Wet Shaving – An Adventure

Hi all! In the words of the wise Pasha (whom you will be hearing more about as we progress in this blog) “I’m Jared Smith, Jackson, Missouri, United States of America.” This is somewhat of an inside joke amongst us in The BiG Shave Facebook group. https://www.facebook.com/groups/thebigshave/ But, on the same token, I wanted to tell everyone who I am and where I’m from. The things you should do in an introduction. This little space of the wild and wacky internet is going to be my little section dedicated to one of my newest hobbies and adventures in life: wet shaving. I know many people in my day to day life wonder how exactly shaving can be a hobby. Stick around and you’ll soon find out.

 

I guess I’ll start this off with a bit about me. I’m from Southeast Missouri, a town near the Mississippi River called Jackson. I grew up in a small town south of here, called Bernie, in which I still frequently visit. Little did I know, but Bernie, many moons ago, would be the start of my shaving adventure. But more on that later. On paper, I’m your everyday Joe person. I’m 30, recently married, a college graduate, with a full time job as a concrete plant dispatcher and a part time job as a computer operator at a local race track. I enjoy long video gaming sessions, watching the St. Louis Cardinals and other local and regional sports teams, as well as bowling, golf, and spending time with my friends over an ice cold beer or two. I’m just your ordinary, average guy, to quote Joe Walsh.

 

Getting to the topic at hand isn’t really a wild story either. I didn’t come across an old razor or brush and get this giant epiphany. I, like many of you, grew tired of paying (see: overpaying) for cartridges to shave with. My facial hair doesn’t grow very quickly, as I can generally get by without a shave for 2-3 days without looking like a bum. But that didn’t change the fact that I felt paying $3-$5 per cartridge was rather crazy. But what other options were there? Until I stumbled upon a couple articles, I thought there were none. I’d heard of wet shaving and double edged razors and blades and even the straight razors. But I never thought it would be something to check into. As much as I enjoy vintage items and things from the past, I always had it in my mind that these options must not have been very efficient as they were phased out in the evolution of the shaving tools. Oh how wrong was I?

 

My first moment came when I read an article in our local newspaper about Lynn Abrams and how he was spreading the word and love for straight razors and wet shaving. The paper showed how he shaved, from his prep, to building lather, to the actual shave. I found it interesting, but didn’t think much about it at the time. A few months later, I saw an article on Art of Manliness, which was titled “Learn To Shave Like Your Grandpa” http://www.artofmanliness.com/2008/01/04/how-to-shave-like-your-grandpa/

I chuckled, but dove into it. The article, a few years old at that point, first started out by showing how you can save money. Which I am all for. Then it told about how you can get better shaves, less irritation, and actually be using products that are much better for the environment. Ok you have my attention, Mr. Article. The article also linked me to a multitude of shaving products, websites, articles and forums. It was settled: I would start wet shaving. The wife loved the idea, because of its vintage fashion. The next day, we were in our favorite local antique store and I noticed some vintage Gillette safety razors. I priced them and consulted the internet. The next weekend I bought my first DE, a 1965 Gillette Super Speed Flair Tip. After that, I went to Wal-Mart and picked up the Van der Hagen luxury shave kit, with the brush, bowl and soap puck. Then, found some DE blades at WalGreens. I decided to buy some moisturizing aftershave balm by Nivea to sooth my face and a styptic pencil, just in case I nicked myself. I was ready to wet shave!

 

I was nervous and I’m not going to lie. It was something new and I’ve always had an apprehension to “new” as most anyone does. But, it was a good sense of nervousness. I was trying something new, something fun, and a new way of doing things out of my normal routine. The first shave went well. I didn’t slice my face open, which was a sense of relief, but I didn’t end up with an amazingly smooth face and I had a fair amount of irritation. I learned that is common amongst first time wet shavers. However, I soon learned that this new hobby of mine had so much  more than meets the eye.

 

I’ll be touching on a MULTITUDE of topics on this blog, especially now that the introduction is out of the way. I’ll be sure to link people to various pages, groups, forums, and vendors to check out, as well as tips for your shaving process. Also, along the way I will be posting some videos that many folks in the various shave groups I belong to put up on YouTube. These videos have helped myself and countless others learn more about the joys and fun of wet shaving. Hope you’ll bookmark the site and keep stopping by! Thanks and smooth shaving!