Razor: GEM Heavy Flat Top
Blade: GEM Single Edge Stainless
Brush: Brush Experimental Alpha
Lather: Proraso Menthol & Eucalyptus
Aftershave: Barber No3 Marmara
Additional Care: Alum Block
Razor: GEM Heavy Flat Top
Blade: GEM Single Edge Stainless
Brush: Brush Experimental Alpha
Lather: Proraso Menthol & Eucalyptus
Aftershave: Barber No3 Marmara
Additional Care: Alum Block
Razor: GEM Heavy Flat Top
Blade: GEM Single Edge Stainless
Brush: Vie-Long #12705B
Lather: Williams Mug shaving soap
Aftershave: Body Shop Macau Root Energetic Face Protection
Additional Care: Alum Block
Razor: GEM Heavy Flat Top
Blade: GEM Single Edge Stainless
Brush: Vie-Long #14033
Lather: CRSW Glide Morning Ghost
Aftershave: Barber No3 Marmara
Additional Care: Alum Block
We are all familiar with the Khaki Kit – made in huge numbers, handed out to doughboys so they wouldn’t die horrible in the trenches, reproduced and recreated today… but what if I told you there were non-Gillette Khaki Kits supplied by the US Govn’t to the US Army and Navy?
Continue readingMicro-mist process! Four times more steel! Talking down out competition! The very finest buzzwords went into making these commercials, and not too much more by the looks of it.
Continue readingEver wished that you had more choices when it came to blades for your vintage Star, GEM or EverReady razor? Or have a lovely old wedge razor, but either is lacking the blades or can’t manage to get them sharpened and honed? Turns out that the solution was invented and patented one hundred and fifteen years ago… It’s a safety-razor-blade holder. To quote Louis Heckel:
Continue readingAdvertisements definitely seems to have worked differently back in the day. Take, for example, this Ever-Ready advertisement from 1920:
For starters, it’s a fairly long read. I’m used to advertisements being a couple of paragraphs long at most, but this? This is a couple of minutes to read, minimum. Secondly, it talks to the reader in a different way than todays fare. We’re not bombarded with claims of “best blade ever”, but instead treated to a polite little diversion into the idea that a good shave can improve your life and the world before a nudge towards the Radio blade as the blade you ought to try.
Part of the difference comes down to, I believe, the fact that today’s world is full of happenings. We haste from one thing to the next without taking time to sit down and enjoy… but in 1920 there was no internet, no cable network, nor no cell phone competing for our attention every second. So on a Saturday evening, a man could turn on the wireless and sit down to enjoy the evening newspaper – and have the time to read it.
Take the time to sit down and read the advertisement. Ponder what it has to say about shaving giving you an advantage. And ponder – as I have – what exactly the the war-discovered Radio process of blade treatment is.
A nice, slightly hurried start on a new week. The Goldex still works a treat, and you can’t beat a vintage razor for a moment of Zen in the morning.
Razor: GEM Micromatic Clug Pruf
Blade: GEM Single Edge Stainless
Brush: Vei Long “American style” 50/50
Lather: Goldex Nova Fórmula
Aftershave: Barber No3 Marmara
Additional Care: Alum Block
A shave to end the work week, and end a tube of shaving cream I bought when I started getting into traditional wetshaving.
Razor: GEM Heavy Flat Top
Blade: GEM Single Edge Stainless
Brush: Omega #10048
Lather: Dalane d’men Energenic
Aftershave: Barber No3 Marmara
Another fine shave. CRSW performed great, as usual, and you just can’t go much wrong with a good vintage razor.
Razor: GEM Heavy Flat Top
Blade: GEM Single Edge Stainless
Brush: Semogue TSN LE 2012
Lather: CRSW Glide Morning Ghost
Aftershave: Barber No3 Marmara
Additional Care: Alum Block