What was your most memorable shaving experience?

[beaker]

Ok guys, have you had one shave that really sticks out above all others, and for what reason? A sense of time or place? Was it a funny story, a scary experience? Whatever it was, let's hear them.

For my part, the one I will always remember, happened over twenty years ago, in the far east of Turkey, in a town called Kars. The barbers shop, was a mud brick shack, with a turfed roof with a tethered goat grazing on top of it. Right in the centre of town, just off the main street - a dirt strip with a constant stream of horse carts, hugely overladen trucks and the the occasional car scattering flocks of sheep being led along it.

Bitterly cold water - no heating here, as the propane cannister had just run out, but Turkish cigarettes and scalding hot tea from the hole in the wall next door. My wife was given a seat in the window so all the passers by could see that they had foreign customers, and hilariously, a couple of goats repeatedly bursting through the door to try and eat the three foot high stack of old newspapers just inside the door.

An awesomely close shave with half a Derby in a straight, followed by a thorough singeing with flaming cotton wool dipped in meths.

Every time I use my stick of Arko shave soap, the smell just reminds me of this memorable shave. For me, the smell of Arko is THE smell of Turkey!

[SavantStrike]

I have three.

1. The first time I got a bad cut with my M3. Somehow I had gotten careless and slid it way too far sideways. It looked like I got cut by some sort of animal, and it hurt like it too and was sore for at least a week.

2. My first DE shave, it was fantastic.

3. My third straight shave. It proved to me that I loved the straight and could get half decent results which would improve over time.

[beaker]

Multiple blades = multiple cuts. Not a good look. OUCH!

[psiber5]

My first DE shave almost 5 weeks ago. I never had a smooth shave in my life before, so imagine my surprise when I started DE shaving!

[Advil]

in 11th grade i was shaving really, really fast before class and i sliced off a chunk of skin about the size of a dime. bled for at least 2 hours.

[Brodirt]

Staring into the mirror for 20 mins. with a multi-blade cartridge razor in my hand (the red one that looks like a paddle) on the morning of my wedding. Doing the same thing 3 years later on the morning I was going to bring home my wife and 3 day old first daughter.

[hokihigh]

My 1st bbs shave, I was so proud

[missnu]

in 11th grade i was shaving really, really fast before class and i sliced off a chunk of skin about the size of a dime. bled for at least 2 hours.

Ouch!

[ZZTop]

Back when I was new to shaving, still using a multi-blade, I was a bit too quick around the lips. One tiny cut, but it just wouldn't stop bleeding, and it was bleeding a lot! You couldn't even really see it when it finally closed up, but when it was going the word hemophilia definitely crossed my mind.

[OldSaw]

My first shave, over thirty years ago. I still remember how smooth my face felt and could hardly wait to shave again. Back then it was only about once a week, now I get to shave every day and I still enjoy it.

[spinyeel]

The first time I felt a 1912 Gem glide across my face comes to mind.

[StGeorge]

Any time I've tried a Merkur blade. How can the most expensive blade be the worst and how can a company that makes such great razors get it so wrong with their blades?

[macabrem]

The first memory I thought of when I read the question took me back to about 9th or 10th grade.

I was in a hurry when I got up one weekend morning because I was supposed to help decorate for a school dance as part of the Student Council, and I was running a little behind schedule. When I went to shave with my Mach 3, I believe, I actually managed to get the head of the razor in my EAR and I pulled off a lot of skin right on some sensitive cartilage.

The crazy bandaging that I did for that wound led to a lot of questions about the injury itself, as well as a lot of older guys commenting on the fact that I grew enough facial hair at that age to warrant shaving at least every other day.

[the beav]

I don't exactly remember my first DE shave but I do remember buying my first DE razor.

It was a Chinese Flying Eagle brand razor with a red handle and came in a box with a small mirror in it. The razor was bought from a vendor whose wares were displayed on a ramshackle table at an open air market in Nyala, Sudan (Darfur region) in 1989. I think I paid the equivalent of 25 cents for it.

I still have it today.

[Nozzlejocky]

As I'm fairly new into this, I still remember the hesitation before and during my first DE shave. Afterward, I'm not sure what I should have been worried about. It was a first small step that soon became a leaping dive into wet shaving.

[Tolduonce]

My first shave as a teen was with a black long handle. Had no skills and was using a blade that had definitely seen better days. Had to really ramp up the pressure to make the thing cut anything. Two days later, my entire face looked like the underside of a Nestle's Crunch Bar due to all the ingrown hairs. Think of me the next time you eat one.

[Not4you]

my first open comb shave after 4 days growth

coincidentally, this was also my most recent shave

[mantic]

[OldSaw]

Nice pic Mark. I almost chose this one over my first shave. Your barber looks better than mine.
Taormina Str8 Shave.jpg

[cop]

I'm afraid it was my revelation in the late seventies.
By the combination of complete lack of concentration and a quick stroke with my Gillette Knack I realized that the blade and the tip of my Adam's apple was two incompatible quantities.
Regards
cop