Howdy gents
Just doing the noobie check-in, wanted to introduce myself to the fine people here on B&B. I just made the jump to wetshaving a week or so ago, and decided tonight to make the registration/introduction jump here on B&B.
I got in to wetshaving when my ol' electric razor was due for a blade/foil change and I thought I'd try something different. I grabbed a gillette fusion power fiveblade electric lawn mower and a can of cream for "sensitive skin". I had a pretty decent shave; but, since I hadn't picked up a razor since I got a free on one my 18th birthday (2 years ago now), I thought I'd hunt down some tutorials on the interwebs. I found some videos of really chiseled guys doing 30 second shaves (uploaded by Gillette), and then ran across Mantic's videos and B&B.
I was fascinated by doing a proper shave, and so I went to a new "Treasure Hunt" store, and picked up a used Gillette SuperSpeed (couldn't find the serial number to date it), that was all crusty and was losing it's plating. I put it through some restoration paces though, and now it's battle-worn, but usable. Not bad for a $10 razor. Got some blades from the local Walgreens, I can't tell who manufactures them and unfortunately all the stores in the area only carry this one style, rebranded under their private lables (TopCare, Kroger, ETC), but they cost like $2 for a 10 pack, so I'm a happy camper.
I got the "Premium Shave Kit" that comes with a bowl, soap and brush (made from the "finest boar's hair") and failed miserably at creating a lather. I tried tutorials and videos, which improved my results, but I went to Bath and Body works and got a tube of CO Bigelow's Eucalyptus cream for $5 (oh my word! So amazing, I just want to lather up three times a day now, whether I'm shaving or not!). Then, on impulse I got a $25 "The Art of Shaving" Lavender tester kit which came with pre-shave oil, cream, A/S, and (joy of joy's) a badger hair brush - even if it is a tiney tiny little thing.
So now I'm shaving with lots of cooling lather (Eucalyptus won out over Lavender), and am battling some rawness. I'm 90% sure that its from shaving two times a day; because, by God, I'm addicted. I SO don't need to; I could do every other day and be BBS for 24 hours of that time. However, I did skip my last "night shave", left myself a proper 24 hours between shaves, and did ran through the Four-Pass Shave that is posted in the forums. It was wonderful and comfortable, and my skin is healing very quickly; I am just dying to get back behind the razor tomorrow morning.
Well that's my life story.
You guys don't even know how helpful you've been so far. Every step of the way has been guided by text from B&B. Thank you so much for this resource, and I so look forward to being both a contributor to, and continuing beneficiary of this forum. Cheers.
-Cole
Just doing the noobie check-in, wanted to introduce myself to the fine people here on B&B. I just made the jump to wetshaving a week or so ago, and decided tonight to make the registration/introduction jump here on B&B.
I got in to wetshaving when my ol' electric razor was due for a blade/foil change and I thought I'd try something different. I grabbed a gillette fusion power fiveblade electric lawn mower and a can of cream for "sensitive skin". I had a pretty decent shave; but, since I hadn't picked up a razor since I got a free on one my 18th birthday (2 years ago now), I thought I'd hunt down some tutorials on the interwebs. I found some videos of really chiseled guys doing 30 second shaves (uploaded by Gillette), and then ran across Mantic's videos and B&B.
I was fascinated by doing a proper shave, and so I went to a new "Treasure Hunt" store, and picked up a used Gillette SuperSpeed (couldn't find the serial number to date it), that was all crusty and was losing it's plating. I put it through some restoration paces though, and now it's battle-worn, but usable. Not bad for a $10 razor. Got some blades from the local Walgreens, I can't tell who manufactures them and unfortunately all the stores in the area only carry this one style, rebranded under their private lables (TopCare, Kroger, ETC), but they cost like $2 for a 10 pack, so I'm a happy camper.
I got the "Premium Shave Kit" that comes with a bowl, soap and brush (made from the "finest boar's hair") and failed miserably at creating a lather. I tried tutorials and videos, which improved my results, but I went to Bath and Body works and got a tube of CO Bigelow's Eucalyptus cream for $5 (oh my word! So amazing, I just want to lather up three times a day now, whether I'm shaving or not!). Then, on impulse I got a $25 "The Art of Shaving" Lavender tester kit which came with pre-shave oil, cream, A/S, and (joy of joy's) a badger hair brush - even if it is a tiney tiny little thing.
So now I'm shaving with lots of cooling lather (Eucalyptus won out over Lavender), and am battling some rawness. I'm 90% sure that its from shaving two times a day; because, by God, I'm addicted. I SO don't need to; I could do every other day and be BBS for 24 hours of that time. However, I did skip my last "night shave", left myself a proper 24 hours between shaves, and did ran through the Four-Pass Shave that is posted in the forums. It was wonderful and comfortable, and my skin is healing very quickly; I am just dying to get back behind the razor tomorrow morning.
Well that's my life story.
You guys don't even know how helpful you've been so far. Every step of the way has been guided by text from B&B. Thank you so much for this resource, and I so look forward to being both a contributor to, and continuing beneficiary of this forum. Cheers.
-Cole