Razor: Merkur (?) NOS Bakelite Slant
Blade: Shark Super Chrome
Brush: Artesania Romera Manchurian Badger, imitation horn
Pre-Shave: Proraso Pre Shave Cream
Lather: Asylum Shave Works Flying Mango
Aftershave: Barber No3 Marmara
Additional Care: Alum Block
A wee Wednesday shave. Even when done fast, a traditional shave don’t feels rushed.
Razor: Merkur (?) NOS Bakelite Slant
Blade: Shark Super Chrome
Brush: Vie-Long #12705B
Pre-Shave: Proraso Pre Shave Cream
Lather: Mike’s Natural Soaps Lemongrass & Eucalyptus
Aftershave: Barber No3 Marmara
Additional Care: Alum Block
A new week is a fresh start – and what can be fresher than lemongrass and eucalyptus?
Razor: Ever Ready 1914
Blade: GEM Single Edge Stainless
Brush: Vie-Long #14033
Pre-Shave: Prep Original
Lather: Taylor of Old Bond Street Peppermint
Aftershave: Barber No3 Marmara
Additional Care: Alum Block
A fine Friday shave to wrap up the work week, as well as the Single Edge part of my razor rotation.
Next week I’ll use DEs again, starting with my Bakelite Slant.
Shaving isn’t hard. In fact, shaving is easy enough for a child to do with a “New Gem”. You can get it for a mere 2 US dollars. Provided you can go back, oh, a hundred and twenty years to order one. The razor wielding child was, I suspect, sold separately.
The razor the child wields in the ad looks very much like a 1901 “New Gem”, as described by Waits on page 429 of his compendium. The little tin box that held the razor looks similar to the 1901 too.
The New Gem was a wedge razor. Instead of the thin, replicable blades used by later GEMs, it used a blade that was – in effect – a short stub section of straight razor. On the upside, you would never have to buy another blade. On the downside, you would have to sharpen and hone it regularly.
And it was this requirement that lead to GEM also selling stropping machines, and kits that included stropping machines and extra blades. You would have to come up with more than two bucks though.
GEM used the imagery of a father and child in their advertisements for quite a few years. t They seem to have realized that a razor wielding child was not the best idea though.
Razor: Ever Ready 1914
Blade: GEM Single Edge Stainless
Brush: Vie-Long #13051M
Lather: Mike’s Natural Soaps Orange, Cedarwood & Black Pepper
Aftershave: Barber No3 Marmara
Additional Care: Alum Block
Another wonderful Wednesday shave, with a soap that reminds me of an orange soda.
I’m in the GEM/EverReady phase of my razor rotation. So naturally I’m wasting my time looking at researching old GEM and EverReady advertisements. And I found a gem (pun intended) of an ad, which don’t hit me quite like they probably hoped it would.
Razor: Ever Ready 1914
Blade: GEM Single Edge Stainless
Brush: Wilkinson Sword Badger
Pre-Shave: Proraso Pre Shave Cream
Lather: Asylum Shave Works Frankincense & Myrrh
Aftershave: Asylum Shave Works Frankincense & Myrrh
Additional Care: Alum Block
A new week starts with a good shave. I’m using a vintage razor with some sentimental value this week.
Razor: GEM 1912
Blade: GEM Single Edge Stainless
Brush: Omega #10048
Pre-Shave: Prep Original
Lather: Dr Selby Lavender
Aftershave: Barber No3 Marmara
Additional Care: Alum Block
Another fine Friday shave with a nice vintage razor.
Some razors are all edge and no point. Ferdinando Pasquale Musso’s cylindrical safety razor is arguable one of them. Even if Mr Musso did have a point with his invention. In the words of the patent;
Continue readingA razor of this type has the advantage that it will produce a a fast clean shave whether the beard is long or short, and can be moved over the face in any direction with equal effectiveness.
From US patent 2,598,711
Every man remembers his first shave, according to the internet…
I don’t.
I do remember my first shave with a traditional safety razor though, and how my face looked afterwards… was hooked right away, despite several nicks. Thinking about it, I do believe my first shaves as a pimply teen was with an unremarkable electric razor… a no-brand rotary. First experiments with carts and canned goo came a little later as I was gearing up for boot camp – I believe my logic was that you can’t find an outlet while on exercise in the deep forests. The main takeaway from the first few years was that I dislike canned goo; left my face feeling dry and funky.
Enter stage right; a cheap brush and cream from BodyShop. Much better, even if ingrown hairs and shaving rash still plagued me.. at the time I though that was just how it was.
Over the next couple of decades I waffled between carts (Sensor Excel), various electrics, and growing beards… until I was pointed in the direction of traditional wetshaving while I was gearing up for a one year Tour of Duty as a UN Military Observer in Africa – the logic at the time being that you can’t always find an electrical outlet nor reliable buy carts while in a third world country… seems to be a common theme with why I switched to a cart years before.
The anticipation when I slid the Feather blade into my Parker R22 and slowly twisted it closed was palatable… and I promptly opened and closed it a few times to make 100% absolutely sure I had put it in right. I was happy with the lather I had made with my brand new Omega boar brush and my just as new tube of Proraso Green… even if looking back it was frankly not particularly good. And the less I say about my pre-shave, the better… because there is not much to say about splashing some warm water on ones face.
The feeling of sliding a traditional safety razor over my cheeks for the first time? Unforgettable. The actual sound of stubble being sliced through by a piece of wicked sharp steel? Simply wonderful.
Yes, there was several nicks. Blood was drawn. The Feather is, in hindsight, way to sharp for an aggressive razor like the R22. My lather was too watery and provided little cushion. But despite all that I knew one thing for sure when I rinsed the bright red remains of watery lather of my face:
I wanted more. Much more.
To roll back, I think my first shave was forgotten because it wasn’t anything special. I do remember my first traditional shave because it was quite simply unforgettable.