Straight vs shavette

Before i post let just say that i'm only express my opinion. Since now that i tried both and still a noobie about straight and shavette shaving my prefference goes to the shavette. To my personnal experience straight shaving needs goog stropping and regular maintenance, if you don't strop your blade good you don't get good results. It seem that the blade whants to cut but it doesn't cut the wiskers properly, vs a shavette a 3 pass shave and your ready to go plus no stropping or honning when the blade is dull you just change it. The shavette is sharp and will stay sharp until the DE blade has to be changed. Straight shaving is an art but not just the shaving it self but the most important is the maintenance of the blade. For me i don't have time or the patience to do that so that's why i preffer a shavette. Don't get me wrong i'm not dicourage straight shaving it's just not for me. In lots of post they say that shavette is more unfogiven, probably but if your caution and you pay attention to the curves of your face you whant cut your self more then a straight razor to my opinion.

Good luck and glad you found what works, never tried a shavette when I started several months ago as I went right to a straight and picked up one of Buca's GD's and strop to start and never looked back, maybe I need to get one just to try

Have you tried lapping film? Your post sounds identical to how I feel about honing. I don't have the patience or attention span for rock & blade steel. However, I get excellent results with almost fool proof results on film. Just what the shave doctor ordered.

Like you, I prefer the sharpness,closeness and convenience of a shavette. But when I want the luxury of a slow,easy,comfortable & smooth shave? I can't beat my Dovo & film.

Inb4 words like "soul", "passion" and "tradition".

I've never owned a real straight, but I've used one and can confidently say I prefer shavette too. Like I said in another thread, the shavette takes the best qualities of two different tools and combines it into one, i.e. the feel of straight shaving, and the opportunity to experiment with all the different blades that are out there (assuming the shavette takes standard blades; I wouldn't touch a shavette that uses dedicated blades with a ten-foot pole)

To each his own of course, but the factors I mentioned is why I have no plans on "downgrading" from my shavette any time soon.

I forgot to say i have a shave ready straight from whipped dog and my shavette is a Blue Beard Revenge.

Much of ST shaving is the experience. The feel of a Kanayama strop, the satisfaction of HHT off your treasured finisher, the confidence engendered by a freshly honed and stropped razor. Shavettes simply miss this completely.

I am still new to wet shaving and have not started straight, it's in the mail from doc's hone job can't wait, but from what you guys are saying Straight is like driving a standard transmission car and a shavette or DE is like an automatic, they will both get you where you are going and they are both good at it, but it's all about the what you put in to get to your destination, the straight is more of an art, a ceromony and shavette is just to get the job done well without all the bells and whistles, boils down to personal prefrence form my noob point of view.

I have and use both. when I am traveling or just want a trouble free shave I use my shavette and I get a great shave from it. Lately though I have been using my regular straights more and more. For me stropping was never a great hassle and since I discovered honing on lapping film, I have the means to do blade maintenance in a minimum of time with stunning results.

If for some reason you do not like the feel of a regular straight, you might want to try another grind. My favorites are the extra hollows but some people prefer wedges.

If you enjoy the shavette more, then keep on shaving with it. I wish you lots of wonderful maintenance free shaves.

I have both and use both.
Pick what works best for you and go with it.

Maintaining and stropping a straight really isnt all that much work. Not sure what the fuss is once you figure out how.

To each their own.

global_dev said:

Maintaining and stropping a straight really isnt all that much work. Not sure what the fuss is once you figure out how.

To each their own.

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Like i said in my first post straight shaving is an art but not just the shaving it self but the maintenance of the blade. Maybe later i'll go back to the straight, but right now the shavette satisfy my needs, i get exellent shaves whit my Blue Beards revenge shavette.

Many have said it's a matter of personal preference. I've had to do some soul searching on the issue myself since I have both a SR & a shavette. Am I trying to explore efficient alternatives to carts or am feeling the need to explore a somewhat more artistic or artisan-like path? In trying to strike a balance between novelty & utility I think I've settled on the shavette for the time being.

I currently use a shavette and am getting amazing results. Having never used a traditional straight, I can't comment on the differences. It was the lack of maintenance and not having to learn stropping / honing that lead me to choose the shavette. I get the attraction to traditional straights and the satisfaction of maintaining them and will no doubt try them - I'm just not there yet.

Today after my 9 th shavette shave i was able to do it whitout any cuts or nicks. I did my 3 pass shave and i get a really close shave, i was really proud of myself. I used modern Williams mug for soap, allum block and Aqua Velva Musk for after shave, really nice combo.

I started out on a Weck, moved to a feather ac type shavette, then to straights and now back to feather shavettes. I found that the straights, while giving a total experience was just a little too much work for me. Maybe having four on my honing table right now is leading me to think that way. The shavette gives me the same experience and shave without the extra work. Sometimes when I am so rushed, I will use the can shave soap and a DE and so I'm not proud. Do what works for you and be comfortable about it.