Ritual, art, membership to a cabal of manly-men-boxing-fools in a brew pub — these have never been associations I’ve had with shaving. As Tim has already indicated, our dad gave us a pretty abridged shaving tutorial. Along with scant demonstration, he may have mentioned, “Try not to kill yourself.” Whether he did or did not impart this final kernel of wisdom, there was no follow-up lesson or even a check-in to see if we had garroted ourselves.
As a result, for pretty much all of my shaving-life, I have half-shaved at best. My father’s lack of teaching surely contributed to this, but so did the milieu of the ’90s. In the social circles I traveled then, there was no stigma associated with whatever you decided to do with your facial hair. By the end of the ’90s and the early ’00s, I was shaving maybe once a week. Eventually I found a decent beard trimmer and with it, my shaving became more erratic. Sometimes I had a beard, sometimes I had a shadow, sometimes I was clean shaven, sometimes I had an experimental look, but most of the time I had some amount of hair on my face. This was largely because in those instances when I was clean shaven, I would never continue to do so beyond a couple days because I’d either forget to keep up with it or I got razor rash.
Still, I do razor shave on occasion, and when I do, for nearly two decades it has been with a Mach3. As Tim has also duly noted, the Mach3 is really the bane of shaving. After it materialized in 1998, the facial hair horizon was forever leveled. It is as if no other razor had ever existed since or after. With it, razor cartridges were to forever be things that existed behind locked glass, and the only thing better than three blades was more blades.
There is a ton of razor-nerd literature on the web, more than enough to make up for my father’s dearth of shaving knowledge and also make this post seem like it was written by an illiterate shaving caveman. A lot of the literature posits that safety razor shaving is superior to more modern types of shaving. If you doubt this sentiment, I’m with you. It is more likely that the boon in safety razor shaving has to do with a beard-backlash and someone recognizing that there was a vast untapped market of people who really hate the idea of the Mach3.
One thing is for sure, if anyone tells you it is cheaper to shave with a safety razor (in our modern era), consider this post a free pass to laugh right in their stupid shaven face. Odds are, that if they are safety razoring it, they’ve read up on it and expended time, effort, and money on safety razors. It’s a wash that inevitably results in the accumulation of deadlier varieties of safety razors and ascension to asshole-razorhood. I myself still have plenty of time to go ape-shit and purchase a Feather AS-D2 for $180+. Thank you Mach3 for making me the monster I am.
Where the homologous Mach3 is like the fast-food strip in every town, there are countless varieties and flavors of safety razors from which to choose. Though some will argue that the options are lucid enough, the combinations of two and three piece construction, adjustable or fixed, and closed comb (safety bar) or open comb (teeth), also make a fairly strong case for just reaching for the ubiquitous Mach3.
In my case, I opted for a somewhat standard and basic setup. This is what I have:
- Merkur 34C Heavy Duty Classic Double Edge Safety Razor
- Personna Double Edge Razor Blades
- Razor Stand
- Escali 100% Pure Badger Shaving Brush
- Proraso Shaving Soap in Bowl
- Nivea Men Sensitive Cooling Balm
- Lather & Wood Shaving Oil
The Merkur 34C goes for around $35; it is well regarded, getting recommended as much for the neophyte as it does the advanced shaver. The best part about the Merkur 34C is holding it, and I’m going to venture to say this holds true for most safety razors. It feels awesome, like something engineered in an airplane hangar. Prior to using it, the one thing I did wonder about was its handle length, which compared to a cartridge razor like the Mach3 handle, is short. The handle to the 34C is three inches long, as opposed to the Mach3 which is over five. I imagine1 this is because safety razors are balanced (it’s the weight of the razor itself and gravity that does the whisker cutting; it’s not the pressure from your hand, which is how you chop your face to pieces). Now that I’m used to it, the three-inch handle feels great2.
To shave, I use Proraso Soap, which comes in its own little plastic bowl. I really like this stuff, it smells nice. Some people also recommend using a pre-shave oil, so I picked up the Lather & Wood Shaving Oil. You are to put this on your face before you lather up with the soap. It smells nice, but – shrug – I sometimes forget to use it. A hot shower probably does the same trick. Finally, I use the Nivea Men Sensitive Cooling Balm. It’s not overpowering and it feels good, though you might still get yelled at if you walk into a smell-free zone.
