IGX

After years of 5 o'clock shadow by noon and wondering why I run a razor over my face and still see whiskers, I bought a shaving brush and real shaving cream (not foam or gel).

It freaking rules. Modern shaving products are a good example of things getting worse with newer technology. Once the brush is soaked, and the badger hair ones really hold water, you give it a circle or two in the shaving cream or shaving soap and wonder where the lather is. It forms up when you apply it to your face. The brush also pulls the whiskers away from the face a little. This makes the first pass (I'm using a Mach3) better.

The extra slick thing is the brush still has cream on it, so if you want to take another pass, you just re-apply and shave. Most guys won't bother doing that with shaving foams, because you spray it in your hand, even it out, apply it to your face, rinse your hands, and then make another pass. The brush reduces that to one step.

Anyway, I'm sold on the brush and glycerin-based soaps. I still can't get very close on my chin and moustache, but it's certainly better than it's ever been.

Musgo Real is the best shave cream I've found for the brush. You can buy it on the Internet pretty easily. Around $8 for a 3 oz tube, but a single tube will last for several months. Their glycerin-based after shave is the best, too, but it's almost impossible to find in the U.S. lately.

I'll have to compare musgo with my favorite " williams mug shaving soap".

If you think a brush does the trick, try a patch of that 1/4" thick 3M
"green" kitchen scouring pad to lay the soap on.

It's a bit uncomfortable, but before the blades ever touch the skin,
each hair has been "lifted straight" by hundreds of those little
plastic bristles, and all that dead skin that clogs between the blades
of the safety razor has been scraped away.

You must be hairy as a chimp troy, and bristly as hogzilla.

I can relate.

Gayassedthreadalert.

Real men water down their bowie and go from there.

I scare clients when I'm all bloody, trip. Why dontcha post a vid of your technique.

I recently rediscovered the brush and straight razor. That shit is awesome.

And you sharpen your focus.

I've used a straight razor since I was 16, best shave you'll ever get IMO.

Crust Bucket wrote:I've used a straight razor since I was 16, best shave you'll ever get IMO.

True knowledge. Some people get some fucked up razor burn from it I have heard, but on this end things are A-OK. Only it takes some getting used to around the jaw bone.

Are you guys using stainless or carbon steel? How often do you have to hone it?

Stainless, and I am still in the novelty phase, so I have been honing often.

This page should help you out:

http://www.knifecenter.com/knifecenter/ ... razor.html

Just get a triple bladed Mach 3 or whatever. Get in the shower and shave as the shampoo soaks in your head. Time management. Doing it sightless improves tactical awareness and your imaging skills. I never use a mirror, just touch. The humidity of the shower and the shampoo gives you a good shave.

You guys are starting to sound like the Queer Eye for the Straight Guy team.

My razor is my avatar.

I have both, but use the carbon more. I use the strop once half way through I guess, and after I finish.

Conair makes a nifty little canister device that will heat up store bought shaving cream. Requires about 10 minutes pre-planning.

Tom Furman wrote: My razor is my avatar.

Kerambits are for sissies. Get a real knife.