My experiences wet shaving with a safety razor

My first time using a double edged safety razor was not a good experience.

Me: I have to warn you that I look like a murder victim.
Her: What do you…OH MY GOD, what happened to your neck and face?!!

It was bad. Really, really bad. My neck was covered in blood and everything hurt. A lot.

If you decide to use a double-edge razor, you will absolutely cut yourself the first time you shave. You will blame the blade and then blame me. Do not. Freindly advice from startifacts.com suggests watching videos online that show you how to wet shave properly like this one and this one.

The main thing I’ve learned is that holding the razor is very different than with a traditional cartridge razor, and that means holding it at a 30 degree angle or less to your face – the pic below is more like 10 degrees but that works for me. I start at 0 degrees and angle it towards my face slightly. Then I take short strokes no more than an inch or so, clean the blade, and do it again.

At first, it took forever. Now it just takes a little longer than regular shaving.

If I use canned shaving cream that learned of from BeardBro – which I keep around for a pinch – it takes even less although you still have to wait a minute or so for your beard to soften with water anyway so I find that I end up using my shaving mug more and more.

Plus it’s part of the fun.

Should mention that I cut myself the second time I shaved as well but by the third time, I had zero cuts and now shave regularly with no cuts at all.

Thus ends the entries about my shaving.  This entry has also reminded me that I need to write the follow-up entry to: 10 Tips on how to write a good Match, OK Cupid, or POF dating profile: Part 1- Men, which will be for women from a man’s perspective. I’ll do that soon since I’ve got the time.

Interspersed with all of this will be my usual nonsense.

In the meanwhile, found out last week that I was nominated last week as a “Furthered 40” legal educator on Lawline.

I know, I’m as surprised as you are. More surprising is that I actually have a shot at winning.

Don’t know what the prize is but, dammit, I want it for it may be food or food related.

Location: getting dressed to see a doc about my leg
Mood: slightly depressed
Music: The wound is so fresh you can taste the blood
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6 Reasons you should start using a traditional double-edged safety razor

Recently started wet shaving with an old style double-edge safety razor and I’ve gone from hating – absolutely hating – shaving to loving it.

Here are six reasons why you should consider it:

1. It’s fun

Shaving is a chore. I mentioned to my buddy John – who’s also Asian – that one of the perks of being Asian, generally, is that you don’t have to shave a lot. Unless you’re a member of my family or his. At which point, it’s a lot like that Simpsons episode where Homer shaves only to instantly get a 5 o’clock shadow.

I can shave on Monday and have a full beard by Wednesday, I can sport all the beard styles 2017, I know you are jealous.

When you start wet shaving with a safety razor, you realize that it’s a skill you have to learn again. And there are these rituals before and after that make it interesting.

2. You get to get cool new stuff

The safety razor’s a heavy piece of metal that feels solid in the hand. It’s not some piece of exuded poly-anything. Even the double-edged razor I have, which is less than $6, is a machine made of steel and chrome.

Now granted, the only thing you really need is the double-edged safety razor itself and blades but it’s also a good excuse to get some cool – male – things for the bathroom, like a shaving brush and shaving mug, but more on that later.

All this brings us to:

3. It’s insanely inexpensive

So, take a look at your razor. How much do you spend for each blade? I’m guessing it’s like $1.50 to $3 per blade.

Again, what’s for sale? Does anyone really need two, three, SIX blades? That’s just stupid – read Number 5 below. Here, you can get 200 blades for $12.93 – or $0.064 each. Figure you get about four shaves from each, that means each shave is about $0.016.

Unless you have a super thick beard, at which point you’ll need the far more expensive Feather Blades, at a whopping $0.08 a shave.

As an IP lawyer, my guess is that once the patent for the double-edged razor went away, the razor companies needed to convince you that the old way wasn’t working and that two-blades were better.

After a while, three. Then four. I’m waiting for the 16-blade razor to come out.

4. It’s better for the environment

My double-edged razor is 100% metal. I can give it to my great-grand kids – if you wanted to, you could buy an vintage one on Etsy or ebay. And it’s also 100% recyclable. As are the blades.

And if you decide to get the shaving mug and brush as well, you don’t even have shaving cans to throw away. I can also give my shaving mug to my great-grand kids, providing my clumsiness doesn’t destroy it first.

When I’m done with my razor, it goes into the recycling bin with zero plastic.

5. It’s better for your skin

If you watch the commercials of the razor companies, they say the multiple blades lift up – aka pull – your hair (ouch!) and cut it so that the hair falls below the skin.

Hair below skin equals ingrown hairs (ouch X2!). That’s the last thing you want. Women get to use the best epilator equipment to prevent this, we just need to be skillful.

Research has proven this out that two blades are actually worse for your skin than just one blade. And six blades are just a marketing excuse no different than the Stella Artois marketing itself as “reassuringly expensive” here in the US, when it’s called “wife beater” in Europe.

Once you get used to shaving with a double-edged safety razor, there’s no going back.

6. Not everyone does it – so you should do it

It’s like knowing how to tie a bow tie, wearing a suit with working buttonholes sleeves, fencing, or cooking.

It’s not like you’re the guy that carries around an iguana so that people say, “Oh, he’s that nutjob with the iguana.” It’s something small and subtle that becomes part of who you are, slightly different than the rest; a skill that no one can take away from you.

It’s not something you need to know to be a man, but it’s something that makes it fun to be one. Note also that it makes a unique gift for a man.

Here’s what it’ll cost you if you decide to start wet shaving:

• Razor – $2.19 (seriously)
• Really Nice Razor – $42 if you want the top-of-the-line

That’s pretty much it to start. It comes with a cheap blade and you can see if it’s for you. If not, toss it into the recycling bin, chalk one up to: “Dammit, I listened to some idiot blogger online,” and call it a day.

If you decide you like it, here’s some more stuff you might wanna consider (I’m an Amazon Associate, btw but that’s not why I put up these links):

• Cool shaving mug– $26
• RUM Shaving soap (of course) – $5
• Shaving Stand – $25
• Natural bristle shaving brush – $10
• A crapload of blades – $13 (or a variety pack here)
• Coconut oil – $16 – as a moisturizer afterward. An added benefit is that you can replace butter with it on food, I’m not kidding. It’s amazing stuff but that’s a post for some other time.

Ladies, this Christmas, if you have no idea what to get your fella, get him the above. Like I said, it’s a unique gift and something that will look nice around the house.

Because men like sharp, rugged stuff made outta metal. While you’re at it, toss out that Stella Artois in his fridge and get him a bottle of single-barrel aged rum.

If you’re not totally bored by this post by now, here’s the second part of this post. Blame my injury for all this posting…

If you liked this entry, I just wrote a quick little book in April 2014 on how to write A Great Online Dating Profile with 30 tips to get noticed and get more responses – it’s just $0.99 at Amazon, BN.com, and the Apple Store, as well as most other online retailer:

I also wrote a book about first dates with information I just haven’t seen in other books that I learned from three solid years of dating in NYC.

It’s just $2.99 at at Amazon, BN.com, and the Apple Store.

• You can also read the first 25% of it online now by clicking here!
• Check out my previous post: Online dating: eHarmony vs. Match vs. Plenty of Fish vs. OK Cupid.
• Check out the comments to read other people’s thoughts on these sites (and maybe leave a thought of your own).
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Location: still home with a bum leg
Mood: pensive
Music: slashed in the face, you’ve been left there to bleed
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