Shaving, Wet shave vs electric

Yup, pretty much every time for the last ten years. I use a fairly standard machine 3 but saves me ages and so much easier

It would be worth looking in to the chemicals in this product. Why does it make your hair fall out? Why does it smell of eggs? Was this its intended use? Is it a by product of some other industrial process? Is this real life? etc.

Basically, the whole idea of wet shaving with good quality lathers and getting the blade right is that you find something that helps your skin. This mysterious powder sounds a bit Fukushima.

Yeah... It contains Barium sulfide which undergoes conversion to Hydrogen sulfide in contact with water. That's the dodgy egg smell explained. No idea why it's in there. The sensitive version doesn't have it. The depilatory agent is Calcium hydroxide though, same as most other hair removal products.

Actually I'm not too worried. It's got me looking so good I got a hot date! Here's a snap from last night:

Edit: maybe don't eat it though

Wow, you're a babe! I'm looking for someone like you to wash my car! Your taste in 'men' sucks though! Lol

The way that I ended skin irritation and in growing hairs was by switching to a straight razor.

It's given me a nice hobby and made me feel 7% more manly, too.

It also carries a suicide abetting risk.

For real? I want to believe, but don't want to spend lots of money on a quality razor and associated paraphernalia only to discover it's the same old story of rash, pustules and ingrown hairs.

Can't speak to a cut throat razor (that's what a straight razor is right?) but I moved to a classic safety razor due to price.

The cost of old fashion safety razor blades is so much cheaper than mach3 et al. OK I splashed out on a £27 razor but I could have bought the same one with a different grip for £20 and over the course of a year it paid for itself.

Does anyone have any recommendations for a safety razor and brush holder? I've seen some wire chrome ones but I wonder how balanced they are?

I have been using just one of these since the mid-90s (on the rare occasion of a full shave):

It cost me about £4 from a shop in Italy, and about that per year in blades (normal razor blades snapped in half as per Indian barbershop). Plus sandalwood soap and brush.
Main point being it put a swift end to all shaving based woes like rashes and ingrowing hairs.

Yep. Single, sharp blade, used with practice equals no more skin irritation or ingrowing hair.

You will need to learn to use it (about 15 shaves until it stops feeling weird, about fifty til you can do it drunk). Also, you will cut yourself a bit, but nowhere near as badly as you are afraid of.

You will need to get over using your left hand. It's easier than it feels.

BUT, once you get it you won't regret it.

I am convinced that cartridge razors are so bad for your skin for three reasons:

A) shit quality edges
B) inability to adjust blade angle for different bits of face. This happens naturally with a straight razor since you reduce the angle of incidence for bits that are sensitive. Under the left jaw for me, but I can still hack away at my tache and sideburns.
C) Razed hairs getting trapped between the many blades in the cartridge, and subsequently being dragged over your just shaven face, irritating them further.

The last one is of particular concern if you shave long hair, as I do. Stupid long hairs, clogging the blade and fucking up my face.

With that in mind, I'm not sure I would be so pro straight razors if I shaved every day. I might, I just don't know.

£27 razor

Which one? My god, I'm on the very edge of the abyss.

@mashton aha, I misunderstood the straight razor thing, thought you meant a single blade safety razor. I'm learning the lingo here. Hm. Decisions, decisions.

Safety razors are great too. Lots of the benefits of using a straight but with the illusion of safety.
Huge choice/variation of blades can make finding the right combination of handle, blade, your face a bit of a challenge but once you find "the one" then you can enjoy scraping protein strands from your face for less than a pint per year.

Meh. So much sense of achievement and danger to be had with a straight razor.

Also, as a knife buff, shaving with a piece of solid steel as opposed to a factory produced, disposable blade, very much appeals to me.

Another apsect of it is that that razors are very lovely objects and eminently collectible. I now have three western straights and a Kamisori. Mmmm, stuff.....

Really want a Kamisori. One day...

Which one?

Sorry. Just checked, it was £26 at the time is £27 now. Hardly a fortune compared to a couple of mach3 blades.

Edwin Jagger DE Razor Chrome Plated DE89 Barley from the Traditional Shaving Company. I would recommend them as they patiently answered my stupid questions and gave great service.

A friend converted me with the blade price (I need to shave daily for work, have thick dark hair and can grow a stubble by midday).

Anyway he is even worse than me for geeking out and over researching when he gets on a new idea. His research conclusion was the Edwin Jagger DE Razor, so I just followed
and waisted my time on trying to decide which handle finish.

I chose the slightly more expensive Barley finish because I thought it looked better and that it would give better grip (no idea if it does).

I must try a DE someday. Would be a fun alternative.

I bloody love my Kamisori though. So simple, so samurai.

Just gone back to DE shaving (which was my first ever shave as a teenager, borrowed Dads old razor, but thought it was terribly old fashioned), after a six months of disposables (after five years of having a beard).
Treated myself to an Edwin Jagger DE89L, stuck in a Derby blade, proraso pre-shave, hot towel, Taylor of Old Bond St "Jermyn St" shave cream and finest badger, alum block for the little bits of irritation after. Boom, great 3-pass shave, although the technique needs some finessing. And I need to get used to waking up 10 minutes earlier :)

Lovely. Good work.

You can get a shavette cheaply enough, which is the same as a cut-throat but uses half a safety razor blade. I had the same problem as you describe and switching to a shavette solved it. I do nick myself occasionally, but then I used to get cuts off modern safety razors too - usually when they intersected with ingrown hair bumps. I think I'm simply too hurried in the mornings.

Ok, good advice. I pulled the trigger on a cheap shavette +brush & soap just now and shall give it a go.

The trouble I found with the shavette was cutting my face with the end of it if I got the angle a bit wrong, particularly on the opposite side of my face.

I use a Merkur 34c at home and a Merkur travel for when I'm away (they're surprisingly good given how small they pack).

on the opposite side of my face.

Opposite to your dominant hand, you mean? Or the inside of your skin? ;)

Same side as my dominant hand. The recommended solution seems to be to become ambidextrous.

Shavette etc arrived yesterday and I threw myself at the task. It was possibly my scariest experience in many years but I managed ok (ish). Nicked myself here and there but nothing major. I found the worst part was chin &moustache as my beard is thickest there and it felt like the blade would take my whole face off, very weird feeling. Anyhoo, it was fun and I'll persevere. I'll have to use up the soap and blades at least which means twenty shaves before evaluating the concept properly.

I remember it very clearly. A genuine fear of doing something new that may well hurt and injure you.

Exciting isn't it?

I shaved my 7 week beard off today, with my Dovo Solingen straight. Easily the longest growth I've ever shaved and it just came clean away, no fussing. Lovely long strokes that almost felt as if they peeled the hair and foam matting from my face. Highly satisfying.

Try that with a cartridge razor!