Greetings and Felicitations

Hello Everyone!!!

Been lurking on and off for the last 2 months or so, and finally got a cheap wet shave kit from the local CVS. Boar hair brush and Van Der Hagen soap. Tried it out with my cartridge shaver and actually noticed a real difference! One of the smoothest shaves I've ever gotten. I'm now excited to begin acquiring quality shaving products...things can only get better from here.

I have are a few questions I was hoping to get answers to:

1) Besides Merkur, what other non-vintage brands of Safety Razors are good for beginners? I know everyone starts with Merkirs, but I like being different.

2) Living in Brooklyn NY, I know there are many options for very high quality (and high priced) shaving products around me. However, I don't have a New York Budget, so do yall know anywhere around here I could get some affordable yet effective shave soaps/creams? I'm especially looking for access to a good Bay Rum.

3) I saw on here previously where there was a guy who sold bundle packs of blade types and vintage razors and had a really good price.....but I can't find the thread. Anyone remember where it was?

thanks everyone, and I look forward to being part of the B&B community

Meph

Hi and welcome here !

To start with a DE I would definitely recommend a slim or a fatboy vintage. You can find them easily on eBay. They are great, easy to use extremely mild and efficient. They can be purchased for 60 USD. Other than that, Edwin Jagger or Weber offer mild razors to start with.

Stirling produces a wide range of excellent tallow soaps aat very reasonable prices. You can also try Tiki, Mike's or Mamma Bear if you like glycerin soaps.

Sorry but I can help with point 3

happy shaves !

Welcome, Meph.

I'm very new to this myself, so I'm not experienced with different brands, but I went with an Edwin Jagger DE89 razor, which is a quality piece, seems to be well regarded, and seems to be forgiving enough for someone new to DE shaving.

I ordered all my shaving equipment from West Coast Shaving and will definitely use them again. They have a great selection and I received my order only two days after placing it, so I would recommend that you consider them as an alternative to finding someone local.

Good luck with your search.

Welcome, Meph!

Welcome Meph from another newcomer to B&B!


It was changing from canned shave soap to brush and lather, while still using the ol’ cartridge razor, that really made me a convert to DE shaving. I noticed such an improvement in my shave, that I decided to completely immerse myself in the world of wet shaving.


The forum is a fun place for meeting great people, and there is an almost overwhelming abundance of information to be had.


It is great to have you here and I wish you all the best. Happy shaving!

Hi Meph!

Not familiar with NY, most of us shop online, you can get pinaud virgin island bay rum for about $12 shipped on ebay. Also, check out Target and Walgreens for stuff. Quality soaps like Arko and Cella are easy to find online too, won't break the budget, Arko is about $5 shipped for 3 sticks.

Paul

Welcome to the forum! Good advice above. For blade samples there is a website that will let you build a sampler pack one blade at a time, I just can't remember what the site is. Maggardrazors.com also has a build your own sampler pack where you can pick whatever blades you want with discounts based on the number of samples you get but you have to get them the way they are packaged.

It's great to have you here. Enjoy the journey.

Mephibosheth1 said:

Hello Everyone!!!


2) Living in Brooklyn NY, I know there are many options for very high quality (and high priced) shaving products around me. However, I don't have a New York Budget, so do yall know anywhere around here I could get some affordable yet effective shave soaps/creams? I'm especially looking for access to a good Bay Rum.
Meph

Click to expand...

Pasteur Pharmacy at 805 Lexington Ave. NYC is a great place to check out. Lots of stock and reasonably priced. I've been there a coupla times whenever I'm in town.

Welcome to the forum !!

Welcome to the club. Glad to have you aboard.

Hello and welcome. You can check out Sally's Beauty Supply for blades and Pinaud Clubman aftershave. A local pharmacy might carry William's Mug Soap for about $1 a puck. I love it, but it has very mixed reviews. I started with and still use the Van der Hagen Classic Safety Razor from Walmart for about $17 including 5 blades. I've been DE shaving about three months and get good shaves from these inexpensive products. As always, YMMV.


Amos

Welcome , I am fairly new and use a Parker 90R about 30 bucks.

welcome

Hello and welcome. Great to have you here. B&B is a great forum full of friendly, helpful shavers.

Plenty of good advice above.

Meph,

Welcome to the forum, we're please to have you as a member. I would suggest The Lord L6 as an excellent razor, medium aggressiveness, nice quality and priced generally around $10.00 on various sites. Another suggestion would be the Micro Touch One for around $20.00, or a Weishi for around the same price. Sally's beauty also sells a twist to open, nice quality at around the same price. These razors are inexpensive, and will allow you to gain some experience before deciding on your razor acquisitions.

Welcome to the forum!

Astras SPs are a good starter blade

Mystic Water Bay Rum is excellent as is Mike's.

Thanks guys! Really appreciate all the feedback. Gonna try and head up to Lexington this week and see what can be seen there.

Hello and welcome.

Mephibosheth1 said:

Hello Everyone!!!

Been lurking on and off for the last 2 months or so, and finally got a cheap wet shave kit from the local CVS. Boar hair brush and Van Der Hagen soap. Tried it out with my cartridge shaver and actually noticed a real difference! One of the smoothest shaves I've ever gotten. I'm now excited to begin acquiring quality shaving products...things can only get better from here.

I have are a few questions I was hoping to get answers to:

1) Besides Merkur, what other non-vintage brands of Safety Razors are good for beginners? I know everyone starts with Merkirs, but I like being different.

2) Living in Brooklyn NY, I know there are many options for very high quality (and high priced) shaving products around me. However, I don't have a New York Budget, so do yall know anywhere around here I could get some affordable yet effective shave soaps/creams? I'm especially looking for access to a good Bay Rum.

3) I saw on here previously where there was a guy who sold bundle packs of blade types and vintage razors and had a really good price.....but I can't find the thread. Anyone remember where it was?

thanks everyone, and I look forward to being part of the B&B community

Meph

Click to expand...

I would chose the Gillette Tech as a good starter, or a Super Speed 1940 model.

B&B vendor Gary has an excellent starter kit, inexpensive too http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showthread.php/434077-Garry-s-Sample-shop-50-Samples-Contest!






Vintage Test Drive Razor Starter Kits:

$35.00

Contents of the Starter Kit:

Razor - 1 User Grade (or better) Vintage Gillette Safety Razor. The razor will be cleaned, sanitized and ready to shave when you get it. User grade razors may not be collectors items in the looks department but are guaranteed to be shave ready with no issues.

Blades - 10 DE Blades (brands will vary). The blades will be well known brands so you can easily buy more if you like them.

Brush - 1 Brand New Omega Boar Brush (model will vary but it will be Omega brand). These are brand new brushes from one of the top boar brush makers.

Shave Soap - 1 Arko Shaving Soap Stick or 1oz of Cella Shaving Soap (your choice). If you don't indicate your choice, I will gladly pick for you. Arko may just be one of the easiest shaving soaps to lather on the market today. It's low priced and soft enough to mold into the mug or container of your choice if you don't want to use it as a soap stick. Cella Shaving soap is the classic Italian soap to which you can compare any other soap on the market and it holds it's own. Cella is highly recommended for anyone who doesn't think they will like the industrial citronella scent of the Arko soap.

Aftershave - 1/2oz Aftershave Splash (brands will vary). I will select 2 splashes 1/4oz each based on current available stock. There are some negative associations with alcohol based splashes but I would like to ask you to not believe the hype...yet. An alcohol based splash may be just what you need to revive and heal your sensitive or oily skin and you won't know until you try.

Extra Benefit - I wanted to give every new guy a little extra reason to come back and do business with me again so I will also include 1 Trade Certificate entitling you to return the razor at any time in the same usable condition and in return I will send you a different model Vintage Gillette razor or $10.00 worth of samples (your choice). We would each pay our own shipping and the original certificate must be returned with the razor. All I ask is that you email or PM me before mailing your razor so I can keep track of everything.