which intro gift razor do you give out to friends?

[charles_r]

The last time I have a kit, it was:

- a Gilette Knack. I liked the razor, but it got it in a lot that I won in a PIF here a while ago. It felt appropriate to re-PIFing it to someone else and have a new convert start with a good razor.
- three blades of 5 different kinds in my personal stock. I sorted them out for him from milder to more agressive.
- a tallow soap I made for him at Christmas and a boar brush from a lot I had bought on ebay. My brother in law had already been off the "goo" for three months so he was quite open to new suggestions coming from me.

He already had good aftershave. Actually most people I gave gear to already use decent aftershave.

 

[Saltchuck]

I gave my son-in-law a Merkur 33C, some Red IPs, and a VDH kit. He bit, hook line and sinker .

 

[glazer1972]

I gave a cousin a Tech and some Store Brand Blades. No idea if he is still using them.

 

[whavens]

I have also built a kit for a friend's son, but he has yet to pick it up. It has a VDH kit with boar brush, a Tweezerman brush, a flair tip SS and a ball end tech with a tube of C.O. Bigelow. I have had the kit ready for a while and told my friend I might start taking something every week he continues to wait. That might make him hurry up to come get it.

 

[hollisterco]

man lookin at this thread i wish i was friends with some of you all instead! honestly id be too broke to give out full kits, i did give out 3 kits of williams, horse brushes, and supermax green stainless / astras, alum block & stick, 3 liked them, then the other 3 w/o soap or brush, they mostly said they where too agressive, for my brother i think ill give him my dad's old tech, but think its still a good idea to give out these plastics, you guys have to try them they are actually pretty nice, i think for now im actually gonna stick to that as my main blade to test it out for them and using the dorco platinums it comes with, my only complaint (after knowing DE not in my dark dispossable days) is that i get a closer shave under the nose with my other ones, mostly yuma and a cheapie $1 big roc i kept after giving some out, ill have to try a weishi before giving out, i just havent bc im not too into mild techs, but now that i found this source oh man!!! i mean most weishis online are $3, i can get these $1.25, $1 if many (10?), AND they come with their own platinums, which i must say today they felt right up there with my older astra so a comparison will be coming up soon, also worth mentioning, since many of you guys talk about gilletes which are sometimes hard to find, the yuma is a very formidable $3-4 metal razor, it wont win beauty pageants, but shave with it and you'll be convinced its one of the best values for ur $$$, it definitely belongs in every BBbadger's collection




id forgotten about the popular im glad i never went for it, i remember it seeming reasonable at first, but seeing it again, $27 for plastic??? what a joke! looking at the head, i know i got a knockoff off ebay real close to this, is the tto head all plastic and the blade way more agressive than a tech? im almost sure both are a yes, so heres the knock off, and even i thought it was too aggressive, ive since taken more liking to it but for bodyhair not face since it wont clog under the pits etc bc its so agressive, but def not safe for a beginning non enthusiast like ourselves, http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-Trandit...ltDomain_0&hash=item3a7386bfd6#ht_6083wt_1163

i agree on the venus, i laughed bc i had a friend with a similar plan, whenever he ran into someone difficult to deal with, he'd sign them up for a free tampon sampler, im pretty sure venus has those also but all i saw right now was thru fb only, obviously theyd call me out

btw, just realized, feather sells a $27 plastic when the METAL yuma is based off a very successful early gillete / merkur model (lookup 1906 gillete, 1906 merkur) sells for $4, feather's starting to get on my craplist real fast i just found out about their $300 shavette today as well

 

[vocalistbob]

I put together two kits for a friend and his 17.year old son. I gave the father a pretty decent Aristocrat and the son a ball-end Tech. I got them two Chinese silvertip brushes (not bad, not great), Derby blades and a couple of cakes of soap I didn't used anymore. They ended up swapping razors and now, after six months, they are both still wet shaving. The father has already bought a Slim and a better brush, he is hooked !

 

[dpm802]

VDH kit with bowl, boar brush and deluxe soap Wal Mart/Greens $9
BIC single edge plastic disposables Wal Mart/Greens .99
Classic Ice Blue Aqua Velva Wal Mart/Greens $3.52
Nivea Cool Kick artic blast AS Balm Wal Mart/Greens $3.38
Naturally Fresh liquid roll-on potassium alum Wal Mart/GNC/Whole Foods 2.18
Pinaud styptic pencil Wal Mart .99

Total: $20.06 plus tax.

Teach them proper prep, shave technique and post, and they will not finish the pack of BIC disposables before they hunt themselves down a DE razor.

If you give your friend a VdH brush, or any boar brush for that matter, do them a favor and give it a quick break in before you turn it over to them. Putting raw boar bristles to the face is not a good way to introduce a newbie to the luxury of wet-shaving.

+1 on the BIC disposables ... or let them continue to use their existing razor while they learn the finer points of pre-shave prep and making lather. If they get through these two steps and are still using your gear after a couple of weeks, you can give them a DE razor, or better yet, let them pick out their own from the BST.

 

[global_dev]

feather's starting to get on my craplist real fast i just found out about their $300 shavette today

Totally different quality. Not exactly a "shavette" but it us pricey. Its a totally different league of disposable type product.

 

[Ixtab]

I gave my girlfriend's son a 57 flair tip SS, a Duke 1 best brush, a bowl and a tube of C.O. Bigelow I also threw in 25 Red IPs. He has been wanting to try DE, so I thought I would throw this kit together for his 37th birthday. I told him about this site and Mantic 59's videos. The razor is both his mother's and my birth year razor.

& had you not shown me the videos & patiently showed me how to properly use the brush I would have ended up a bloody mess on my bathroom floor!

 

[santamariasteve]

If the friend has a soft beard I would give a Gillette Tech (with the thick handle) and Dorco blades.

If the friend has a medium beard I would give a Gillette Super Speed Flare Tip with Dorco blades.

If the friend has a tough beard, I would give a Merkur HD with Dorco blades.

Plan B would be to give a Gillette Blue Tip, a Gillette Flare Tip, and a Gillette Red Tip for the three beard types.

I would also give an additional pack of Feather blades, in the event the gift razor and the Dorco's were not aggressive enough.

 

[Galhatz]

- VDH kit with bowl, boar brush and deluxe soap, Wal-Mart $9
- Lord L6, eBay $12.75
- Blade sampler culled from my personal stock

I was thinking about this option quite a bit. It is best to start friends with quality otherwise it can badly backfire.
I have not tried the L6 myself so I am thinking of buying one so I can vouch for it, using "my own skin" as proof.

If you give your friend a VdH brush, or any boar brush for that matter, do them a favor and give it a quick break in before you turn it over to them. Putting raw boar bristles to the face is not a good way to introduce a newbie to the luxury of wet-shaving.

+1 on the BIC disposables ... or let them continue to use their existing razor while they learn the finer points of pre-shave prep and making lather. If they get through these two steps and are still using your gear after a couple of weeks, you can give them a DE razor, or better yet, let them pick out their own from the BST.

The VDH kit boar brush (the $9 kit) is actually surprisingly soft and even softer if it is soaked in hot water for a few minutes. Compared to the tweezerman it is luxurious. Since no one mentioned the tweezerman i think I should. My experience with it was negative: it smelled awful at first and the tips were on the prickly side. YMMV with it, some samples are better than others but on the chance of bad smell alone I keep my friends away from it.

 

[whavens]

Welcome aboard, Justen. You'll meet some interesting folks here and maybe even learn a thing or two.

& had you not shown me the videos & patiently showed me how to properly use the brush I would have ended up a bloody mess on my bathroom floor!

 

[Kostas1]

I've given out a couple super speeds and a gold krona