I’ve been shaving since 7th grade…or 13 years old for those of you in metric countries. I recall proudly gleaming when in the car, with my mom driving to…something, she looked over at me in the passenger seat, and accused me of not washing my face that day and just as she was moving to do the mom-licking-thumb-then-going-to-wipe-something-off-my-face thing, she noticed I had the start of a moustache.
It wasn’t coming off. It’s pretty much been a fixture under my nose ever since, later added to with a beard which I grew on our honeymoon. My wedding day was the last time I shaved most of my face.
But I continued shaving, keeping my cheeks and some portion of my neck shaven because if left to its own devices, my beard would fill in the blanks from my hairline to my chest hair. And no one wants that. Least of all me.
I started using my dad’s old Gillette adjustable and…a blade. I don’t recall buying new ones, replacing the blades, or trying any setting on the razor besides whatever it was already on. But at least by high school, I’d graduated to Bic disposables. Then to some 2 blade thing. And there were also a couple of hand-me-down electric shavers. Then over the years to some endless parade of cartridge razors.
I’ve used foams and creams. For a while in high school, I used a whole bunch of Clinique products for face and hair, but stopped probably when my mom stopped paying for them. And somewhere along my shaving life, I stopped using any kind of foam or cream because it never seemed to make a difference: my neck would get terrible razor burn no matter what I did.
With the beard, at least, I could usually fake it and skip a day shaving if I wanted. Within the last few years, where I’ve worked from home exclusively, I’ve come to only shave 3 days a week.
But my neck was still dry, burning, bumpy, and the like. I was to a point where I was using a 2 blade cartridge, in fact, the cheapest I could find (Dollar Shave Club, if you’re wondering), in the shower just to get it done.
So by Summer 2024, after some comparatively limited amount of Googling, I’d made a decision to shake things up and try something new.
During a family Target run, I got a Van Der Hagen. And a Clinique men’s face care sampler.
The razor was all of $13, included a 5 pack of blades (of which, inexplicably, I only have used one). The Clinique shave cream is decidedly thin and not at all helpful for shaving. The face moisturizer in the Clinique set on the other hand was amazing. But I’m still not willing to drop $50 on the full sized product.
During my grocery shopping trip soon after, I picked up a can of Barbasol. Then, a couple of weeks after starting this journey, again with more, but still limited research, I found a website (razoremporium.com) and bought a blade sampler pack for sensitive skin.
The 5 packs of 5 blades each cost only $10 total. That averaged out to 40 cents each blade. And I’d learned that I could use one blade per week for 3 or 4 shaves. So I was set to sample. Included were: Accu-Forge, Kai, Personna Red, Perma-Sharp, and Astra Green.
The first shave with them–with the Accu-Forge, just because alphabetically it came first–was a revelation. Less discomfort. More closeness. A better, happier experience. Still not perfect, but better.
I was hooked. And I knew it could get better.
I picked up some Aveeno shave gel and Dollar Shave Club Post Shave Cream at the grocery store, and I could experiment to see what worked best for me.
My second razor (also a grocery store find) came along in December 2024, a King C Gillette, which has been a surprisingly good razor that I keep coming back to.
After that came a Christmas gift from my wife of a Truefitt & Hill pre shave oil and Jack Black face moisturizer. Some more blades, my first shave brush and shaving soap (not good), a better shave soap and brushes, two more razors, a bunch more blades, more soaps, pre shaves, and post shaves all followed.
I’ve found a handful of suppliers online that I like. And a fabulous community online to share shaves and experiences, questions and reviews.
The important thing here is that I’ve been experimenting and experiencing different shave combinations to see what my face and neck likes and what it doesn’t like. And that’s one thing I always share in the Reddit community: keep experimenting as you’re able to see what works and what doesn’t.
And that pretty much brings you up to date with the shaving journey so far. I’ll be offering thoughts and reviews in future posts, so look for those. But before the reviews, I’ll drop a post with some of my review rules and other important information that will apply to every shaving discussion.
