It’s time for a little internal Q&A. The overall topic: what shaving products/devices/etc. won’t I try in general and why?
#1: Straight Razors. The idea of that just terrifies me. Now, don’t get me wrong: I am pretty confident in my knife skills for cooking, but turning a blade like that on my face and neck gives me the heebie-jeebies. Why? Because a good straight razor is sharpened and honed to an incredibly precise edge, far beyond what an ordinary kitchen knife would be ground to. And it’s so precise that every article or video I’ve seen with them tell you point blank, very early in the article or video, to not touch the blade with a thumb or finger to check for sharpness. Not because it will cut you, but because you’ll be rolling over the incredibly thin and sharp leading edge of the razor.
A straight razor is a single piece of metal, so when it gets dull or damaged for whatever reason, it needs to go into a shop or service somewhere to restore its edge. And I’ll be honest, that’s the kind of upkeep I don’t want to do.
#2: Any shaving brush costing more than $50 to purchase. Truth be told, that price probably should be lower, as I don’t think I’d ever buy one over $40 if I can avoid it. It’s one of those items that I see people selling and buying brushes for over $350, and I just don’t get it. Unless the bristles are kindly donated one at a time by an angel, I can’t see them being worth that. Is the badger being hand-fed grapes by a concubine?
As an aside, the badger brushes are the most expensive I tend to see. Boar brushes are cheaper, and synthetic are kind of all across the scale, but still far cheaper than top-of-the-line badger.
I do realize, though, that some brushes aren’t worth their price. I saw a goat hair brush at my local co-op and bought it (along with a cheap shaving soap puck) because I wanted to try lathering. That brush couldn’t hold its shape and kept losing bristles at an unbelievable rate. So I chucked it the first chance I got, and still, one of my boar brushes cost about half as much as that goat brush, and is still working great and not losing bristles.
Beyond the fiber used in the brush itself, the handles can be all kinds of simple or fancy, but I don’t see how a wood, plastic, acrylic, or whatever material brush could claim a high percentage of the price of a brush, but what do I know.
The three I have are very nice, and I’d only get a fourth just so I can try a synthetic brush, so it’ll be a fairly inexpensive one.
#3: A trendy, expensive soap tub. It’s fun to look at all of the soaps out there. Some of the scents sound really creative. And some of the packaging design is really incredible. But I just can’t justify in my head spending $30-40 for a shaving soap. The Proraso soaps I like are $10-12 for a tub or tube, and they work great for me. Though I did spend $21 for a tub of the unscented Cooper & French soap, which I love.
But there are some from some brands that have fancy names and fancy labels and catchy marketing, and all of that and sell for $30 or more. And people love them, and that’s great. I just won’t buy them.
I can put flavors together in my head, but I can’t seem to nail down scent combinations just be reading them. So shopping for shaving soaps (or balms and pre shaves) gets tricky when you’re trying to decypher the fragrance profile.
#4: Any razor costing over $200. Well, let’s talk this one through a bit. If I had the money to just throw away, there are two razors I’d buy that sell for $150 and $350 respectively. But I’d buy them because I have the money and don’t have any better causes to give them to.
One is the Rex Supply Co. Konsul Adjustable Slant. Yes, it’s a slant razor, and with my recent experience with the Parker, you may be questioning my sanity, but the Konsul is twist adjustable, which, in my mind, makes it potentially easier to use. But to lay out $350 for a razor, I’d have to be really sure that I’m going to like it and use it before buying it. As it was, the Parker was chosen because it is so inexpensive and represented a very low bar for entry into the slant razor space.
The $150 razor is a Rockwell T2 adjustable. It is also a twist adjustable, but not a slant. And after experiencing the Rockwell 6C and it’s adjustability via changing plates, the T2 is appealing for its ease. Plus, I now know the Rockwell build quality, and this would likely be a very well made razor.
But again, there would have to be some extremely compelling reasons to purchase either of those. As it is, I had to work a bit to convince myself to spend $70 each on the Henson and Rockwell 6C.
#5: Any more shaving foams, aftershave splashes, or toners. I the last year, I’ve really figured out what my face and neck wants…Or at least, I’ve figured out what the skin on my face and neck wants in terms of moisturization and treatment before and after shaving. Shaving is a fact of my life–I refuse to let my beard go full natural, because my hairline would cover all of my cheeks and would continue down to join up with my chest hair below my neck–so I need to make sure that the skin in question is healthy and can handle the torture that is shaving.
Shaving foams are okay, I guess. They get the job done, but only passably. I’ve got two foams in my collection, purchased early on and never finished, including one “travel sized” Barbasol Sensitive Skin foam. The they don’t moisturize. They barely protect. They don’t seem to help in softening or standing the beard hair up. And I’ve realized that they just won’t do what I expect from a shaving soap or cream. At that, I can extend this to most shaving creams, though as recently noted after trying the Barbasol 1919 shaving cream, that is an exception, and I figure that at some point, I’ll try Cremo as that gets a lot of recommendations as well.
I’ve said it frequently here and in the online forums: aftershave splashes, be they alcohol-based or otherwise, are not for me. They leave my skin feeling dry and uncomfortable. Yes, they provide that toning and restored tightness that many people like, but even while some people will use a balm after the toner, I found that the dryness just seems to carry over if I’ve used a splash or toner. So just no. My skin likes the added moisture a balm or lotion provides, and and that’s what it will get.
Stay tuned! I may get fickle in my second year of this experience and change this list!
