Hello Gentlemen,
I have been reading for a while and now am joining in. Pretty interesting stuff and people here! Thanks for allowing me in.
I don't know when it happened, it was maybe 25 years ago or even longer, but my first wife (God rest her soul) gave me a track two type razor for Christmas. Then on my birthday I got one of those hot shave balls for canned shaving cream and it just went down hill from there. The current Mrs. Hogue likes a lightly bearded man and then there was the rush with life and it became just trimming my cheeks and neck in the shower without a mirror using the disposable razor of the month and canned gel, and is it me or is that stuff just getting worse and worse? Now it seems that the disposables are so bad that you should just open the pack and throw them away and save yourself the trouble of shaving with them. I told my wife a while back that her legs looked like a barber pole after she shaved. A while back I was going through my foot locker and saw my great-grandfather's three piece Gillette DE. A light went on and I went back in time to when shaving wasn't torture. Days later I finally found some USA Personna Double Edges at Wally world, (they don't even have DE blades at Kroger here) and I had a trial shave. I never did like Great-grand-dad's razor and the results were mixed. Yesterday I went to the junk store, I mean antique mall and found a Gillette Aristocrat in very good but tarnished condition. $10.49 including tax. Yes I got lucky or blest I think. It was part of a barber's personal collection they picked up at an estate sale and just threw into a box. Back to wally world for a shaving brush and soap and today after a little polishing and cleaning on the razor I am trying again. Now this is shaving! I did forget that with a real razor you don't press the skin so hard and I have a little red man going for me. If I could find some decent blades I would be on easy street. Surely somewhere around here I can find something decent and then order more on the internet. I am using the wally world soap, I believe you fellows call it VDH, Van something or another. It sure smells better than old williams, but I am not sure about it yet. Before the internet we were stuck locally with colgate that didn't shave well and williams that stunk but was a little better. The brush in the set is cheap, but so am I. The set came with a bowl but I couldn't get into it, I am used to a cup with a handle and there is now one less mug in the kitchen cupboard. I wonder what you gentlemen would recommend in blades for my Aristocrat? I used to have brown hair but a more black or darker beard, I have heard that color affects the stiffness of your hair, I don't know I never was blond or red headed. Now I pretty much have gray everything. I would say I am pretty much in the middle in the coarse to fineness scale and pretty much straight hair with no wave or curl. I used to like the Schick Platinum and Gillette Platinum, I think they were new when I quit DE shaving and now I understand that one brand can be made in many factories and even many countries. I would be interested in your comments and suggestions.
Thanks for a great site and forum!
Back to the double edge!
have a great shave,
mrscottishman
I have been reading for a while and now am joining in. Pretty interesting stuff and people here! Thanks for allowing me in.
I don't know when it happened, it was maybe 25 years ago or even longer, but my first wife (God rest her soul) gave me a track two type razor for Christmas. Then on my birthday I got one of those hot shave balls for canned shaving cream and it just went down hill from there. The current Mrs. Hogue likes a lightly bearded man and then there was the rush with life and it became just trimming my cheeks and neck in the shower without a mirror using the disposable razor of the month and canned gel, and is it me or is that stuff just getting worse and worse? Now it seems that the disposables are so bad that you should just open the pack and throw them away and save yourself the trouble of shaving with them. I told my wife a while back that her legs looked like a barber pole after she shaved. A while back I was going through my foot locker and saw my great-grandfather's three piece Gillette DE. A light went on and I went back in time to when shaving wasn't torture. Days later I finally found some USA Personna Double Edges at Wally world, (they don't even have DE blades at Kroger here) and I had a trial shave. I never did like Great-grand-dad's razor and the results were mixed. Yesterday I went to the junk store, I mean antique mall and found a Gillette Aristocrat in very good but tarnished condition. $10.49 including tax. Yes I got lucky or blest I think. It was part of a barber's personal collection they picked up at an estate sale and just threw into a box. Back to wally world for a shaving brush and soap and today after a little polishing and cleaning on the razor I am trying again. Now this is shaving! I did forget that with a real razor you don't press the skin so hard and I have a little red man going for me. If I could find some decent blades I would be on easy street. Surely somewhere around here I can find something decent and then order more on the internet. I am using the wally world soap, I believe you fellows call it VDH, Van something or another. It sure smells better than old williams, but I am not sure about it yet. Before the internet we were stuck locally with colgate that didn't shave well and williams that stunk but was a little better. The brush in the set is cheap, but so am I. The set came with a bowl but I couldn't get into it, I am used to a cup with a handle and there is now one less mug in the kitchen cupboard. I wonder what you gentlemen would recommend in blades for my Aristocrat? I used to have brown hair but a more black or darker beard, I have heard that color affects the stiffness of your hair, I don't know I never was blond or red headed. Now I pretty much have gray everything. I would say I am pretty much in the middle in the coarse to fineness scale and pretty much straight hair with no wave or curl. I used to like the Schick Platinum and Gillette Platinum, I think they were new when I quit DE shaving and now I understand that one brand can be made in many factories and even many countries. I would be interested in your comments and suggestions.
Thanks for a great site and forum!
Back to the double edge!
have a great shave,
mrscottishman
