Copyright © 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011 byMichael Ham

All rights reserved.

Edition 5.0 - August 2011ISBN 978-1463595340

eBook ISBN 978-1-61915-584-8Book available at GourmetShaving.com

To EH, who might find it usefulTo GM and CM, who someday will read itTo KV, for the phrase “gourmet shaving”

To K , for taking up wetshavingAnd, of course, to The Wife, for listening to all

thesediscoveries with exemplary forbearance.

Contents TITLE PAGECOPYRIGHT PAGEPREFACE TO THE NEW EDITIONPREFACEWHAT THIS ISWHO I AM AND WHY THIS BOOKWHY TO DO IT CARE OF SKIN QUALITY OF SHAVE COST OF SHAVE QUALITY OF LIFE IF IT’S SO GREAT, WHY ARE CARTRIDGES SOPOPULAR? THE FEAR BARRIER FOR THE LADIESWHAT TO EXPECTSHAVING STEP BY STEP GRAIN OF YOUR BEARDPREP STEP 1: SHOWER STEP 2: WASH YOUR BEARD

STEP 3: APPLY A PRE-SHAVE [OPTIONAL] Pre-shave creams/gels Trumper Skin Food 100% glycerin Pre-shave oils STEP 4: APPLY HOT TOWEL [OPTIONAL UNLESSYOU GET IN-GROWNS]PREP STEP 5: APPLY LATHER LATHERING TOOLS Shaving brush

Synthetic-bristle brushesHorsehair brushesBoar-bristle brushesBadger-bristle brushesSoap brush vs. Shaving-cream brushTravel brushesMy favorite brushesCare of your brush

Lathering bowl [optional] Warming scuttle [optional] WATER Temperature Hard v. Soft

Shower v. Sink Running v. Still

Using distilled water SOAKING LATENT LATHER: SHAVING CREAM AND SHAVINGSOAP The reformulation problem Shaving cream

Shaving cream in a tubeShaving cream in a tubShaving cream lather using a lathering bowlShaving cream lather by lathering directly on

your beard Shaving soap

Soap in mug or bowlSoap in a shave stickSoap lather using a lathering bowlSoap lather by lathering directly on your

beard SUPERLATHERTHE BLADE FINDING THE RIGHT BLADE WHY EXPLORE?

HOW TO EXPLORE CARBON-STEEL BLADES MORE ABOUT BLADES BLADE DISPOSALTHE RAZOR OPEN-COMB VS. SAFETY BAR MERKUR RAZORS Merkur non-adjustable razors

Classic Hefty Classic (the “HD”) Classic Long-Handle Classic 1904 38C

Slant Bar Merkur adjustable razors

ProgressFuturVision

EDWIN JAGGER RAZORS FEATHER RAZOR GERSON RAZORS IKON RAZORS

JORIS RAZORS MÜHLE RAZORS PARKER RAZORS PILS RAZORS WEISHI RAZORS VINTAGE RAZORS Gillette

TechSuper SpeedAristocratFat Boy and Slim HandleLady Gillette

WilkinsonThe “Sticky”Wilkinson Sword Classic

Apollo Mikron Eclipse “Red Ring” Single-edge razors: Schick & GEM FAVORITE RAZORS CLEANING YOUR RAZORS REPLATING YOUR RAZORSSHAVING THE STUBBLE PRESSURE

BLADE ANGLE THE GRIP THE SOUND HERE WE GO First pass: With the grain Second pass: Across the grain Third pass: Against the grain The polishing pass

The water passThe oil pass

Commercial shave oils Oils from the supermarket

Pre-shaves for a polishing passA DIFFERENT RAZOR FOR EACH PASS METHOD SHAVINGTHE POST-SHAVE ROUTINE THE ALUM BLOCK AFTERSHAVESSKIN PROBLEMS ACNE RAZOR BUMPS AND INGROWN WHISKERS Causes Cures

PreventionPrepToolsShavingProducts

OTHER SKIN ISSUESRECOMMENDATION FOR A BEGINNERSHAVING KIT HAIR CONDITIONER INSTEAD OF LATHER? SCHICK INJECTOR AS TRANSITIONAL RAZOR LEISUREGUY BEGINNER SHAVING KIT Your second razorSOURCES OF THE MOST COMMONPROBLEMS INSUFFICIENT PREP WRONG BLADE FOR YOU INCORRECT BLADE ANGLE TOO MUCH PRESSURE IGNORING YOUR BEARD’S GRAIN BATHROOM TOO LOUD SETTING AN ADJUSTABLE RAZOR TOO HIGHWHERE TO GET MORE INFORMATIONAPPENDIX

FORUMS REFERENCE BLADE SAMPLER PACKS VENDORS

Preface to the New Edition

I no more than clicked “Publish” for the fourthedition than I was adding new text and newvendors to start the fifth edition. I have continuedto experiment and to learn—most notably how tocreate a particularly thick and creamy lather fromshaving soap—and new vendors and new productshave continued to emerge. Thus, a new editiononce again seems desirable. The section onlathering has been reorganized, revised, andexpanded to explain the range of good lather fromshaving soap: from Frugal Lather to CreamyLather.

More and more men are taking up traditionalwet shaving (with a double-edged blade, safetyrazor, shaving brush, and shaving cream or shavingsoap), as indicated by the following:

Although some vendors have closed theirdoors since the first edition, they areoutnumbered by new vendors of traditional

shaving products coming on-line and enjoyingsuccess.A constant stream of novice traditionalshavers joining the shaving forums for adviceand instruction together with the success ofnew vendors also suggests that the number ofshavers new to traditional shaving continuesto grow.New traditional safety razors are regularlyintroduced (for example, new models fromMerkur, Edwin Jagger, Mühle; the Pils, thepremium Feather stainless steel razor, theiKon asymmetric razor, and others), anothersign of a growing market.The prices of vintage safety razors on eBaycontinues to increase, meaning that demandcontinues to increase.

All this indicates a growing market as more menabandon expensive, heavily advertised shavingtools for the pleasures and comfort of traditionalshaving. I hope you’ll join us.

I mentioned above that some vendors have

closed their doors since the previous edition.Many of the vendors mentioned in the Appendixare small operations that depend totally on one ortwo people. Naturally enough, such businesses arevulnerable to disruption and sudden closure fromany number of causes: health problems of theproprietor or a family member, financialexigencies (or the opposite: the great Razor andBrush on-line store had to close when its owner,who ran the business as a sideline, was promotedto a more demanding job), and so forth.

These businesses, which generally offerexceptional handcrafted products of high quality,have a certain cherry-blossom quality: they bloombriefly and their products may be available onlyfor a relatively short span of time. I now treasureirreplaceable soaps, creams, and equipment that Ipurchased only a few years ago from businessesnow gone, never to return.

If you like any products offered by these artisansand small-business owners, buy promptly. Youwill get something that you can use and enjoy,possibly long after the business is gone.

This struck me with special force this time, astwo of my favorite soap vendors are closed—temporarily, I hope—for health reasons, andanother I communicated with is thinking of shuttingdown. Shop early and often and stock up for yourfuture needs.

Special thanks to AM, who kept after me until Iwrote this book, and thanks as well to the shaverswho have suggested ideas and improvements forthe book.

Michael HamMonterey, California

Leisureguy.wordpress@gmail.com

Preface

FOR most men, shaving is a daily yet unappealingtask: a routine at best, a chore more often. And asurprising number of men believe that they have“sensitive skin,” because the tug-and-cut action ofthe common multiblade shaving cartridge and thepressure these men exert on the razor trying to get aclose shave, together with inadequate beardpreparation from a pressurized can of dry, foamyshaving mix, gives them skin irritation, razor burn,razor bumps, and in-grown hairs.

You can avoid all that: the daily shaving taskcan easily be transformed into a pleasurable ritualthat leaves the shaver feeling renewed andpampered and his skin glowing with health. All ittakes are the right tools, the right preparation, anda little practice.

This book introduces the shaver to the world oftraditional wetshaving: the shaving brush andexquisitely formulated shaving soaps and creams

and the well-designed safety razor—still readilyavailable and in current manufacture—that uses adouble-edged blade to provide a perfect shave.

Moreover, high-quality double-edged blades,available for as little as 9¢ a blade, will last mostshavers the same amount of time as a $3.50disposable multiblade shaving cartridge, whileproviding a better shave—better both in qualityand in enjoyment.

The learning curve is short and the enjoymentimmense, so get started today.

ONE

What this is

THIS book is for men who shave withoutenjoyment or who are just learning to shave. Itdescribes a method of shaving that transforms adaily chore into a pleasurable ritual. It’s abeginner’s guide to wetshaving: how to shave witha safety razor and not hurt yourself. (A safety razoruses a double-edged blade and is often called a“DE razor.”)

Shaving with a safety razor and using a shavingbrush and high-quality shaving cream or soap forlather has several benefits:

The shave itself is enjoyable and satisfyingYour skin feels better because a double-edged blade cuts the whiskers cleanly, unlikethe “tug-and-cut” action of the multibladedisposable cartridge.The cost of shaving is substantially less.Double-edged blades cost pennies and arenormally good for 4-6 shaves; a puck ofshaving soap or tub of shaving cream lasts formonths.You get a smoother, closer shave withoutirritating your skin.

This guide takes you step by step through thewhole process. It discusses in detail the equipmentand supplies you need and where to get them. Itdescribes how to prepare your beard for a shaveand the basic techniques in building a good latherand using the razor. It provides guidance fordealing with common problems like acne and razorbumps. And it points to on-line sources of moreinformation that can help you address anyparticular problems you might encounter.

My goal: to create a useful and comprehensivereference for the novice safety-razor shaver. Basedon the feedback and comments I’ve received, thatgoal has been achieved.Companion web pageThe Web is home to a vast profusion ofinformation about almost any topic, includingshaving. In no way could I include in this book allthe information—much of it useful—that you canfind on the Web. But, I realized, I can providelinks to some of that information.

So my approach to writing the book was toinclude in the book all the essential information totake you into the pleasures of shaving with brushand soap and safety razor—and also to providelinks to ancillary information that you may findinteresting and/or useful. My suggestion is that yousimply read the book, reserving the links for later,and only for those things that you want to explorefurther.

To improve the readability of the text—andbecause I suggest that you start by simply reading

the book without looking up all the links—I’veplaced the links in endnotes following theAppendix. And, to make the links even easier touse, I’ve also provided them on the Web ashyperlinks so that you can simply click each to goto the site of interest.

The companion Web list of links is especiallyworth checking since I update it as newinformation becomes available—for example,price changes that affect recommendations, or theappearance of new vendors or products. Seetinyurl.com/leisureguy5 for the list of clickablelinks on the Web. I recommend that you bookmarkthat page.

You can review shaving posts onleisureguy.wordpress.com (my blog) by clicking“shaving” in Category Search. That will presentall shaving entries in abbreviated form—click onthe title of any post to see the whole thing. If youcomment on a post, I will normally reply. Links tosome specific shaving posts can be found on the“Useful Knowledge” page of the blog (see the listof links at the right when viewing the blog).

TWO

Who I am and why this book

I began shaving (with a Gillette DE safety razor)around 1955. After a couple of years I switched toa Schick Injector, a safety razor that uses a single-edged blade. But that was then, in the dark ages ofthe isolated shaver, when each shaver had todepend on his own knowledge and what he couldpick up from members of his family.

The only sources of information I had, forexample, were my step-dad (who knew no morethan I about shaving) and commercials and ads,whose general content was, “Buy this product.” Iused a brush, Old Spice shaving soap, and GilletteBlue Blades, and my shave consisted of twocomplete passes: one down, and one up—thesecond pass without lather. I used little pieces oftoilet paper on the resulting nicks and over thecourse of my high-school career must have used up

several rolls. As soon as I got to college, I grew abeard.

I still remember reading in high school a near-future science-fiction novel about a guy gettingready for a big night. He lathers up and shaveswith the grain, then he lathers up again and shavesagainst the grain. I thought, “That’s odd—helathered up a second time.” It never occurred tome that lathering before each pass might be theright way to shave.

Today—now—is truly the golden age ofshaving. Only with the Internet has it been possiblefor the far-flung band of safety-razor shavers topool the knowledge gained from their experienceand trials and provide all shavers, new or old,with so much information, and to gain easy accessto vendors of wet-shaving products all over theglobe.

This book grew out of my own experience,augmented and illuminated by the experiencesother shavers shared in the on-line shaving forums.I thank the guys on Pogonotomy.com,ShaveMyFace.com, TheShaveDen.com, the

RazorandBrush.com Message Board,Wi c k e d _ E d g e , DamnFineShave.com, andBadgerandBlade.com. I also thank the vendorslisted in the appendix for the fine array of productsand information they offer, essential to the practiceof traditional shaving. And in particular I want tothank shaving novices, whose questions and desirefor reliable information first stimulated this book.

I am not a dermatologist or a cosmetologist andhave no professional background in skin care orshaving. I am a retired guy who found a way tomaking shaving enjoyable; I wrote this book as areport of my own experience and observations, notas recommendations specific to you, whom I don’tknow. My hope is that you find tools andtechniques you can adapt to your own situation, atyour own pleasure and risk. I certainly cannotguarantee outcomes, since I don’t know what yourshaving issues might be. So read, enjoy, and bejudicious in your experimentation.

With the existence of the Internet and activeshaving forums, is a book like this even needed? Ibelieve it is.

A book, unlike a collection of Internet links, canserve as a gift for men who hate to shave, and Ihope that this volume will often be among presentssuch men receive for graduation, Father’s Day,birthdays, and other occasions.

Some who receive the book will not havepreviously considered traditional wetshaving. Oneof their friends or family members knew that theyfound shaving a tedious chore and gave them thebook so they could enjoy the morning shave. Thusthe next chapter makes the case for traditionalwetshaving—just in case you’re now consideringthe idea for the first time.

Although the Internet does provide access tomuch information, the information is inconsistentand disorganized, so a beginning shaver mustspend considerable time wading through esotericminutiae discussed at length while searching forbasic guidance—essential basic information thatmay be hidden, glossed over, misstated, or omittedaltogether. Of course, beginners can ask questionsin shaving forums, but I’ve observed that thosenew to traditional wetshaving often don’t know

what questions to ask. This book was written for abeginning shaver who values his time and wants anorganized and consistent presentation.

Information in the shaving forums also isvolatile: new threads constantly push old threadsout of sight, and entire threads are occasionallydeleted, erasing all the information and photos theyonce contained. The information in the book willstill be here when you return.

The shaving forums are nonetheless valuable,and I encourage you to participate in them. For onething, you can ask questions about specificproblems that you encounter. For another, it isthrough the forums that word quickly spreads ofnew products and new ideas. Much of theinformation presented here I learned through theforums and from vendors, though all of it wassubject to my own judgment, use, andinterpretation and some is even my own invention.

I hope that this book will be an enjoyable andinformative companion in your journey ofexploration.

THREE

Why to do it

BEFORE we start, I should answer this question:“Why bother?” Why put aside all the moderntechnology of pressurized cans of formulatedshaving foams and gels and the modern multibladerazor cartridge that allows you to shave while stillhalf asleep? Why pick up tools and techniquesfrom a generation (or two) ago? Traditionalshavers offer several answers.

Care of skin For some, the reason is pragmatic and down-to-earth: the multiblade cartridge uses a tug-and-cuttechnique that, along with the dry chemical lathersquirted from a pressurized can, leads to ingrownwhiskers, razor bumps, and skin irritation for manyshavers, most of whom think that they have“sensitive skin.” They continue to suffer, buying

loads of products promoted as protective pre-shaves or as soothing and healing aftershaves inhopes of repairing the damage. Some, however,switch to the double-edged blade and safety razorfor the comfort they achieve with single-bladeshaving. Most find that, once they master thetechniques and skills of traditional shaving, theirskin problems vanish, never to return.

A guy in one of the shaving forums commentedthat he started traditional shaving and, after a fewmonths, returned home from college to see hismom. She felt his cheek and commented that it wasthe smoothest and softest it had been since he was5. He said he had been aware that traditionalshaving had improved his skin, but theimprovement was so gradual he really didn’tunderstand how dramatic the change was.1

Quality of shave Some men choose a safety razor with a double-edged blade because they enjoy getting a muchbetter shave: smoother, closer, and longer-lasting.This contradicts the ads about the latest disposable

multiblade cartridges, but ads—brace yourself—frequently stretch the truth. In fact, the very closestshaves are probably done with a skillfully wieldedstraight razor, but using a straight razor demands apanoply of skills, including sharpening skills82.This book focuses on the DE razor which uses aninexpensive, disposable, double-edged blade.

Cost of shave Today, one Gillette Fusion ProGlide disposablemultiblade cartridge costs $4.25 and even oneSensor twin-blade disposable cartridge now costsalmost $2. One double-edged blade, which willlast you roughly as many shaves as the cartridge,generally costs around 25¢ but better prices areavailable with bulk purchases.

In addition, a puck of shaving soap—say, onefrom Honeybee Soaps—costs less than $4 and indaily use will last around 3 months. The razor andthe brush last a lifetime—indeed, even longer:some shavers enjoy using double-edged razorsfrom 80 or more years ago. You can buy acomplete safety razor kit for a beginner—razor, 5

blades of each of 5 different brands (25 bladestotal), brush, and soap—for the price of 10 FusionProGlide cartridges.

Quality of life I didn’t have skin problems and wasn’t all thatunhappy with the shaves the Mach 3 delivered. Iturned to safety-razor shaving for the sheerpleasure the morning shave now provides. Shavinghas changed from a routine at best, a chore moreoften, to a wonderful ritual from which I emergefeeling truly pampered. I now look forward toshaving each day. That feeling more than repaysthe little bit of equipment required. The dailyshave: a daily pleasure. How many men can saythat?

Very few. I strongly suspect that the currentfashion of young men wearing a stubble of 4 or 5days’ growth originated because shaving isunpleasant for most men who use today’s shavingparaphernalia. Fashion photographers, seeingmany young men with visible stubble, decided itwas a “look,” and put such men in ads, trying to

appeal to that demographic. In fact, these youngmen simply don’t like to shave but for whateverreason may not grow a full beard. So they put offshaving, and the look becomes a fashion statementthat means their Significant Other gets a sandpaperexperience with every kiss.

Those who use traditional equipment, in sharpcontrast, enjoy shaving. Indeed, the focusedattention and meditative mindset of shaving with asafety razor can provide a morning ritual not unlikethe Zen tea ceremony:

Special room - checkSpecial mode of dress - checkContemplative, unrushed mindset - checkCleanliness and order - checkPractice of technique requires focusedattention (aka flow) - checkUse of special tools, often old - checkTools both functional and aestheticallypleasing - checkSuspension of mind chatter, critical judgments- checkSenses—sight, hearing, touch, smell—fully

engaged - checkPhysical enjoyment of sources of warmth -checkAwareness & enjoyment of aromas arisingfrom hot water - checkDefinite sequence of steps - checkStructure of the entire experience repeatedeach time - checkFeeling of pleasure, fulfillment, andsatisfaction at end - check

Flow2 is the state of mind that results when oneloses consciousness of self and of time, beingtotally focused on a task whose intricacy anddifficulty require about 85% of one’s capacity. (Ifthe task is too easy, attention wanders; if toodifficult, anxiety ensues.)

Most people know from their own experiencethat the state of happiness is usually recognizedonly after the fact—at the time, one is unaware ofi t per se, but simply enjoys each moment. Flowseems to exactly describe the state of experiencinghappiness, so the more flow one can arrange, thehappier one’s life. Shaving, with the right

approach and mindset and attention, can promoteflow.

The contemplative aspect of a satisfying shavingritual is important. Most of us live hurried lives,multitasking and rushing about, harried by timedemands. What the morning shave with a safetyrazor offers is a small oasis of unhurried calm andsingle-minded attention to remind you what it feelslike to be unrushed and not to be doing one thingwhile thinking of something else.

And modern psychology suggests that thisshaving ritual can increase your self-esteem:Cognitive dissonance3 posits that a person holdingcontradictory beliefs (or observing himself actingin contradiction to his beliefs) will add to ormodify his beliefs to resolve or reduce thecontradiction4.

I thought of this regarding shaving (of course):By acquiring the specialized tools and suppliesand taking the time and care to create a shavingritual, the shaver presents himself with a behaviorthat leads to increased self-esteem: “If I’m takingthis much time to pamper myself, I must be worth

it.” Not a bad feeling at all.There’s another quality-of-life issue for men

who suffer from hay fever and other such allergies:their suffering can be greatly alleviated by shavingduring allergy season. Pollen and other allergenscan get trapped in mustaches and beards,exacerbating the sneezing and sniffling. Tominimize symptoms, pay attention to facial hair:wash it frequently during the day, particularly afterbeing outside, or (easier and simpler) stay clean-shaven during allergy season.A summary of reasons men enjoy traditionalshaving:

Sensual enjoyment: hot lather, the feel of aflexible yet firm shaving brush, the razormaking a nice sound as it mows through thestubble, feeling your smooth face after theshave, the fragrances of the lather and theaftershave, etc.Flow: as described above: focused attentionon a task that requires around 85% of yourcapabilities, with a clear goal and immediate

feedback as you work at it. It really clears themind.Gadget appeal: brush styles, razormechanisms, blade characteristics, soapvarieties, etc.The great feeling of transforming a dailychore into a daily pleasure: conquering, in asmall way, drudgery itself.Frugality: the satisfaction of knowing thatsoap and blade cost just pennies, rather thanthe high-priced products of marketing thatother men typically use.F i na l l y, getting the best (smoothest,closest) shaves of your life with zero skinirritation.

If it’s so great, why are cartridgesso popular? Some guys are skeptical because “everyone” usescartridges. So why was the double-edged bladeabandoned? The answer will shock you: money.

In the 1950’s Personna (GEM/EverReady

etc) invented the Stainless Steel Blade andmarketed them for their single edge razors.The blades were sharper but they found thatthe edge deteriorated quickly and becamequite rough to shave with.

Wilkinson Sword was in the forefront withthe technology to coat the edge with Platinum,Chromium, PTFE (Teflon), etc., for asmoother shave. Wilkinson held many of thepatents and grabbed a considerableproportion of Gillette’s market share ever soquickly in the late 50’s early 60’s—basically,WS blades were noticeably better. And soGillette made a deal for them to useWilkinson technology. All of this helped inthe demise of the DE as Gillette’s patentswere coming to an end and they were nolonger in the controlling seat. Gillette decidedto take a new direction in the early 1960’sand cartridge systems would be the endresult.5

The Fear Barrier

Some have expressed a fear of the safety razor, butit’s called a safety razor for a reason: the onlydamage you might encounter are some few nickswhile you’re learning (as compared to years ofskin irritation and other problems stemming fromuse of the multiblade cartridge). With dailypractice, your technique quickly improves so thatany start-up problems vanish.

Indeed, you can begin by continuing to use yourmultiblade cartridge razor, just adding to yourroutine a fragrant lather you create with a shavingbrush and a high-quality shaving cream or shavingsoap—much more satisfying than squirting somegoop from a can of shaving mix. And then perhapsyou might move to a Schick injector razor(described later), which has a feel very like acartridge razor and is easy to shave with.

Sooner or later, though, you will probably wantto try a safety razor: a great shave with a blade thatcosts less than 5% of the cost of one GilletteFusion disposable cartridge.

If you want, you can use a practice blade toperfect your technique before using a real blade:

cut a piece of thin, stiff plastic to blade size anduse it in your razor to practice using very lightpressure and the correct blade angle (shallow,almost parallel to the skin).

In a way, the fear that precedes your first shavewith a safety razor resembles the similar fear thatprecedes your first kiss with someone on whomyou have a great crush. Your mind is filled witheverything that can go wrong, but you decide to tryit anyway, and you get a kiss in return—andsuddenly everything is okay. The fears arerevealed to be but phantasms, and they vanish inthe pleasure of the experience. Don’t just take myword for it: give it (shaving) ago.

One safety-razor shaver pointed out that, if youwere to describe a cartridge razor to someone inthe old days, it would sound quite scary: “Fiveblades?! Won’t you cut yourself a lot?” Fear of thesafety razor may be merely fear of a newexperience, a distaste for feeling awkward at thebeginning of the process of acquiring new skills.

You also might want to read the followingreport6 from someone who’s grown accustomed to

the safety razor:Last weekend I went home. My uncertaintyabout whether to check or carry on wassolved by forgetting to pack my Futur [razor](I was going to decide when I left workwhether to leave it in the bag). So my onlyreal shaving option were the things that I hadleft at home. I wasn’t about to drag out the oldNorelco, so that meant the Mach 3 that I leftthere as a spare.

I have not tried a Mach 3 a single timesince picking up a DE, so I was actually verycurious how it would go. I had oftenwondered if it was really that much different.After all, unlike some, I remember gettingdecent shaves with it. But then, I never wentagainst the grain, so my shaves were not thatsmooth. I did use shaving soap and a brush.

First impression is that this thing does notsit well in the hand. I remembered the metalhandle having decent weight, but, well, bycomparison [with the Futur] the Mach 3 feltdinky. Also much too light in the head.

With the grain. Ugh. Maybe good soap isnot as compatible/does not protect as wellwhen using a cartridge? It felt REALLYscratchy. Not tearing up my face or anything,just not pleasant. Much to my surprise, Irealized that even with three blades, the one-pass N-S result was not as good as I can getwith many DE combinations. So I decided tokeep going, and see if my improved techniqueand good soap would allow a good multipassshave.

I did three passes, but never fully againstthe grain because I was getting too muchirritation going across. With a Feather DEblade in any decent razor, this would haveleft me with a near BBS [baby-bottomsmooth] shave. With the M3 it was good, butnot great. But the real problem was irritation.My skin simply did not look happy. And sureenough, there came the red bumps.

I had to back down to a one pass with thegrain the next day, and the third day just didnot shave at all.

So, the conclusion is that a DE really doesget me a MUCH better result, both incloseness and comfort. What is interestingabout this, though, is that this is coming fromsomeone who was perfectly happy with hisMach3 and saw no need to change. I onlytried a DE because of the price of stupidcartridges, and the guy love of gadgets.

And, more recently, this note, under the title“What was I thinking?”7: I’ve just returnedfrom a week in DC. Given that I have a fewMach 3 blades lying around, I decided to takethese instead of my DE. Not only that, but Iused a can of Nivea shaving foam. It’s beensome time since I used a combo like this, andmy face didn’t thank me one little bit!! It’staken a week of using my usual combo(Progress [razor], Trumper [shaving cream],and Rooney [brush]) to calm my face downand get rid of the ingrown hairs. Needless tosay, none of the offending items accompaniedme on the flight home and all my remainingMach 3 blades have been sent off to a good

home. Don’t think I’ll make that mistakeagain…

On a positive note, it has made meappreciate more the whole shaving‘experience’.

For the ladies Traditional wetshaving may also be of interest towomen, in two ways.

First, some women choose to shave their legsand armpits rather than waxing (painful),permanent laser hair removal (costly), usingdepilatory creams or lotions (applying to your skincaustic chemicals strong enough to dissolve hair),or simply letting hair grow as it pleases. Butshaving products aimed at women have notprovided good information—for example, theyseldom emphasize the importance of shaving prep(the step in which the stubble is softened andprepared for shaving). Indeed, some shavingproducts offered to women imply that prep is notneeded: ads frequently show women shaving in theshower, suggesting that all you need is water.

It’s true that some multiblade cartridge razorsmarketed to women have a strip moistened with analoe vera solution that supposedly lubricates andprotects the skin. The strip also gives the stubbleapproximately 2 milliseconds to absorb thesolution and soften before the blade strikes.

A woman who understands the importance ofprep and uses a quality shaving soap or shavingcream and a brush, working up a good lather onher legs or armpits and allows the stubble to softenwill get a better shave (and a more pleasantshaving experience) even if she uses a multiblade-cartridge razor. Not only do good soaps andcreams produce a lather that softens the stubbleeffectively, making shaving easier, they also comein a wide variety of fragrances that make the entiretask more pleasant. (Shave sticks, described laterin this book, are the most convenient form ofshaving soap for a woman’s use.)

And if she uses a real razor (the Lady Gillette,for example, easily found on eBay with a “favoritesearch”, or the long-handled Merkur Classic, stillin current manufacture), the experience becomes

even more pleasant and effective. It’s probablybest to practice with an unloaded razor (no blade)to get an idea of angle and position. If you make alittle fake blade (from a piece of thin plastic) forthe razor, you can feel the (dull) edge, whichwould help judge angle.

A second way in which the topic of traditionalshaving may be of interest to women is thatromantic interactions with men tend to be morepleasant and less irritating to the skin when theman in question is clean-shaven. Rough,sandpapery skin can ruin the romantic mood;smooth and fragrant skin is more suited to theoccasion. (This may be one reason this book sofrequently serves as a gift from a woman to theman in her life—that, along with the wish to makethe man’s life more pleasant by converting a dailychore into an enjoyable interlude.)

FOUR

What to expect

BASED on what many shavers have experienced,you can expect something like the following.

You initially feel skeptical of the idea, but that’sfollowed by the thought that the way you shavenow is a boring chore and your skin is in terribleshape. So, you think, why not give it a go?

You order a razor, either from an on-line vendor( s e e Appendix) or on eBay8 or through theBuy/Sell/Trade section of one of the shavingforums. You go to the drugstore and get a cheapbrush and shaving soap. You buy any convenientdouble-edged blade—because the blade is socheap, it doesn’t seem all that important.

You lather up and—very carefully—pull therazor down your cheek. You try to remember whatyou’ve read about the correct angle, and you try toexert very little pressure. (Light pressure is hard to

learn for cartridge shavers who have been usingfirm pressure to try to get a close shave—andmake that expensive cartridge last just a littlelonger.)

You finish, perhaps with a nick (but maybe not:the first shave is done very carefully) and—on thewhole—not bad. In fact, it was sort of interesting.

You decide to check in at the shaving forums—to read more and also perhaps to brag a little. Soyou go to the Reddit subgroup Wicked_Edgeand/or Pogonotomy.com and/or SimplyShaving.neta n d / o r ShaveMyFace.com and/orBadgerandBlade.com and/or TheShaveDen.comand/or DamnFineShave.com. You post the resultsof your experience, and you start reading.

You suddenly realize you’ve spent more than anhour reading messages in the forum, and you nowunderstand quite a bit more about the process,including some ways to improve your technique.

You order a blade sampler pack so that youhave a large number of different brands of bladesto try in addition to all the brands you can findlocally in the drugstore, and you stop by a Crabtree

& Evelyn store to get a better brush and perhapspick up a shaving cream.

Within a week of your first shave with the safetyrazor, your shaves are getting progressively betterand the nicks have become rare. If you do get anick, you check pressure and blade angle andresume.

When you encounter a problem or difficulty, youpost a question on Wicked_Edge or one of theshaving forums. You usually get advice fromsomeone who had the identical problem andfigured out a solution.

You start to really get the hang of it. You’vespent some time reading the forum and eyeing thevarious choices of razors, brushes, soaps, creams,and aftershaves. You’ve found in the sampler packa blade that seems to work well for you, andalready you can tell that this blade does a betterjob—or maybe your technique is improving—orboth.

You are learning so much, and it’s so interesting—fascinating, even—that you eagerly tell yoursignificant other all about it. You observe a certain

amount of rolling of the eyes, whatever that means.Now, as you read the forums, you occasionally

find a question from a newbie that you can answer.One day, after a couple of weeks, you feel your

face after shaving and realize that it’s smooth—and not just “smooth,” but baby-bottom smooth! Inevery direction! You rub your chin and cheek andfeel no sign of whiskers or stubble—you can’teven tell when you’re rubbing against the grain.

And there’s no razor burn! Your face is totallycomfortable as well as being totally smooth. Allthrough the morning you surreptitiously feel yourface, and you find yourself thinking of tomorrow’sshave—which soap or cream to use, whichaftershave…

You’re hooked9.

FIVE

Shaving step by step

IN the following chapters I explain in detail theprocess of shaving, following the sequence of theshave. Each chapter focuses on a single part of theshave or a single tool. Optional steps areindicated. The series of YouTube videos made byMantic5910 is an excellent complement to theinformation in this book.

Grain of your beard Before you begin to shave, determine the grain ofyour beard: the direction of its growth. You mustknow grain direction because your first pass is toshave with the grain, your second pass across thegrain, and later, once you’re comfortable using therazor, a final pass against the grain (except inareas in which you tend to get in-grown whiskers).You’ll probably find that your beard’s grain has

different directions on different parts of your faceand neck. Part of learning to shave is learning thelineaments of your own face.

When you shave with a single blade (rather thana multiblade cartridge), you will make 2, 3, oreven 4 passes—though when you begin, 2 passesare enough. The reason for the multiple passes isto get a close shave while using minimal pressure:instead of trying to achieve a close shave bypressing harder, you make more passes. Pressureproduces nicks, cuts, and razor burn (scrapingaway the top layer of your skin). In shaving with asafety razor and a good blade, the weight of therazor is generally as much pressure as you want.

To determine the direction of your beard’sgrain, wait 12-24 hours after you’ve last shaved,then rub your fingertips (or the edge of a creditcard or a cotton ball) over your beard. Theroughest direction is against the grain at that point.

For most men, the beard grows downward onthe cheeks, so that part of the beard feels roughestif you’re rubbing upward. But I discovered that atthe corner of my right jaw, my beard grows

horizontally toward my chin: at that point, againstthe grain is horizontally toward my ear. And justaround the right side of my mouth, the grain tilts.

The grain on your neck probably has some odddirections. It’s not unusual, for example, for thebeard on the neck to grow upward, so that shavingdownward is against the grain. One reason theneck is so often a shaving challenge is theirregularity of the grain of the beard there. That’salso why good prep is particularly important onthe neck: you might find yourself shaving againstthe grain at any point in the shave if your neckstubble grows in whorls.

When you start, you may want to make a smallsketch of your face and indicate the graindirections with arrows as a memory aid. Soon,though, you will know the grain of your beard byheart.

SIX

Prep

THE quality of your shave largely depends onhow well you prepare your beard for the shave. Adry whisker, according to Gillette, is as tough as acopper wire of the same diameter—but a whisker,unlike a copper wire, can soak up water andbecome soft. Good prep ensures that your whiskerssoften. Inadequate prep leaves your whiskerstough, so the blade tugs, catches, and skips, givingyou an uncomfortable and scraggly shave,complete with nicks and cuts, and a blade that’snow dull.

Shaving resembles painting in that you spend agood amount of time preparing the surface beforeactually picking up brush (or razor). The actualpainting/shaving occurs only toward the end of theprocess and goes more or less easily (and worksmore or less well) depending on the quality and

thoroughness of your prep as well as on your skilland the quality of your tools.

Step 1: Shower For most men, it’s a good idea to shave aftershowering: the hot water and steam of the showergive a good start to wetting the beard. Some,however, find that showering makes their skinsensitive and prone to irritation; those shouldshave before showering.

A moisturizing hair conditioner used on yourbeard in the shower can soften even a tough beard.Be sure to look for a hair conditioner that softenshair—conditioners come in different types11.

If you shower in the evening, consider shavingthen as well. For a novice, that works well: in theevening, unrushed, you can take your time as youmaster the technique. And since the ritual ofwetshaving is relaxing, as noted above, it’s a fineprelude to a date night. (And for a date night, trythe oil pass, described later in the book: the oilpass guarantees a totally smooth and soft face.)

Step 2: Wash your beard Even though I’ve just showered, I still wash mybeard at the sink with soap and water and thenrinse before I apply lather. Some guys find thatthey get a better shave if they don’t use soap at thisstep but just rinse their face with water. Becauseindividuals differ so much, you have to experimentto find what works best for you. For me, it’swashing my beard with soap and water.

The pre-shave soap that I’ve now used forseveral years is Musgo Real Glyce Lime Oil soap(which I call MR GLO), specifically designed as apre-shave soap and sold by Barclay Crocker,Lee’s Razors, Sesto Senso, and others. Wash yourbeard with this soap, partially rinse with a splashof warm water, and then lather with a shaving soapor shaving cream and enjoy a fine shave. (MRGLO is not a shaving soap and doesn’t create alather: it is a pre-shave soap. Use a shaving soapor shaving cream to make lather.)

Some shavers have experimented using ascrubby shaving brush with the soap, not to workup a lather but to do a better job of scrubbing skinand beard than when just using one’s hands. MRGLO is then rinsed from the skin and lather fromshaving cream or shaving soap applied andworked into the beard.

Obviously, since you’re running a sharp bladeover your face, your face should definitely beclean. No grime, if you please.

Step 3: Apply a pre-shave[optional] Before you lather, you can apply a pre-shave toyour wet beard. With any of the pre-shaves, try

shaving a week with it, then a week without, to seewhether it actually helps your shave. (Some find apre-shave helpful, others do not.)

Compare the shave that you get with using yourpre-shave before the first pass only and the shavewhen using it before each pass. Some pre-shaveswork well only if applied before lathering for eachpass.

I generally use no pre-shave treatment andinstead just rely on a good lather. I did, however,experiment with various pre-shave options.Pre-shave creams/gels Proraso, an Italian company, makes Proraso Pre-and Post-Shave, a cream12 that can be used both asa pre-shave and an aftershave. You can find it atseveral of the vendors in the list. When I use this, Iapply it only once, before lathering for the firstpass, and leave it on for about five minutes beforelathering. Some apply it before showering, andleave it on in the shower. As the name says, it canalso be used as an aftershave.

Crema 3P and PREP Classic Cream are Italian

pre-shave creams similar to Proraso’s. AnotherItalian pre-shave is a gel: Floid Sandolor PreshaveGel.

Taylor of Old Bond Street (aka TOBS) makes apre-shave herbal gel that some men with toughbeards have found effective. After the beard iswashed and rinsed, you rub the gel into the wetbeard and then let it sit for a minute or two. Youcould do this step before the shower, for example.Then lather on top of the gel and shave as younormally do.Trumper Skin Food Geo. F. Trumper’s Skin Food, available in Coral(rose), Lime, or Sandalwood, is normally anaftershave: a soothing balm and skin treatment. Dr.Chris Moss, a safety- and straight-razor shaverwho wrote The Art of the Straight-Razor Shave13,discovered that it makes a very good every-passpre-shave, applied to the wet beard just beforelathering for each pass. A few drops of Skin Foodatop puck or brush seems to alleviate latheringproblems with Mitchell’s Wool Fat.

100% glycerin Dr. Moss, on inspecting the ingredients in CoralSkin Food, noticed that glycerin was included, sohe decided to try 100% glycerin as an every-passpre-shave. It turns out to have much the same effectas Trumper’s Coral Skin Food—at a much lowerprice. You can find 100% glycerin14 (akaglycerine) at health-food stores and somedrugstores.Pre-shave oils I’ve never liked oils as a pre-shave (though later Idiscuss their use as a post-shave oil, for the finalpolishing pass), so I don’t have much to say aboutthem save that they exist. It’s not clear to me thatthey’re compatible with a good lather or good foryour shaving brush. When I’ve tried them, I havefound that the lather has suffered and the shave wasnot improved. Your experience may differ—someguys love them—so you may want to give them ago. On the whole, though, I’d say give them a pass.

If you do want to try a pre-shave oil, try using afew drops of jojoba oil or olive oil, recommended

by various shavers. Pacific Shaving Company’sAll-Natural Shaving Oil seems to include someemulsifier so that it doesn’t feel as oily as othershaving oils. Later in the book I discuss a varietyof pre-shave oils that can be used for a finalpolishing pass, after all lather work is done.

Shaving oil before lathering is not for me, basedon my own experience.

Step 4: Apply hot towel [optionalunless you get in-growns] If you get a shave in a good barber shop, part ofthe prep by the barber consists of placing moist hottowels over your beard and often your entire face.The warmth and moisture from the towels furthersoftens the beard. The technique is simple: Washand lather your beard, and then mold a moist hottowel over your lathered beard (including yourneck), lean back, and meditate quietly for 13minutes. The moist heat of the towel combinedwith the lather softens the beard remarkably. Thenremove the towel, re-lather, and start the first pass.

If you have a microwave, you can heat the towel

by dampening it and putting it into the microwavefor 45 seconds.

If you like this technique, consider buying apack of barber towels: inexpensive and useful. Ifyou’re a true sybarite, spritz a little hydrosol15 orother fragrance on the damp towel before heatingit.

Using a hot towel before shaving is not optionalif you suffer from razor bumps or in-growns.

SEVEN

Prep Step 5: Apply lather

THE quality of the lather you make stronglyaffects the quality of the shave. Lather is createdfrom either shaving soap or shaving cream byusing a shaving brush and hot water. It takes somepractice to learn to create a good lather, so bepatient and observe carefully the process as youpractice. The defining characteristic of a goodlather is that it’s dense and heavy and the bubblesare microscopic. Larger bubbles indicate eithertoo much water or water added so fast that it couldnot be worked into the lather. Your whiskers aresoftened by absorbing water, and a thick, heavylather holds water against the stubble in addition tolubricating the skin so the razor glides easily.

A good lather may be somewhat drier16 andthicker than you expect—or it may be wetter.Experiment to find the best lather for you.

Judicious experimentation is always encouraged—to some extent you teach yourself how to makelather, just as you teach yourself to make freethrows: practice daily, paying attention to whatyou’re doing and the result you get. I should notethat after publishing the fourth edition of this book,I learned how to make a particularly thick andcreamy lather. I’ll describe how to do it in thischapter. Let’s look at the process, beginning withthe lathering tools.

Lathering tools Specific tools are used to create lather fromshaving cream or soap: the shaving brush, thelathering bowl, and the warming scuttle, with thelatter two optional.Shaving brush The bristles in a shaving brush are synthetic, horse,boar, or badger—generally bristles of just onetype, but brushes are also available that combinehorse and boar bristles, horse and badger bristles,and boar and badger bristles. Brushes with

synthetic bristles17 are favored by those withallergies and/or a desire to avoid the use of animalproducts. Horsehair brushes and boar brushes havebeen around for centuries and recently are findingnew popularity. Badger has long been the standardfor expensive shaving brushes, with silvertipbadger brushes (the tips of the bristles being whiteor off-white) as the top of the line.

Some users find that their new animal-hair brush(horse, boar, or badger) has a distinct odor. Theodor goes away with use, and its departure can behastened by shampooing the brush and/or using itwith a shaving cream, such as Proraso, that has acounter-fragrance (menthol and eucalyptus, withProraso).Synthetic-bristle brushes Synthetic bristles have been significantly improvedin recent years. The cheapest brushes still userelatively thick white nylon bristles (like thosefound in a plastic whiskbroom) and might serve asa brush you keep in your gym locker: they cangenerate a good lather, but are not particularly

well made or comfortable. The best new syntheticbristle brushes are justifiably called “artificialbadger.” These bristles are thinner than the whitenylon, though still resilient, and are treated so thattheir tips have a fine, soft, bushy finish.

The best of these new synthetic-bristle brushesare completely satisfactory as shaving brushes,with the bristles designed and engineeredspecifically for the purpose. Moreover, syntheticbristles offer some advantages over naturalbristles—men-ü provides a good list of these18,including drying fast and being hypoallergenic andnonabsorbent.

The five shown in the photo are five of the best:from left, brushes made by Omega (two brushes:first, the Lucretia Borgia; on its right, model643147, an excellent first shaving brush), Taylorof Old Bond Street, menü, and Mühle. All produceas good a lather as would a badger brush, and allhave excellent capacity. After you load one ofthese brushes with water, give it a slight shake sothat it will not spill excess water as you begin tobuild the lather on your beard (the technique I use)

or in a bowl.

So far as I can tell, the knots for all the brushesshown (and also for the Edwin Jagger synthetic)are much the same, if not identical, with thedifferences among the brushes primarily being thehandle—except for the Mühle. This Mühle’sbristles are somewhat different but work quitewell—this Mühle (model 39K256)seems to melike a high-quality horsehair brush. Some say theyfind the TOBS artificial badger especially good,but to me it’s like the Omegas, the men-ü, and theEdwin Jagger.Horsehair brushes Horsehair brushes are enjoying a renascence

among traditional wetshavers in the U.S., with arapidly growing number of new adherents.Horsehair brushes seem to be favored particularlyin Spain, and Spanish horsehair shaving brushesare available in a range of designs, including somemade of a mix of either horsehair and badger orwhite horsehair and boar, and very nice (andinexpensive) professional horsehair brushes.

The best source of horsehair brushes I’ve foundis GiftsAndCare.com, listed in the appendix amongthe vendors. They are located in Spain, and if youdo not wish to order from abroad (though I’ve hadno problems at all) a number of domestic vendorsalso sell horsehair brushes.

Vie-Long19 and Tres Claveles are two Spanishcompanies that make a good variety of brushes.Horsehair is finer and softer than boar, slightlystiffer than badger (it seems to me), and in myexperience horsehair brushes do a particularlygood job of making Creamy Lather, as describedlater. Mane hair is softer, tail hair stiffer and moreresilient. Even though horsehair brushes fell inpopularity around the time of the Great War

(because of an anthrax scare20], their burgeoningpopularity is based on solid performance in thelather department and their modest price comparedto badger. Right now, horsehair brushes are myfavorites, and they routinely produce exceptionallygood lather.

In the photo above you see an array of Vie-Longbrushes. The two on the left are a horsehair andbadger combination, which have a very nice andvigorous action, and the remaining brushes arepure horsehair—which, as you see, comes invarious colors (as do horses).

Horses are unharmed in the harvesting of thehair—and indeed it seems much it would be muchless traumatic for the horse than shearing is for

sheep.Boar-bristle brushes Boar brushes have been around since the beginningand continue to be popular. Although the boarbrush you find in the local drugstore will probablynot amount to much, a well-made boar brush, oncebroken in, has a pleasant feel and makes a superblather. Boar brushes are particularly favored byItalian barbers.

Unlike synthetic, horsehair, or badger brushes,boar brushes require a break-in period. The initialweek of use makes a big difference for mostbrushes, but the break-in continues for a long timeas the bristles split at the ends, becoming finer andsofter. One shaver suggested that you canaccelerate the break-in if you use a Suribachi21 asyour lathering bowl. The idea is that the ridges inthe bowl help split the bristle ends, making thebrush gradually soften and hold more lather. Idefinitely would not use such a bowl with badgeror horsehair, though.

Boar bristles, like other natural bristles and

unlike synthetic bristles, absorb water (and theyabsorb much more than badger or horsehairbristles), so you soak them in hot water before use—allowing the boar brush to soak in hot tap waterwhile you shower is the normal practice.Developing a good lather from soap with a boarbrush requires a certain amount of practice andrather more vigorous loading than with otherbrushes.

Above is a representative collection of boarbrushes—as you can see, I have become fond ofboar. From the left, a Vie-Long brush made of boarand white horsehair. This is quite a good brush,though the brass ring around the handle makes ajarring sound when it strikes the side of aporcelain or pottery lathering bowl. The Marvy

hard-rubber mug, discussed later, is a good choicefor this brush (or similar models that have thesame handle).

Next in line are the Semogue 2000 22, theSemogue Owners Club, and another Semogue boarbrush, all three being Portuguese brushes fromVintageScents.com. Then two Omega boarbrushes: the Omega Pro 48 (Model 10048) is$16.50—a bargain—and the Omega Pro 49(10049) to its right is equally good. Finally, thereare two Edwin Jagger boar brushes. For the initialbreak-in, assuming daily use, count on two weeksfor an Omega brush and four to six for theSemogue.

The Vulfix Grosvenor is available in boarcombined with badger bristles. This brush didn’twork so well for me as the pure boar brushesshown.

Most new shavers will start with a badger orsynthetic brush: it’s easier to create a good latherat the outset (no break-in required), and the brushwill generally hold more lather than will a boarbrush. But boar brush aficionados are enthusiastic,

and certainly the price of a boar brush is hard tobeat. One enthusiast wrote a detailed andcomprehensive guide to boar brushes23 that is wellworth reading. In discussing this issue with me, hewrote:

I think that boar is the place to start,especially those new to wet shaving, for acouple of reasons.

One is price over a good silvertip or asynthetic for someone new to something theymay not like.

The other is that I find boar is an easierbrush to make consistently great lather with,and, that at the end of the day, a good boarbrush makes better lather than badger.

And any new thing needs to be learned, sojust learn how to use a boar, it won’t hurt.

Boar brushes hold less water. Why is thisan advantage? Because even boar brusheshold more water than you will need, evenboar brushes must be allowed to drain somewater or some excess water to be shaken off.Too much water in the mix is the number one

problem with bad lather. You’re far lesslikely to have this problem, simply by using aboar-bristle brush. Stated more plainly: if aboar brush can hold too much water forlathering, and a badger brushes can holdWAY too much water, then the ability to holdmore water becomes a risk to your lather.

Boar brushes take longer to create a greatlather. Why is this an advantage? Because ofthe simple fact that if you take more time tomake lather, you’re more able to catchmistakes and compensate for them; also youwon’t be as likely to miss the ‘sweet spot’ inyour lather. A simple analogy is slow motion;if you can see things happening in slowmotion, you can sidestep a potentially bigproblem. Boar brushes therefore allow for amore consistent lather than badger does;while this may mean nothing to an expert,novices will appreciate the benefit.

Boar brushes are ideal for face lathering.Why is that? Well, because the lathering onthe face part is not all about the face, it’s

about the hair on your face. Boar works thishair harder, works lather into your pores andinto your follicles better, and softens up thehair better by giving it a better workout. Also,contrary to popular belief, a boar brush, whenwet, is not prickly, and when broken in, issoft and very easy on even sensitive skin.

Boar brushes are somewhat ‘adjustable’. Sincea boar brush will absorb water, if you let it soak inhot water for 5 minutes while you shower, youwill get the softest shave possible with that brush.If you do not, however, you will get a stiffer shave.If you have 2 of the same boar and switch betweenthem every other day, allowing the brushes 48hours each to become bone dry, they will give youthe stiffest shave possible for that brush.

So, in summary:1) Too much water?2) Not enough soap?3) Not enough consistency?4) Like to face lather?Answers: 1) boar, 2) boar, 3) boar, 4) boar

Be warned, though, that some boar brushes

never work well, so don’t assume that problemsyou may encounter with a boar brush arenecessarily your fault. If you do start with a boarbrush, try the Omega 48 or 49, the Vie-Longhorsehair-boar brush, or one of the Semoguebrushes.Badger-bristle brushes Most shavers will sooner or later acquire a brushmade from bristles taken from the Asian badger,and these bristles are available in severalgrades24.

Badger brushes are made by hand25 (you caneven make your own26), and there are cleardifferences27 between pure, best, and silvertipbadger brushes, though the categories are not welldefined and vary by manufacturer. Here are photosof three badger brushes: from left to right: anOmega “pure badger,” a Simpson “best badger,”and a Rooney “finest badger.” Badger brusheswith the lighter-colored tips are softer (and moreexpensive). The collection of bristles is called the“knot,” and the length of the knot is the “loft.”

Besides the type of bristle, you should alsoconsider the overall shape of the brush. Englishshaving brushes tend toward a fan shape, with amore or less flattish top (though slightly domed),but German brushes (the Shavemac, for example)and French brushes (Plisson) often use a domed orlight-bulb shape. As with everything in shaving,preferences vary. I prefer the fan shape, but someshavers love their Shavemac brushes. From L to Rin the photo on the previous page: a domed EdwinJagger brush, a domed Plisson HMW 12 brush, afan-shaped Rooney Style 3 Size 1, and a fan-shaped Sabini brush.

Pils brushes are made in Germany with aBauhaus-like “modern machine” aesthetic: simpledesigns executed in stainless steel.

To the right are four German brushes, showingthe dome shape Germans seem to prefer: from theleft, two H. L. Thäter brushes, a Mühle, and aShavemac. These are all excellent brushes, thoughI find the Shavemac too large for my taste.

Another difference among brush: the knot may

be very tightly packed, or its bristles might bemore loosely packed. I find that a tightly packedbrush with a short loft just doesn’t work for me:such a brush is very scrubby and holds less latherthan a looser brush with more loft. A slightlylooser, long-loft brush is “fluffy”: it’s softer, and itholds much more lather. You can, however, createa good lather with either type.

The large, flat-topped badger brush at the rightis from Enchanté in Austin TX and is designed forMethod Shaving (described later). Next to it arethree small badger brushes, two Omegas and theSimpson Wee Scot.

Vulfix badger brushes28 are popular. I’llcompare two brushes from the line to indicate

what you look at in brushes other than the shapeand material of the knot. Let’s compare the Vulfix2235 and the 2234. The 2235’s longer loft (50mmvs 47mm for the 2234) means that it’s a bit moreflexible. The 2235 also has a larger knot(measured by the diameter at the base of thebristles)—23mm vs 22mm for the 2234—so itholds a bit more water/lather. The brushes arevery close overall.

Simpson brushes29 have been a step up from theVulfix brand, though Simpson has now beenpurchased by Vulfix. My Simpson Emperor 3 inSuper Badger, from a few years ago, is better thanmy Vulfix. The Emperor’s bristles seem to havejust the right “give” and density, and I liked itssize. Although I still like the Emperor 3 (thelargest), as I became more experienced and startedbuilding the lather on my face, I got and enjoy thesmaller Emperor 2 (pictured). Both are excellent. Ihave no personal experience with the currentSimpsons, but those who have tried them say theyare quite good.

Simpson’s Wee Scott, pictured above, issurprisingly good. Though diminutive in size, itperforms as well as (if not better than) a brush oflarger dimension. It holds plenty of lather. I foundthat when it was fully loaded, I had enough latherfor six or seven passes (not that I’ve ever used somany—a three-pass shave works for me—but Ikept applying lather and rinsing it off until thebrush was empty). The Wee Scot is made of thevery finest badger bristles, tightly packed, so thenumber of bristles in a Wee Scot exceeds that ofmost brushes made with regular bristles, and thisenormous wettable surface no doubt accounts forits surprising capacity. The small size is obviouslya benefit when hiking or traveling, but it’s also abenefit at home because it offers unparalleled

precision in lather placement: a shaver using theWee Scot no longer risks filling his nostrils whenlathering his upper lip.

Frank Shaving Brushes, typically found on eBaybut also from some vendors, offer quite goodbadger brushes at extremely modest prices. NewForest Brushes, reviewed by Bruce Everiss30, arehandmade shaving brushes of excellent quality, andMorris & Forndram is another make of brush thathe mentions with approval. (I’m now awaiting oneof each of these two brands.)

Among the badger brushes, my current favoritesare the Wee Scott and the Rooney brushes 31. I firstgot the Rooney Style 3 Large Super Silvertip, butas I found a smaller brush more to my taste, I gotboth a Style 3 Small Super Silvertip and a Style 2Super Silvertip. (Style 2 comes only in Small.)Those are now among my favorite brushes—though, obviously, this can change. This photofrom Vintage Blades LLC shows, from left to right,Styles 1, 2, and 3, all in Small. Styles 2 and 3 havea slightly larger handle than Style 1, one reason Iprefer them.

The Style 3 Small has a slightly shorter loft thanthe Style 2 (55mm vs 60mm), so it is a slight bitstiffer. I ultimately got a Style 2 Finest and it istoday my favorite badger brush—beautiful andfunctional. (I don’t use my Finest in highlypigmented shaving creams—for example, Geo. F.Trumper Rose, D.H. Harris Lavender—since Ifear that might stain the pure white bristle tips.)

Rooney also offers the Heritage line of high-quality brushes, but for me those brushes are toodense and stiff. Others, however, describe theirHeritage brushes as the perfect brush. The Emilionseems to be particularly popular. Again: whichbrush is “excellent” varies by shaver.

If you want to start with a badger brush, I highlyrecommend the Rooney Small Super Silvertip—in

any of the three stylesSimpson brushes (measurements here32),

Rooney brushes, and Omega brushes33

(measurements here34) are all excellent. BothRooney and Omega Silvertip brushes areamazingly soft and thick—quite a luxurious feel.

Savile Row brushes (from QED) are also nice—soft, not stiff. G.B. Kent brushes35 are extremelynice and do an excellent job building a lather fromshaving soap. The BK4 pictured with its box is thebest all-round size. One shaver commented that theBK4 can work up a good lather from a pot roast.

If you like a larger brush, the BK8 would be agood choice. You can also obtain these brusheswith black handles.

Another line of high-end brushes are those madeby Plisson, a French manufacturer who provideshandles made of horn, ebony, briarwood,rosewood, and other natural sources, as well ashandles of brass and acrylic. Some consider thePlisson High Mountain White the best of all badgerbrushes. I have one and still like the Rooney 2Finest better.

All the brushes mentioned above are high-end,some higher than others. If those are too pricey,look for something cheaper, but I would say thatanything costing less than $20 is suspect. Probablythe best starter badger brush for a modest price isthe Edwin Jagger Best Badger from Crabtree &Evelyn36 or The English Shaving Company37. TheEnglish Shaving Company offers a wide variety ofbest badger brushes; C&E offers one. The pricesare almost the same, even with shipping. The bestsize for a beginner is the Medium.

With brush handles made of natural substancessuch as wood or horn, you have to be more awareof possible water damage, though some believe

that wooden-handled brushes do just fine38—manyboats, after all, are made of wood.

You may also be interested in the variousinnovations now appearing among shavingbrushes39—Shavemac, for example, now offers avariable-loft brush40 that allows the user to retractor extend the bristles.Soap brush vs. Shaving-cream brush Lather is produced from a shaving cream orshaving soap (discussed below), and yousometimes see the question, “Which brushes arebest for shaving cream, and which are best forsoap?” In fact, any brush can do a fine job withboth soaps and creams provided that the water isadequately soft (as discussed later). You learnhow to use the brush to create lather (describedlater in this chapter), and that’s it.

So don’t worry about soap brushes vs. creambrushes—that issue is a red herring. Just pick abrush that you like. For me, that’s a softer brushwith a good loft; for others, it’s a stiffer brush witha short loft. One video41 shows a soft brush

quickly working up an excellent lather from a hardsoap.

You will notice that he takes his time in loadingthe brush with soap—the step in which the wetbrush is briskly brushed over the surface of thesoap to fill the bristles with enough soap for agood lather. Indeed, I would have continuedloading the brush for about twice as long as he did.I would also note that his Moss Scuttle was notintended to serve as a lathering bowl: as I discusslater, it should be small enough so that the brushfits snugly and thus stays warm between passes, soa proper fit means a Moss Scuttle is too small forlathering.

Loading the brush is a crucial step that I discusslater in this chapter. For soaps in a tub, loadingrequires a bit of practice to perfect. The usualerror is to fail to spend the time to fully load thebrush with soap.Travel brushes A travel brush allows the user to unscrew the knot(the bristles) and then store it inside the hollow

brush handle, thus protecting it during travel.The Simpson Major Super Badger Travel Brush

was my first, and I liked it—a good brush on parwith the Simpson’s Emperor. (If you do a lot oftravel, Em’s Place has some nice accessories42.)Although the Simpson Major’s knot looks small, itholds plenty of lather for 4 passes.

Pils, a German company, offers a travel brush,the 503, that has a stainless-steel handle and asilvertip badger knot. It has a “high-precision”feel.

The best travel brush design (in my opinion) isthe Mühle travel brush43. It’s compact and itsdesign expedites drying by putting a large hole justabove where the knot is stored. You can get thisbrush in nickel-plated brass, quite handsome, or inaluminum in various colors. Aluminum islightweight but it’s also relatively soft, so you mustbe careful with the threads in those brushes. Theknot is pure badger; you can get a silvertip knotdirectly from Mühle.

The Wee Scot, a great travel brush, fits aprescription pill bottle nicely.

My favorite brushes Each shaver will have his own preferences withregard to every aspect of shaving: methods,equipment, and supplies. Still, I do get askedwhich brushes I prefer, so here are some favorites.Of the four types, I currently prefer horsehair.

The top tier badger brushes are the Rooney Size1 Super Silvertips (Styles 1, 2, and 3), the WeeScot, the G.B. Kent BK4, and an Omega Silvertipthat I love for its softness. The Rooney Style 2Finest is exceptional, of course, and expensive.The others are much less expensive and do a greatjob.

I have a number of other favorites. There’s thescrubby crowd: the Simpson Duke 3 Best,Commodore 3 Best, and Chubby 1 Best. Lessscrubby but very nice are the Simpson Harvard 3Best, Emperor 2 Super, Emperor 3 Super, andPersian Jar 2 Super.

The Plisson brass-handled size 12 Chinese Greyhas an interesting coarse feel and does a fine job,as does the Plisson size 12 High Mountain White.And I like the Thater brushes quite a bit despite

their domed shape.I’m becoming increasingly fond of boar brushes.

Vie-Long makes a boar and white horsehaircombination brush that I like a lot, and theSemogue 2000 is a terrific brush once it’s fullybroken in. I’m also enjoying the little EdwinJagger boar brushes. The Omega 48 and 49 boarbrushes are reliably excellent.

I’ve had excellent luck with horsehair brushes,and I have a collection now that I enjoy usingfrequently. The horsehair plus badger combinationbrushes that Vie-Long makes are exceptionallygood at making lather. My current preference forhorsehair brushes is based on their latheringperformance.

The synthetic bristle “artificial badger” brushesare all excellent and I use them regularly—to me,they are as good as badger bristle.

My favorite travel brushes are the Mühle andthe Wee Scot.Care of your brush If you soak your brush prior to shaving, use hot

water from the tap, not boiling-hot water. Boiling-hot water will ruin the bristles. I don’t soak abadger or horsehair brush—I simply hold it underthe hot-water tap until it’s full of water—but I dolet a boar brush soak while I shower: boar bristlessoak up a lot of water and soften considerably.

Lather is slightly acidic and, if left to dry in thebristles, will over time destroy your brush, so it’svital to clean the brush before putting it away.When you complete your shave, rinse all the latherout of your brush with warm or hot water, and thendo a final rinse of the clean brush using coldwater. (The hot water should not be so hot that youcannot keep your hands in the stream.) The reasonfor the cold-water rinse: the hair shaft is coveredwith cuticle—overlapping scales somewhat likeshingles44. In hot water, these scales stand out fromthe hair shaft; in cold water, the scales hug theshaft tightly. This is one reason shaving with hotwater is more comfortable than shaving with cold:hot water opens the cuticle and the whiskerabsorbs water more readily. And this is whybeauticians do a final shampoo rinse with cool

water: so the cuticle lies flat and the hair will lookshiny instead of dull.

You may want a stand for the brush45 (it gripsthe brush at the base of the bristles, bristlesdownward), but that’s definitely optional.(Simpson states that their brushes should simplystand on the base of the handle to dry after you’verinsed the bristles, shaken the brush well, anddried it on a towel—no stand needed.) Indeed, ifyou collect brushes, you will have to improvise alarge rack. I use a couple of wall-mounted 4-tierspice racks to hold my collection of brushes andrazors.

Over time brushes may become slightlywaterproof from hard-water deposits. Onesymptom is that the lather doesn’t seem quite sonice or abundant as previously. Brushes can beeasily restored by washing them with a goodshampoo and conditioner. Be very careful aboutthe shampoo: some include silicone-basedadditives that can make the brush less functional.The bad additives generally end in “-cone”; here’sa partial list of what to avoid: cyclomethicone,

cyclopentasiloxane, dimethicone, dimethinconal.Johnson Baby Shampoo (very gentle and with a

neutral pH) is a good choice—or, instead of usingshampoo, soak the brush for 10-15 minutes inwarm water to which you’ve added a splash ofwhite vinegar. The vinegar dissolves the hard-water (calcium) deposits, leaving the bristles nolonger coated. After soaking, rinse the brush well,first in warm water, then in cold. Make sureyou’ve rinsed away all traces of the vinegar.

Emily from Em’s Place has various referencearticles at ShaveInfo.com, including some videoson a brush cleaning method46 that producesexcellent results. You first soak the brush for about5 minutes in warm (not hot) water with somedishwashing detergent (not the kind you put in adishwasher, but the kind used in hand-washingdishes), swirling it from time to time. Then mix 9parts water, 1 part white vinegar and a dash of100% glycerin (available at a drugstore or health-food store) and soak the brush in that for about 10minutes. Rinse the brush, and you will find that it’snow soft and water-absorbent.

As described in the later section on “Cleaningyour razor,” you can also use an ultrasonic cleanerto clean the brush—you immerse only the bristles,not the base of the knot. Gold Dachs makes ashaving brush cleaner47 that’s reported to workquite well. MAC brush cleaner48 is intended forcleaning make-up brushes, but a shaver ventured toclean his shaving brush with it and found that it didan excellent job.

Cleaning the brush may not be needed if youhave soft water and are careful about rinsing thebrush after use. And it certainly isn’t needed sooften as cleaning your razor. Remember thatbadger, boar, and horsehair brushes are made fromactual hair, so don’t do things to them that youwouldn’t do to hair. Synthetic bristles are moreforgiving and robust.Lathering bowl [optional] When asked what was the best shaving tip they hadread, quite a few shavers said that it was to use alathering bowl. Building the lather in a bowl helpsyou observe the lather as you experiment, trying

different proportions of water and shaving creamor soap until you learn to get a lather you like. Youcan rub the lather between thumb and finger to seehow protective and slick it is.

Because a bowl is normally used as a container,the natural tendency is to think that the latheringbowl’s purpose is to hold the lather, into whichyou dip the brush and then apply—much as a paintcan holds the paint that the paintbrush applies.

Not so: the lather’s in the brush, not in the bowl.The bowl merely presents a surface of aconvenient shape for building a lather. This factbecomes obvious when you create the lather not ina bowl, but directly on your beard. I first did thison a trip, having opened my suitcase to find abroken lathering bowl. I found that I really didn’tneed the bowl to make good lather: I could work itup on my beard, and the brush then held plenty oflather for multiple passes.

It’s difficult to see how the lather’s doing if thelathering bowl is white, so use a bowl that’s arelatively dark color. Other than that, any roughlyhemispherical bowl that’s about 5″ across and

2.5″-3″ deep will work fine. Start with a cerealbowl from your kitchen or visit Target, whichnormally has a good selection of inexpensivecereal bowls in various colors.

The lathering bowl—important point—shouldbe filled with hot water and allowed to sit (whileyou shower, for example). Few enjoy cold lather.Empty the hot water from the bowl, rinse the brushin hot water, and proceed. Obviously, you can usehot water from the tap to heat the bowl, even ifyou’re going to use distilled water for the lather.Dirty Bird Pottery makes a lathering bowl that isheated as a scuttle (see next section).

With a large brush, a lathering bowl worksbetter than building the lather directly on yourbeard. The Edwin Jagger Medium Best Badger is areasonable size for face lathering, as you can workit smartly against your beard, but a really largebrush doesn’t get enough action merely against thebeard. For large brushes, the bowl lets you workup the lather better than on your beard, and alsoallows you to adjust water amounts.

Another important point: badger brushes hold a

lot of water, and if you fail to work all that waterinto the lather at the outset, you’ll find that in thesecond and third pass the water drains into thelather in the brush, making it thin and worthless.So, especially with a brush that’s both large andstiff, gently “pump” the brush (and this is where alathering bowl is helpful), combined with the usualswirling and stirring motions. You pump the brushby working it up and down; this ensures that thewater at the base of the brush gets worked into thelather.

Don’t pump the brush so vigorously that youdamage the bristles—gently but enough to work thebrush’s charge of water fully into the lather.Experience will be your guide. Brushes that holdmuch water will require a bit more shaving creamor shaving soap for a proper lather than a brushholding less water.

Some large-knot brushes, like the OmegaSilvertips, are soft and flexible enough so that thepumping action usually happens automatically asyou swirl and stir up the lather. With thesebrushes, no special pumping is required.

Suribachi bowls should not be used with badgeror horsehair brushes.Warming scuttle [optional] The Moss Scuttle49 (shown at right) allows you toenjoy warm shaving lather, a real treat. It consistsof a brush bowl sitting in and attached to a heatingbowl (so it doesn’t fall off when you empty thewater).

To use: fill both bowls with water as hot as youcan get it from the tap. Leave the hot water in thebowls while you shower.

Then empty out all the hot water, and fill onlythe heating (bottom) bowl with hot water: this willkeep the brush bowl hot. Rinse the brush with hotwater, then load it with soap or cream and build

the lather. After the first lathering, place the brushin the warmed brush bowl while you shave. Then,when you relather before the next pass, the brushand lather will still be warm.

The brush bowl should be too small to use as alathering bowl—you want the lathered brush to fitsnugly in the bowl to keep warm. The Moss scuttlecomes in two sizes—small and large (see photo)—and the small size is right for all but quite largebrushes. Dr. Moss kindly provides this step-by-step procedure:

My experience is that if you make the water inthe scuttle too hot it will encourage the latherto break down. The other thing is whether youare getting the proportions right when youmake the lather. Here’s the way I use thescuttle:

1. Fill scuttle with hot water in bothcompartments.

2. Soak brush in the hot water in theinner bowl.

3. Do other stuff - for me this means

wash face and strop razor, but foryou might include reading NewYork Post, write angry letter toeditor, kick cat, and so on.

4. Empty scuttle.5. Refill outer part only with hot

water.6. Shake out brush.7. Place exactly one British Standard

Fingertipful of cream on brush.8. Work brush into inner bowl of

scuttle, adding a few drips of hotwater as necessary.

9. Make lather on face, dipping brushtip in hot sink water judiciously ifnecessary (it usually is).

10. Place brush back in scuttle andpush down to maximise brush toscuttle contact area.

11. Shave, or something like it.12. Relather with hot lather. Place

brush back in scuttle q.v. step#1013. Shave again in some other

direction.14. Relather for the bits that need it.

Place brush you know where.15. Shave in another direction,

removing tiniest traces of beard.16. Rinse face, brush, and scuttle in

desired order.17. Kick cat.18. Go to work, pretend to enjoy it.50

Georgetown Pottery51 makes a scuttle thatserves the same function as the Moss Scuttle,though with a slightly different design.

Dirty Bird Pottery52 makes what in effect areheated lathering bowls, but they also make a“brush holder” that fits the brush snugly enough tokeep it (and its lather) warm. The ideal wouldseem to be to combine the two ideas: a large bowlused for lathering and then filled with hot wateronce the lather is made, and a smaller brush bowlthen placed in the hot water and used to keep thebrush (and its lather) warm while you shave. Thetrick is to have a mechanism to prevent the small

bowl from floating and capsizing.One shaver has pointed out that a thick ceramic

bowl will hold quite a bit of heat once it’s hot allthe way through, and can keep the lather warm forthe entire shave. Others put their lathering bowl ina sink filled with hot water. Some find a pair ofbowls to use in the manner of the Moss Scuttle. Iusually just stand my brush on its base betweenpasses, and the lather stays warm enough for me.

I should add that those who like the scuttle likeit a lot—for them the warmed lather addssignificant pleasure to the shave.

Water Water is a key component of a good shave, andthere’s more to consider than you would at firstsuspect.Temperature When talking about “hot” water, it’s important tonote that water that’s too hot is not only bad for thebrush, it’s also a safety hazard. Burns and scaldsfrom hot water are among the most frequent home

accidents, and so I’ve followed therecommendations made some years back by then-President Carter: to set my hot-water tank’sthermostat so that pure hot water coming from mytap is just right for a shower, shave, anddishwashing. This finesses the safety hazard ofscalding water, and it saves money: I don’t pay toheat water to a temperature too high to use and thencool it down by mixing in cold water.

At one time, dishwashers did require extremelyhot water from the tap, but nowadays dishwashersthemselves generally heat their water to thescalding temperatures they require. Do yourself afavor and turn down the hot-water heater to atemperature that allows you to use pure hot waterfor shaving and shower without discomfort ordanger. If I let it run until it reaches the maximum,hot water from my tap is 116°F (47°C). I used trialand error, adjusting the hot-water tank thermostatup and down until the water was a goodtemperature.

Another temperature consideration is whether toshave using hot water or cold water. I consider

cold-water shaving a last resort or a punishment,but in fact some shavers like it. According to them,the cold water tightens the skin and makes thestubble stand erect, thus easier to shave.(Presumably they shave at the sink, not in theshower.) When I tried it, I didn’t get as good alather, and the shave, while okay, did not seem tobe an improvement—certainly not enough so that Iwas willing to abandon the comfort and luxury of ahot-water shave. But as you experiment, you mightwant to try a cold-water shave.Hard v. Soft Normally you can simply use hot water from thetap to make your lather, but if you live where thewater is hard—or if you think the water might behard—try using distilled or “purified” water, soldcheaply in drugstores for use in steam irons,steamers, vaporizers, and the like. If the lather isthen markedly easier to make and more abundant,you have your answer—and a workaround.

The best long-term solution for hard water is toinstall a water softener to produce soft water from

every tap except the kitchen cold water. (Youdon’t want to soften water you ingest because ofthe relatively high sodium content of softenedwater.) If you go this route, look for a watersoftener that recycles based on usage—that is,water volume—rather than on time (for example,every 7 days). Volume-based regeneration savesmoney and also automatically adjusts for periodsof low usage (when you’re away) and high usage(when you have house guests). The best volume-based softeners use two resin tanks so that whileone tank regenerates, softened water is availablefrom the other53.

Water with high mineral content is hard on theplumbing and the faucets, hard on skin and laundry,leaves deposits (mineral and/or soap scum) oneverything (including skin), and may even dullrazor blades (due to build-up of mineral depositson the blades edge). So a water softener can help alot.

One odd note: a person using soft water for thefirst time will often complain that they can’t rinseoff the soap. What they mean is that when they

rinse away the soap, their skin still feels slippery(as wet skin should). What they are missing is thestickiness they felt from soap scum adhering totheir skin—that’s what they’ve used as the sign thatall the soap (which does make the skin feelslippery) is gone: when they feel the soap scumthat remains, stuck to the skin. If their skin stillfeels slippery, they believe that must be due tosoap remaining. It’s not: it’s the natural conditionof wet skin (as when you’re trying to remove a ringthat’s too tight: you wet the skin to make it moreslippery).

If a water softener is not feasible in yoursituation, you can use the workaround: distilled (or“purified”) water heated ahead of time on thestove or in the microwave, or with something likethe Sunbeam Hot Shot54 to heat it in the bathroom.(The Hot Shot brings a pint of water to 180°F in aminute—too hot, so you have to cool it.) Or youcan use a hot-water dispenser like those made byZojirushi55; these maintain water at a pre-settemperature (175°, 195°, or 208° F—all of whichare again too hot, requiring cooling). Or the

UtiliTEA56 kettle will quickly heat water to thetemperature you set; at its lowest setting it heatswater to 125°F. That still requires a little cooling(adding a little cold water) before use, but itpresents less of a scalding hazard than the otherworkarounds.

Because hard water affects the lather fromshaving cream less than that from shaving soap, theidea of a “soap brush” v. “cream brush” may haveoriginated with shavers whose tap water was hard.They observed that they got good lather fromshaving cream but, using the very same brush,they could not get good lather from shaving soap.They then decided that their brush must not be a“shaving soap brush,” though the problem lies notwith the brush but the water.Shower v. Sink I don’t shave in the shower, but that does mean lotsof water available: easy to rinse between passes,for example. A shower shave probably precludesthe cold-water shave, a minor loss. You can buyshower mirrors, though many shower shavers

simply shave by feel. If you use a soap mug in theshower, consider the unbreakable Marvy mugmade of hard rubber; it’s quite a good mug in anycase. For a shower shaving cream, Em’s Placeuses plastic dispenser bottles.Running v. Still When you shave at the sink, shavers typically takeone of three approaches:

1. Fill the sink with hot water and use that forthe shave: rinse your razor and your beard inthe water until you finish the shave.

2. Leave the water running, rinsing your razor inthe stream as needed and using that water torinse your face between passes.

3. Turn the water on as needed to rinse razor orface, then turn it off.

The second option is a bad idea, quite apartfrom losing water you’ve paid to heat. The shavingproblem of this approach is that running watermakes a lot of noise. Keep the bathroom as quiet

as possible when you shave. That helps thecontemplative aspect of the ritual, but the silencealso allows you to hear the sounds of shaving—theblade cutting through the stubble—and this soundhelps you in adjusting blade angle.

I use option 3—my lavatory has a single-leverfaucet, so turning water on and off is easy—butsome guys prefer the first. Try both to see whichworks best for you, but keep the bathroom quiet:no fan, no radio, no running water.Using distilled water If you’re using heated distilled water, you can pourthe heated water (around 116°F/47°C) into a 1-quart/liter thermos, though this is probablyoverkill: a 1-quart/liter bowl of water will staycomfortably warm for a shave. If you use a boarbrush, also pour a cupful in which to soak thebrush while you shower. You then use water fromthe thermos:

to wash your face with pre-shave soap androughly rinse (no need for a thorough rinse:

residual MR GLO contributes lubricity to thelather);to moisten a hot towel if you use that;to make the lather;to rinse your face after each pass (three rinsesfor a typical three-pass shave);to rinse lather off the razor (pour a little into abasin or bowl for this).

I am able to do all of the above with about a pint(0.5 liter). It helps that only the final rinse needs tobe thorough. Depending on how hard your tapwater is, you can try using a distilled/tap watermix to stretch the distilled water.

Soaking When you shave, you find yourself soaking variousthings—your beard, most prominently. It getssoaked in the shower, soaked again at the sink asyou wash it, perhaps soaked once more with latherbeneath a hot moist towel, and then soaked as thelather is worked in. The more water the beardabsorbs, the easier the shave and the longer the

blade will last.Some soak their shaving brush while they

shower. Based on my experience, this soakingdoesn’t seem to help badger, horsehair, orartificial badger, but it’s important for boarbrushes. Boar bristles absorb a lot more waterthan the others, and soaking greatly improves theirperformance.

Some put a little water atop the puck of shavingsoap and allow that to soak while they shower. Itried this, and so far as I could tell, it did not theslightest good. By all means, experiment and drawyour own conclusions. (A little Trumper SkinFood or glycerine atop Mitchell’s Wool Fat doesseem to help.)

Latent lather: Shaving cream andshaving soap Lather is born from a cream or soap with theaddition of water and the action of the brush. Donecorrectly, the result is far more fragrant andefficacious than dry chemical foam squirted from apressurized can, and more pleasant than brushless

shaving creams. This method does, however, lackcool commercials.

The distinction between creams and soaps is notso strict or clear as you might imagine. Soapscome in soft formulations (for example, Vitos RedLabel and Valobra are Italian soft soaps, softenough to mash into a bowl or mug, and produceterrific lather), and some creams—those in tubs—can be quite stiff and soap-like. Figaro, anotherItalian, bitter-almond-scented product, is a shavingcream that is as firm as soap, and Ginger’s Gardenshaving-cream soap lathers very like a shavingcream, not so much like a shaving soap.The reformulation problem Some shaving soaps make a very fine lather:abundant, fragrant, lubricating, protective, andlong-lasting. Other shaving soaps are best used asbath soaps: the lather they produce is stingy, non-lubricating, unprotective, and short-lived. Thesame phenomenon happens with shaving creams,though not to the same degree. Why would anycompany produce a soap or cream as bad as some

you find?Modern businesses operate under constant

pressure to increase profits (cf. the multibladecartridge). So sometimes, due to financialpressures, a soap, shaving cream, or othercosmetic is reformulated to increase profits, thusdoing a better job. (From a corporate accountant’spoint of view, a cosmetic’s job is to produceprofits. Also, apparently, some people use themfor something.) Obviously some reformulations aredone to improve the product, but surprisingly oftena product reformulation’s main purpose is toincrease profits without sacrificing too muchrevenue (from customers who stop buying theproduct after reformulation—hopefully replacedby new customers).

At a marketing seminar, I was told of a largeconsumer-products company that fell into this sortof trap: their product managers are each givencharge of a product. A new product manager wantsto show success, to move up in the organization,and the only measure of success in most businessesis that product profits increase. One easy way to

accomplish that is to reformulate the product,substituting when possible cheaper ingredients formore costly ones—or just omit the costly ones.(Another strategy frequently used is to reduce thesize of the container a small amount, changing theshape to disguise the diminution. Since thecontainer is new, it is labeled “NEW!”.)

Careful testing is done after a reformulation todetermine that consumers show no significantpreference for the old formulation, and once that’sassured, the product is re-released, the profitsincrease, and the product manager is promoted. Incomes a new product manager, eager to make amark.

The easiest way for the new product manager toincrease profits is to reformulate again, using evencheaper ingredients. And so the process continuesover several generations of product managers.

Call the original product A, and the first cheaperversion B. Customers can’t tell the difference. Andthen there is C, and customers can’t distinguish Cfrom B. Or D from C. And so on. But somewherearound F or G, the cumulative difference becomes

quite noticeable, with A quite obviously betterthan G. At around this point product sales fall off acliff, the product is discontinued, and the lastproduct manager, left holding the bag, is fired ordisciplined. But, in general, no actualorganizational learning occurs, so the process iscontinually repeated for other products. (It’sextremely difficult to build a learning organization:Chris Argyris devoted his career to trying to figureout why.)

So this is a general warning: when someonetells you how great some particular cosmetic is,find out when they bought it. In the shaving arena,several soaps and shaving creams have beenreformulated over the past few years, not alwaysto the shaver’s benefit (though the companies profitfrom the change).Shaving cream Shaving creams come in a wide variety, includingunscented creams (for example, Truefitt & HillUltimate Comfort) for those with sensitive skin. (Ifyour skin is sensitive, it’s a good idea to test any

new product—cream, soap, aftershave, etc.—onthe inside of your forearm before using it on yourface. Garry’s Sample Shop, found in the vendorlist in the Appendix, sells small samples of a widevariety of shaving products to use for such testing.)

Cyril R. Salter Mint is a great summertimeshaving cream and their Vetiver is intense—asVetiver should be. J. M. Fraser’s Shaving Cream57

has a light lemony fragrance, creates a good lather,is highly effective at softening the beard, and givesa fine shave. Taylor of Old Bond Street Avocadohas received high praise58:

I couldn’t agree more on the [Taylor’s]avocado. The scent is nice and light but not asluxurious as some others. The real value forme is the lubricity you described [from theavocado oil (persea gratissima) in theformulation] along with zero irritation. Theabsence of coloring and heavier scentadditives I think is what drives this. In myopinion, this benefit makes this the idealcream for a newbie, which I am.

Taylor of Old Bond Street, Truefitt & Hill, and

Geo. F. Trumper are the “three T’s” of fineEnglish shaving creams and soaps. Castle Forbesis another fine shaving cream, available inlavender, lime, or cedarwood. It’s pricey (perhapsbetter to receive as a gift than to buy), and itproduces a wonderful, thick lather. Other luxurycreams are those from D.R. Harris, Floris London,Acqua di Parma, Penhaligon, The GentlemensRefinery, and others.

Some artisanal soap makers also make shavingcreams so look for shaving creams on their sites.Em’s Place makes a lathering shaving cream thatcomes in a plastic dispenser bottle: you squirtsome onto your brush and then build the lather—itproduces a fine, thick, moisture-laden lather. Thedispenser makes this an ideal shaving cream forthose who shave in the shower, though I use itfrequently and I shave at the sink.

You can buy shaving creams in a tube or a tub.Generally speaking, the price per ounce in a tubeis twice what it is for the same cream in a tub.Some excellent shaving creams, though, areavailable only in a tube—Proraso shaving cream

(from Italy) is one example, and despite itsexcellence, it’s not expensive. Other “tube only”shaving creams are Musgo Real (from Portugal),Speick, and Tabac (both from Germany), and men-ü (in the UK and US).

Some shaving creams are made to use brushlessbut nevertheless produce a fine lather and workwell with a brush. Two I like, using ingredientsgood for your skin, are Nancy Boy shaving cream59

and Cremo Shaving cream60.Loading a brush—and indeed, getting a lather—

is easier for shaving creams than for soaps,probably the reason novices prefer creams. Theloading method depends on whether the creamcomes in a tube or a bowl. (As noted above, Em’sPlace also sells shaving cream in a pump bottle61,which sounds ideal for shower shavers: just squirtthe requisite amount of cream onto the brush.)Shaving cream in a tube The general advice is to use a lump of cream aboutthe size of an almond, though a beginner might startwith more—say, the size of a Brazil nut. Men-ü

shaving cream is highly concentrated, so for thatbrand a bead about the size of a kernel of corn isright.

The shaving cream is then placed on the brushor smeared onto your cheeks to begin lathering onthe face, or placed in a lathering bowl in whichyou work up the lather.Shaving cream in a tub You can dip out a lump of cream and use it asdescribed above, but I generally just twirl the wet(but shaken out) brush in the tub of cream to coatthe tips with shaving cream, which I then use tobuild the lather. Again, the building of the lathercan be done on the beard or in a bowl.Shaving cream lather using a lathering bowl To produce lather with shaving cream using alathering bowl, put the dollop of cream in thewarm bowl, take the wet brush, and use a motionthat’s more than stirring but less than whipping towork up the lather. (If you whip too vigorously,you’ll get a lot of lather, but it will be unprotectivebecause it contains too much air. You want a stiff,

dense lather that contains water more than air.)The rapid stirring motion will create a thick,creamy lather. Too much water makes a latherthat’s bubbly and runny rather than dense.

Because shaving creams can produce quite a bitof (unprotective) lather even if you use too littleshaving cream, you should experiment to makesure you’re using enough—thus the note above forbeginners to try a dollop the size of a Brazil nutinstead of an almond. Then, as you gainexperience, cut back on the amount of shavingcream until you find the right proportion. Thelather should be dense enough—and containenough water—to do a proper job.

An illustrated on-line guide62 shows one methodof lathering with a cream. In this guide, he useswater from a hot-pot (probably distilled water—Iuse hot water from the tap, but my water isrelatively soft).

Shake water from the brush, so that the brushisn’t terribly wet, and then add driblets of hotwater to the brush as you develop the lather. (Ifyou use the sink-full-of-water method, just dip the

tip of the brush into the water.) This produces anabundant and substantial lather that’s suitably wet—but not too wet.Shaving cream lather by lathering directly on yourbeard After applying shaving cream to your cheek orbrush, vigorously brush your wet beard. At firstyou’ll create a thin layer of almost pure shavingcream over all your beard. As you add water to thebrush and continue to brush on your beard briskly,the lather will build. Take your time with this: youwant not only to create a good lather but also towork the lather (with its load of water) into thebeard to continue the softening.Shaving soap Shaving soap is a nice (and cheaper) alternative toshaving cream. Initially I found shaving creammuch easier to use, but as I learned how to makegood lather from soap, I found that I prefer shavingsoap to shaving cream and now seldom use thelatter. (I do have relatively soft water.)

The “three T’s” (Geo. F. Trumper, Taylor of

Old Bond Street, and Truefitt & Hill), well knownfor their shaving creams, also make triple-milledshaving soaps, as does D.R. Harris, whose soapmakes an exceptionally good lather. Anotherfavorite from Britain is Mitchell’s Wool FatShaving Soap63, occasionally difficult to lather.(As noted above, try a few drops of Trumper SkinFood or glycerin on brush or puck if you haveproblems with MWF.) Tabac 64, Dovo, and Gold-Dachs Rivivage65, all from Germany, are fineshaving soaps. Klar Kabinette is a very nice, rose-fragranced, inexpensive German shaving soap thatcomes in 500 gram (1.1 lb) packages containingtwo bars: cut off a chunk to fit your soap mug orbow.

As mentioned above, Virgilio Valobra 66, an

Italian company, makes a wonderful soft, bitter-almond-scented shaving soap; it comes in astandard-sized bar but is the consistency of clay sothat you mash it into a mug or bowl. Vitos Red-Label (better than Green), another Italian soap, istallow-based and the same soft consistency as theValobra. Vitos comes in 1 kg (2.2 lb) bars(currently costing around $17: a tremendousbargain): you simply tear off a wad and mash itinto a bowl or cup.

Otoko Organics makes an extremely interesting,skin-friendly shaving soap with ingredients notfound in other soaps—like soya emulsifiers. Itmakes a fine, stiffish lather. (I had to order it fromAustralia, but perhaps you can find it in the US.)Bruce On Shaving has a good review67 of thisunusual soap.

Institut Karité shaving soap (25% shea butter,like their shaving cream) is an exceptionally goodshaving soap from France. Essence of Scotlandmakes “Sweet Gale,”68 whose ingredients includebog myrtle, honey, mixed spices, cedarwood, andAberfeldy single-malt Scotch whisky. The

fragrances of honey and scotch carry quite pleasantassociations for me from other venues.

Using soaps handmade by artisans can be aparticularly pleasant luxury—they make greatsoaps in a range of fragrances much broader thanwhat a traditional soap company can offer. On theother hand, unless the artisan understands shavingand shaving soaps, an artisanal soap can beterrible. I have bought and tried soaps from thesevendors (full information in the Appendix) andfound them to be quite good; experiment carefullywith others.

Em’s PlaceGinger’s GardenHoneybee SoapsKell’s OriginalMama BearNanny’s Silly Soap CompanyPrairie CreationsQEDQueen Charlotte SoapsSaint Charles Shave

Some of the above offer a full range of products—beyond shaving soaps—and those products areworth exploring. Their soaps include unscentedvarieties for those who wish to avoid fragrances.Soap in mug or bowl The first—and critical—step is to load the brushwith enough soap to create a good lather. Theinstructions from Classic Shaving69 are helpful,with this amendment: give a wet badger orartificial badger brush a shake or two so that itisn’t dripping water, and it will pick up the soapbetter—you can add more water as you work upthe lather. Also take a look at this excellent on-linetutorial70 (with photos).

Rub the brush briskly over the surface of thesoap for 30 seconds or so—it will then pick upenough soap to create a good lather. (If the lather’sno good, the problem is probably with theloading.) As noted above, some put about 1teaspoon of water on the soap and let that soakwhile they shower. I simply use the wet brush onthe dry soap.

Shorter loading times (though long enough toload the brush) produce a lather that will result ina good shave—Frugal Lather—and longer loadingtimes produce an unusually thick and heavy lather—Creamy Lather—though at the cost of using moresoap per shave.

When you’re loading the brush, the briskbrushing action will start lather creation. The first,loose, large-bubbled lather can simply bediscarded as it spills over the sides of a typicalsoap bowl (the wooden tubs in which the soapcomes almost to the rim—just let that first latherspill over into the sink), or it can be worked backinto the brush and the process if you’re using ahigh-walled shaving mug, such as the Marvy mug.

To make Frugal Lather, you stop loading whenthe lather starts to appear on the soap. To makeCreamy Lather, the process of loading the brushcontinues and lather is created on the soap itself.Some object that this “wastes” soap, but in fact thesoap is not wasted but rather is being used to makean exceptionally rich thick and dense lather. Asusual, luxury costs more than frugality.

I have found that horsehair brushes work best(for me) for making Creamy lather. Boar brushescome in second, and those work better as theybecome broken in. Badger and artificial badger, ifloaded longer than normal, do indeed make a thicklather but so far I haven’t been able to get thespecial consistency of Creamy Lather—my guessis that the bristles may lack sufficient resiliency forthe physical mixing.

Later in this section I describe creating latheronce the brush is loaded. Lather creation ismentioned here only because, with Creamy Lather,the loading of the brush segues into the first stagesof lather creation. With Frugal Lather, you stoploading the brush as the lather begins to appear—at that point the brush holds enough soap to workup a lather that will give a good shave.Soap in a shave stick A shave stick is simply shaving soap in stick form.These are pleasant to use if you have a toughbeard. The soap is scraped from the shave stickwhen you rub it against the grain of your beard: a

shave stick thus will not work for a beard that’ssparse and soft, as for a man just beginning toshave.

Shave sticks are great for travel: they don’trequire a lathering bowl and their physical formatis compact. Except for Queen Charlotte Soaps, theartisanal vendors mentioned above also makeshave sticks.

A variety of shave sticks are shown in thephotos. On top, from left: D.R. Harris, La Toja,Boots, Tabac, Irisch Moose, QED, Mama Bear,and Honeybee Soaps. On bottom: Valobra,Erasmic, Lea, Palmolive, Speick, De VerguldeHand, Arko, Mennen, and Wilkinson.

Shave sticks that lack a container and are simplycylinders of soap or wrapped in foil or paper canbe packed for travel in a tall plastic prescriptionpill bottle. All these shave sticks deliver anexcellent lather.

You can also make your own shave sticks fromany easily-melted shaving soap (not triple-milledsoaps). For example, take a Honeybee Soapsshaving soap puck, melt it, and pour it into a shavestick container. It’s a simple process 71, but becareful not to get the soap too hot, lest you lose or

alter the fragrance. And if you want, you can carvea shave stick from a puck of soap.

When you use a shave stick, you first load yourbeard, not your brush. After washing and rinsingyour beard, rub the stick against the grain all overyour wet beard. If the stubble is reasonably stiff, itwill scrape off enough soap.

Once your beard is well soaped, begin brushingbriskly all over your beard with your wet shavingbrush. Lather will appear, as if by magic. Continuebrushing until the brush is fully loaded with lather,which also works the lather into your beard.

Normally, a lathering bowl is not used with ashave stick, but it certainly would be possible. Tryit and see if you like it.Soap lather using a lathering bowl Once the brush is fully loaded with soap, lather isbuilt either in a lathering bowl or directly on yourbeard. I initially used a lathering bowl, but once Ilearned the look and feel of good lather, I switchedto lathering directly on my beard. However, I stilluse a lathering bowl occasionally: you don’t have

to adopt one method to the exclusion of the other.The video referenced above72 shows the

pumping and the quick creation of lather. Thebrush is the Kent BK8, a softer brush that somepresume is “not good for soap.” The video clearlyshows this notion is false. The soap is Kentshaving soap (same as Mitchell’s Wool Fatshaving soap), and the lathering bowl is the MossScuttle. And the water is soft. The BK8 can beused for face lathering, but the BK4 is a better sizefor that. A video by Mantic 73 covers the full rangeof lathering options and is well worth viewing.

Em’s Place has more information74 on latheringfrom both soaps and creams. Razor-skipping whenyou shave (razor head not gliding smoothly acrossyour skin, but seeming to “stick” and then skip)might be due to hard water, but it also might be aproblem with the lather75. If you switch creamsand soaps a lot (trying different samples, forexample), you may not find the sweet spot for aparticular cream or soap and be using too much (ortoo little) water.

Try making some practice lather, starting with alather that’s clearly dry and adding just a littlewater as you work the brush with the soap orcream. Work in the water each time and then feelthe lather between thumb and forefinger. At first, itwill be almost sticky. Then, as you hit the sweetspot, the appearance of the lather will change, andit will feel slick. As you continue adding water,you’ll find that soon the lather becomes sticky oncemore.

After several practice lathers using the samecream (or soap) each time, you’ll know the lookand the feel of a good lather. You can then transferthis knowledge to other creams or soaps, whichmay require a different amount of water for thesweet spot. After you know it, the sweet spot isclear—some say the lather “explodes” at thatpoint, but the lather doesn’t so much increase involume as change state.

You’ll note the continuing theme in shaving: theneed to experiment and to find what works wellfor you. Guidance (as from this book) can behelpful, but the best teaching and the true test are

found in your own experience.Use the brush to work the lather thoroughly into

your beard. You need only enough lather to fullycover the whiskers—that is, the lather need not bedeep on your face. Keep the lathered brush(whether using cream or soap) handy: you re-latheryour beard prior to each shaving pass. After eachpass rinse before relathering: lather is alwaysapplied to a wet beard. Each pass with the razorrequires a lathered (and thereby lubricated) face.Soap lather by lathering directly on your beard Although building the lather in a bowl can beuseful, I now build the lather directly on my beard.This reduces bathroom clutter, still results in agood lather, and ensures that the lather isthoroughly worked into my beard.

To build the lather on your beard, take the brushloaded with soap and brush your beard briskly andwith some vigor. As you continue brushing, thelather will build. If you’ve loaded the brush forCreamy Lather—by working up a good thick latherdirectly on the soap in a mug or bowl—you still

must work it into your beard, which further buildsthe lather.

You may find it necessary to run a little hotwater into the center of the brush (or dip the tips ofthe brush bristles into the hot water in the sink) andthen continue to brush briskly over the soap orcream that’s on your beard. As you brush over allyour beard, the lather will build.

You may have to add another driblet of hotwater (or dip the brush tips once more), butperhaps not. Continue to work the lather untilyou’re satisfied with the quantity and the quality ofthe lather.

Take care not to add too much water along theway—experience will tell you the right amount, solong as you’re paying attention to what you’redoing and the outcomes that result. If the lather haslarge bubbles, that’s one sign of too much water—another is when the lather is loose and runny.

You may want to occasionally return to alathering bowl to experiment with your lather andits consistency.

Superlather A “superlather” uses both shaving soap andshaving cream—best seen in an online video76.Use a lathering bowl and begin to build the latherfrom a shaving soap—but also add a dab ofshaving cream and work that into the lather aswell. The result is a particularly slick and denselather.

Another way to generate superlather: use ashave stick to apply soap to your prepped and wetbeard, then twirl the brush in shaving cream andlather on your beard. The soap, together with theshaving cream, produces a thick, luxurious lather. Ilike QED’s Lavender shave stick and Em’s PlaceLavender shaving cream. A Fresh Lemon shavestick from Honeybee Soaps works extremely wellwith the J.M. Fraser shaving cream. A shaver whodoesn’t particularly like either the l’Occitane Cadeshaving soap or shaving cream alone found that thetwo work spectacularly together in a superlather.

EIGHT

The blade

THE blade and razor are the key components ofthe shave. Novices tend to focus more on the razorbecause it’s more obviously interesting than theblade and also much more expensive. Yet thecomfort and smoothness of your shave, once yourprep and technique are good, will be about 80%from the blade and 20% from the razor.

High-quality double-edged blades generally run25¢-55¢ each in a pack of 5 or 10—the “Swedish”Gillettes (alas, now rarely found) were 90¢ apiece—and as low as 9¢-14¢ each if you lookaround for bulk lots—for example, on eBay orfrom blade vendors on-line. Blades come fromGermany, Turkey, Pakistan, India, Japan, Sweden,Egypt, Israel, the UK, the US, Russia, Poland, andother countries.

With the right cutting technique on a well-

lathered face and softened beard, the typical bladecan last about a week. Your own experience mayvary, depending on your prep, your beard, yourskin, your technique, your razor, the brand ofblade, the phase of the moon, etc. A range of 3-6days is typical. There’s no sense in trying tostretch a blade beyond a week—some blades willdie gracefully, simply starting to pull and tug asthey become dull, but others go out with a bang andstart nicking. Change the blade before thathappens.

Double-edged blades thus cost substantially lessthan today’s disposable multiblade plasticcartridges, which run as high as $3.50 each, andthe usual rationalization for buying lots ofdelicious shaving equipment is that you’ll bemoney ahead (eventually—sometime around theturn of the century) because of what you’ll save onthe blades.

Remember: the story is that blades are whereGillette makes its money—give away the razor,sell the blades, and over time, the total spent onblades is much more than the price of the razor.

(The true story is more complicated77.) Certainlywith multiblade cartridges costing what they do,simple double-edged blades let you save moneyimmediately and over time save a lot.

Finding the right blade Blades offer a couple of surprises. First, novicesare surprised by how greatly blades differ insharpness and smoothness. One shaver wrote78:

Just started wetshaving 2 weeks ago…haveonly used Merkur blades since they camewith the razor.

Leisureguy suggested I order a 5-bladesampler with plan to try the blades in thisorder:

- Merkur (already had) -> Israeli -> Derby-> Gillette -> Feather

I rec’d my sampler yesterday and tried theIsraeli this morning…WOW!!

I could not believe the difference. My bestshave so far by leaps and bounds. The razorwas gliding across my face and by the 3rdpass it was the closest most comfortable

shave I have had yet.The second—and greater—surprise is that a

given brand of blade will get different responsesfrom different shavers. For example, for me (andsome others) the Treet Blue Special blades(carbon steel) are sharp and smooth and produce ahighly satisfying shave. Yet for other shavers theyseem dull and tug fiercely. The same surprisingdifference can occur when you use the same brandof blade in different razors: a blade that’suncomfortable and works poorly in one razor canperform quite well in another, presumably becauseof small differences in blade angle, exposure, andthe like.

Since a blade that someone else likes may notwork for you (or your razor)—and a blade thatthey hate might work fine for you—trying bladesyourself is the only way to find your own “bestblade(s).” View skeptically comments such as“this blade is excellent” or “this blade is terrible.”Those reflect the speaker’s experience. You mustuse the blades yourself to actually know how theblade will work for you.

The unpredictability of a shaver’s response toany given brand of blade is mysterious but readilyobserved: Each brand has some who love it andsome who hate it, and some who are indifferent.Some brands have a preponderance one way or theother, but even if only a few hate (or love) a brand,what if you are one of those few? You can’t use thebrand statistically: “I love this particular blade60%, and hate it 35%, and am indifferent 5%.”

With an individual shaver and a particularblade, the judgment is 100%, whether love, hate,or indifferent. So each individual shaver has to trymultiple brands to find the brand(s) that work bestfor him, rather than simply pick those that are(statistically) popular.

If it were not like this—if all shavers respondedin the same way to a blade (which many novicesbelieve is the case, and simply ask “Which bladeis sharpest?” as if that would be the best blade forthem)—then there would exist only one brand ofblade: THE blade. Perhaps it would be sold indifferent colors of packages, or with differentdecorations printed on the blade, but everyone

would use it because it is the universal “best”blade.

But life is not like that, and so blade samplerpacks were developed to allow a shaver to try awide variety of brands through one purchase.Originally, there was only one sampler pack,offered by LetterK on BadgerandBlade.com andShaveMyFace.com. LetterK later established aWeb site to sell a variety of sampler packs(WestCoastShaving.com), and other vendors beganselling sampler packs. Now you can even findmultiple samplers offered via Amazon.com.(Vendors selling blade samplers are listed in theAppendix.)

I suggest getting a large sampler pack, alongwith as many brands as you can buy locally.Initially, you won’t be trying them all—they’re forlater. At first, try just one brand. (Guys who likeDerby blades will suggest a Derby; guys who likeIsraeli Personnas will suggest that; and so on. Justpick a brand.)

If that brand seems to work reasonably well,stick with it. If you are having trouble (with nicks

or irritation), even though you’re being carefulwith your prep, blade angle, and razor pressure,try a different brand. But as soon as you find abrand that seems to work, stick with that brandand don’t try another brand until you’reconsistently getting good shaves—smooth, nick-free, and predictable. This may take from one tothree months, and in some cases more.

This is important: if you keep changing bladesas you learn, you will find it difficult to developyour groove. It would be foolish if you used adifferent make of tennis racquet each set while youwere trying to learn tennis. It would similarly befoolish to skip from brand to brand to brand ofrazor blade, one shave each: you would never thenlearn the particularities of a brand of blade andwhether it actually works for you.

For that reason experienced shavers allrecommend that, once you find a brand that seemsto work reasonably well, be faithful to that branduntil your technique is solid and you are good atthe basic double-edged safety-razor shave. At thatpoint, your prep is solid: you can easily create an

excellent lather, and when you bring blade tobeard, your beard is fully wetted and as soft as it’sgoing to get. Moreover, when you shave, you’renot hesitant: your strokes are smooth and efficient,and you seldom encounter a nick or any skinirritation. You enjoy your shave, and the result is asmooth face and a jolly outlook.

At this point, you’re ready to find whether yourshave can be improved. If you followed thesuggestion above, you already have the samplerpack with the greatest number of brands. If not, getit now. Then start working your way through thepack. The goal is to find a blade that produces asignificantly smoother, easier, and morecomfortable shave, with no nicks or burn.

Why explore? Of course, once you’re getting good shaves, youmight think, “Why try another brand? This one’sdoing okay. Better just to stick with it.” Indeedsome (probably most) shavers simply stick withthe first brand they encounter that gives them apassable shave. I’ve read comments along the lines

of “This brand tugs a lot, but when I’m finished, Ihave a good shave, so it’s a good blade.” In myview, if you find that a blade tugs a lot, it’s not agood blade for you. Shaving is about the processas well as the end result: both should bepleasurable.

By continuing to explore even after you’regetting good shaves with a particular brand, youmight find a blade that takes your shave to a wholenew level. That’s most likely to happen if (a)you’ve so far been shaving with a limited range ofblades—the usual suspects are Merkur, Israeli,Derby, and Feather—and, (b) the best brand foryou is not one of the common brands.

It may happen, of course, that your best brandmay be the brand you’re already using—though, ifyou haven’t tried many different brands, it’sunlikely: the range of blades is quite large, you’lldiscover. And it may be that none of the newbrands you try will really astonish you with theexcellence of the shave. But I think it’s likely thatyou’ll find a blade better than you imaginedpossible. You have much to gain and little to lose

from the exploration.My experience started with trying the usual

beginner blades. The Merkurs were horrid for me(though they are quite good for a few), the Israelisand Derbys were okay, but they tugged too muchwhere my beard was tough. The Swedish Gilletteswere good but too expensive. The Feathers weresharp but I kept getting an occasionalunpredictable nick—indeed, some experiencedshavers can’t use Feathers at all.

But when I started trying a wider variety ofblades, I found a brand of blades that did indeedmake me say, “Wow!” It cut smoothly, easily, andnever produced a nick or any sign of irritation. Itwas the Treet Blue Special, and (of course) it doesnot work well for everyone. But I was one of thelucky ones. What a fine shave it gave!

I naturally recommended it to others, and somehad the same reaction as I: shaving nirvana!Others, however, probably thought I was crazy,though I did explain that individual shavers havevery different responses to any given brand, thatthis brand might not work for them, etc. But I

thought it was worth a try.Don’t try just that one brand, though: it probably

won’t be a transcendent blade for you—though itmight. To maximize your chances of hitting a luckystrike, try as many brands as you can. If you’relucky, you’ll find a blade whose excellence isbeyond that of any blade you’ve tried before. Atthe very least, you can enjoy some inexpensiveexploration and learning. Blade acquisitiondisorder is the least costly of all the shaving-related acquisition disorders, much cheaper thanacquisition disorders for razors, shaving creams,brushes, shaving soaps, aftershaves, and the like.

How to explore To begin your blade exploration, load a new brandin a familiar razor and shave, maintaining the goodtechnique that you’ve mastered. If you get aterrible shave, discard that blade and try anotherblade of the same brand—it may have just been abad blade. (Rare, but it does happen.) If the secondblade of the brand also gives you a terrible shave,discard it and mark that brand off the list: it’s

obviously not for you. EXCEPTIONS: If you havemore than one razor, try the blade in another razorbefore you give up on it. A blade that’s terrible inthe HD might be wonderful in a Gillette SuperSpeed and vice versa. Also, some blades seemdull for the first shave or two, until the coating thatcovers the edge is worn away. Examples of thissort of blade: Sputnik, Dorco 301, Tiger, andCrystal.

Here’s a careful and methodical approach. Callthe blade that so far works best for you the “bestblade.”

1. Shave for a week with the current “bestblade.” This sets the baseline for comparison.

2. Shave for a week with a new brand of blade(unless it fails the test of two terrible shaves).

3. If the new brand is the better of the two, it isnow your new “best blade”: go to 2 to tryanother new brand.

4. If the new brand is not better, go to 1.

By using this approach you’re always

comparing just two brands: your best so far and anew brand. That makes the comparison easy, andby always starting the comparison with a weekshaving with the “best,” you not only get a breakfrom testing, you get a fresh reminder of what ablade that’s good for you feels like before you trythe next new brand.

Sometimes two different brands are almostequal in quality. To compare those, use each brandon alternate days so you can get a closercomparison. On the other hand, you might want tomove faster. Since at this point you’re anexperienced shaver with good technique, you willprobably know after three or four shaves whetheryou like a new brand of blade or not. This greatlycuts down exploration time—but still it’s a goodidea to return periodically to your current “bestblade” and shave a while with that to re-establishthe standard. And remember that some brands willnot shave smoothly for the first shave or two—your own response to a blade should be yourguide, but try for three shaves at least before youdecide a blade is dull.

As you explore, you’ll find blades fall into oneof three classes:

1. Some won’t work for you. For such a brand,write a note on why it’s not good for you (toodull, nicks too frequently, irritates your skin—whatever), put the note and the remainingblades of that brand in an envelope, write thebrand name on the envelope, and put it aside.After six months or a year, you might want totry the brand again to see whether things (yourprep, technique, razor, etc.) have changed andthe brand is now good for you. If it’s still notyour cup of tea, pass the blades along tosomeone else—for him, they could be a “bestblade”.

2. Some will work fine—just as good as theblade you’ve been using, or perhaps even alittle better. Add these to your rotation forvariety.

3. If you’re lucky, one or two will make yousay, “Wow!” These blades are, for you, trulyexceptional: they shave so smoothly, so

easily, so readily that it’s as though you’venot really had a great shave before.

My own current best blades are: Astra SuperiorPlatinum, Astra Keramik Platinum, the Wilkinsonfamily (Economie, UK, and German), Zorrik,Polsilver Stainless, Iridium Super, Gillette 7O’Clock SharpEdge, and Lord Platinum.

“Swedish” Gillettes are excellent but are nolonger made, and the same fate has befallenPolsilver, Iridium, Astra Keramik. and quite a fewothers. Blade brands are nowadays quite unstable,and when you find a brand that’s superlative foryou, consider buying a large supply while you can,given how frequently manufacturers discontinueblade brands. Right now Gillette is making a majorpush to move third-world shavers to cheap two-blade cartridges (more profitable than blades), andthe availability of any particular brand of double-edged blade is iffy.

Once I liked Feather and Tiger blades, but then Idecided that they were too ready to nick for noreason. They seemed like a high-powered but

unstable motorcycle: great performance butunpredictable. And yet I’m now finding thatFeather blades work quite well in the newpremium Feather razor—and when I tried them inthe new Edwin Jagger DE87 as an experiment,they also worked perfectly there. Apparently mydaily shave provided enough practice that myshaving skills continued to improve—or theychanged the blades (unlikely).

It’s the same story with Gillette 7 O’ClockSharpEdge blades (not to be confused with the7AM brand): they were so sharp that I could notcomfortably use them—not erratic, just very, verysharp. I set them aside and continued with otherblades. By the time I got around to trying themagain, they were perfect. It’s just as your musicteacher told you: daily practice will improve yourskill.

With a microscope you can see the actualdifferences in the edges of different brands79.Microphotographs of the edges of Dorco NewPlatinum ST300, Personna Platinum Chrome (“RedBox”), Crystal Super + Platinum (“Israeli

Personna”), and the Treet Blue Special show cleardifferences. The Treet clearly has a wellsharpened edge—still, it doesn’t work for someshavers, though it works extremely well for others.A series of reviews80 on Shave My Face ofdifferent brands of blades has a microphotographof the blade being reviewed. The reviews arehelpful, though how well the blade shaves for thereviewer may not be the experience that you or Iwould have. Different shavers have differentresponses to the same brand of blade—an ideaextremely difficult to internalize.

Carbon-steel blades Some blades (Treet Blue Special, TreetDuraSharp HiTech Steel, Treet Classic) are madeof carbon steel rather than stainless steel. I knowfrom using knives (and reading about straightrazors) that carbon steel can take a sharper edgethan stainless steel, but carbon steel does tend torust. So if you find you like a carbon-steel blade,you have three choices: a. Use a new blade for each shave (they’re

cheap). b. Dry the blade after each use (not by rubbing

it with a cloth but, for example, by rinsing itunder hot water and then shaking it well orusing a hair dryer).

c. Easiest: After shaving, rinse the razor in hotwater, give it a good shake, rinse the head in91% or 99% rubbing alcohol, and then put itin a rack to dry. The alcohol displaces thewater and then evaporates, leaving the bladedry so that it doesn’t rust.

I go with option c., using an inexpensive 99% or91% rubbing alcohol I buy at the local Safewaysupermarket. I keep the rubbing alcohol in a one-cup wide-mouth jar with a lift-off lid that makes atight-enough seal to keep the alcohol fromevaporating. Lift lid, swish razor head in thealcohol, replace lid, place razor on the rack to dry:quick and easy and the blade never rusts.

High-proof rubbing alcohol often comes in aplastic bottle and will gradually evaporate throughthe plastic. I suggest you transfer it to a glass bottleto avoid losing it.

One shaver reported that the oil remaining onthe blade’s edge after completing the Oil Pass(described below) kept the edge from rusting.

In the Great Depression (long before stainlessblades arrived), small hones were made toresharpen the (carbon-steel) double-edged blades.You can occasionally find these on eBay. Theydon’t work on coated stainless blades, and I don’tthink they’re worth the effort on carbon-steelblades.

More about blades Blades are generally printed with themanufacturer’s name and other information, so thetwo sides—top and bottom—look different. Youcan put the blade in the razor with either side ontop: it makes no difference. Since you use bothedges of the razor as you shave—when one side ofthe razor has collected enough lather, you switch tothe other side for a while before you rinse therazor—the blade’s two edges thus are worn downsimultaneously.

Merkur manufactures both blades and razors,

and so they naturally include their own blades withthe razors they sell. Unfortunately, Merkur bladesfor the majority of men (and thus probably you) areterrible to use. If you get a Merkur razor, I stronglyadvise trying some other brand of blade.

Some novices wonder whether turning the bladeover after a few shaves will make it last longer. Itmight, but given the price of blades, it doesn’tseem to be worth the effort. Moreover, it’s good toavoid handling the blade.

Some, as previously noted, find that a givenbrand of blade works well for them in one razor,but not in another. For example, a very sharp blademight work well for them in a Super Speed, but notin the HD. The practice of shaving: a continuingexperiment.

One shaver who found Feather blades harshtried pulling each edge of a new blade through awine cork a few times before putting it into therazor. For him, this tamed the blade while leavingit still quite sharp. The technique has also beenused on American Personnas and other brands.

My own view of corking is that it’s better to

find a blade that works for you without corking.Moreover, a blade’s edge is easily damaged, andthe result of corking can be a blade that’s much theworse for it—and for you. So my own inclinationis to try more brands of blades before I try corking.Others like to do the corking. You decide foryourself which you want to do.

I do want to provide one blade warning. I had achrome Merkur Slant Bar that provided me withlovely, perfect shaves when I used it with aFeather blade—and never a nick. So I decided Ihad to have a Slant Bar in gold. I got the gold SlantBar, put in a new Feather—and Nick City! I wasaghast. I tried again the next day: Nick City oncemore. The guy to whom I had sold my chromeSlant Bar happened to email me that he hadreceived it, and I poured out my tale of woe. Heoffered to return the razor to me, and we workedout all the details.

When the chrome Slant Bar came back, I put in anew Feather blade and got a perfect, lovely shave,and not a nick. So I decided to try the gold SlantBar one more time, and to make the experience

exactly comparable, I loaded it, too, with a newFeather and shaved. Again, perfect, lovely shave,and not a nick. Exactly the same as the chromeSlant Bar—as one would expect, since the two areidentical except for the plating.

So: it was a bad blade. I had read of this, butthat was my first experience. I probably wouldhave just tried another blade (a) if it wasn’t myfirst shave with the new razor (thus blaming therazor instead of the blade, still thinking that allblades of a given make were the same); and (b) if Ihad previously encountered an instance of a badblade (it’s rare); and (c) if I hadn’t panicked,thinking I had just sold the one Slant Bar in all theworld that would work for me.

Lesson learned: if you have a bad shave with anew razor, try changing the blade. And if you thenhave a bad shave with the new blade, try adifferent brand of blade. Don’t jump to theconclusion, as I did, that the razor is the problem.

Blade disposal Razor blades remain quite sharp even when too

dull for shaving, so disposal requires some care.Plastic blade dispensers usually have a “used-blade” compartment on the bottom for safedisposal.

If your brand lacks the dispenser, use a specialreceptacle for used blades rather than simplythrowing the blades into the trash—razor bladescan all too readily cut through plastic trash bagsand into the hands lifting the bag. Proper disposalof sharps is always worth doing with care. Statesand cities often have laws regulating the disposalof biohazard sharps, and blades belong to thiscategory. (Call your local waste managementcompany or municipal department for moreinformation on appropriate sharps containers andwhere to dispose of them.)

You can easily find commercially madedisposal safes for razors—some pharmacies willeven provide free sharps containers. The FeatherBlade Safe81 works well. But it’s also very easy tomake quite a good blade safe.

Take a small can—for example, a small can ofevaporated milk or tomato juice—and drain the

contents by punching two small holes in the top.Wash out the can, using the two holes. Then turnthe can over and, using a hacksaw or a thin Dremelblade, cut a slit in the side, just under what was thebottom and is now the top. Make the slit just wideenough to admit a double-edged blade.

The can then sits (upside down, with the twosmall holes you made in the top now out of sight atthe bottom) and you discard the blades through theslit, just under the now-top. When the can is full, atap of a hammer permanently shuts the slit: anopaque, unbreakable, metal blade safe with no lidto open.

This homemade container, though safe, may ormay not meet local requirements for a sharpscontainer.

NINE

The razor

THE focus of this book is the safety razor (seephoto opposite). Before the safety razor, there wasthe straight razor, but once the safety razor arrived,it quickly displaced the straight82.

The blade is the very center of the safety razorsystem, and it was the blade that gave King CampGillette his opportunity and the challenge: tomanufacture a sharp, disposable blade from thin,stamped steel. The safety razor holds the blade andpresents the edge with a specific exposure andangle. The safety razor can be:

Three-piece (like the early Gillette razors andthe Merkur 1904, and Edwin Jagger DE8x series:top, platform, and handle) - left opposite: aGillette NEW (introduced in 1921); this type is theeasiest to pack since it’s pretty much flat once it’sdisassembled;

Two-piece (like the Merkur Futur, HeftyClassic (“HD”), Progress, and Slant Bar: top andplatform-handle) - center opposite: a Pils; or

One-piece (like the Vision, Gillette SuperSpeed, and other twist-to-open (TTO) razors:twisting the knob at the bottom one way opensbutterfly doors for changing blades, the othercloses them to grip the blade for shaving) - rightopposite: the Gillette Fat Boy.

Em’s Place also has a good explanation (withphotos) that explains these three types of razors83.

In razors using double-edged blades, the bladeis held between a top and a platform, with only theedge exposed. As the razor is tightened to grip theblade, the blade bends over the slight hump of theplatform, making the edge rigid and presenting theedge at a specific angle, which differs slightly fordifferent razors. (Single-edged blades, like thoseused in Gem razors and Schick Injectors, are rigidto start with because they are made of thicker steel,and thus do not have to be bent in the razor’s gripas do the thin, double-edged blades.)

Novices sometimes fail to tighten the razor

sufficiently after inserting the (double-edged)blade. The top must be seated firmly onto theblade, to bend it over the platform and hold itsecurely. (The Futur’s design cleverly finesses thiserror: the top snaps on, so if it’s properly in place,it’s holding firmly.)

The question is sometimes raised: how tightshould the top be? So, a little scenario. You’regoing on a picnic. Just before you pack the jar ofpickles, you open it and eat one. Then you put thelid back on and put the jar on its side in the basket.That tight: tight enough so the jar won’t leak andthe lid will stay on, but not so tight that your wifeor girlfriend can’t remove the lid at the picnic.(Although I do like the advice from one forummember: “Finger tight ‘til she smokes, then back‘er off a quarter.”)

A razor stand is helpful. You can buy a stand fora single razor from various places, but I enjoy arack84 that holds up to 12 razors: the razors incurrent use. A razor stand or rack is useful becauseyou want the razor out where it can dry after youshave. Do not put it into a drawer—it won’t dry so

well and the blade’s edge is more likely to bedamaged in a drawer (much as you do not put yourquality kitchen knives in a drawer, but keep themin a knife rack). Turnabout’s fair play: a bladewhose edge you nick will nick you.

Open-comb vs. safety bar Some razors use an “open comb”—separated teethinstead of a safety bar. Open-comb razors have theblade either resting on the teeth (the Merkur andold Gillettes) or just above the teeth (theimprovement introduced with the Gillette NEWIMPROVED (1921) and used in later models). Thesafety bar is a solid bar that rides on your skin justahead of the blade as you shave.

The open comb was the original design, with the

safety bar introduced later (easier to manufactureand not so fragile—if you drop an open-comb,you’re likely to bend one of the teeth). The safetybar pushes away all the lather before the bladedoes its work, whereas the open comb leavessome lather as protection.

The left photo shows an example of an open-comb razor with the blade resting directly on thecomb. This particular razor is the Merkur HeftyClassic Open Comb. On the right is the betterdesign (in my opinion) with the blade held abovethe teeth by the “coat-hanger” profile of the baseplate. The razor in that photo is the Gillette NEW,first offered in 1930 and one of my favorite razors.

An open-comb razor has a different feel from a

safety-bar, but you can get a good shave witheither. Most men opt for the safety bar simplybecause it’s more common. The quality of theshave is due mostly to the prep, the blade, and yourtechnique, in any case.

Merkur razors Of razors still in production, the Merkur line, madein Germany, is pre-eminent. Though occasionally aproblem may be encountered (typically, unevenexposure, with the razor exposing one edge of theblade more than the other), your dealer willreplace the problematic razor with a new one.Starting with a Merkur razor is the typicalbeginning for safety-razor shaving.

A post on BadgerandBlade has a good review85

(with photos) of several Merkur safety razors.Some of the Merkur razors are available in eitherchrome- or gold-plated versions. There’s nodifference in performance, only in appearance. TheFutur is available in a matte finish or a shiny finishin chrome or gold. Shavers who have the shinyversion report that it is not difficult to hold—that

is, it’s not slippery. Merkur razors are normallyshipped with Merkur blades. Please note that theseblades do not work well for most shavers.Merkur non-adjustable razors Non-adjustable razors have a fixed blade angleand exposure. With no adjustment to consider (andtinker with), the novice shaver has one less thing toworry about—for example, if the shave is bad, thenovice doesn’t have to figure out whether it’s histechnique that’s at fault or the particular setting ofthe adjustable razor (or both). Thus the best“starter razor” is non-adjustable.Classic The Classic line of Merkur razors all have thesame head geometry—only the handles differ. Thusthey all shave the same, though the differenthandles do indeed give them a different feel. Anyof the Classic line would work well as the firstrazor for a beginning shaver.Hefty Classic (the “HD”) When experienced shavers were polled some

years ago to find the razor that they wouldrecommend for the novice, the HD was by far thepreferred “starter razor.” (Since then, new razorshave appeared, and now I would rate the EdwinJagger DE8x series as the best razor for thenovice.) Having solid construction, thick handle,and good blade exposure and angle, it’s a goodrazor for the beginning shaver to learn on. It’smore aggressive than the Gillette Super Speed (seebelow), but well within the capability of thenovice shaver—though, as with all the razors, theuse of a blade sampler pack is absolutely essentialto learn which brands of blade work best for you.

Some novices find the HD is too aggressive forthem and prefer a vintage Gillette Tech or SuperSpeed or a new Weishi razor, all milder than theHD.

If you go the vintage route, buy via theSelling/Trading threads on the shaving forumsrather than through eBay. Sellers on the shavingforums know razors and sell razors that will work—eBay sellers often don’t know razors and willunintentionally sell razors that are not suitable for

shaving (missing parts, bent, etc.). On the otherhand, you’re more likely to find an underpricedtreasure from a seller—on eBay or at a garage sale—who doesn’t know razors.Classic The same as the HD, but with a slimmer handle.Again, a good starter razor, lighter than the HD.One benefit of this razor’s three-piece design isthat the razor is flat when disassembled, making iteasy to pack for travel.Long-Handle Classic This razor has the same handle as the Classic, butlonger. If you like a long-handle razor, this wouldbe a good choice. I found that, for myself, the longhandle was unhelpful and even seemed to get in theway—but the long handle makes this a nice razorfor women to shave their legs.1904 This Classic is an underappreciated gem of arazor, whose handle has a somewhat ornate designfrom—guess!—1904. It was my second razor, and

I continue to like it a lot. The little knob at the endof the handle is perfect when shaving against thegrain. In fact, the only drawback I’ve discovered isthat it doesn’t seem to come in gold. I went for areplating, but found that the 1904 is plated inchrome, and replating over chrome apparentlypresents technical difficulties, so my 1904 remainsas it was, still a satisfying razor.

38C The Merkur 38C has the Classic head, but alonger, heavier handle with a spiral engraving.Unfortunately, due to its weight, I found the razordifficult to hold with wet hands—it tended to twistbecause of the spiral track. A chequered engravingwould have been better for me. Some shaversdon’t have that problem—they rest the end of the

handle on the little finger—and love the razor.Slant Bar The Slant Bar is an amazing razor and provideseffortless, smooth shaves when used with a sharpblade that works for you. On the other hand, in thepoll that named the HD as the preferred razor for abeginning shaver, no one recommended that anovice start with the Slant Bar. But when one hasestablished good technique, the Slant Bar seemstailor-made for the combination of thick, wirybeard and sensitive skin. In my opinion, it shouldbe your second razor.

The Slant Bar works best with a sharp blade. Irecommend you try the Slant Bar only after you’regetting consistently good shaves with your currentsafety razor—that is, your technique (maintainingthe correct pressure and angle) is solid. Once yourtechnique is polished, you can move to a new levelof ease and closeness by using a Slant Bar.

The Slant Bar is handled exactly as a regularsafety razor. The difference in performance is duenot to any manipulation on your part but to the slant

of the blade. Rather than chopping directly througheach whisker, the slanted blade slices through thewhisker when you pull the razor normally. Thisphoto from Em’s Place shows the slant clearly.

As you probably know, when you are, say,chopping carrots, you don’t press the knife directlydown through the carrot to the chopping block.Instead, you press it down while simultaneouslypushing or pulling it slightly: slicing the carrotmore than chopping it. Both methods work, butslicing requires much less effort.

The Slant Bar’s way of holding the bladeautomatically slices (rather than chops) eachwhisker. Again: you don’t wield it any differentlythan you would, say, the Merkur Hefty Classic.

Shave with light touch and proper angle and don’teven think about the fact that it’s a Slant Bar (orHefty Classic). The way the razor is constructedwill take care of the cutting. Again: light pressurewith the Slant Bar.

The heavy-handled 38C is also available with aSlant Bar head.Merkur adjustable razors Adjustable razors allow the shaver to change theangle and/or amount of blade exposed as youshave. It’s not generally recommended to get anadjustable as your first safety razor for reasonsstated above. Still, some novices do start with anadjustable and succeed.

The key to success with an adjustable razor is tostart with the lowest (least aggressive) setting—the setting that has the least blade exposure and theflattest razor angle. Then you advance the settingfrom shave to shave as needed to get a good shave.What you want is the lowest setting that produces agood shave, not the highest setting you can stand.The settings usually start with “1” as the lowest

setting, with higher numbers denoting moreaggressive settings.

Despite this advice, a surprising number of newshavers, through misplaced pride and machismo,will set the razor at its highest setting and get anamazing razor burn along with a harvest of bloodycuts. Avoid that mistake.Progress The Progress adjustable is a two-piece razor,unusual in that the cap has only one correctorientation. A line stamped on one end of the capmust be placed above the triangle stamped on oneend of the base. It’s a delight to use, though thecorrect angle for this razor differs quite a bit fromthe HD angle. But whenever you pick up a newrazor you have to learn the proper angle for it—this is called “getting used to it” and is the sameprocess as, for example, getting the feel for howbest to hold and cut with a new kitchen knife.

The Progress is well designed—a hefty, chunkyrazor that feels good in the hand. It’s a favorite ofmany shavers, though some complain of unevenblade exposure. One shaver noted a cure86: pressdown on the top (with your fingers hooked underthe base, like a syringe) and then tighten the knob.This prevents blade slippage as the tighteningoccurs.

The photo above shows a Progress and, besideit, the original knob that tightens the head. Areplacement knob by iKon Razors is on theProgress. Since I have a gold Progress, I had thestainless knob gold-plated as well.

Futur The Futur is a good safety razor, heavy andsubstantial in a Teutonic way. The Futur isparticularly aggressive, so by all means start at thesetting 1, and gradually work your way up untilyou get a satisfyingly close shave. For me, that wasat 1.5. Some guys have started with the setting at 4or even higher and then regretted it bitterly. I foundthat I got the smoothest shave with the Futur if Irested the top on the skin being shaved, rather thanthe guard. Try different angles with it to find theangle that works best for you.

Some have found the Futur’s adjustment to bestiff. One shaver offers this advice87: “Firstremove the blade, then set the head to position 6.Now press the blade carriage and the bottom of thehead together, hold against the spring pressure, andunscrew the handle with your other hand. Now thatyou have it completely stripped down, put somesilicone grease on the threads and reassemble inthe reverse order of the above. This still leaves theadjustment heavy due to the spring pressure but

makes the action a great deal smoother.”The clip-on top is, I think, a clever design: if

you’ve snapped the top in place, the blade isproperly gripped. No need to wonder about howfirmly you should screw shut the top. Others don’tlike the clip-on so much. If you are changingblades, it’s highly advisable to do so with dryhands and a dry razor. A slip can produce a cut.Vision The Vision (technically the “Vision 2000”) is evenmore massive than the Futur but I found that it iseasier to manipulate and provides a better shave.Some don’t agree, of course—judgments of thissort are highly shaver-dependent.

Some have reported problems with the Vision,though many have not. The problems (apparentlyfrom internal hard-water deposits) are sometimessevere and prevent adjustment. If you encounter aproblem, it’s handy to have what amounts to aVision user’s manual88, though it’s obvious that theVision was not designed for easy field-stripping.The best approach is prevention: making sure toclean the razor after each shave and, if you havehard water, taking extra to soak the razorperiodically in a vinegar solution to dissolvedeposits. Because disassembly and reassembly ofthe Vision are difficult, an ultrasonic cleaner is

extremely helpful, and if you have hard water yourcleaning solution (ultrasonic cleaner or handcleaning) should include generous dollops of whitevinegar and long soaking to dissolve hard-waterdeposits. Indeed, if I lived in a hard-water area, Iwould think twice about buying a Vision.

The Vision is heavy and, using a good blade thatsuits you, you can clearly hear it cutting thestubble, a sound like the distant rampaging of anelephant through brush. I greatly enjoy using theVision. It does require a certain amount of practiceand the difficulty of maintaining it can beintimidating.

Edwin Jagger razors Edwin Jagger razors once used the Merkur Classichead, but Neal Jagger worked with the Müllerbrothers of Mühle-Pinsel to develop a new razorhead exclusive to the two companies. Customerfeedback on the new head design has beenexcellent—It delivers a great shave and the newdesign is easier to clean. The Edwin Jagger razorsare chrome plated and come in a variety of designs

and are solid performers worth considering89. Ifyou’re interested in gold plating, contact them for aspecial order. For your first razor, I highlyrecommend one of the Edwin Jagger DE8x series,shown in front in the photo. Behind it are twoChatsworth razors, one with faux ebony handle andone, the “lined Chatsworth” is sold metal and has anice heft.

Feather razor Feather, a Japanese company that makes extremelysharp blades, also makes razors. One particularFeather razor90 is notable for quality (and price).It’s a three-piece razor—a simple design executed

with extreme precision. While pricey, it is quitecomfortable and a pleasure to use. It would alsomake a nice gift item because of its presentation ina small wooden box, somewhat like a trophy.Naturally enough, it works extremely well (for me)with Feather blades.

Gerson razors I have but one, which my wife bought in Paris. Itseems to have a Mühle head, which shaves quitewell. Mine has a horn handle, but I know littleabout the line.

iKon razors Gregory Kahn has a small company in Thailandthat has been making stainless steel three-piece

razors in a variety of designs, both open comb andwith a bar guard. I found the very first razor hemade to be somewhat harsh, but he has continueddevelopment and improvement, and the newestversions are well-made and distinctlycomfortable, both the open comb and the safetybar. These razors are well worth considering. Heregularly comes out with new models, so if youdon’t see one you like, continue to check his Website from time to time. The iKon productionschedule continues to be somewhat erratic.

In the photo, the razor in front is a prototype ofthe iKon OSS, an asymmetric double-edged razor:one side has an open comb, the other a straight-barguard. Behind that is the Bulldog, an earlier open-comb design, and behind that is the long-handleopen comb. The iKon razors are (so far) allstainless, but I did have the long-handle modelgold-plated (by Razor Emporium, which offers aplating service).

My initial thought about the OSS was that Icould use one side (say, the open comb) for thefirst pass, and then use the straight-bar side forpolishing. But as it turned out, in the prototype Iwas using, both sides seemed completelycomfortable and equally suited to the entire shave,including beginning and end.

One shaver, on looking at photos of the razor,suggested that the razor be modified to make bothsides open comb. I had had the same thought, butas I used the razor, I changed my mind. The twodifferent guard formats give this razor a dualpersonality, and that’s the idea for this particularmodel. (iKon is at work on other models, includingan adjustable razor, that are symmetric: the

asymmetric razor is just one model in the iKonline.)

The dual-personality aspect in effect gives theshave a new dimension: instead of shaving with asingle razor-guard format, you have two in thesame razor—right at hand, as it were. You could,of course, simply switch back and forth betweentwo different razors in your collection, but that’sawkward and, even worse, the guard formats mightnot work well together—for example, they may betoo far apart in aggressiveness or with verydifferent blade angles—so that such a shave woulduncomfortable and nick-prone.

With the OSS, the two edge formats are “intune,” as it were: switching back and forth is notonly comfortable, it’s pleasant—like hitting onenote and then a harmonious but different note. Thedifference in the shaving experience as comparedwith a traditional (symmetric) razor is analogousto the difference between a great drum solo on asingle tom-tom and a great drum solo on two tom-toms, tuned to different but harmonious pitches: thetwo-drum solo can be much richer in texture and

sound, and it turns out that the two-format OSSprovides a shave that (to me) is more interestingand richer than a shave with a razor that offers butone guard format.

The market offers many razors whose two sidesare identical. If that’s what you want, you have anembarrassment of riches. But a single razor thatprovides, metaphorically, a three-dimensionalshave unlike the two-dimensional ones deliveredby symmetric razors? That razor—the OSS—isunique.

Joris razors Joris is a French make that offers top-of-the-linerazors, some plated in palladium. The blade angleon the Joris heads seems to be markedly differentfrom other razors I have (save for the new Mühleopen-comb released summer 2011 describedbelow). I found these razors quite harsh untilanother shaver on the Simply Shaving forumrecommended using a 20° angle of attack insteadof the 30° angle commonly used with other razors:with this head, a shallower angle of attack

removes the harshness. The harshness I felt wassimply from doing more scraping than shaving: toprevent scraping, reduce the angle of attack.

This was a good reminder that, whenever youget a new razor, you should experiment to learnhow to best handle it. I failed to experiment withthe Joris and instead relied on the habits I hadestablished with other razors.

Mühle razors I have a couple of Mühle razors (pictured) that Ilike a lot, the Sophist, which has a porcelainhandle (very cool) and the R-41, an open-combrazor with spiral engraving on the handle. The R-41, unlike the Merkur 38c, is a fairly light razorand doesn’t try to twist in the hand. Both these

Mühle razors do a fine job, and Mühle is a long-established name for razors and other shavingproducts.

In summer 2011 Mühle changed the R-41 head.The new head has a very different angle of attackfrom the old—the new head seems to be made bythe same (Italian) firm that makes the Joris heads.Experiment with a very shallow angle of attack toavoid scraping, which makes the head feel harshon your skin.

Parker razors Shavers regularly report bad experiences withParkers and great relief and delight when theymove to an Edwin Jagger or Merkur razor. Irecommend that you avoid Parker razors.

Pils razors Pils, a German company, makes a line of shavinggear in a “modern-machine” aesthetic: unadornedmachined surfaces. Their stainless razor, forexample, has only the word “PILS” stamped on thebase of the handle; otherwise, not a letter ornumeral on it: no manufacturer logo, no patentnumber, no model ID.

It is a very good razor91, beautifully made, and itshaves extremely well, due in part to the design ofthe head, which rounds sharply just above theblade’s edge, thus stretching the skin just beforethe blade passes. It’s a two-piece design, butinstead of having a knob at the bottom to tighten thetop, the entire handle rotates smoothly on rollerbearings inside the base plate. The razor isexpensive, but the shave is superb. The firststainless model was prone to rust spots under thecap, due to a problem with a supplier, but thosemodels are recalled. And, of course, the othermodels, being brass, never had the problem.

Weishi razors Weishi makes good-quality razors, but they are somild in their shaving action that I can’t use them. AWeishi might work as a razor for a beginner whohas a light beard—a beginning shaver, forexample.

Vintage razors Vintage razors are easy to find: local flea marketsand antique stores, elderly relatives, garage sales,eBay, and the Selling/Trading threads in thevarious shaving forums are all good sources.There’s great satisfaction in shaving with a vintagerazor, particularly one that your father or

grandfather used, and many vintage razors deliveran excellent shave.

Gillette safety razors abound on eBay.BadgerandBlade has a good post with photosshowing some common Gillette razors92 you mightencounter, and a reference site gives detailedinformation on how the production dates ofGillette razors93 are coded.

Sometimes you will find that a vintage razor isdamaged or bent, so inspect carefully any that youbuy before using them. This does not necessarilymean that the seller sold a defective razor: if therazor shipped to you is not properly packed (in asturdy box, for example), it can be bent duringshipment. This happened to one razor I bought oneBay. So if the razor arrives only in a paddedenvelope, inspect it carefully—it may require alittle corrective bending. You may want to requestshipment in a box.

As with most things in shaving, preferences inrazors vary by shave: what works well for oneperson will not suit another. Still, several vintagerazors—the Super Speeds, the Fat Boy, and others

—generally get high praise.Occasionally, a used razor will arrive with a

blade in place. Do not use that blade—you don’tknow where it’s been. Start with a new blade,fresh out of the package. Also, vintage razors willoccasionally arrive with a package of old blades.Don’t use them: the edges will be rough due tooxidation. Use only new blades that you’vepurchased.

When you buy a vintage razor, you frequentlymust clean it, and cleaning instructions areprovided below. Some vendors, though, provideshave-ready razors, fully cleaned and sterilized.Gillette Tech The Tech was made from 1939 through the 40’s.It’s a three-piece razor and gives a mild shave. Ina poll of “best razor for a novice,” the Tech camein third, just after the HD and the Super Speed.These are quite common and inexpensive on eBay.Super Speed

The Super Speed is the second most recommendedrazor for a beginner. It is less aggressive than theHD and slightly more aggressive than the Tech. It’sa TTO (twist-to-open) razor: one piece with silodoors that open to admit a new blade.

Aristocrat Gillette used the name Aristocrat for severaldifferent razors, but the best (for me) is the 1940sversion: a gold TTO razor, slightly moreaggressive than the Super Speed. It’s a favorite ofmine. It’s shown on the cover of this book.Fat Boy and Slim Handle The Fat Boy and the Slim Handle are two commonGillette adjustables. For both, the lowest setting is1 and the highest (most aggressive) is 9. As withany adjustable, start at the lowest and least

aggressive setting, and gradually increase thesetting, day by day, until you get the shave youwant. Some shavers like the Fat Boy, others preferthe Slim handle. The head geometry of the tworazors differs, so that the correct shaving anglesfor the two also differ.Lady Gillette A long-handled, non-adjustable TTO razordesigned for women. The handle comes in pink,blue, or gold94. Although marketed to women, menalso like the razor. Any long-handled DE razorwould offer the same advantage for leg-shaving asthe Lady Gillette.Wilkinson Wilkinson is a British company, and the popularityof Wilkinson double-edged blades in the US iswhat prompted Gillette to move into making thefirst multiblade cartridge. Wilkinson continues tomake double-edged blades, as well as shavingsoap and shave sticks.The “Sticky”

The Wilkinson “Sticky” is an exceptionallyattractive razor, and it won a number of designawards. In addition, it gives a terrific shave,similar in some respects to a good Super Speedshave. They come up on eBay every now and thenand are subject to fierce bidding. The name refersto the plastic handle which somehow doesn’t getslippery even when it’s wet.Wilkinson Sword Classic The Wilkinson Classic95 is in current manufactureas a low-priced entry razor, rather moresubstantial than most. It has enough heft to shavewell, though one shaver recently reported that thesame blade (Astra Superior Platinum in his case)that shaved only so-so in the Classic shaved like adream in his Edwin Jagger DE8x razor.

Apollo Mikron The Apollo Mikron is a vintage razor that wasmade in Germany. It shows up on eBayinfrequently. It works somewhat like the MerkurProgress, and I really like the design. Picturedopposite are the two I have. The best way toacquire one of these jewels is to post a “favoritesearch” on eBay for Apollo Mikron and to be surethe search includes both the US and the European(German, in particular) eBay sites. Of the twopictured, the one in back, with the full-taperedhandle, seems to do a better job.

The resemblance to the Progress is so markedthat I suspect the Progress may have been designed

as a cost-engineered Mikron.Eclipse “Red Ring” Bruce Everiss posted on his (photo-rich) shavingblog a short history of this razor96, made in the UK.It has a small magnet in the base of the handle topick up blades, a nice touch. It’s an open-combrazor, but with a bar attached across the back oftips of the comb’s teeth: this allows the open-combaction while offering excellent protection againstbent or broken teeth. Very nice razor but difficultto find.

Single-edge razors: Schick & GEM Two other razor options I should mention, becausethey’re both very nice razors: easy to use andoffering a comfortable shave—and they apparently

work well for those who tend to get razor bumps.Both use a single-edged blade, made of thickersteel than double-edged blades. These two single-edged razors are the Schick Injector97 and theGEM G-Bar98.

Schick razors come in various models99. I havea G8, a J1, and an M1, and all do a good job withregular Schick blades, still readily available. Youcan also try Ted Pella Teflon-coated injectorblades100.

The GEM also has several models, but the one Icall the “G-Bar” (with a circled G on either sideof the handle) seems to give a significantly bettershave than the more common Gem Micromatic.Moreover, the G-Bar is usually available inexcellent condition. Ted Pella Teflon-coatedsingle-edged blades101 work okay, but better areblades specifically made for shaving (Treet, PAL,and the GEM brands). Both the Schick (or“Schick-Eversharp”) Injector and the GEM G-Barare easy to find on eBay and generally run lessthan Gillettes.

Favorite razors I do have certain razors that are more enjoyablethan others. The Apollo Mikron, the Eclipse RedRing, the Pils, the Feather stainless premium razor,the Fat Boy (mine now plated with rhodium), theGillette NEW, the Slant Bars (Merkur andHoffritz), the iKon Bulldog and OSS, the Gillette1940s Aristocrat, the Gillette British open-combAristocrat #22 (originally silver-plated, but nowreplated with rhodium: no tarnish), the EdwinJagger DE98 and the lined Chatsworth in gold, andthe Futur.

Those come to mind first, but I do enjoy usingall my razors. I could, for example, add the SuperSpeed family as favorites, but I’ve tried for a shortlist. As you see, I didn’t succeed. Each razorseems to have its own enjoyable personality, but ofcourse I’ve long since weeded out non-performers.

Cleaning your razors If you pick up an old razor on eBay or at a fleamarket or the like, you may have to clean it before

using it102. Moreover, your razors will alsorequire cleaning from time to time as you use them.An easy schedule is to clean the razor wheneveryou put in a new blade.

My method to remove soap scum and hard-water deposits (until I got the ultrasonic cleaner—see below) was to soak the razor(s) for anafternoon in a solution of 4 parts warm water to 1part white vinegar, then rinse, dry, and buff it. Usea non-abrasive cleanser (Bon Ami or ScrubbingBubbles, for example) and a toothbrush to dodetailed cleaning.

Maas metal polish103 does a good job—you useonly a tiny amount. Using Maas with a toothbrushcan clean the chequered handles quite well. Afterpolishing the razor, be sure to wash off all theMaas before shaving: it burns newly shaved skin.

One problem with polish is that it is abrasive,and the plating on most razors is thin: theirmanufacturers did not really design razors fordecades of use. If you have a silver razor, it’s bestto remove tarnish chemically rather thanabrasively: Take a heatproof bowl deep enough to

allow the razor to be totally submerged. Line thebowl with a piece of aluminum foil, put the razoron the foil, and sprinkle generously with bakingsoda. Pour in boiling water, let stand for half anhour, and the silver will be tarnish-free. (Ieventually had my own silver razors replated inrhodium, roughly the same color but non-tarnishingsince it’s an inert metal (of the platinum family).)

Barbicide works well in cleaning. Immerse therazor for less than ten minutes—more may damagethe plating—and then rinse the razor in water or inhigh-proof rubbing alcohol and let it air-dry.

A shaver on the forums noted104 that boiling therazor in a mix of vinegar and water works forSuper Speeds, but this method with a Gilletteadjustable will most likely turn the razor pinkbecause of the reaction with the copper adjustmentring. So if you want to boil, use plain water(perhaps with some dishwashing detergent).

If your razor is gold-plated, the discussiongroups advise against boiling. They suggest insteadletting it soak for a long time in warm water, thencleaning it with some soap-scum remover and a

toothbrush. Boiling, they say, removes the lacquerthat protects the gold plating. (If the plating doesbecome damaged, the next section describeshaving a razor replated.)

The methods described above work well forroutine cleaning, but a really good cleaningrequires an ultrasonic cleaner. Good-qualityultrasonic cleaners are now available at relativelylow cost.

Get a cleaner that’s at least 50 watts. (Mostultrasonic cleaners for consumer use are 35 watts.)I got a Kendal CD-4800, a 60-watt cleaner. Isearched eBay for “ultrasonic” and found thecleaner at a quite reasonable price.

Fill the cleaning tank with tepid water from thetap, add a little dishwashing detergent and a splashof white vinegar (to dissolve hard-water deposits),and then run it for a full cycle to expel dissolvedgases from the water. Then put your razors in foran 8-minute cycle (or two 8-minute cycles,depending on how much cleaning is required).Sometimes I find it necessary to also use a littleMaas polish to remove minor discolorations on

smooth surfaces—for example, the top of therazor.. The end result is a very clean razor, insideand out.

D o not use hot water in the cleaner: in somecleaners hot water will weaken the bond betweenthe ultrasonic transducer and the steel tank. If youknow or suspect the razor is exceptionally dirty,let it soak in hot water with dishwashing detergentfor an hour or so before putting it into the cleaner.

The ultrasonic cleaner can be used to cleanjewelry as well—except do not attempt to cleanopals, pearls, emeralds, or any stone with a chipor crack: the ultrasonic cleaner can destroy those.The cleaner will not harm metal.

You can even use the ultrasonic cleaner to cleanyour shaving brush. Use a little vinegar in thewater. Then dip the brush into the water and hold itby hand—don’t put the whole brush including theknot into the water as this could loosen somebristles. Hold the handle about 1 cm above thewater and run the cleaner for about 5 minutes ononly the bristles.

In cleaning a secondhand razor, I don’t believe

that one needs to go to extremes of disinfection andsterilization. When you buy secondhand flatware,for example, you probably simply wash it beforeusing it, with no other sterilization needed—eventhough other people have put the implements intotheir mouths. (Similarly, the flatware you use in arestaurant has not gone through any serioussterilization.) No need to get carried away, in myopinion. A good washing in hot water, perhaps adip into Barbicide or rubbing alcohol—it’s hardfor me to see that much more is required. (AndI’ve already advised you not to use any oldblade(s) that came with the razor—they are at bestjust collector’s items.)

Replating your razors Gillette did not build their razors with an eye tolong life: the expectation was that the buyer wouldreplace the razor with a new model in a few years.So the original plating, being thin, was not verydurable, wearing off in use—thus all the“brassing” seen on old razors. (Brassing occurswhen the original plate, typically nickel, wears off

to expose the underlying base metal, typicallybrass.) Replating can make an old razor look new.

The Gillette Tech below has been replated bySafetyRazors.co.uk—“before” on the left, “after”on the right.

The plating in this case is nickel, the same as theoriginal plating. Even so, the value to a collectormay be less with the replating—but of course, theoriginal razor with its worn plating was also not ofgreat interest to a collector. (They’re hard toplease, those collectors.) Even so, you coulddecrease the value of a rare razor by replating it,so you should take that into consideration.

I went through my own razor collection andpicked out those that both would benefit fromreplating and for which I felt a special fondness.Below is a set of my own razors that Razor

Emporium replated in rhodium, a hard, silvery,inert metal. Because these were older and hadsome wear, I chose their complete refurbishingservice rather than simply replating.

From left: Fat Boy, Super Speed, EnglishAristocrat #22, President, Fat Boy, all made byGillette. Since these five razors were replatedwith an inauthentic metal, collectors will not findthe razors of value—but for the daily shaver, afreshly plated razor is much more pleasing than theworn original.

The cost of replating varies with the plating

metal chosen: nickel, silver, rhodium, gold, orperhaps part plated with one metal and part withanother (for example, part plated in silver, part ingold). The process takes a while, mainly becauseof the prep required, so it might be a month beforeyou get your renewed razor returned.

The time that can elapse between shipping yourrazor off for replating and opening the box on itsreturn may be longer than you expect. We’reaccustomed to a shipping delay when we place anorder on-line: shipping time from vendor to us. Butconsider that replating involves 4-6 shippingdelays:

You ship to vendorVendor inspects, refurbishes, ships to replaterReplater inspects, preps, plates, ships tovendorVendor inspects - and at this point you mayget more delays:

Vendor finds flaw, ships back to replaterReplater fixes flaw, ships back to vendor

Vendor ships razor to youSo you should be prepared to wait one month

and perhaps (if a razor has to be redone) two. Inmy opinion, the final result was worth the wait.

TEN

Shaving the stubble

USING a safety razor puts you in charge, andgoing from a multiblade cartridge to a safety razoris like going from an automatic transmission to amanual: you can get better performance by beingmore in control, but you must learn how to use it,practice your technique, and pay attention towhat’s going on.

One point before you actually pick up the razorand put blade to face: Some shavers have one ormore moles in the shaving area, and some molesare shaped to invite a cut. If you have such a mole,I highly recommend that you get it removed. It’s asimple procedure and a dermatologist can do it inan office visit. Not only does it make your shavinglife better, it also removes a mole that, being onyour face, is constantly exposed to sunlight.

Pressure The first variable you must control is pressure.With the safety razor, you must not use pressure totry to get a closer shave: pressure must be light,the razor and the blade doing the work—exertingadditional pressure will cause problems (cuts,razor burn, lack of joy, etc.). As described below,you obtain a closer shave with more passes, notmore pressure. Think of the razor as a littlecontainer of nitroglycerin and the head as apressure switch. That should help.

To ensure light pressure, one shaver found thatholding the very tip105 of the razor handle with atwo- or three-finger grip works well. This is aninstructional grip, not intended for daily use (atleast not for me), but try it for at least part of ashave to demonstrate to yourself how a razor witha sharp blade works well even with very lightpressure.

The most common error for the novice shaver isincorrect pressure—and so far as I know, it isnever having too light a pressure.

Using too much pressure can be a generalproblem, or it can be localized: on the right side ofthe face for right-handers, for example, or on theneck, often a problem area because of the variouscurves. Or it can appear only on the against-the-grain pass when the razor is held upside down.

Symptoms of the problem are razor burn (facered and hot), small nicks, razor bumps, and skinirritation. If you think you’re using too muchpressure, try “negative pressure”: holding off someof the full weight of the razor. A sharp blade willcut fine so long as it’s pulled along at the correctangle through the stubble. Never try to achieve aclean shave in one pass.

There are two reasons (I believe) for using toomuch pressure. First, getting a close shave with amultiblade cartridge requires pressure, so newsafety-razor shavers who have used the multibladecartridge are in the habit of pressing down. Indeed,some cartridge shavers, as the cartridge growsdull, continue to use it by exerting more pressureas they shave—a bad habit that causes seriousproblems when using a safety razor.

The second reason is that the shaver feelsstubble when rinsing his face after the first passand thinks he must not have used enough pressure.Not so. There will be stubble after the first pass—that’s why you do multiple passes. The key isprogressive stubble reduction over multiplepasses: at least two, generally three, andsometimes four (explained below). Each passleaves less stubble.

In particular, you want the stubble reduced asmuch as possible in the initial pass(es) before youtry an against-the-grain pass.

Blade angle Besides pressure, the key variable in using thesafety razor is blade angle. Try this: put the headof the razor against your cheek, the handleperpendicular to the cheek and parallel to thefloor. Gradually bring the handle down toward theface as you make a shaving stroke, pulling thehandle to drag the head down your cheek. Whenthe handle’s dropped roughly 30° from the initialperpendicular (depending on the razor you’re

using), the blade will make contact with thewhiskers and begin to cut as you pull the razor.

That’s the angle (more or less). The idea is thatthe edge of the blade is cutting through thewhiskers, not scraping over them. If the room isquiet, you can hear the sound of the razor cuttingthrough the whiskers. The idea is that you use therazor like a scythe, not like a hoe. Think of theblade as being almost parallel to the skin beingshaved, cutting the stubble at almost a right angle.

In the left photo below, the razor is being held attoo steep an angle, and the blade is not cutting. Inthe center photo, the blade (bent over the hump ofthe platform) is close to parallel to the skin and iscutting through stubble. In the right photo, thehandle is too low, so the blade is at too steep anangle and is scraping across the skin, producingrazor burn.

Another image: think of the razor as a chain sawand the stubble as young saplings. You don’t wantto dig the chain saw into the ground (your skin),and you want it to cut through the saplings(stubble) more or less at right angles and close tothe ground (skin).

As the skin on your face curves this way and that—over the jawline, around the chin, and so on—you continually adjust the razor’s angle, keepingthe blade almost parallel to the skin being shaved.

Using short strokes enables you to focus onblade angle (and pressure) for the entire stroke—and for a short stroke the angle is likely to beconstant. Try locking fingers and wrist, using yourarm to move the razor: this makes it easier tomaintain a constant angle.

The correct cutting angle is different for

different razors, and you determine the correctangle through feel and the sound the blade makesas you shave. When I use my Gillette Super Speed,it’s held flatter to the face than the Merkur Futur,for example. And with the Schick Injector and theGem G-Bar, the cutting angle is when the razor’shead is pretty much flat against the skin. You’llhave to experiment to find the right cutting anglefor each of your razors.

One shaver has pointed out106 that the correctangle is extremely important. Use as little pressureas you like, but if the angle is too steep, the bladewill dig in and cut. He said that none of theinstructions on the Internet emphasize this pointsufficiently.

I have a tiny travel razor107 with no handle: youhold it by the head. On shaving with it, Idiscovered that the tactile feedback from holdingthe head told me immediately if I stopped cuttingand started scraping. One guy tried a similarapproach108 with a regular razor and found ithelpful for getting the right feel.

So: hold the razor by the handle tip to feel theproper pressure, and hold it by the head to feel theproper angle. (These grips are for instructionalpurposes only—in your normal, day-to-day shaveyou don’t use either of these.)

Proper technique consists of using light pressureand the correct blade angle over your entire beardarea, including the neck.

The grip One shaver recently made an interesting discoveryregarding how to hold a razor, though (like manygood discoveries) it sounds obvious once you’retold: hold the razor at the point of balance.

He points out that both the Futur and the Visionhave a definite waist, unlike most razor handles,and both are heavier than the typical razor. Hewondered whether the waist was designed to showthe center of balance and the right place for thegrip. For him (and me, as well), it works well: it’seasier to control angle and pressure if you holdyour razor at the point of balance.

When you grip the razor, your grip should be

light, not tight—no more tightly than you wouldhold a sparrow, for example: tightly enough so thatit cannot escape, but not so tightly as to harm it.(These are the same instructions given to beginningfoil fencers on how to hold the foil, for what it’sworth.)

The sound Make sure your bathroom is quiet: turn off the fan,turn off the radio, turn off any running water. Whenit’s quiet, you can hear the sound of shaving.

This is not some Zen idea (though the sound iscertainly pleasant in a contemplative way). Rather,by listening to the sound made by your blade andrazor as you shave, you can tell how the shave isgoing: the sound of scraping your face (bad) isunlike the crisp sound of each whisker being cut(good).

Some razors—notably the Progress, the Futur,and the Vision—seem to hold the blade so that thesound is amplified and you can hear even moreclearly the little drama taking place under thelather where blade meets the stubble, but with any

razor you can hear the sound of shaving if yourbathroom is quiet. That auditory feedback isvaluable: use it wisely.

Here we go Recall the grain directions over your entire beard,referring if necessary to the diagram you made inChapter Five. Do your prep, pick up your razor,rinse the head under hot water (because cold metalagainst the cheek is unpleasant), chant, “Lightpressure, correct blade angle,” and set to work onthe first pass.First pass: With the grain Your first pass is with the grain (WTG). Thesecond pass will be across the grain (XTG), eitherdirectly across or across at a slant. Those who doXTG at a slant usually do a second XTG pass onthe opposite slant. Only the final pass will beagainst the grain (ATG), and in the beginning youshould skip this pass, introducing it gradually asdescribed below.

Again: use short strokes, light pressure, and

keep the correct blade angle for the entire stroke,Keep your attention focused, and your technique(and results) will improve from shave to shave.

Of course, as with all advice regarding shaving:try it, and see how it works for you. But the long,sweeping strokes possible with a pivot-headedcartridge razor don’t work well with the safetyrazor.

Stretching the skin where you’re shaving canhelp lift the whiskers, and the taut skin is lesslikely to be cut. You can stretch the skin with yourother hand (or, if your skin is too slippery for that,with a damp washcloth in your stretching hand, oruse an alum bar as described later) or, for the skinaround your mouth, by grimacing. You shave awayfrom the hand that’s stretching the skin. The skinunder the chin is easily stretched just by liftingyour chin.

The upper lip is a tricky bit because of theunremovable nature of the nose. Fortunately,though, the nose is flexible, so with your free hand,you can push or pull the nose to one side and evenupward to give your razor more room to work.

You also can shave under the nose by coming in ata bit of a slant.

To stretch the skin of my upper lip, I simplydraw my lip down over my teeth. Another guypushes his tongue up between his front teeth andhis lip. Still another puts a finger in his mouth andstretches his cheek to one side, pulling his upperlip tight.

The Adam’s apple presents a problem for someguys. One technique is to move that skin off to theside, so you can shave it without a big bumpunderneath it. Grip some neck skin between yourfingers and pull to the side. Another trick is toswallow and hold it—that flattens the Adam’sapple long enough for you to shave it. As youshave your neck, pay especially close attention toblade angle and to pressure and to the grain. Theneck presents a tricky area in shaving.

The safety razor has two sides, and in shavingyou flip back and forth, using both edges of thedouble-edged blade. Flip the razor over to the“clean side” after it’s accumulated lather from afew strokes and then rinse it when both sides are

covered in lather. After each rinse, give it a goodshake—or two—to remove as much water from itas possible.

When you rinse your face after the first pass,you’ll feel some stubble. That’s fine. You will bedoing another pass: the process is progressivestubble reduction. Each pass further reduces thestubble, and the end result is a smooth face. Do notincrease pressure in an attempt to remove stubblefaster: you’ll remove a thin layer of skin alongwith the stubble.Second pass: Across the grain Once you complete the first (WTG) pass, rinseyour face and re-lather (lather is always applied toa wet beard). The second pass is across the grain(XTG), and this will further reduce the stubble.The XTG pass is particularly useful for reducingthe stubble on the upper lip. In fact, I go bothdirections XTG on my upper lip and on my chin.The stubble there is particularly tough, and byminimizing it as much as possible, the ATG passbecomes much easier.

Again: light pressure, correct blade angle, andshort strokes, with your attention focused on whatyou’re doing.

Rinse, and—when you first start shaving with asafety razor—that’s it. If you want further stubblereduction, you can re-lather after rinsing and doanother XTG pass, going the other direction, butwhen you first start using the safety razor, don’t tryATG, for two reasons. First, until you master bladeangle and pressure, ATG is likely to cause cutsand/or skin irritation. Second, in the ATG pass,you hold the razor upside down, and you’ll find itrequires more practice and concentration to keeppressure and angle correct in that maneuver.Third pass: Against the grain When you are ready to shave ATG: rinse yourbeard before that pass and feel the stubble. Thestubble should be almost gone—if it’s not, do anXTG pass the other way. Before the ATG pass,you want the stubble truly minimized. If you areprone to getting razor bumps in some areas, skipthose areas on the ATG pass.

When you first start doing ATG, re-lather yourwet beard and do ATG just on your cheeks. That’sthe easiest area and will give you good practicewithout getting into the difficult curves andchallenges of chin, jaw, neck, etc. After a fewshaves, when you’re happy with ATG on yourcheeks and are comfortable with the ATG razorposition, do your chin as well, then your upper lip,and finally your neck and under the jaw.Remember to keep a correct blade angle for theskin you’re shaving, as the skin curves this wayand that, and remember to use light pressure.Again: short strokes allow you to focus on angleand pressure for the entire stroke.

Enchante Online has a useful diagram109 on thedirection of the cutting strokes (assuming “normal”beard grain). I got a fine shave when I used someof this pattern, modifying it as dictated by my ownbeard. (For example, I use XTG on my upper lip.)

For a thorough shave, try a four-pass shave:WTG, XTG on a slant, XTG on the other slant, andATG. You can modify the basic method 110 to suitthe lineaments of your own face. The benefit of this

method is how it progressively reduces the stubbleso the final, ATG pass is quite comfortable.

Going for a clean, close shave in one passresults in too much pressure, a guarantee of razorburn and cuts—progressive reduction throughmultiple passes is the key.

I usually do a three-pass shave: WTG, XTG(ear-toward-nose), and ATG. As I mentioned, onesmall patch at the heel of my right jaw growshorizontally toward my chin, so with the usualthree passes that particular patch never got anagainst-the-grain pass. So now my three passesinclude one little backward horizontal pass overthat spot. And my ATG pass on my right cheek,near the mouth, tilts to match the grain pattern ofmy beard there.

As I mentioned, the beard on chin and upper lipis particularly tough, so I do XTG both directionsthere—again, to reduce the stubble as much aspossible before the ATG pass.The polishing pass Once you’re doing the ATG pass, you can finish

the shave with a polishing pass to remove the lasttraces of roughness. Do not do a polishing passwhere you get razor bumps. Three ways of doingthe polishing pass are a water pass, an oil pass,and a pre-shave pass.The water pass The water pass works well as a natural extensionof the final (ATG) pass, especially if during theATG pass you’re using your non-razor hand tostretch the skin. After finishing that ATG pass, rubyour face with your wet left hand (assuming you’reright handed: with the non-razor hand, in any case).

When you find a rough patch, use “bladebuffing” to remove it: keeping the proper angle andlight pressure while doing extremely short ATGstrokes, on the order of 1/4” or less, not lifting theblade as you move it back and forth. One shaverdescribed the motion as if you were trying toscribble in a small section of your beard with apencil. Blade buffing is one of the advancedshaving techniques111 that experienced shavers usein the final passes.

Another advanced shaving technique, the J-hook, often works well on the neck. One shaverreported that he used the J-hook (a final-passtechnique, remember), both clockwise andcounterclockwise, and got a much smoother resultwith no irritation. Again: experiment.

The water from your hand as you feel forroughness, together with the residue of the lather,provides lubricity, and because you are shavingwith only water and whatever tiny bit of latherremains, the shave is naturally close enough toremove even very short stubble.

If little lather residue is left on your face,squeeze the bristles of your shaving brush with thefingers of your left hand. Then as you feel forrough spots, you will apply a bit of lather to yourface. The left hand does double duty, both feelingfor roughness and stretching the skin as needed,and if it’s already been doing that through the thirdpass, the transition to the water pass is seamless.

Although the water pass works, I usually preferthe oil pass, which I find effective and pleasant,during and after.

The oil pass In Method shaving (described at the end of thechapter), the final pass is a “touch-up” using theirHydrolast Cutting Balm, a combination of oils andessential oils. The Cutting Balm pass worksextremely well, so it’s a natural step to try otheroils.

The idea is this: after you finish your regularshave—for me, a three-pass shave (with, across,and finally against the grain, lathering before eachpass)—rinse well, apply a few drops of oil to thepalm of your left hand (assuming you hold yourrazor in your right), rub it over your wet beard,and then do a “polishing” pass, feeling with yourleft hand for rough spots, then buffing those withthe razor against the grain.

Rinse, dry your face with a towel (whichremoves most of the oil, with the oil remainingacting as a skin conditioner), and apply aftershaveof choice. If you want to use an alum block asdescribed below, use it after that final rinse.

My current “complete” shave, though step 5 isoften omitted:

1. Wash beard with MR GLO.2. Rinse. Lather. Pass 1 (WTG)3. Rinse. Lather. Pass 2 (XTG), both directions

on chin and lips.4. Rinse. Lather. Pass 3 (ATG)5. Rinse. Either: Rub 2-5 drops oil on wet beard

area. Do polishing pass; or: Glide alum barover face and let sit a moment.

6. Rinse. Towel dry.7. Apply after shave.

Commercial shave oils I had excellent results with the oil pass, so Iexperimented with different oils. I tried a varietyof commercial oils, almost all of which identifythemselves as “pre-shave” oil. I, however, usethem only for the oil pass. The list specificallydoes not include Art of Shaving shave oil—thosewho tried it said it was too thick and gummy andaltogether unsatisfactory, so I skipped that one.

Hydrolast Cutting Balm112 is but onecomponent of the Method shave system (describedbelow), but it can be used on its own. It’s a

“proprietary blend of vegetal oils, proprietaryblend of essential oils.” This was the origin of theoil pass idea, thanks to Charles Roberts of Methodshave fame. It’s very nice: light fragrance, lightoil, and does a great job.

Total Shaving Solution113: This oil seemedvery mentholated, so it should appeal to mentholfans. Very slick, light, and does the job.

All Natural Shaving Oil114: Often calledPacific Shaving Oil since it’s made by PacificShaving Company. This oil seems to have someemulsifiers which make it mix with the water, butit still provides an excellent surface for the oilpass. Though it lists menthol among theingredients, the menthol was subdued.

King of Shaves Kinexium ST Shaving Oil115:This one easily wins the prize for packaging: alittle flip-top lid that hinges open, a press buttonthat produces exactly the right amount. It does agood job, but the fragrance is somewhat off-putting—to me, it’s like machine-oil.

Gessato Pre-Shave Oil116: This oil is light and

clear and has no discernible fragrance, a benefit.Does a very nice job, but is somewhat pricey.Oils from the supermarket You can also use oils you find at the supermarket.All of those listed below are non-comedogenicoils117—that is, oils that have a very lowprobability of clogging pores. However, somepeople are more apt to get clogged pores thanothers, so you should (as always) be guided byyour own experience.

All of the oils listed below have wellestablished histories of cosmetic use and don’t gorancid (as would, say, flaxseed oil). They all arelisted as being good for the skin. And except forJojoba oil, they all are good oils for cooking orsalads, so they certainly don’t have to be reservedexclusively for shaving—the oil pass requires verylittle oil, in any event, so you’ll have plenty of oilleft over for other uses. I recommend against usingmineral oil (or products based on mineral oil) onyour skin; mineral oil is a petroleum derivative.

Almond oilAvocado oilGrapeseed oilJojoba oil (good used just by itself)Macadamia nut oilOlive oil

Leisureguy’s Last-Pass Shaving Oil: I used acombination of the above to make an oil-pass mix.Alter the formula as you want—there’s reallynothing special about the mix I made, though itworks for me. It is, however, thicker than thecommercial oils listed above.

2 parts Almond oil2 parts Avocado oil2 parts Olive oil1 part Grapeseed oil1 part Macadamia nut oil1-2 drops essential oil(s) (for fragrance)—as

much as you wantIt’s important to add only one (1) drop of the

essential oil and then try the mix—you can alwaysadd another drop if needed, but removing a drop is

hard.Useful equivalences for making small batches: 2

Tablespoons = 1 fluid ounce, and 3 teaspoons = 1Tablespoon. Knowing this, you can readily figureout how many ounces you’ll make if you useregular measuring spoons: for example, if 1 part =1 tsp, the above formula will result in 1 1/3 fl oz,plenty for a batch—that much will last you a longtime. If 1 part = 1 Tbsp, the result is 4 floz (that is,1/2 cup), which is a lot of oil—enough to sharewith a friend.

You can readily find plastic dispensers innatural118 or cobalt blue119 or other colors. The“treatment pump” top (available in white or black)works just right to dispense a drop or two perpush: exactly the right top for this application. Ifyou buy one of the commercial oils in a largercontainer, you might want to decant an ounce intoone of these little bottles with the treatment pumpto use in travel (or at home).

A shaver found that an organic massage oil, suchas found in health food shops, works well for theoil pass. He uses an organic baby massage oil that

consists of organic safflower, sunflower, avocado,grape seed, and almond oils, with olive leafextract, tangerine and chamomile essential oils andvitamin C.

A suggestion from a shaver’s wife: “Why not letthe shave oil container sit in warm water whileyou shave?” Excellent idea.Pre-shaves for a polishing pass The commercial oils used for the polishing passare mostly identified as “pre-shave” oils. And, asyou might suspect, you can use other pre-shavesfor a polishing pass: Proraso Pre- and Post-ShaveCream, PREP, or Crema 3P.

A different razor for each pass Bruce Everiss came up with the idea of using themost appropriate razor for each pass120: the three-razor method (assuming that, like most shavers,your typical shave consists of three passes). Forexample:

First pass (WTG): Bulk removal: Slant BarSecond pass (XTG): Smoothing the face: Edwin

Jagger DE8xThird pass (ATG): Polishing pass: A Super

Speed or TechObviously, the choice of blade also can take

into consideration the nature of the task for eachpass (and, as noted earlier, the same brand ofblade can perform differently in different razors).

The three-razor technique is much simpler thanit may at first seem. Most shavers who havemultiple razors keep several razors loaded withblades, ready to go. In that case, the shaver picksthe appropriate razor/blade combo, shaves onepass with it, rinses it, places it back on the shelf orin the rack, and picks up the appropriaterazor/blade combo for the next pass.

With the razors loaded and ready to go,changing razors between passes is totally trivial,especially since you already rinse the razorbetween passes. The only added task is to setdown the razor used in the previous pass and pickup the razor for the next pass.

Another situation in which a change in razormight be useful: A shaver on Wicked_Edge (see

forum list in the Appendix) mentioned that he had aspot at the corner of his mouth that felt rough aftershaving, even though he did take care to shaveagainst the grain there until he could feel nostubble remaining. Yet later in the day, the littlerough patch still was there.

I suspect that the whiskers there are thin. Whencut short and fully wetted, they would beimperceptible to the touch, and a regular razor,pushing the blade straight at them, simply pushesthem over without cutting them. I suggested that hetry using a slant bar for a polishing pass in thatarea: a slanted blade, slicing rather than simplypushing straight ahead, will, I think, cut even soft,thin whiskers before they can bend aside.

Choosing the appropriate razor for the task/passat hand is definitely worth trying, assuming youhave a little collection of razors with differentshaving characteristics.

Method Shaving Charles Roberts of EnchanteOnline.comdeveloped a method of shaving that some shavers

really like. He uses some special supplies, andrecommends the Merkur HD razor and a sharpblade. The special supplies consist of:

The Shavemaster brush—or any large, fan-type brushAn olive-oil soap, originally “The Cube” butnow roundsA shaving paste used with the soap toproduce the lather“Activator,” a product to help in latherproductionCutting balm, discussed aboveSkin tonic and conditioner

A good introduction to Method shaving isprovided by three videos made by Mantic121. Thesupplies listed are available online122.

My own experience with Method shaving wasgenerally positive. Because the lather depends onthe proportions of soap, shaving paste, andActivator, it does tend to vary somewhat fromsession to session, at least until you become

skilled in creating the mix. The Shavemaster brushis large and works well to generate a lather fromsoap—if you have large hands, you’re likely to beparticularly appreciative of the brush. But, asnoted, you can use any large brush.

Although I use Method shaving onlyoccasionally, I do enjoy having it in my repertoire.If you’re experimentally minded, give it a go.

ELEVEN

The post-shave routine

AFTER you finish your shave, rinse your razor inhot water and leave it out to dry. If you’re using acarbon-steel blade, rinse it in high-percentagerubbing alcohol (91% or higher), which drives outthe water and then immediately evaporates,leaving the blade dry so that it doesn’t rust.

There’s no need to remove the blade or even toloosen the razor’s grip on the blade. In general, it’sa good idea to minimize handling the blade:remove it only to discard it.

Rinse out your brush—first with warm wateruntil the lather’s gone, then with cold water. Shakeit well, dry it on a towel if you want, then stand iton its base in the open to dry.

After you put the razor and brush away, rinseyour face first with warm water and then with cold—quite refreshing.

The alum block After the cold-water rinse and prior to using anaftershave, try using an alum block. It’sextraordinarily refreshing, but something that (likecoffee) appeals primarily to adults: the sensationis a tingling and sometimes a slight stinging.

The alum block is also an antiseptic and couldbe beneficial for those who suffer from acne orother skin problems. One member of the SimplyShaving forum commented that once he began usingan alum block as his post-shave routine, he nolonger experiences skin blemishes in the beardarea—plus his skin seems happier, and he getsgood feedback on his shaving technique.123

One good-sized alum block should last for ayear or two (unless you drop it on a hard floor).According to Shavex, which makes the alumblocks sold by Mama Bear: “The Alum Block (forshaving and deodorant purposes) is usually PotashAlum. Potash Alum doesn’t sting so much asAmmonium Alum, but some companies do useAmmonium Alum as a shaving block.”

Potassium Alum (another name for PotashAlum) is used in some deodorant crystal sticks,and for some reason these are often priced muchless than alum blocks sold to shavers. (Somedeodorant sticks are, however, made withAmmonium Alum—so be sure to check.) TheWikipedia article on Alum124 provides moreinformation.

RazoRock is a potassium alum block in stickform, nicely packaged in a travel container andspecifically intended and designed for aftershaveuse.

Whether you use the alum block daily, weekly,or not at all will depend on how your skin reacts.Some find it works fine, others must use sparingly,and a few must avoid it altogether. If the alumblock causes your skin to redden, like razor burn,you may be one of the unlucky few.

Glide the alum block over your freshly shavedpart of your face while your face is still wet fromthe cold-water rinse. (No need to wet the block:the water remaining on your face is ample.) This isnon-abrasive: the block simply slides over your

freshly shaved face. Then let the block air-dry.In hot weather, try keeping the alum bar in the

freezer, bringing it out just before you shave: thefrigid bar gliding over your wet, freshly shavedskin is a wonderful sensation.

I have read where some have inexplicablyattempted to use a styptic pencil as though it werean alum block, rubbing the side of the pencil on theface. This is misguided. The styptic pencil is notthe same substance; it’s usually aluminum sulfateanhydrous or titanium dioxide. Get a real alumblock.

One shaver’s use125 is typical: he uses the alumblock every day—not to stop nicks, but just for thepleasure and benefits: it’s an antiseptic, reducesrazor burn, stops minor bleeds, and providesfeedback on how well he’s shaved (less sting =better shave).

And the alum block has multiple uses. Onewoman notes126 that the alum block seems to takecare of pimples—she just washes her face withwater and then glides the alum block over her wetface and follows that with Thayers Rose Petal

Witch Hazel. The result: no pimples, and noresidual powder from the alum block. (She says italso stops the stinging on bug bites.) And a shavercommented that he finds the alum block useful as,in effect, a resin bag: by rubbing his wet fingertipsover an alum block, he gets a non-slip grip on hisrazor (even if the handle’s wet) or on his skin (tostretch it).

When I use an alum block, I let my alum-blocked face drip while I rinse my brush—firstwith hot water, then with cold—then shake it welland put it out dry. (My brushes dry standing in theopen on their base, which seems to work fine.)Then I police the sink area, putting things away.

After that, I rinse the alum from my face (it’simportant to rinse after using the alum block), dryit, and apply an aftershave. After that, if I have anick or cut (nowadays rare), I use My Nik IsSealed127, a liquid styptic in a roll-on applicator.It works like a charm, much better than a stypticpencil, and it doesn’t leave white deposits on yourface. (The alum block won’t stop bleeding from acut—that’s not its purpose.) I find that this product

has very little sting—for me: individuals vary intheir response to styptic.

And that’s it: the shave is complete.I did drop and break one alum block after

several months. The second one I used quitecarefully, so carefully that I gradually found I wasno longer using it—in part because as my shavingskill improved the alum block had less to tell meabout the quality of my shave. But lately I’ve foundmyself using it daily.

Aftershaves The shaving products previously mentioned—shaving brushes, shaving soaps and creams,double-edged blades, safety razors—have asomewhat limited market: men who havediscovered the benefits of traditional wetshaving.The marketing dollars that create infinite newvariations, and the advertising dollars that work toconvince gullible victims potential customers ofthe wondrous benefits of the latest variation—evenif it’s only changing the color of the plastic in therazor’s handle—are markedly absent for

traditional wetshaving.But now we reach aftershaves—products sold

to every shaver—so here you will find incrediblevariety. Badger & Blade has a lengthy review128

that covers just some of the products available,sorted by skin type (dry, normal, combination, andoily). And Mantic59 devotes one of his excellentshaving videos specifically to aftershaves129.

Generally speaking, you can choose among anaftershave (bracing) or a balm (soothing) or a gel(moisturizing). Some shavers have found that theirskin (particularly in bad weather) simply can’ttake alcohol-based aftershaves.130

Many kinds of gel are available: Gillette gels,and also Anherb from India, Tabiano from Italy,and Arko from Turkey.

Thayers Witch Hazel is available at drugstoresand health food stores and comes in a variety offragrances131, none of which linger. (Thayers has asampler pack132 of their various witch hazels.)There’s also a Thayers Witch Hazel Aftershave 133,a bit more bracing and an excellent aftershave if

you’re traveling, since it has no fragrance. (It’s a4-oz. bottle, but you’ll be checking your shavingthings anyway: blades, remember?)

Classic Shaving has a page with an entirearray134 of aftershaves—other vendors offer eithera similar variety or various special blends.

Some that I’ve tried and liked: Klar SeifenKlassik, TOBS Mr. Taylor’s, Dominica Bay Rum,Pashana, Geo. F. Trumper Spanish Leather, Geo.F. Trumper West Indian Extract of LimesAftershave (with a wonderfully intense fresh limefragrance), and the various types of Floïdaftershave. Pinaud Clubman has a nice old-timeyfragrance. Some continue to swear by Old Spice,Mennen Skin Bracer, Barbasol, or Aqua Velva,which can be found at your local drugstore.

Some aftershaves are preparations specificallymade to treat razor bumps. These are discussed inthe following chapter on Skin Problems.

The artisanal soap makers—Em’s Place,Honeybee Soaps, Mama Bear, QED, Saint CharlesShave, and the others—also make aftershavelotions and balms that are well worth trying.

Appleton Barber Supply offers a great variety ofaftershaves, including many old-time favorites.Booster’s aftershaves135 from Canada are verynice—June Clover is a favorite.

If you want a balm as an aftershave treatment,look (at your drugstore, for example) forNeutrogena Razor Defense lotion, Triple Defensecream, or Nivea Aftershave Sensitive lotion. Also,there’s Baxter of California Aftershave Balm,which you can get from QED. You can also emailhim and other vendors for generalrecommendations regarding aftershave skincare.Barclay Crocker offers a very nice aftershavebalm.

Both Taylor of Old Bond Street’s Luxury HerbalAftershave Cream and the Geo. F. Trumper SkinFoods (Coral (rose), Sandalwood, or Lime) arequite good aftershave balms. Proraso’s pre- andafter-shave cream136 works well as an aftershavebalm.

A blog reader passed along his recipe for anaftershave balm. His model was Castle Forbes:why not aim high?

1. Mix equal parts of witch hazel and AloeVera. Try 50 ml (1/4 cup) each. Mix with amixer or blender to blend well.

2. Add a little glycerin (you can try with andwithout to see how you like the glycerin): 5-10 ml (1-2 tsp)

3. Add a little Lime essential oil (or Lavenderor what you will) for fragrance

4. Add a little water to thin it if you want. Oryou can leave it as a gel and dip it from a tubwith your fingers.

He says that it’s as close to Castle Forbes Limeas you get without the price tag. In adding theessential oil, add just one drop, shake, let sit, andsee how you like it. If not enough, add one moredrop—-it’s very easy to add too much, so cautionis advised. You might want to experiment usingone of the Thayers witch-hazel-and-aloe-veratoners (no alcohol) or astringents (a little alcohol)as the base for your homemade aftershave.

Aftershaves and colognes in retail stores have ahigh markup. If you want to explore further in this

arena, take a look at on-line discounters such asFragranceNet.com or check for bargains on eBay.

Some knowledge of the relative fragrancestrength of various dilutions of perfumes can beuseful. From Wikipedia137:

Perfume types reflect the concentration ofaromatic compounds in a solvent, which infine fragrance is typically ethanol or a mix ofwater and ethanol. Various sources differconsiderably in the definitions of perfumetypes. The concentration by percent/volumeof perfume oil is as follows:

Perfume extract (Extrait): 15-40%(IFRA: typical 20%) aromaticcompoundsEau de Parfum (EdP), Parfum deToilette (PdT): 10-20% (typical -15%)aromatic compounds. Sometimes listedas “eau de perfume” or “millésime”.Eau de Toilette (EdT): 5-15% (typical -10%) aromatic compoundsEau de Cologne (EdC): Chypre citrus

type perfumes with 3-8% (typical -5%)aromatic compoundsSplash and Aftershave: 1-3% aromaticcompounds

Perfume oils are often diluted with asolvent, though this is not always the case,and its necessity is disputed. By far the mostcommon solvent for perfume oil dilution isethanol or a mixture of ethanol and water.Perfume oil can also be diluted by means ofneutral-smelling oils such as fractionatedcoconut oil, or liquid waxes such as jojobaoil.

If you discover that a wonderful aftershave(such as New York, by Parfums de Nicolaï) is nolonger available but the corresponding Eau deToilette is still on offer (and New York EDT isavailable), you could buy that and dilute it with alittle water and/or alcohol to make an aftershave(or simply use a very small amount, perhaps whileyour face is still wet after the final rinse).

TWELVE

Skin problems

SOME shavers suffer specific skin problems:acne, razor bumps, and/or ingrown whiskers. Andweather can trigger other skin issues—forexample, shavers in cold climates know whatwinter’s cold dry air (and the hot dry air insidebuildings) does to their skin, and shavers withcurly hair may find that they get more ingrowns inhumid weather.

This chapter addresses those problems, but onlyup to a point. You should never assume that anymedical advice from a layperson is accurate.Dermatologists go to school for many years for areason: there’s much to know, and much continuingstudy is needed as new treatments and drugs areregularly developed. So what you learn in thissection is not the final answer and may not evenapply to your situation.

What I will explain are some suggestions frommen who have tried various regimens and who aresharing what worked for them. It may or may notwork for you because your skin, your generalcondition, your environment, and/or your problemmay not correspond to their situation and theirremedies. The same holds true for productsmentioned: they work for some, but that doesn’tmean that they will necessarily work for you.

For any of these conditions, shaving with amultiblade cartridge is a bad idea, even thoughmultiblade cartridges are highly recommended bycompanies that make and sell them. But the tug-and-cut action of multiblade cartridges irritates theskin (bad for acne) and tugs out the whisker beforecutting it (bad for razor bumps and ingrownwhiskers). Single-blade shaving—either with asafety razor using a single- or double-edged blade,or with a straight razor—is much kinder to yourface once you have learned proper shavingtechniques.

Acne

Acne is a skin problem that results from differentcauses, typically one (or a combination) of thefollowing conditions:

Excess sebum (an oily substance produced bycertain cells)Rapid production of bacteria (which can liveon the sebum)Skin cells shedding too quicklyInflammation resulting from the above

Acne can be mild138, moderate139, or severe140

(endnotes are links to photos of the conditions).Mild acne can be treated at home, but moderate orsevere acne is best treated with the care of adermatologist. To see improvement once treatmentbegins may take as long as 4-8 weeks.

Note that your dermatologist may not be well-informed about shaving options and might, forexample, recommend a multi-blade cartridge,which is strongly contraindicated.

Treatment of mild acne focuses on three things:

1. Avoiding skin irritation—avoid harsh scrubs,aggressive cleaning, rough brushes, strongsoaps, and shaving with multibladecartridges.

2. Keeping skin clean by gentle washing with amild soap.

3. Applying preparations designed to treat acne.

Over-the-counter acne creams often containbenzoyl peroxide or salicylic acid. Benzoylperoxide kills the bacteria that cause acne. Itsprincipal side effect is excessive dryness of theskin, so don’t use more than directed. Benzoylperoxide also can bleach hair, sheets, towels, andclothing: be careful.

Salicylic acid helps correct abnormal skinshedding and helps unclog pores, but has no effecton sebum production or bacteria. Salicylic acidmay be irritating to your skin, so you may not beable to use it—the general rule is always to avoidskin irritation.

Sulfur-based compounds work well for some(although there’s some research141 that shows that

acne returns with increased severity after usingsulfur-based compounds). In addition to over-the-counter treatments, prescription medicines areavailable through your doctor or dermatologist.

There’s more information at AcneNet142, andAcne.org143 describes a good regimen. In terms ofshaving, that regimen requires some extension.

1. When you wash your face, do it gently, usingonly your hands and a mild soap or cleanser.Do not use a washcloth or scrubber. Cetaphilcleanser is recommended by manydermatologists.

2. Use a mild, unscented shaving soap orshaving cream, and a soft shaving brush ratherthan a “scrubby” one. Omega silvertip badgershaving brushes, for example, are quite softand gentle, yet not floppy.

3. Don’t build the lather on your beard; use alathering bowl.

4. Use very light pressure when shaving andmaintain a good blade angle. If you cut apimple, apply a topical antiseptic to the cut.

5. You may find that you cannot use a shavingoil, even those having low comedogenicity144.If an oil makes the acne worse, give it up.

6. After the shave, try using an alum bar, whichis a mild antiseptic. Glide the bar gently overyour skin after the cold-water rinse, let it sitfor about half a minute, then rinse and patyour skin dry with a towel. Do not rub. (Youmight add this step each time you wash yourface.)

7. Aftershaves or tonics containing alcohol maybe too drying or irritating when used incombination with acne treatments. Try themand see whether they work for you.

8. Wait until your skin is dry before applyingany acne treatments.

More detailed instructions, including timingsand amounts, are available at the site, which alsooffers products to help with the acne.

The Mayo Clinic has a detailed series ofarticles145 on acne, including information oncauses and risk factors, when you should seek

medical advice, and guidance on treatment,prevention, and self-care.

The book Anti-Cancer: A New Way of Life146

has this interesting passage: When [LorenCordain, PhD] was told that certainpopulation groups whose way of life is verydifferent from ours had no experience of acne(which is caused by an inflammation of theepidermis, among other mechanisms), hewanted to find out how this could occur…Cordain accompanied a team ofdermatologists to examine the skin of 1,200adolescents cut off from the rest of the worldin the Kitavan Islands of New Guinea, and130 Ache Indians living in isolation inParaguay. In these two groups they found notrace whatsoever of acne. In their article inArchives of Dermatology, the researchersattributed their amazing discovery to theadolescents’ nutrition. The diets of thesecontemporary sheltered groups resemblethose of our distant ancestors: no refinedsugar or white flour, thus no peaks of insulin

or IGF in the blood.In Australia, researchers convinced

Western adolescents to try a diet restrictingsugar and white flour for three months. In afew weeks, their insulin and IGF levelsdiminished. So did their acne.

Recently there have been important newfindings on sugar’s role147.

Razor bumps and ingrown whiskers Razor bumps are caused when hair cut close to theskin curls as it grows and either curls under theskin without emerging or curls into the skin next towhere it emerged. Either event irritates the skin,causing inflammation. In some cases, infectionfollows, which causes a sore and drainage. Menwho are African, Mediterranean, Jewish, Nordic,Celtic, or from other peoples who have naturallycoarse or tightly curling hair often get ‘razorbumps.’

The technical name is PseudofolliculitisBarbae: “pseudo” (false) + “follicle” (hair) +“itis” (inflammation) + “barbae” (of the beard),

often abbreviated as PFB. If the site becomesinfected, “pseudo” no longer applies and thecondition is called Folliculitis Barbae or“barber’s rash.” Photos of these conditions can beseen at the Dermatology Image Atlas148.Causes The usual cause of PFB is shaving too closely. Amultiblade cartridge, with its tug-and-cut action, isparticularly bad: by tugging the whisker before it’scut, the cutting point is too close to the skin andcan even be slightly beneath the skin’s surfaceafter the whisker pops back into place. But even adouble-edged safety razor can deliver too close ashave, which leads to razor bumps. Electricrazors, like multiblade cartridges, are particularlybad for men prone to PFB.

Shaving against the grain is a bad idea for theparts of your beard where you tend to get PFB, andstretching the skin as you shave there is equallybad. Both techniques are aimed at getting a closershave, one source of the problem.

Another cause of PFB is irritation and damage

to the skin from using a dull blade, or using a sharpblade with bad technique, or shaving afterinadequate prep. All those should be avoided.

A common cause of infection is Staphylococcusaureus bacteria. The bacteria normally residesbenignly in the nasal passages, but shaving cansometimes introduce it to hair follicles on the face.Once the hair follicle is infected, the result isredness, itching, and even small, pus-filledblisters. This is something that varies byindividual—I’ve never had this problem, but someshavers are prone to such infection.Cures If you now have razor bumps, stop shaving for afew days or a week—let the whiskers lengthen,and with a sterile needle release any whiskerscaught in the skin or beneath the skin. If you haveinfected sites, apply an antibiotic and let the sitesheal. Benzoyl peroxide can help, but apply itsparingly since it can be irritating. It’s a good ideato see your doctor or a dermatologist, who canhelp with the diagnosis and prescribe appropriate

medication.Prevention Prevention has two parts. First is how you shave,and second are products specifically designed toprevent razor bumps.Prep Make sure that your preparation is thorough andexcellent. You want the whiskers fully wetted sothey will be more easily cut and less likely to besharp at the cutting point. Shave after you shower.Use a softening conditioner on your beard in theshower. Use ample warm water to soften whiskersbefore shaving.

Wash your beard at the sink, using a good pre-shave soap such as Musgo Real Glyce Lime Oilsoap. Rinse and, leaving your beard wet, apply awet, hot towel or washcloth to your beard for 3-5minutes. You can apply lather to your wet beardbefore the hot towel/washcloth if you find that thisincreases the wetting action of the towel. Place thehot wet towel over your lathered beard. Make surethis prep includes the shaving area of your neck as

well as your face.After removing the towel, rinse your beard with

hot water, and then use a technique suggested byThemba149 on the Shave My Face forum. Hesuggests using an Innomed Lice Comb150. (MooreUnique also makes a tool151 for lifting the beard.)The comb is quite fine. As you comb against thegrain, use firm but comfortable pressure and ashallow angle (as if shaving with the comb). Thislifts the stubble and removes ingrowns and deadskin.

Then make a good (thick, wet, dense) latherfrom a good shaving soap or shaving cream, andbrush it on your wet and combed beard against thegrain.Tools Men who suffer from razor bumps say that the bestrazor to use is a straight razor. If you don’t want togo that route, a single-edged razor—the SchickInjector or the GEM G-Bar, both readily availableon eBay—is, they say, just about as good.

A double-edged razor also works well provided

that you do not attempt to shave too closely. TheBump Fighter Razor152 with its special BumpGuard blades is also recommended by some: it isdesigned not to give a close shave.

Use a new blade for each shave (if your blade isinexpensive) or else sterilize the blade before youbegin each shave by rinsing it in a sterilizingsolution. You can use rubbing alcohol (91% orhigher) or a sterilizing product such as RitualRazor Rinse (easily found with a Google search)or Barbicide153. (High-proof rubbing alcohol soldin plastic bottles will be lost over time due toevaporation through the porous plastic. Decant intoa glass bottle for storage.)

Make sure the blade is still sharp: discardblades before they become dull.Shaving Consider shaving on alternate days, if that’spossible for you. Shave bumpy areas last so thelather has more time to soften the stubble.

Don’t stretch your skin while shaving places thatget razor bumps. Stretching your skin while you

shave increases the chance that a whisker will‘snap back’to below skin level when it’s cut.

Shave with the grain and possibly across thegrain, but never against the grain in areas prone torazor bumps—do not try for a totally smooth(close) shave in those areas. (You can shaveagainst the grain in places where you never haverazor bumps.)

If you cut a bump, apply an antibiotic to preventinfection. Try using an alum bar after the shave,since it’s a mild antiseptic. Just glide it over yourskin after the cold-water rinse. Let it sit for minute—perhaps while you tidy up the shaving area—then rinse well with water, pat dry, and apply yourshaving balm or aftershave or razor bumptreatment. I do recommend rinsing after the alumhas had a chance to do its work. If using the alumdoesn’t seem to agree with your skin, stop using it.(I’ve not read of any adverse reactions to the alumbar, but I suppose there’s a possibility.)Products A number of over-the-counter products are

specifically meant to prevent razor bumps. Andthrough your doctor or dermatologist, you can getprescription medicines for the condition, such aseflornithine hydrochloride 13.9%, sold under thetrade name Vaniqa. It’s designed to remove facialhair for women, but it’s apparently proveneffective in controlling and treating razor bumps aswell.

Following is a list of over-the-counter products.These—like many things in shaving—work forsome, not for others. Posting questions in theshaving forums about any particular product willget you information from those who have used it. Itwould be a good idea to do a forum search beforeposting the question, though, since you may wellfind threads discussing the product you’reinterested in. Common products154 (links at theendnote):

Bump Fighter products (in particular the razor)Bump PatrolDermagen Skin Revival SystemElicina Biological TreatmentFollique Treatment

High Time Bump Stopper ProductsMoore Unique Skin CareNo Mo’ Bumps AftershavePrince Reigns gelSmart Shave ProductsTend Skin (you can make a version of Tend Skin

at home155)

Other skin issues Eczema is a skin inflammation that has a number ofcauses, including (for some) the fragrances used inshampoo and conditioner.156 If your skin suffersfrom dryness and recurring skin rashescharacterized by redness, skin edema (swelling),itching and dryness, crusting, flaking, blistering,cracking, oozing, or bleeding, you may have one oranother type of eczema, and you should see adermatologist.

Winter’s cold, windy weather and hot, dry airindoors can adversely affect a shaver’s skin. Lookfor soothing products that will treat your skin well:Mitchell Wool-Fat Shaving Soap or a shea-buttersoap from Honeybee Soaps, Mama Bear, or Saint

Charles Shave. Insitut Karité shaving soapcontains 25% shea butter, is good for your skin,and produces an excellent lather.

Saint Charles Shave also offers a shea-buttershaving cream, or use Nancy Boy Shaving Cream—the Nancy Boy products in general are quitegood for your skin. Institut Karité also makes sheabutter shaving creams (20% and 25%).

For an aftershave, try l’Occitane or InstitutKarité shea-butter balm, one of the Thayers witchhazels, or Geo. F. Trumper Coral (or Lime orSandalwood) Skin Food. One shaver recommendsNancy Boy Body Moisturizer (heavier and cheaperthan their face moisturizer and works quite well).

If alcohol-based aftershaves don’t work for you,try products like those above, or one of theartisanal soothing aftershaves, or simply skip theaftershave altogether. Determine the best coursefor you by paying attention to your skin andexperience.

Em’s Place, Honeybee Soaps, Mama Bear,QED, Saint Charles Shave, and Barclay Crockerall offer soothing and moisturizing aftershave

lotions and balms. You can email or call them toask about the specific problem you’re facing andget their informed opinions on the best approachesand products for you.

THIRTEEN

Recommendation for a beginnershaving kit

ON ShaveMyFace.com Rob_TN has an excellentlist of options for a beginner shaving kit157 forsomeone on a limited budget (a student, forexample). Bruce Everiss has selected a kit for alow-cost, high-luxury shave158. And should you tryand the experiment not work out for you, you canreadily find buyers for the equipment and suppliesin the Buying/Selling threads of the shavingforums. Indeed, you might be able to get some ofyour equipment there—along with good advice.

Hair conditioner instead of lather? Some have found that they can use hair conditionerin place of shaving soap or shaving cream: theywash their beard at the sink with soap and water,then rinse it and apply the hair conditioner to the

wet beard. After each pass, rinse the beard andapply hair conditioner again before the next pass.

This doesn’t work for everyone, but if it worksfor you, you won’t need a shaving brush, shavingsoap, or shaving cream—so it may be worth a try.“Not working” means either some skin reaction tothe hair conditioner or razor burn (red, burningskin) because the hair conditioner is not providingenough protection from the blade.

I did try it, and at first it seemed great. But then Ihad a difficult time seeing where I had shaved (thehair conditioner makes a thin and transparentlayer), and I did get a fierce razor burn. So Ireturned to the traditional shaving cream or soap. Irate hair conditioner at best an emergencysubstitute for shaving soap or shaving cream, andthen for one shave at the most. Razor burn isunpleasant.

Women who shave their legs often use hairconditioner instead of lather, generally becausethey haven’t tried a good lather and don’t know itsbenefits.

Schick Injector as transitionalrazor The Schick Injector (various models common oneBay, sometimes called the Schick Eversharp)offers a good transitional razor for thoseaccustomed to shaving with a cartridge razor.(Note that the pre-1960 Schick models arenoticeably more aggressive than the later models,which still provide an excellent shave.) TheSchick has somewhat the same feel as a cartridgerazor, but uses a single-edged blade. The Schick(like the Gem G-Bar) is also a good razor forthose who get razor bumps. However, for most Irecommend starting with the traditional safetyrazor that uses a double-edged blade.

Leisureguy beginner shaving kit Here is an example of a complete beginner shavingkit:

Edwin Jagger DE8x safety razor: any one ofthe series

Blade sampler pack (one with many brands)A synthetic-bristle or horsehair brush (but seeother options below)A shaving cream (see choices below)A shave stick and/or shaving soap (seechoices below)*Lathering bowl (deep cereal bowl—approximately 5” across, 3” deep, with ahemispherical shape and a dark color)*Glycerin as pre-shave (at health-food storeor drugstore)*A shave oil: jojoba oil, or your own mix, ora commercial oilAlum blockMy Nik Is SealedAftershave (see choices below)

*Items asterisked are optional, but if you wantthe complete experience, get them. I now seldomuse the asterisked items.

The above costs about the same as the price of30 or so Fusion disposable cartridges.

For the first three editions of this book, I

recommended the Merkur Hefty Classic for abeginner—or any of the Merkur Classics, sincethey all have the same head geometry. Thisrecommendation was based on polls ofexperienced traditional shavers, and the MerkurClassic is still a good choice. But technologymoves on, and the new Edwin Jagger head isextremely nice—and the razor costs $10 less thanthe HD. The Merkur 38c is another popularbeginner choice.

If you tend to get razor bumps, consider theBump Fighter razor159, specifically designed tominimize razor bumps. Note that this razor isdesigned so that it will not give a close shave,even on the parts of your face where you never getrazor bumps.

Although you will initially be using only onebrand of blades, you will later want to explore,and the sampler pack with the greatest variety willgive you the best chance of hitting the bladejackpot. And pick up all the blades you can find inlocal stores to include in your testing—one ofthose might be a “best blade” for you.

Pick a brand of blade that works reasonablywell and stick with that brand for a couple ofmonths before beginning to explore the samplerpacks (as described in Chapter 8).

I would recommend the Omega Model643167160 artificial badger brush (a very goodbuy) or the more upscale Lucretia Borgia. If youwant a “real” brush, I highly recommend ahorsehair brush or the Mühle synthetic, whichseems to me to work very like horsehair.

An option that’s even more economical: theOmega Pro 49 boar-bristle brush at around $10. Itproduces great lather easily, and gets better as youuse it day after day.

If you want a badger brush, I highly recommendthe Wee Scot, which does a fantastic job, has amodest price, and works well as a travel brush toboot. Other options would be a Rooney Style 2 orStyle 3 Small Super Silvertip brush or the G.B.Kent BK4, all fine brushes. For a less expensivebadger option in a standard brush size, look at thestandard beginner brush: one of the Edwin JaggerBest Badgers in medium161.

I recommend that you get both a shaving creamand a shaving soap. You might as well practicewith both from the start.

A popular choice for a first shaving cream isProraso, an Italian shaving cream with a menthol-and-eucalyptus fragrance. However, some men’sskin does not do well with the Proraso formula,especially in the winter months. So instead youmight want to use Taylor of Old Bond StreetAvocado Shaving cream, quite popular withnewbies. If you are allergic to fragrances, Truefitt& Hill Ultimate Comfort might be a good choicefor a shaving cream.

For your first shaving soap, I recommend usinga shave stick, since I find lather production iseasiest using a shave stick (though men with sparseor soft beards will find creating lather in a bowl iseasier). Shaving sticks are available in unscentedversions. The D.R. Harris and Palmolive shavesticks produce particularly good lather, or get ashave stick from QED, Honeybee Soaps, or MamaBear. Arko’s shave stick (under $3) is excellent.

If you want to try soap in a tub, let me

recommend QED’s Special 218, or any of theHoneybee Soaps or Mama Bear shaving soaps—those are made with shea butter and are quite niceto your skin. Both Honeybee Soaps and MamaBear soaps come in a wide variety of fragrances inaddition to unscented versions. Or you might try aclassic triple-milled shaving soap, such as Truefitt& Hill or D.R. Harris or Vintage Blades’ ownhouse brand. Dovo shave soap also is excellent.

For an aftershave, Bay Rum is a classicfragrance, or you can use any of the variousThayers witch hazels if you want somethingsoothing. Or you might prefer a moisturizing balmafter you shave; Neutrogena Razor Defense is onesuch and is available at your local drugstore.

For both equipment and supplies look in theBuying/Selling sections of the shaving forums. Youoften can find bargains there. Post a “WTB” (WantTo Buy) if you’re looking for a specific item.Your second razor In time you will want a second razor (and—whoknows?—perhaps a third and fourth). I have long

recommended that your second razor be theMerkur Slant Bar. It should be a second razorbecause it requires a light touch and a sure hand,so you should be experienced with a safety razorbefore using it.

The reason for this (strong) recommendation isthe unique cutting acting—slicing rather thanchopping the stubble. The result is an extremelyeasy-cutting and smooth shave, an experience thatmost shavers enjoy.

A Slant Bar with a sharp blade is the ideal toolif you have a thick, wiry beard and sensitive skin.It will not give closer shaves than an excellentstraight bar, in my experience, but it’s a differentshave.

A recent poll on ShaveMyFace.com162 indicatedthat a majority of those who had used both theMerkur HD and Slant Bar razors thought the SlantBar was better, and only a small minority thoughtthe HD was better. In all, 88% thought that theSlant Bar was better than or as good as the HD:

If you’ve used both Slant Bar and HD, what doyou find?

Essentially no difference between them 30%[9]

Slant Bar noticeably better than HD 58%[18]

HD noticeably better than Slant Bar 13% [4] Total Votes: 31

Let me repeat: get a Slant Bar for your secondrazor. You’ll be glad that you did. (You can thankme later.)

FOURTEEN

Sources of the most commonproblems

PROBLEMS with the shave usually—though notalways—have their source in one of the followingareas. If you have some problem in your shave thatdon’t seem to stem from the causes listed below,the shaving forums (see Appendix) are a goodsource of informed advice.

Insufficient Prep Your beard must be fully wetted to soften. Shaveafter showering, wash beard again at the sink withMusgo Real Glyce Lime Oil soap, and apply agood lather—dense and holding a substantialamount of water—to your wet beard. You can alsotry the hot towel treatment. Do not neglect prep ofyour neck shaving area.

One sign of insufficient preparation—and, in

particular, of a lather that’s too dry and/or alathering process that’s too brief—is that the bladeseems dull, pulling and tugging at the beard insteadof cutting smoothly and easily. It may be, ofcourse, that the blade is dull, particularly if you’vebeen putting off changing it. Or, if it’s a new brandof blade, it may be either a bad blade or a brandthat doesn’t work for you.

But if you have a brand of blade that’s beenworking well for you, and suddenly it doesn’tseem to be cutting, suspect the prep. Make sure thelather’s wet enough, and spend a good amount oftime with the brush, working the lather over andinto your beard. Begin your shave with the softestpart of your beard, leaving the toughest (the chinand upper lip) for last so that those whiskers havemore time to soak in the lather and thus soften.

Wrong Blade for You Blade selection is crucial. Novices focus on therazor, but the razor is just a device for holding theblade and presenting the edge at the correct angleto the stubble. Different people require different

blades. Get a sampler pack so you can find the bestblade for you. This step is absolutely essential ifyou want close and comfortable shaves. Don’t skipit. And you cannot rely on recommendations fromother shavers: one man’s pebble is another man’spearl, and vice versa.

This idea is enormously difficult to grasp—ifyou have a terrible shave with a blade, it’s hard tobelieve that others would actually like the blade,and if you have a wonderful shave, you want torecommend the blade. And yet it’s true that everyblade has those who like it and those who hate it.And until you try the blade, you don’t know intowhich group you fall.

Incorrect Blade Angle Blade angle is absolutely critical. The bladeshould be almost parallel to the skin being shaved,so that the blade’s edge strikes the stubble almostat a right angle as the blade slides over your skin.

Where the skin has a lot of curves (for example,jawline, neck, chin), you have to maneuver therazor a fair amount to keep the blade angle correct

because the safety razor, unlike the cartridge razor,does not pivot. Making short strokes helps you stayfocused on blade angle.

No matter how light the pressure, if the angle’swrong, you’ll nick or cut yourself.

Too Much Pressure Use very light pressure. Shaving with a cartridgeeither requires or encourages pressure, so exertingtoo much pressure is a habit that cartridge shaversmust unlearn.

Often the weight of the razor by itself is enoughto cut the stubble. Hold the blade to minimizepressure—for example, by the balance point on thehandle. When you rinse after the first pass, you’llfeel quite a bit of stubble. This does not mean youshould use more pressure—in single-bladeshaving, you eliminate stubble by progressivelyreducing it over 2, 3, or 4 passes.

Keep the pressure light. Your face will thankyou.

Ignoring Your Beard’s Grain

It’s vital that you know the direction of yourbeard’s growth, since the sequence of passes isfirst with the grain, then across the grain, and then(if stubble is sufficiently reduced and you don’thave to be concerned about razor bumps) againstthe grain. (If too much stubble remains for acomfortable against-the-grain pass, first shaveacross the grain the other way.)

Generally, the beard on your face will growdownward—but not always. I have a couple ofpatches where it grows more or less sideways.The grain on the neck can be anything, evenwhiskers growing in whorls, which is why goodprep of the neck shaving area is so important. Tofind the grain, wait 12-24 hours after you’veshaved, then rub your face and neck. The directionthat’s roughest is against the grain. You’ll find the“roughest” direction is different on different partsof your face and neck.

Bathroom Too Loud If your bathroom is not quiet—if, for example,water is running or the fan is on or you’re listening

to a radio—then you cannot hear the sounds ofshaving. Shaving deaf, as it were, is like flyingblind: it doesn’t work well. You need auditoryfeedback to fine-tune the blade angle.

Setting an Adjustable Razor TooHigh Some novices inexplicably dial their adjustablerazor to the most aggressive settings—4, 5, or 6 onthe Futur or Progress, or 8 or 9 on the GilletteAdjustable—and then find themselves staring inthe mirror at their lacerated face. With adjustables,start with the lowest setting (1 on Futur orProgress, 2 or 3 on Gillette Adjustable), andadvance the setting only as you must in order to geta good shave. As soon as you get a good shave,stop there. You want the lowest setting that works,not the highest setting you can stand. It’s not acontest.

—If you pay attention to these basic points, you’llenjoy your shaves. There will be a learning curve,as you make the transition from cognitive

understanding to practiced skill, but you will atleast know what you’re trying for.

FIFTEEN

Where to get more information

NOW that you’re at the end of this introductorybook, you may well want to know more.

A commenter on ShaveMyFace.com pointed outan on-line article163 “Exploring the Science ofShaving” from the February 1957 issue of Scienceand Mechanics. The advice in the sidebar “10Minutes to a Good Shave” is still right on target.

A write-up on MSNBC164 on how to get theperfect shave covers some of the same points asthis book.

A commenter on my original post on shavingpointed out a “how-to-use” guide165.

I’ve mentioned the series of videos166 made byMantic, which offer an introduction to anddemonstration of many of the topics coveredabove.

The wetshaving forums offer invaluable advice

to novices and allow you to post your ownquestions. You will get a range of views andadvice, which is all to the good: shaving solutionsvary by person, so knowing a range of solutions isquite helpful.

One benefit of using these forums is that, whenyou describe a problem you’re facing, you willoften get responses from men who have faced (andsolved) the identical problem, and thus you canprofit from their experience.

Some manufacturers of shaving products offerfree samples, which are quite useful. For example,a sample is more than enough to test for anyspecial sensitivity or allergy: just rub a bit insideyour forearm and let it sit. If your skin reactsadversely, it’s probably not a good product foryour face. (Testing new shaving products in thisway is an excellent idea for anyone who believeshe might have some allergies.) On Shave My Faceyou can find a comprehensive list167 of sources ofsamples, and Garry’s Sampler Shop (see vendorlist in Appendix) has a good selection.

Finally, the best source of information to

improve your shave is likely to be your ownexperience and tests and observations andreflection.

If you are wondering whether your lather issufficiently wet—or too wet—the best course is toexperiment: try using less water, then using morewater, and see how it works for you.

If you are wondering whether a particular pre-shave you have really works, or whether it worksbetter if you apply it before each pass, experiment.Shave a week with it, followed by a week without.Try a week of using it only before the first pass,followed by a week of using it before every pass.

Thoughtful experimentation and closeobservation of outcomes are, in shaving as inscience and life in general, the most reliablesource of knowledge.

Go now and experiment.

Appendix

Links are also available attinyurl.com/leisureguy5 in clickable form. Thelinks below are organized by category:

ForumsReferenceBlade sampler packsVendors

Forums Badger & Blade - BadgerandBlade.com

Damn Fine Shave - DamnFineShave.comPogonotomy - Pogonotomy.comRazor and Brush message board -

tinyurl.com/2hj8dbShave My Face - ShaveMyFace.comSimply Shaving - SimplyShaving.netStraight Razor Place - StraightRazorPlace.comThe Shave Den - TheShaveDen.comThe Shaving Room -

TheShavingRoom.co.uk/forum

Wicked Edge - reddit.com/r/wicked_edge

Reference Blade widths and the effects -tinyurl.com/5yusmq

Bruce on Shaving - bruceonshaving.com (manyphotos)

Gillette historical pricing strategies -tinyurl.com/3cjbgtj

Gillette British models - tinyurl.com/2bbbmsaGillette date codes - tinyurl.com/5vx87ouMantic’s shaving videos - tinyurl.com/y2fx33Museum of safety razors - tinyurl.com/3yzsm2Schick Injectors - tinyurl.com/27vor9Shaving 101 - shaving101.comShaving information - shaveinfo.comShaving product samples - tinyurl.com/2gwu8c

andsampleshop.blogspot.com

Blade Sampler Packs The vendors selling blade sampler packs as of thisedition are:

BestShave.net (free shipping worldwide)BullGoose Shaving Supplies (in the US)Connaught Shaving (in the UK)Details for Men (in the US)Em’s Place (in the US)Fendrihan (in Canada)Kinetic Blue (in Australia)Razor Blades & More (in the US)Shaving.ie (in Ireland)Shoebox Shaveshop (in the US)Traditional Shaving Supplies (in Ireland)West Coast Shaving (in the US)ViaAmazon.com: tinyurl.com/ycq3fb7Via eBay.com: tinyurl.com/6azkz5s

Vendors Following is a list of on-line vendors for thewetshaving community. This list is volatile, asnew vendors come on-line, so be sure to alsocheck the supplemental post.

* = complete vendor (brushes, soaps, creams,razors, blades, aftershaves)

H = handmade shaving soap, creams, lotions,aftershaves, etc.

C = will accept calls from men seeking productadviceAppleton Barber Supply - tinyurl.com/2xntk4 -

800-236-0456 Central Time -info@appletonbarbersupply.com - Primarilyof interest for great selection of aftershaves(at link).

Art of Shaving - theartofshaving.com - 800-696-4999 Eastern Time - AOS shaving cream andsoap and aftershave, Merkur. (Shave oil notrecommended: too gummy)

Atkinson’s - tinyurl.com/2dc6zy -info@atkinsonsofvancouver.com - 604-7363368 800-803-0233 Pacific Time -Plisson brushes.

H * Barclay Crocker - barclaycrocker.com -sales@barclaycrocker.com - 800536-1866 -Many brands of Bay Rum, Merkur, Proraso,Musgo Real (including Glyce Lime Oil pre-shave soap), Geo. F Trumper, Truefitt &Hill, Taylor of Old Bond St, Col Conk,

Woods of Windsor, Shave Brushes & Mugs,Barclay Crocker Custom Scenting.

* Best Grooming Tools - bestgroomingtools.com- customerservice@bestgroomingtools.com -Selection includes Col. Conk, Dovo,Erasmic, D. R. Harris, Edwin Jagger,Merkur, Mühle, Musgo Real, Parker,Proraso, Simpson, Speick, Taylor of OldBond Street, Valobra.

* BestShave.net - bestshave.net - 90 0224 4132710 - There’s also a contact form on theWeb site. Located in Bursa, Turkey. - Arko,Astra, Coll, Derby, Gibbs, Permasharp,Racer, Rapira, Shark, SuperMax. Freeshipping on blades.

* BM Vintage Shaving - bmvintageshaving.com -sales@bmvintageshaving.com - 760-799-5539 Pacific Time - Col Conk, Derby, Dovo,Edwin Jagger, Gessato, Merkur, Taylor ofOld Bond Street, Vulfix.

H Bob’s Razor Works - tinyurl.com/3hvww4m -Handmade shaving brushes and customhandles for razors. Exceptional work, with

photos at the link.Bon Savon - tinyurl.com/2a67rx -

info@bonsavon.com - 877-832-4635 PacificTime - Provence Santé, Pre de Provence,Swedish Summer Soap, Lightfoot’s ShavingSoap.

* Bull Goose Shaving Supplies -bullgooseshaving.net -BullGoose@bullgooseshaving.net - Astra,Cyril R. Salter, Derby, Erasmic, Feather,Lord, Merkur, Omega, Proraso, Shark,Simpson, Speick, Tabac, Taylor. Offersblade sampler packs.

Carbolic Soap Co. - tinyurl.com/yucvfb -Mitchell’s Wool Fat Shaving Soap.

C H * Classic Shaving - classicshaving.com -info@classicshaving.com - 760288-4178Pacific Time - Cremo Cream, Dovo, Feather,Merkur, Proraso, Rooney, Taylor of OldBond Street, Thiers-Issard, Truefitt & Hill,Vulfix, Zowada.

H* Connaught Shaving - connaughtshaving.com -info@connaughtshaving.com - 07963 325842

- Carter & Bond, Derby, Gillette, Merkur,Parker, Proraso, Treet. Offers a bladesampler pack: tinyurl.com/yr36v2

Cotton Blossom Crafts - tinyurl.com/ysb3oh -DeLong, Weishi razors.

Crabtree & Evelyn - tinyurl.com/2ckbjk - 800-272-2873 Eastern Time - Edwin Jagger,C&E Shaving creams and soaps andaftershave.

* Details for Men - detailsformen.com - 888-680-2857 Eastern Time -contact@detailsformen.com - Art of Shaving,Derby, Feather, Gentlemens Refinery,Gillette, Musgo Real (including MR GLO),Pré de Provence, Proraso, Provence Santé,l’Occitane, Merkur, Mühle Pinsel, Speick,Valobra, Williamson, and others. Offersblade sampler packs.

eBarbershop - tinyurl.com/22du5u -sales@eBarbershop.com - Col. Conk,Crabtree & Evelyn, G. B. Kent, Merkur,Personna, Pinaud, Woods of Windsor.

eBay - Safety razors and blades -

tinyurl.com/2hj626 At the link is a list ofeBay offerings, including bulk-purchaseIsraeli and Derby blades, safety razors of allkinds, and the like. List sorted by newlylisted, but can be resorted to find auctionsending soonest.

Elite Razor - eliterazor.com -robert.d.quinn@eliterazor.com - 404-918-2345 Central Time - Offers a wide variety ofrazors and brushes with handles custom-crafted of wood, stone, or neo-resinate.Worth browsing for special gifts fortraditional shavers.

H * Em’s Place - shaveplace.com andshaveinfo.com - emily@shaveplace.com -Dovo, Em’s (shaving soaps and creams,aftershaves, lotions), Geo. F. Trumper, GoldDachs, Merkur, Omega, Proraso, Simpson,Speick, Tabac, My Nik Is Sealed. Offersblade sample packs.

H C * Enchante Online - enchanteonline.com -enchantetx@sbcglobal.net - 888220-2927Central Time - Derby, D.R. Harris, Feather,

Geo. F. Trumper, Israeli Personna, Merkur,Shavemaster, Taylor of Old Bond Street,Wilkinson.

* The English Shaving Company -theenglishshavingcompany.com -enquiries@theenglishshavingcompany.com -D.R. Harris, Edwin Jagger, Geo. F.Trumper, Proraso.

* Executive Shaving Company - executive-shaving.co.uk - Cyril R. Salter, Dovo, D.R.Harris, Edwin Jagger, Geo. F. Trumper,Rooney, Merkur, Taylor of Old Bond Street,Thiers Issard, Truefitt & Hill.

* Fendrihan - fendrihan.com -info@fendrihan.com - 905-230-1254 Easterntime. Col. Conk, Derby, D. R. Harris, GoldDachs, J.M. Fraser, Merkur, Musgo Real,Simpson, Taylor of Old Bond Street,Valobra, Vulfix, Kent shaving soap (same asMitchell’s Wool Fat). Offers blade samplerpacks.

Garry’s Sample Shop - sampleshop.blogspot.com- A great resource for buying samplers of

various shaving products (soaps, shavingcreams, aftershaves, balms, and the like) soyou can test them (for example, on yourforearm) to be sure that you have nosensitivities that would preclude your use.Obviously, you also get a chance to checkfragrance, lathering, etc.

G. B. Kent & Sons - tinyurl.com/4ftyn8 -+44(0)1442-232623 - vjp@kentbrushes.com- G.B. Kent shaving brushes (and hairbrushes), Kent shaving cream and shavingsoap (shaving soap is the same as Mitchell’sWool Fat Shaving Soap).

* The Gentleman’s Groom Room -thegentlemansgroomroom.com - +44 (0)1382 801504 - Arko, Arran Aromatics,Czech & Speake, Essence of Scotland,Floris, G.B. Kent, Geo. F. Trumper, Merkur,Mitchell’s Wool Fat, Omega, Osma, Parker,Simpson, Taylor of Old Bond Street, Timor.

* The Gentleman’s Shop - gentlemans-shop.com- sales@gentlemans-shop.com - 01488683536 / 684363 (UK) - Art of Shaving,

Castle Forbes, Dovo, D.R. Harris, EdwinJagger, G.B. Kent, Geo. F. Trumper, Merkur,Rooney, Simpson, Taylor of Old BondStreet, Truefitt & Hill.

The Gentlemens Refinery - thegr.com - 866-444-7428 Mountain Time. Excellent shavingcreams, aftershave balms, shave oil, shavingbrushes. Products made by a fourth-generation barber.

* Gifts and Care - giftsandcare.com -contacto@giftsandcare.com - (+34) 96 3400220 in Spain - Lots of horsehair brushes,including horsehair and boar mix, in a rangeof grades. Also, Castle Forbes, Floïd, LaToja, Lea, Merkur, Myrsol, Proraso, Taylorof Old Bond Street, Tres Claveles. They alsocarry an extensive collection of makeupbrushes.

H Ginger’s Garden - gingersgarden.com -Handmade “shaving-cream soap” that lathersabundantly and is available is a wide varietyof fragrances. Also available is a glycerinsoap. Soap comes as pucks, in tubs, or as

shave sticks.* Highland Mens Care - highlandmenscare.com -

service@highlandmenscare.com - 877-284-1887 Eastern time - Acca Kappa, AnthonyLogistics, Art of Shaving, BluebeardsOriginal, Castle Forbes, D.R. Harris & Co.,Edwin Jagger, Feather, Gentlemens Refinery,Geo. F. Trumper, G.B. Kent, Lucky Tiger,Merkur, Musgo Real, Personna, Pre deProvence, Proraso, Royall Lyme, Taylor ofOld Bond Street, Truefitt & Hill, WilkinsonSword.

H Honeybee Soaps - honeybeesoaps.net -honeybeespa@att.net - Handmade shea buttershaving soaps and shave sticks, along withbroad line of handmade creams, lotions,shampoos, and other toiletries. Wide varietyof fragrances.

Ian Tang’s Shaving Workshop -tinyurl.com/3pxa52w - Frank Shavingbrushes: well-made but inexpensive badgershaving brushes.

iKon Razors - ikonrazors.com - Stainless iKon

razors in a variety of designs, Featherblades, knobs for the Merkur Progress, andother offerings.

* The Irish Barber - irishbarber.com --info@irishbarber.com - Col. Conk, Derby,Dovo, Geo. F. Trumper, Merkur, Mühle,Taylor of Old Bond Street, quite a bit of verynice porcelain (mugs, bowls, scuttles)

* Italian Barber - italianbarber.com -support@italianbarber.com - 647-800-4622Eastern time - Specializes in Italian shaveproducts, but has wide range: Acca Kappa,Atkinson, Bolzano, Booster, Cella, Col.Conk, Cremo Cream, Feather, Geo. F.Trumper, iKon, J.M. Fraser, Lord, Merkur,Omega, Palmolive, Proraso, Rapira,Valobra, Wilkinson Sword.

H Kell’s Original - kellsoriginal.com -dan.kell@kellsoriginal.com - A variety ofexcellent shaving soaps made with hemp oil,aloe vera, or a combination, in a variety offragrances, including unscented. Samplerpucks available.

* Kinetic Blue - kineticblue.com.au - Astra,Dorco, Geo. F. Trumper, Merkur, MühlePinsel, Penhaligon, Truefitt & Hill. Bladesampler pack available.

* Lee’s Razors - leesrazors.com -leesrazors@aol.com - 800-503-5001 EasternTime - Col. Conk, Derby, Dovo, Feather,Geo. F. Trumper, Merkur, Mitchell’s WoolFat Shaving Soap, Musgo Real (includingGlyce Lime Oil soap), Proraso, Simpson,Vulfix.

London’s Bathecary - shoplondons.com - 434-220-0540 Eastern Time - Caswell Massey,Floris London, Geo. F. Trumper, Lightfoot’s,Mitchell’s Wool Fat Shaving Soap,Penhaligon’s, Taylor of Old Bond Street.

H Mama Bear - bear-haven.com -sclark@core.com Full line of handmadeshaving soap, shave stick, shaving cream,aftershaves, along with regular soaps. Widevariety of fragrances. Also containers (makeyour own shave stick), alum block.

* Men’s Biz - mensbiz.com.au - 1300 784 789 -

service@mensbiz.com.au - Astra, Col. Conk,Derby, Dovo, eShave, Feather, Geo. F.Trumper, Men-u, Merkur, Musgo Real,Personna, Proraso, Taylor of Old BondStreet,

men-ü - men-uusa.com - 800-987-6790 Centraltime - their own line: shaving creams andsoaps, shaving brushes, and aftershaves.They offer an excellent synthetic-bristlebrush.

* Momentum Grooming -momentumgrooming.com -shop@momentumgrooming.com - 604-689-4636; 1-877-886-4636 Pacific Time(Vancouver BC) - Merkur, Musgo Real,Proraso, True Gentleman, Truefitt & Hill

Moss Scuttle - sarabonnymanpottery.com - 902-657-3215 Atlantic Time - The famous MossScuttle along with a wide variety of potteryand hooked rugs.

* Mühle-Pinsel - tinyurl.com/yu3zze -info@muehle-shaving.com - Germancompany. Baxter of California, D.R. Harris,

Edwin Jagger, Geo. F. Trumper, Mühle-Pinsel, Proraso.

* Nashville Knife Shop - nashvilleknifeshop.com -info@nashvilleknifeshop.com - 812-988-9800 Central Time - Col. Conk, CremoCream, Derby, Dovo, D.R. Harris, Merkur,Proraso, Mühle-Pinsel.

Nancy Boy - nancyboy.com -contact@nancyboy.com - 888-746-2629Pacific Time - Nancy Boy products, good forsensitive skin.

H Nanny’s Silly Soap Company -nannyssillysoap.com - Many fragrances ofhandmade soft shaving soap.

H New Forest Brushes -newforestbrushes.blogspot.com - Handmadefine badger shaving brushes at veryreasonable prices.

l’Occitane - tinyurl.com/q425c - 888-623-2880Cade line of shaving soap, cream, shea butteraftershave balm.

H Olivia Shaving Soaps - tinyurl.com/2hxzeyHandmade shaving soaps and creams; Crema

Sapone Cella.Pacific Shaving Company - pacificshaving.com/ -

Shaving oil, liquid styptic.H Prairie Creations - prairie-creations.com -

Handmade shaving soaps and creams,including shave sticks. The soaps are basedon tallow or tallow combined with lanolin,with choices of scented, essential oils, orunscented.

CH* QED - qedusa.com - qed@quod.com 401-433-4045 Eastern Time - Castle Forbes,Cyril R. Salter, Geo. F. Trumper, Merkur,Musgo Real, Omega, QEDman (his own lineof soaps and lotions), Proraso, Savile Row,Taylor of Old Bond Street, Truefitt & Hill.

H Queen Charlotte Soaps, LLC -queencharlottesoaps.com -info@queencharlottesoaps.com - Handmadeshaving-cream-like soap.

* Rasage Poulin - rasagepoulin.com -scott@rasagepoulin.com - 403-295-8448Mountain Time - Booster, D. R. Harris,Edwin Jagger, Geo. F. Trumper, Institut

Karité, J. M. Fraser, Laboratoires OSMA,Lucky Tiger, Merkur, Musgo Real, Omega,Proraso, Rooney, Semogue, sul filo delrasoio.

* Razor Blades and More -razorbladesandmore.com - 323-362-6201Pacific Time - Bluebeard, Cella, Coates,Col. Conk, Cyril R. Salter, Edwin Jagger,Erasmic, Feather, Floïd, Irisch Moos, LaToja, Lea, Malaspina Soap Factory, men-ü,Merkur, Mitchell’s Wool Fat, Mühle, MusgoReal, Myrsol, Omega, Palmolive, Parker,Pinaud, Proraso, Speick, Tabac, Taylor ofOld Bond Street, Valobra.

Razor Emporium - razoremporium.com - 602-885-2725 Mountain Time - an unusual sitewith an emphasis on vintage razors, both DEand straight, and vintage brushes. He alsocarries the Pils line, both razors and brushes.He offers a replating service for razors ingold, rhodium, nickel, silver, or other metals.Inquire for details.

Retrorazor - retrorazor.com -

chaddmbennett@retrorazor.com Derby,Weishi, starter gift-packs, shavingworkshops in Seattle

* Royal Shave - royalshave.com -info@royalshave.com - 800-801-0769Pacific Time - Calani, Castle Forbes, Col.Conk, Edwin Jagger, Feather, Gold Dachs,D.R. Harris, Hasslinger, G.B. Kent, KlarKabinett, Merkur, Mitchells Wool Fat,Mühle, Parker, Pils, Plisson, Simpson,Speick, Taylor of Old Bond Street, Thater,Geo. F. Trumper, Truefitt & Hill, Vulfix.

* SafetyRazors.co.uk - safetyrazors.co.uk -info@safetyrazors.co.uk - +44 (0) 0845 0090053 - Merkur, Taylor of Old Bond Street,Cyril R. Salter, Simpson. Also sells vintagerazors. Contact for information aboutreplating nickel- plated razors.

H Saint Charles Shave - saintcharlesshave.comsue@saintcharlesshave.com - Handmadeshaving soaps, creams, aftershaves, lotions,eau de toilettes.

* Sesto Sento - sesto-sento.com - info@sesto-

senso.com - 301-668-5018 - Castle Forbes,Geo. F. Trumper, Merkur, Musgo Real(including Glyce Lime-Oil Soap), Omega,Pashana, Proraso, QED Shave sticks, SavileRow brushes, Taylor of Old Bond Street,Truefitt & Hill, Vulfix shaving cream.

Shave Center of the Internet -shavingsupplies.com Altesse, Col. Conk,Dovo, Merkur, Thiers Issard.

The Shave Den Store - tinyurl.com/4y7mex - partof The Shave Den Forum. Selection ofshaving soaps and creams, both withfragrance oils and essential oils, along withaftershaves, colognes, and the like.

* Shaveabuck - shaveabuck.com -info@shaveabuck.com - 732-239-2607Eastern time - A very broad selectionincluding items hard to find in the US, atgood prices. Includes Arko, Astra, Bea,Boots, De Vergulde Hand, Delong, Derby,Edwin Jagger, Erasmic, Feather, Frank,Godrej, James Bronnley, Kappus, G.B. Kent,Lavanda, Lea, Lightfoot’s, Lord, Malizia,

Merkur, Mitchell’s Wool Fat, Mühle, Parker,Pitralon, Rapira, Sabi, Shark, Taylor of OldBond Street, Timor, Treet, Valobra, Wars,WilkinsonShavemac - shavemac.com -info@shavemac.de - Dovo, Haslinger,Merkur, Olivesoap, Shavemac, Speick,Tabac, Weleda.

Shavemac - Shavemac.com - Dovo, Haslinger,Merkur, Olivesoap, Shavemac, Speick,Tabac, Weleda.

* The Shaver Shop - shavershop.com -askus@shavershop.com - Col. Conk, EdwinJagger, Geo. F. Trumper, HeadBlade,Merkur, Razor Guard, Tend Skin.

* Shave-Shack.com.au - shave-shack.com.au -enquiries@shave-shack.com.au - +61 (0)430300 635 - The Otoko Organics shaving soap(under “Modern Shaving”) is remarkable.Also, Castle Forbes, Fitjar, Frank Shaving,Goodfella, Otoko, Proraso, Simpsons,Vulfix, Weishi.

* Shaving.ie - shaving.ie - info@shaving.ie - 015240758 - Located in Ireland. Arko, Cella,

Dovo, D.R. Harris, Edwin Jagger, Feather,Floïd, Geo. F. Trumper, Merkur, Mühle,Musgo Real, Omega, Parker, Pashana,Proraso, Semogue, Simpson, Speick, Tabac,Taylor of Old Bond Street, Timor, Vitos*

* The Shaving Shack - shaving-shack.com -enquiries@shaving-shack.com - 01752898191 - Col. Conk, Cyril R. Salter, Dovo,D.R. Harris, G. B. Kent, Merkur, Mitchell’sWool Fat, Mühle, Musgo Real, Omega,Simpson, Speick, Tabac, Taylor of Old BondStreet, Truefitt & Hill, Vulfix

Shaving Stuff - shavingstuff.com - Not a vendor,but a site that routinely reviews shavingequipment and supplies, from time to timefinding things of interest to traditionalwetshavers.

* Shoebox Shaveshop - shoeboxshaveshop.com -shoeboxshaveshop@yahoo.com - 786-200-2774 (between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. EasternTime) - Arko, Cella, Erasmic, Figaro,Fitness, Institut Karité, Lord, Mitchell’sWool Fat, Omega, Pre De Provence, PREP,

Proraso, Speick, Tabac, Taylor of Old BondStreet, Treet, Weishi. Offers blade samplerpacks.

* Smallflower - smallflower.com - Voice 800-252-0275 Central time - fax 773 989-8108 -Geo. F. Trumper, Mitchell’s Wool Fat,Mühle Pinsel, Musgo Real (including GlyceLime Oil pre-shave soap), Pre de Provence,Provence Santé, Proraso, Speick, Tabac.

H The Soap Opera - thesoapopera.com -thesoapop@thesoapopera.com 800251-7627Central time - Search on “shaving” to findshaving supplies easily. Crabtree & Evelyn,Musgo Real, L’Occitane, Omega, The SoapOpera (their Himalaya is quite good). Theyoffer their own shaving brushes.

Straight Razor Designs -straightrazordesigns.com -service@straightrazordesigns.com - Baxterof California, Castle Forbes, D.R. Harris,Heirloom Razor, Maestro Livi, Merkur,Truefitt & Hill. Both straight and safety razorproducts.

* The Superior Shave - thesuperiorshave.com -admin@thesuperiorshave.com - 904-482-1175 Eastern Time - Derby, Dovo, Feather,Merkur, Mühle (including travel brush),Omega, Parker, Proraso, Simpson, Thiers-Issard, Valobra, Vulfix. He seems to carrymore Mühle products than other vendors.

Superlather - superlather.com -help@superlather.com - 727.483.5639Eastern time - Alt Innsbruck, Erasmic, Floïd,Ingram, Irisch Moos, Noxzema, P.160,Palmolive, Pitralon, Proraso.

* Traditional Shaving Company -traditionalshaving.co.uk - 0871 662 9683 (noorders by phone) - Astra, Colonel Conk,Crystal, Cyril R Salter, Derby, EdwinJagger, Feather, Mama Bears Soaps, Merkur,Osma, Personna, Saint Charles Shave,Simpsons, Taylor of Old Bond Street,Truefitt and Hill.

* Traditional Shaving Supplies -info@traditionalshaving.com - +353 1 5240758 in Dublin, Ireland. Acca Kappa, Astra,

Cella, Coates, Edwin Jagger, G.B. Kent,Feather, La Toja, Merkur, Mitchells WoolFat, Mühle, Omega, Semogue, Simpson,Speick, Sputnik, Tabac, Timor.

Tulumba - tinyurl.com/283vbt -info@tulumba.com 866-885-8622 EasternTime - Arko, alum block.

C* Vintage Blades LLC - vintagebladesllc.com -jim@vintagebladesllc.com - 410357-8055Eastern Time - Col. Conk, D. R. Harris,Dovo, Floris London, Merkur, Rooney,Shavemac, Thayers, Taylor of Old BondStreet, Truefitt & Hill.

* Vintage Scent - vintagescent.com - A vendor inPortugal worth browsing for brands youwon’t find elsewhere: 444, Confianca, Floïd,La Toja, Lavanda, LEA, Semogue

C * The Well Shaved Gentleman -thewellshavedgentleman.com - 443-717-3969 Eastern Time - Shave-ready Dovostraight razors, strops and hones. Providesexcellent advice on straight razors.

* West Coast Shaving - westcoastshaving.com -

contact@westcoastshaving.com - 877-710-6037 Pacific Time Cella, Gillette,Goodfella, Merkur, Mitchell, Proraso,Shavemac, Taylor of Old Bond Street,Valobra. Offers blade sampler packs.

1 Skin care: See tinyurl.com/2pttmv2 Flow: See tinyurl.com/a5f4s. Each person can

find tasks appropriate for him or her that willpromote flow: rock climbing, painting ordrawing, gardening, cooking, and the like.Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi defined the term in hisstudies and in the book that emerged from them,Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience.See tinyurl.com/ywzrea

3 Cognitive dissonance: See tinyurl.com/boyuz4 Ben Franklin was familiar with the effect if not

the term. He decided to win over an opponent inthe Pennsylvania state legislature:

I did not… aim at gaining his favour bypaying any servile respect to him but, aftersome time, took this other method. Havingheard that he had in his library a certain very

scarce and curious book I wrote a note to himexpressing my desire of perusing that bookand requesting he would do me the favour oflending it to me for a few days. He sent itimmediately and I returned it in about a weekwith another note expressing strongly mysense of the favour. When we next met in theHouse he spoke to me (which he had neverdone before), and with great civility; and heever after manifested a readiness to serve meon all occasions, so that we became greatfriends and our friendship continued to hisdeath. This is another instance of the truth ofan old maxim I had learned, which says, “Hethat has once done you a kindness will bemore ready to do you another than he whomyou yourself has obliged.”

In terms of modern psychology, the opponentobserved himself doing a favor for Franklin, afavor that Franklin framed as a great favor, andreduced his cognitive dissonance by deciding thathe must like Franklin after all.5 Wilkinson technology: See

tinyurl.com/2gce5h#2186446 Report at tinyurl.com/2ba4er#1335887 “What was I thinking?”: See tinyurl.com/2a4rm38 eBay safety razors: See tinyurl.com/5n4l3g9 For a wonderful account of the first-time

experience, read what brderj and DEsquire sayin the thread: tinyurl.com/2aln4w.

10 Series of videos made by Mantic: Seetinyurl.com/y2fx33

11 Different types: See tinyurl.com/ytfhfn12 A cream: See tinyurl.com/yr8kn513 The Art of the Straight-Razor Shave: See

tinyurl.com/2c4zuz14 100% glycerin: See tinyurl.com/29d2fr15 Hydrosol: Herbal distillates are aqueous

solutions or colloidal suspensions (hydrosols)of essential oils usually obtained by steamdistillation from aromatic plants or herbs.These herbal distillates have uses asflavorings, medicine and in skin care. Herbaldistillates go by many other names includingfloral waters, hydrosols, hydrolates, herbalwaters, toilet waters, aqua vitae, and essential

water. See also tinyurl.com/2e57ae16 Somewhat drier: See tinyurl.com/23cop217 Synthetic bristles: See tinyurl.com/22r92w --

Edwin Jagger synthetic brushes: Seetinyurl.com/l3keno

18 Advantages of synthetic bristles: Seetinyurl.com/296dbno

19 Vie-Long website: See www.vielong.com/20 Horsehair brush anthrax scare: See

tinyurl.com/26hwnp821 Suribachi bowl: See tinyurl.com/ykfzaav22 Semogue 2000: See tinyurl.com/ydatkgn23 Guide to boar brushes: See

tinyurl.com/28kp67r24 Several grades: See tinyurl.com/23vwkc25 Made by hand: See tinyurl.com/2y4wev26 Make your own: See tinyurl.com/rbwjd - scroll

down27 Clear differences: See tinyurl.com/yow8zh28 Vulfix brushes: See tinyurl.com/8bkbu29 Simpson brushes: See tinyurl.com/24ntes,

tinyurl.com/ywt35u, and tinyurl.com/yopp6330 Bruce Everiss review of New Forest brushes:

See tinyurl.com/3reovy931 Rooney brushes: See tinyurl.com/35b9ws and

tinyurl.com/yrmm8k32 Simpson measurements: See tinyurl.com/24kuln33 Omega brushes: See tinyurl.com/yrdzbu and

tinyurl.com/3ezbxq34 Omega brush measurements: See

tinyurl.com/2c6pad35 Kent brushes: See tinyurl.com/g8zyf (also has

Rooney and Edwin Jagger brushes). The BK4is the best size.

36 Crabtree & Evelyn Edwin Jagger Best Badgerbrush: See tinyurl.com/2fjtb6

37 English Shaving Co. Jagger Best Badgerbrushes: See tinyurl.com/yp3upw

38 Wooden-handled brushes: Seetinyurl.com/22prko

39 Shaving brush innovations: Seetinyurl.com/22xrfs

40 Shavemac variable-loftb rush: Seetinyurl.com/446uutu

41 One video: See tinyurl.com/yvfjjf42 Some nice accessories: See tinyurl.com/2bnqoe

43 Mühle travel brush: See tinyurl.com/2ayjrvg44 Anatomy of hair shaft: See tinyurl.com/3elobn45 Stand for the brush: See tinyurl.com/2gl5lj46 Brush cleaning: See tinyurl.com/yvg3hg and

also the videos at tinyurl.com/yvmfr647 Gold Dachs Shaving Brush cleaner: See

tinyurl.com/3yrlw7p48 M.A.C. brush cleaner: See tinyurl.com/25dj7o49 Moss Scuttle: See tinyurl.com/27ultr50 Dr. Moss quotation: See tinyurl.com/ytfqz351 Georgetown Pottery: See tinyurl.com/3twdjw

Georgetown Scuttle: See tinyurl.com/4jo4uj52 Dirty Bird Pottery: See tinyurl.com/3s2twxf53 Water softener technology and options: See

tinyurl.com/3e7p22g54 Sunbeam Hot Shot: See tinyurl.com/yqxzng55 Zojirushi hot-water dispenser: See

tinyurl.com/2gkf6b56 UtiliTEA kettle: See tinyurl.com/e226e57 J.M. Fraser shaving cream: See

tinyurl.com/38fyrcx58 High praise: See tinyurl.com/2zp35v59 Nancy Boy shaving cream: See

tinyurl.com/3625aew60 Cremo shaving cream: See cremocream.com61 Em’s Place shaving cream in squirt bottle: See

tinyurl.com/3nf4b3a62 An illustrated guide: See tinyurl.com/29zlku63 Mitchell’s Wool Fat Shaving Soap: See

tinyurl.com/yucvfb64 Tabac soap: See tinyurl.com/2hzk8r#tabac65 Rivivage: See tinyurl.com/5d2ny4; a three-pack

is available at tinyurl.com/6cbn4o66 Virgilio Valobra soap: See tinyurl.com/2c6pat67 Bruce Everiss review of Otoko soap: See

tinyurl.com/3epaps468 Essence of Scotland shaving soaps are

available in the UK from The Gentleman’sGroom Room (thegentlemansgroomroom.com)and in the US from Razor Emporium(razoremporium.com).

69 Instructions from Classic Shaving: Seetinyurl.com/2abtlr

70 This excellent tutorial: See tinyurl.com/pylqk71 Honeybee Spa now sells shaving sticks, but I’ll

include instructions on how to make a shaving

stick from any glycerin soap. (This will notwork with triple-milled soaps.) First, get ashaving stick container (e.g., from Bear-Haven.com). Put the glycerin soap in a Pyrexmeasuring cup, and put that in a pan of hotwater. Heat the pan of water over low heatuntil it’s 150°F, then turn off the burner andleave it for a while. (The soap takes a while tomelt.) You may have to reheat the water, butdon’t go over 150°. (Patience.) While waitingfor the soap to melt, turn the pusher of thecontainer so that it’s at the bottom. Do notlubricate the container—and in particular, donot use silicone grease—it will waterproofyour brush and kill the lather. For more onthis, see tinyurl.com/22x8r7#250052. Whenthe soap has melted, pour it into the containerand wait until it’s cooled. Voilà! Your ownshaving stick. If it does not advance easily outof the container, put it briefly in the freezerand then try again.

72 Video referenced above: See tinyurl.com/yvfjjf73 Mantic video: See tinyurl.com/y2fx33

74 More information: See tinyurl.com/2cbkvo75 Problem with lather: See tinyurl.com/yusrqk76 Superlather: See tinyurl.com/2a2z7t77 Gillette myth of giving away razors and selling

blades: See tinyurl.com/3cjbgtj78 A comment: See tinyurl.com/2a2uuq79 Microphotographs: See tinyurl.com/3mzl3t80 Blade reviews with photos: See

tinyurl.com/lpz5lf81 Feather Blade Safe: See tinyurl.com/2ddz2k82 If you’re willing to undertake learning to use a

straight razor, check outStraightRazorPlace.com and also The Art ofthe Straight-Razor Shave, by Chris Moss—see tinyurl.com/2c4zuz

For straight razors—sharpened, honed, andready to shave—and accessories and advice,contact the well regarded The Well ShavedGentleman (see vendor list above).

For an excellent introduction to straights(with diagrams), see tinyurl.com/ybwjkt6 atStraightRazorPlace.com.

83 Three types of razors: tinyurl.com/yqxeah

84 A rack: See tinyurl.com/4ydk4u85 A good review: See tinyurl.com/2hgqmh86 Loading Progress: See tinyurl.com/24cgdb87 This advice (Futur): See tinyurl.com/2dsrxe88 Vision user’s manual: See tinyurl.com/2b4h5t89 Edwin Jagger razors: See tinyurl.com/5ro5sn90 Feather premium razor is currently offered in

US only by Classic Shaving: Seetinyurl.com/2ums8go

91 Pils razor: See tinyurl.com/33c76bc92 Common Gillette razors: See

tinyurl.com/2zq4yh Also see these SuperSpeeds: tinyurl.com/393qsb6

93 Dates of Gillette razors: See tinyurl.com/k9g2n94 Lady Gillette photos: See tinyurl.com/3m5ldg95 Wilkinson Sword Classic review by Bruce

Everiss: See tinyurl.com/3p83y5x96 Eclipse Red Ring review by Bruce Everiss:

See tinyurl.com/3orgqps97 Schick Injector: See tinyurl.com/ygf3mn98 GEM G-Bar: See tinyurl.com/26mh3z99 Schick various models: See tinyurl.com/27vor9100 Pella injector: See

www.tedpella.com/dissect_html/dissect.htm#anchor1590232101 Pella single-edged blades: See

www.tedpella.com/dissect_html/dissect.htm#anchor1606431102 Clean it: See tinyurl.com/yuuuk5103 Maas metal polish: See tinyurl.com/yph6w3104 Shaver noted: See tinyurl.com/28g7wj105 Holding the tip: See tinyurl.com/2955zd106 Pointed out angle: See tinyurl.com/yuz6p4107 Tiny travel razor: See tinyurl.com/yuuwxn108 A similar approach: See tinyurl.com/29sstk109 Useful diagram: See tinyurl.com/ynkb5o110 The basic (4-pass) method: See

tinyurl.com/2akgaq111 Advanced shaving techniques: See

tinyurl.com/2y9ovh112 Hydrolast Cutting Balm: See

tinyurl.com/3ktec2113 Total Shaving Solution: See

tinyurl.com/62nud6114 All Natural Shaving Oil: See

pacificshaving.com/115 Kinexium ST Shaving Oil: See

tinyurl.com/6bmbzc

116 Gessato Pre-Shave Oil: Seetinyurl.com/5b9srw

117 Non-comedogenic chart: Seetinyurl.com/555esn

118 Natural 1 oz bottle: See tinyurl.com/4w8beb119 Cobaltblue 1 oz bottle: See tinyurl.com/4fbabt120 Three-razor method: See tinyurl.com/2fhcsne121 First Method video: See tinyurl.com/4llmby122 Method shaving supplies: See

tinyurl.com/3ktec2123 Shaver’s comment, alum bar for skin

condition: See tinyurl.com/4yxjzwn124 Wikipedia article on alum: See

tinyurl.com/3dfw2qz125 Shaver’s comment: See tinyurl.com/2e2n38126 One woman notes: See tinyurl.com/yqx6vk127 My Nik Is Sealed: See tinyurl.com/25b7xj8128 Lengthy review: See tinyurl.com/35ekgm129 Mantic59 video on aftershaves: See

tinyurl.com/3f9vmtx130 Skin problems with aftershave: See

tinyurl.com/nmrcn3131 Variety of fragrances: See

tinyurl.com/y8kw3o132 Sampler package: See tinyurl.com/265x8v133 Thayers Aftershave: See tinyurl.com/2c3vnd134 An entire array: See tinyurl.com/yrpb6e135 Booster’s aftershaves: See

tinyurl.com/28edcgy136 Proraso pre- and after-shave: See

tinyurl.com/yr8kn5137 Wikipedia perfume article: See

tinyurl.com/hmrda138 Mild acne photos: See tinyurl.com/5yy46f139 Moderate acne: See tinyurl.com/4dw4sf140 Severe acne: See tinyurl.com/3old4v141 Sulfur-based compounds: See

tinyurl.com/6ef7x6142 AcneNet: See tinyurl.com/498ksr143 Acne.org: See www.acne.org/ See also this

post for additional tips that may be of help:tinyurl.com/6etgup

144 Low comedogenicity: See tinyurl.com/696gsf145 Mayo Clinic articles: See tinyurl.com/44ufoj146 Anti-Cancer: See tinyurl.com/rdhruc147 Findings on sugar: See tinyurl.com/3rthjeg for

informative article in NY Times andtinyurl.com/3fp83sb for an extremelyinformative talk.

148 Pictures of razor bumps and rash: Seetinyurl.com/3qg7bh

149 Themba’s technique: See the threads attinyurl.com/yr5lz6 and tinyurl.com/5qbqpj(scroll down at both links)

150 Innomed Lice Comb: Easily found with aGoogle search

151 Moore Unique Razor Bump Tool: Seetinyurl.com/3q9aam

152 Bump Fighter Razor: See tinyurl.com/59lm8f153 Barbicide: tinyurl.com/4pvmou154 Bump Fighter: See tinyurl.com/6fuc4d Bump

Patrol: See tinyurl.com/3rt6hu DermagenSkin Revival System: Seetinyurl.com/43v9yw Elicina BiologicalTreatment: See tinyurl.com/4ampxj Folliquetreatment: See tinyurl.com/4d25ow HighTime Bump Stopper Products: Seetinyurl.com/4l82dx Moore Unique Products:S e e tinyurl.com/44zbya No Mo’Bumps

Aftershave: See tinyurl.com/3uugej PrinceReigns Gel: See tinyurl.com/4buq27 SmartShave Products: See tinyurl.com/528cxlTend Skin: See tinyurl.com/m6o6e

155 Homemade version of Tend Skin: Seetinyurl.com/63jsl3

156 Eczema from shampoo: See tinyurl.com/lpxygf157 A beginner shaving kit: See tinyurl.com/2fao4t158 Low-cost high-luxury shave: See

tinyurl.com/42telr2159 Bump Fighter Razor: See tinyurl.com/59lm8f160 Omega synthetic bristle brush: This one would

be a good choice: See tinyurl.com/34y7hgu161 Edwin Jagger Best Badger brushes: See

tinyurl.com/yp3upw162 Poll on ShaveMyFace.com: See

tinyurl.com/kn6vz7163 “Exploring the Science of Shaving”: See

tinyurl.com/cb92ae164 Write-up on MSNBC: See tinyurl.com/48evm165 “How-to-use” guide: See tinyurl.com/2f2wcl166 Series of videos: See tinyurl.com/y2fx33167 A comprehensive list: See

tinyurl.com/2gwu8c