was a long time ago and I wonder if there’s a better pair of clippers or some other way to get the same effect without actually shaving.
I have a pair of Wahl clippers. A large corded one and a smaller battery powered one. The larger one is more of a head-hair trimmer. It’s not so great for the face. I use the smaller one to get my beard down to stubble and then shave, or not, depending upon my mood. I’ve had various cheaper clippers over the years and I find that Wahl makes the best. At least that I have used.
thanks, Rich, do you have to sharpen the Wahl very often? How come the big one doesn’t work on your face?
Haven’t had to sharpen it yet. I think that the tolerances for the larger clipper aren’t so tight. It has a tendency to catch on beard hairs. Ouch. I might be able to tighten it up but the smaller one is good enough for me.
Yes, that’s the thing I hate too! Right on the neck, haha. Really sucks!
Thank you Rich!
So my GF grabbed me a safety razor for V-Day. I’ve been talking about it for a while, but never taken the plunge. Only done a couple of shaves with it, but it’s pretty great so far. Only have to go over any spot once so it cuts down on irritation, the shave is supposed to not take the hair below the skin surface to cut down on bumps. Not sure if this is all safety razor setups or not. The packaging specifies ‘no bumps’ so…cool, I guess.
Grabbed some shave soap and brush with minimal investigating. But didn’t get ‘shave oil’ for pre-shave/lather. Anyway, loving it, no really bad cuts (had none the first time, but I got a bit too quick the second time and got a few really minor cuts).
Welcome to the He-Man Shave Club. ;)
It takes some practice for sure. Some hints from experience:
- You’ve got to avoid going over areas multiple times
- remember to mostly rely on the weight of the razor to move down your face instead of pressing it into your face the way you might with something different. That will cause cuts in my experience,
- not sure what blades you are using, Suggest trying a sampler to see what you like. I prefer the Japanese Feather blades because they are crazy sharp, but your mileage may vary so try a bunch.
Diego
So very much this. If you’re used to a Mach 3 or the like you will press too hard. Because those multi-blade razors are shit. Trust the weight of a good safety razor to do much of the work.
Oooh, thanks for the advice. My first use was Tuesday and I took it slow with no cuts. Today I got a bit quicker and cut a few minor cuts. Didn’t even notice them though till the blood. And pretty sure I got them by going over the edge of my chin more than once.
Currently using whatever blades came with the razor. Nothing expensive, just a nice somewhat heavy one from Target. I’ll prob try some sort of razor sampler and see what I like best.