How did our fathers do to shave clean & safe

I spoke to my dad last night about this. He laughs at me when I explain how I'm excited to go through a full Saturday pre shave routine. He says that it would take half the work day just to do the pre shave process!

The difference between us is the skin. While I get weepers and nicks from electric razors, my dad can use use a chisel, ball peen hammer, and finish up with belt sander for that BBS finish and not even have stinging from a pure alcohol rinse!

I know not everyone in the 'good ol days' has skin like my fathers's but they probably just didn't have the resources that we do now. I'm sure my dad would have loved to have a good pre shave oil and shave soap, but in Missouri farm country, you were doing good to have a pair of over-alls that didn't have patches in the knees.

I don't know that my shaves are really much different from the one's my father had, or even his father come to that.

One razor handles about 99.8 % of my shaves and a DE blade still lasts me a week, easily. Cella was just as good then as it is now, and witch-hazel has been just about the best "after a shave" thing since long before my grandfather started growing whiskers. Hot towel? Yeah, that's not really all that new either.

Mango said:

How did they do it guys ??

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Maybe a better question is why this generation can't (or won't) do it??

Mango said:

Great post Kiwi

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Thank you, but really, I just told it the way it happened, and other than the very last part you didn't quote, my experiences shouldn't have been particularly uncommon.

While I know it's sacrilege to say on this website, my old man would laugh if you told him you get a better shave from a DE than carts or anything else. He lived through it. A lot of guys from that time probably don't care. A DE to them is probably no different than a Fusion. It would be like 50 years from now guys waxing nostalgic about the lost art of shaving with a 5 blade cartridge.

We both have pretty thick beards. He would agree though that a straight razor gives the closest shave (because it does).

I use cream and a razor, sometimes an AS, but lately not so much.

Most of the pre-shave items are fairly useless, or at least fall into the snake oil category. If you enjoy them and believe they benefit you, good for you and keep using them! It's your shave, right? Bit none of it's needed. Ditto goes for most aftershave items too, unless they're specifically being used to stop bleeding.

My Dad missed the DE generation he is 55 years old and cut his teeth with the Bic 1 Classic disposable. I visited him last week I stumbled into his bathroom and opened his medicine cabinet ( in his presence I am no blade-burglar) I found a tattered Mach 3 razor which he maintains he has been using for the past 4 months. His Dad on the other hand, my grandpa shaved much wiser. Vivid images of him replay fully dressed in his safari suit applying lather with brush, swiftly and with surgical precision taking short samurai strokes to the face. My colleagues and I often maintain that my grandfathers generation was made of a different metal, where shaving daily was a necessity for social acceptability .... makes one ponder

My dad always used electric, so that's how I started out. His dad died when he was only 10, so no idea how my paternal grandpa shaved. My maternal grandpa had an odd skin condition that caused large bumps on his skin. I was only 19 when I last saw him over 20 years ago, but I'd be shocked if he didn't just use an electric.

While I'm not that old at 70 I am probably as old as many forum member's Father! I never saw my Grandfathers or Father shave; I do know one of my Grandfathers used a straight, don't know a thing about the other. Since I had no instruction or example I started out totally on my own; had I asked my Father for advice he would likely have told me not to cut myself, end of discussion.

I bought a Schick Injector because it was cheap, easy to load and the blades were in a handy loader; I bought a tube of brushless shave cream because it's what the drugstore sold (don't remember what brand but it was very thick and clogged the razor). When I started I had enough sense to go very lightly and was fortunate in that I didn't resemble ground beef when I finished even though I now know that razor was pretty aggressive, nicks were handled with bits of toilet paper.

I believe I used SE razors through my early military service, until around the mid sixties or so and then began using cartridge razors for convenience. I now shave with DE razors and can't believe I didn't use one earlier.

A side story is a guy I served with, he was from some "holler" down South. Lyle used a razor that consisted of a small section of straight razor on a handle (about the width of a GEM SE blade) that came in a metal case with some material inside that honed the blade. The razor would be mounted on a handle and moved back and forth on this honing material and come out well sharpened. It was one scary looking razor system.

They didn't fetishize BBS, one pass was enough and you learned that a certain amount of cuts and irritation was normal.

Go West Young Man said:

They didn't fetishize BBS, one pass was enough and you learned that a certain amount of cuts and irritation was normal.

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I like that answer! And I've come to realize it's how I should be shaving, everyday. And BBS can be for that odd day there is a function, reunion of sorts, or business meeting!

My grandfather had about a dozen straights that he acquired over the years but he used a badger brush & old spice mug & soap. Had a tech for a DE & that was it.

My dad had an old spice mug, a brush and, when I was a kid, a DE. He looked like he shaved with a running chain saw. When Schick came out with injectors, that was an improvement, but he still had TP in spots frequently. By the time the Mach 3 came out, he was using gel shave cream. That was his combination where he could give his platelets a rest.

In in my experience, (and I know this is heresy here) finding a razor that you like then sticking with it and mastering it gives the best and most consistent results. This is what most of our dad's did, bought a razor and used it. I doubt many of them had a collection of razors and if they had more than 1, it is probably because their old razor got chucked in he back of a drawer when they got a new one.

^^ This. Our pops bought what was available at the drugstore and learned how to use it. No big fuss.

tromboneliness said:

^^ This. Our pops bought what was available at the drugstore and learned how to use it. No big fuss.

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That's what I did before online shopping as well. Which means that I mostly used "De Vergulde Hand" soaps, and "Made in Israel" blades and (Trac II) cartridges.

Hi,

I shave every day for 38 years and do as well as dad did. The secret is simple: Stop changing things. One soap, one razor, one blade brand. Every time you change something, take a month to get used to the new thing. Change only one thing at a time.

Prep is easy. Wash your face immediately before shaving. The final step of the prep being you hold a washcloth wet with water from the hot tap only against your face for ten seconds, then immediately begin lathering with the brush.

This works so well, I have half a skinny styptic pencil left, and I have been using it for 10 years. Yes, a decade. I rarely make a weeper, and never get a cut, and my face never feels like I just used a cheese grater instead of a razor.

Most folks here will not like what I say, and I do not mean to offend anyone. But, to shave like they did in the past, stop thinking of shaving as a hobby.

Ok. Everyone back to having fun playing with all that shaving gear.

Stan

Hi,

I ought to add, that I usually stop at DFS, which is gained by a WTG and an ATG pass over each area with one razor. Sometimes I want the extra two hours BBS gives, so I use that first razor WTG then XTG, then relather and use my Grandfather's Old Type ATG. That being a very close shaving razor.

I do have to take extra time and caution with that Old Type, as it will make weepers otherwise. And, then I have to use that styptic pencil which I do not like to need to use

This is another thing folks won't like to hear: BBS is rarely worth the time and effort.....

Stan

sub vet said:

A side story is a guy I served with, he was from some "holler" down South. Lyle used a razor that consisted of a small section of straight razor on a handle (about the width of a GEM SE blade) that came in a metal case with some material inside that honed the blade. The razor would be mounted on a handle and moved back and forth on this honing material and come out well sharpened. It was one scary looking razor system.

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Thats a Rolls Razor, marketed as a gift for a young man turning 21. You can find more info here and get them fairly cheap on eBay.

Scott

i remember seeing my dad using a double edge safety razor when i was a kid. other items that come to mind are barbasol, foamy, and colgate shaving creams, aqua velva, brut, skin bracer, and musk aftershaves.

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A side story is a guy I served with, he was from some "holler" down South. Lyle used a razor that consisted of a small section of straight razor on a handle (about the width of a GEM SE blade) that came in a metal case with some material inside that honed the blade. The razor would be mounted on a handle and moved back and forth on this honing material and come out well sharpened. It was one scary looking razor system.[/QUOTE]

sounds like a rolls razor !

Go West Young Man said:

They didn't fetishize BBS, one pass was enough and you learned that a certain amount of cuts and irritation was normal.

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Agreed, and the cuts and irritation drove an awful lot of marketing! On the other hand (you have five fingers), I can think of worse fetishes than a BBS