- Joined
- Friday January 18, 2013
- Location
- UK
Helping A Friend In Need Of A New Direction
Please remember that these are the personal opinions/findings and experiences of myself, as in all things YMMV and experiences/opinions vary.
Now some of you may laugh at this.......................
About a month or so ago a friend popped in to say hello, he parked his car outside of my house came in and sat down clutching a small plastic carrier bag, I asked him what he had been up to that day, he told me he had been shopping. I asked him what was in the bag, ''razor blade cartridges'' he replied. I asked him why he hadn't of left them in his car with the rest of his shopping after all where I live is quiet and relatively peaceful, his reply went something like this (the censored version)................
''you got to be ******* joking, these things cost me twelve ******* quid for four ******* cartridges, twelve quid for four cartridges that will last a ******* month if I'm lucky and give me damn awful shaving rash in the ******* process, its a total ******* rip off, for that sort of money I'd want them to be gold ******* plated not plastic and **** steel''
At this point I couldn't resist a little chuckle to my self, although I did feel a little sorry for my mate, obviously the subject of razor cartridges was a sore point (quite literally). He asked me where I got my razor blade cartridges from. ''I don't get any'' I told him, he looked a bit puzzled so I proceeded to explain that I used a Double Edged safety razor, a shaving brush and nice smelling 'no added crap' shaving cream. He seemed quite interested, but did pass a comment about a DE being a meat slicer! and a bit old fashioned. However his ears really pricked up when I told him that I pay around £20 for 100 good quality blades that last on average five shaves, resulting in me needing to shave only every other day and without any resulting irritation or in grown hairs.
My friend went on to ask where I got all my 'DE stuff' from, so I booted up the PC and proceeded to show him the various vendors from whom I purchase from. As my friend showed more and more interest he eventually looked up and stated ''it looks like there may be something in this DE malarkey after all, I think I'm going to have to give it a go at some point''.
As I was feeling unusually generous and thus in a good mood for a change! I offered to kit him out with enough DE gear to get him going, besides it was a good opportunity to clear out some of my old DE stuff from my 'just in case, back up, you never know I might need that one day' shaving cupboard and hopefully get a gold star in my girlfriends good books at the same time.
I then proceeded to donate the following to my mate, for the greater good!
Merkur 33c (kind of regret giving it away, oh well never mind)
A couple of packs of Derby blades that I don't use any more
An old Vulfix boar hair brush (old but in good condition)
A tube of Palmolive Classic shaving cream (relatively cheap here in the UK but decent quality)
A old tube of Arko Cool after shave balm (good stuff, not particularly fond of the smell)
I proceeded to give my friend a brief but concise tutorial on how to DE shave along with a list of web sites and You Tube videos that I thought would be of help, after a bit more discussion about DE shaving and a couple more coffees he went on his way with a smile.
About a fortnight later my friend came to visit again, this time with a bottle of Scotch in thanks for giving him the DE gear and setting him on the path to cheap and painless quality shaves, his shaving rash had completely cleared up and he was more than happy. Apparently he had returned the unopened packet of cartridge blades to the supermarket saying that they were bought by him for his elderly father but were the wrong blades for his razor, with his refund he purchased a nice tub of Almond shaving cream instead and threw all his multi blade paraphernalia in the bin, although he freely admits that he has still got a little way to go before he achieves a perfect BBS shave, he has no intention of going back to cartridge razors, in fact he's already looking into purchasing more DE gear.
And by the way that bottle of Scotch that he gave me is very very nice.
Please remember that these are the personal opinions/findings and experiences of myself, as in all things YMMV and experiences/opinions vary.
Now some of you may laugh at this.......................
About a month or so ago a friend popped in to say hello, he parked his car outside of my house came in and sat down clutching a small plastic carrier bag, I asked him what he had been up to that day, he told me he had been shopping. I asked him what was in the bag, ''razor blade cartridges'' he replied. I asked him why he hadn't of left them in his car with the rest of his shopping after all where I live is quiet and relatively peaceful, his reply went something like this (the censored version)................
''you got to be ******* joking, these things cost me twelve ******* quid for four ******* cartridges, twelve quid for four cartridges that will last a ******* month if I'm lucky and give me damn awful shaving rash in the ******* process, its a total ******* rip off, for that sort of money I'd want them to be gold ******* plated not plastic and **** steel''
At this point I couldn't resist a little chuckle to my self, although I did feel a little sorry for my mate, obviously the subject of razor cartridges was a sore point (quite literally). He asked me where I got my razor blade cartridges from. ''I don't get any'' I told him, he looked a bit puzzled so I proceeded to explain that I used a Double Edged safety razor, a shaving brush and nice smelling 'no added crap' shaving cream. He seemed quite interested, but did pass a comment about a DE being a meat slicer! and a bit old fashioned. However his ears really pricked up when I told him that I pay around £20 for 100 good quality blades that last on average five shaves, resulting in me needing to shave only every other day and without any resulting irritation or in grown hairs.
My friend went on to ask where I got all my 'DE stuff' from, so I booted up the PC and proceeded to show him the various vendors from whom I purchase from. As my friend showed more and more interest he eventually looked up and stated ''it looks like there may be something in this DE malarkey after all, I think I'm going to have to give it a go at some point''.
As I was feeling unusually generous and thus in a good mood for a change! I offered to kit him out with enough DE gear to get him going, besides it was a good opportunity to clear out some of my old DE stuff from my 'just in case, back up, you never know I might need that one day' shaving cupboard and hopefully get a gold star in my girlfriends good books at the same time.
I then proceeded to donate the following to my mate, for the greater good!
Merkur 33c (kind of regret giving it away, oh well never mind)
A couple of packs of Derby blades that I don't use any more
An old Vulfix boar hair brush (old but in good condition)
A tube of Palmolive Classic shaving cream (relatively cheap here in the UK but decent quality)
A old tube of Arko Cool after shave balm (good stuff, not particularly fond of the smell)
I proceeded to give my friend a brief but concise tutorial on how to DE shave along with a list of web sites and You Tube videos that I thought would be of help, after a bit more discussion about DE shaving and a couple more coffees he went on his way with a smile.
About a fortnight later my friend came to visit again, this time with a bottle of Scotch in thanks for giving him the DE gear and setting him on the path to cheap and painless quality shaves, his shaving rash had completely cleared up and he was more than happy. Apparently he had returned the unopened packet of cartridge blades to the supermarket saying that they were bought by him for his elderly father but were the wrong blades for his razor, with his refund he purchased a nice tub of Almond shaving cream instead and threw all his multi blade paraphernalia in the bin, although he freely admits that he has still got a little way to go before he achieves a perfect BBS shave, he has no intention of going back to cartridge razors, in fact he's already looking into purchasing more DE gear.
And by the way that bottle of Scotch that he gave me is very very nice.