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1st shave with my B-Year Razor

Nothing special, Just want to share my 1st experience using my birth year razor:



Gillette Super Speed B4 1956

Beard age - 2 days

Pre Shave Prep:

Just finished shower, so face already washed...just re-wet face with hot water
and applied Proraso Pre/Post shave Aloe/Green tea

Using my EJ Best Badger brush, whipped up a load of lather off of some EJ aloe soap and slathered
it to good coverage on my cheeks and neck ( I have a goatee)

Now to the razor...I decided to use a Rainbow blade (not seen them mentioned a lot on B&B)
since in my first two months of DE shaving, they've performed the best in my EJ 89DL.

The Shave:

Single WTG pass all around...hmm, feeling nice, no issues around my two 'trouble' areas. I'm
liking the heft and feel of this razor. I'm especially liking the grip when wet. My one criticism
of the EJ 89DL is it's slippery when wet, even with the lines on the handle.
Back to the shave...re-lathered with the brush and then squeezed the remaining suds out of the
brush and applied this by hand...face looked like I had just covered it with half a can of Barbasol...
did I tell you I love EJ soaps?:001_smile

Second pass ATG all around, with a few XTG on my jawline. I'm practically floating now as I'm
realizing just how good a shave I just got. I was worried that my anticipated hype about my birth
year razor would fall flat. Not in the least!!

Uh oh...noticed a few spots of blood on my neck..whew, just interrupted a blackhead that was
starting to erupt and I hadn't noticed. Now a rinse with cold water, pat dry, and apply my vintage
Old Spice AS (bought sometime in the '70s)..2 minutes later a quick rinse and then I applied some
LEA AS balm.

Conclusion: Extremely satisfied with my '56 Gillette SS. It met and even surpassed my pre-shave
expectation. I had as good a shave if not better than my best with the EJ 89DL. It was also the 1st shave
I've had with a TTO razor in over 30 years. Why did I ever give up
DE shaving??:ohmy:

If you've made it this far, thanks for reading. Now what's next on the RAD list??:w00t:

Ed
 
I'm a little older: 1953 / "Y".
I, too, bought a b'year SS. http://www.ebay.com/itm/30062273528...X:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2649#ht_1193wt_1270
I love it.
I get a great shave out of it. I have been trying to remember if I ever used a DE razor. I know I started with an electric my parents got me for my 13th Christmas and it tore my face up. I remember my first blade shave was using a Wilkinson Sword product as their advertising caught my imagination, but what the actual razor was is lost in the mists of my mind. It would have had to have been in 1969 / 1970 time frame as I remember I bought it myself at the store so I had to have been driving. I do remember that the multi-blade cartridges were my weapon of choice for most of my life. Sensor, Trac II, Mach III, and the most recent being the Fusion. I still have a couple three Fusion handles and a few unused cartridges I'll keep around for air travel, but other than that my expectation is I'll not use carts again at home.

ETA: Google and the Internet are wonderful things. I did some searching and I believe my first blade razor would have been the Wilkinson Bonded Razor. I remember the handle and the timing would have been right. I even think I found the ad that fired up my imagination: http://www.ebay.com/itm/1973-WILKIN...ultDomain_0&hash=item2eb22c0543#ht_500wt_1287
 
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Great thread. I finally got my birth year razor. a 1973 T1 Superspeed off the Bay. I wanted a T4 (November) but haven't found one yet so this one will have to do till I find it. It's in transit right now.
 
I was born in 1948, but I haven't been able to get a '48 SS yet. However, I was able to lay my hands on a very nice '49 SS. Every good post includes shaving porn, so here it is!

I have three SS's in my collection ('49, '54 and '61) and they just give the best shaves, at least for me. My skin prefers a mild razor. If I only wanted a DFS, then an aggressive razor would be just the thing, but I will not settle for anything less than BBS and I do not want my face to be red and burning after the shave.


Stu
 

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