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15 years ago...
Corey Greenberg is often credited with jump-starting the re-surgance in traditional wet shaving, when he appeared on the NBC Today programme advising men to bin their cartridge razors and canned shaving foam in favour of traditional wet-shaving (Merkur 34 and TOBS). It was a powerful few minutes of advocacy that fuelled a renewed interest in wet shaving with a double edge razor and brush, and no doubt many vendors owe him a debt of gratitude. Sadly the video does not appear to be on YouTube anymore.
Copied from elsewhere...
Corey Greenberg on NBC's Today Show The Perfect Shave - The last Sunday in January of '05, Corey Greenburg, Tech Editor for the NBC Today Show, did a wet shaving article and TV segment about wet shaving that hit the air waves. That show caused an immediate impact and increase in our Em's Place, Inc. business. It was like being placed back into the holiday selling season, but without the inventory buildup. We were placing emergency orders with our international vendors to meet the demand. Further, with his focus on the double edge razor, even the main manufacturer we work with, Merkur/Dovo, ran out of stock for many items. This was not just something our company experienced - it had an impact on all the wet shaving merchants we know about here in the states, as well as on many product makers worldwide. This national exposure to traditional wet shaving with a brush and double edge razor escalated the desire to try a different shaving technique and exposed a whole new generation to a more traditional shave by making lather with a shaving brush. (approx. 5 min.)
Wet shaving has come along way in 15 years...
This is an early article from Corey's blog which I suspect us many "experts"
would now probably have things we would disagree with...
How to get that perfect shave
Jan. 30, 2005, 5:34 PM GMT / Source: Weekend Today
By By Corey Greenberg
Ever since prehistoric man first scraped a seashell across his cheek so prehistoric woman would let him dance cheek-to-cheek, shaving has been a part of the male experience. But even with today's high-tech razors, lots of men still get nicks, cuts, and razor burn. Today's Tech Editor Corey Greenberg is here with the latest trend in male grooming that promises a better shave by going back to the old school.
Q: What is the perfect shave and why do most guys get it so wrong?
A: The perfect shave is what all men strive for every morning when they bring their razor up their chin – an effortless shave (that's) baby smooth, and without any of the usual skin irritation, redness, and that burning sensation most guys seem to feel is par for the course when it comes to shaving.
Why do so many guys find this so hard to achieve? Because proper shaving has become a lost art. Shaving is one of those glorious male traditions that used to be passed down from father to son, but somewhere along the line, when shaving became more about cheap, disposable razors than a nice, precision-made metal tool in your hand, it became a brainless routine to rush through in the morning without even thinking about it. A dull disposable razor dragged across a layer of foam or gel on your cheeks is a step backward from the past, not an improvement. Now that men of all ages are paying more attention to their appearance, it's no wonder that the hottest trend right now in male grooming is a return to the traditional wet shave – and millions of men have been shocked to discover that the “old fashioned†method of shaving they thought went out with the Hula Hoop is actually the best quality shave you can get.
Q: What is “wetshaving†and how is it different from the way most men – and women – shave today?
A: Wetshaving is just what the term implies – keeping your face (or for women, their legs) wet with plenty of hot water before, and during, the entire shave. In fact, you should always shave after a hot shower, not before (if you need to shave without taking a shower, washing your face with hot water for a few minutes will suffice). With a layer of hot water between your skin and the lather, the blade skims the surface instead of dragging on it, which is the main cause of irritation, redness, and “shave bumpsâ€.
Wetshaving gives you more effective shaves and better looking skin. The hot water opens the pores of your skin and relaxes your facial muscles, and it softens your whiskers for more effective cutting. Believe it or not, but your whiskers are tougher than the edge of a razor blade, and shaving “dryâ€, or mostly dry as with the vast majority of shaving creams, foams, and gels on the market, means you're literally tugging on each and every hair on your face instead of neatly slicing it at the skin's surface and moving on without irritating your skin. The key to proper wetshaving is keeping your face as wet as possible at all times during the shave. Even if you keep your current tools and routine, you'll marvel at how much closer and more comfortable shaving can be when you keep your face hydrated at all times with lots of hot (not scalding) water.
Q: What are the basic tools you need for wetshaving?
A: The perfect shave has three ingredients: a good razor, a good brush, and glycerin-based shaving cream. But the biggest difference between wetshaving and the way most guys shave today is the use of a shaving brush. A good badger-hair shaving brush is the single most important ingredient in getting the perfect shave -- if you change no part of your shaving routine except to add a good shaving brush to the mix, you'll be astounded at how much better and more enjoyable your shaves become.
Take it from a guy who used to use his fingers to smear cheap shaving gel on his face that smelled just like his deodorant – using a fine badger hair brush to brush high-end English shaving cream that smells like fresh-cut violets onto your face and neck isn't just about treating yourself nicely after years of the ol' slice'n'dice. It's also the best possible way to prepare your skin and whiskers for the closest, most comfortable shave.
A shaving brush isn't just a paint brush for your face. A good brush – and the best brushes are made of badger hair and start at $25 – absorbs hot water and then, after you dip the tip of the brush into your tub (yes, not a can, but a tub – I'll explain later) the brush releases and mixes the hot water with the shaving cream as you skim the brush back and forth across your face and neck in and up-down motion. The combination of hot water mixing with the cream and getting beaten by the brush all over your face delivers a thicker, richer, more emollient lather (that's) impossible to get with your fingers alone. A shaving brush also gently exfoliates, or removes the dead skin, from your face before shaving, which gets rid of anything coming between the blade and your whiskers. Finally, the up-down brushing lifts your whiskers and suspends them standing upright in the thick lather, which exposes the maximum whisker length to your blade as it skims along your face.
Genuine badger hair shaving brushes come in all sizes and hair types, costing anywhere from $25 for a basic pure-grade badger model to $550 for a monster-sized, high-end English hand-made job containing only the hair from the badger's neck, which is said by some (though not by me) to be the finest and most rarefied expression of water-holding bristle known to man or badger. Do you need a $550 shaving brush? Unless you're Mr. Burns, the answer is no.
I've gone through a lot of shaving brushes over the years, and as long as you stick with a genuine badger hair brush (cheaper brushes often use boar's hair, which is much stiffer and pricklier than badger, and not nearly as comfortable on your face), the only things that matter are size and price. Bigger brushes hold more water and tend to make better lather faster and more easily, but really, the difference in lathering between a small $25 badger brush and that crazy $550 giant is negligible as long as you know what you're doing, which means that if you can soak a brush in a sink full of hot water for a second or two, dab some shaving cream on the tips, and then swipe it up and down on your face and neck till you work up a thick, opaque layer of lather, you know what you're doing. I recommend the English-made Vulfix brushes, which are much more reasonably priced than a lot of high-end British shaving brushes which don't begin to approach the quality of the Vulfix models. They're easily the best shaving brushes I've come across, despite being the most reasonably priced.
http://www.classicshaving.com/page/page/800550.htm
The next tool you need for wetshaving is a razor. And by razor, I mean whatever high-quality, NON-DISPOSABLE razor you feel most comfortable with. I know, I know, disposables are cool because (that's) what they hand out in jail, but they're extremely hard on your skin because the quality of the blades isn't as good as a cartridge razor, or better yet, the kind of razor that serious wetshavers use: the classic double-edge safety razor!
A DE razor is the kind that takes a single, disposable razor blade, and it's the same type of razor that your father, your grandfather, Cary Grant, Lee Marvin, JFK, and John Wayne used, and in the opinion of many shave-o-philes, the classic DE wipes the floor with any modern razor. I entirely concur – ever since I switched to using a DE razor, instead of a multi-blade cartridge razor, I get much closer and more comfortable shaves, my face doesn't burn at all anymore, and all the red irritation on my neck I thought was there for good went away completely.
DE razors are also the best choice for African-American men, many of whom suffer from “shave bumpsâ€, which occur when their tougher whiskers are cut too aggressively by modern mutli-blade razors, causing them to grow back underneath the skin and turn into ingrown hairs. Switching to a DE and using a shaving brush to exfoliate the skin and prep the whiskers is good for men of all races, but African-American men in particular find that shaving with a safety razor clears up their skin and makes shaving a pleasure again.
The men's grooming boom has created a huge resurgence of interest in DE razors, and guys are snapping up vintage models on eBay for ten and twenty times what these razors sold for back in the 50s and 60s! But if you don't want to shave with a razor (that's) got a half-century under its belt, new safety razors are available that bring back the spirit of the classic Gillette adjustable DE razors, which many shaving connoisseurs consider the finest double-edge razor ever made. The German company Merkur offers a whole range of extremely high-quality, precision-made safety razors and platinum-coated blades, from a reissue of the 1904 Gillette DE to the super deluxe $120 Vision, the coolest, most futuristic-looking razor on the planet. The biggest bang for the buck is Merkur's $27 HD “Hefty Classic†safety razor – it's an excellent razor to start with if you've decided to take the DE plunge.
http://www.classicshaving.com/page/page/522941.htm
Once you've got a shaving brush, a razor, and some quality shaving cream, you'll need a sink full of hot (not scalding) water. After you emerge from a nice, hot shower, fill the sink with hot water and let your shaving brush soak in the water as it fills the sink. Splash some more hot water on your face to keep it maximally wet. The key to wetshaving is keeping your face as hydrated with hot water at all times as possible.
Remove your brush from the water, hold it upside down until water stops pouring out of it, and then you're ready to apply the cream. If you've got a tub of shaving cream, swirl the wet tips of your brush around in a circular motion on the surface of the cream until you get a small amount of visible white lather. You don't need a lot of cream, but you you don't want too little either. After your first few shaves, you'll begin to get a feel for how much is just right.
Now you want to paint your face up and down, up and down all over the areas of your face and neck you'll be shaving. Keep at it for a minute or so until you've got a thick, opaque layer of rich lather covering the shaving area. Then set your brush handle-down on the counter and pick up your razor.
You want to shave downward on your face and neck, WITH the direction your whiskers grow. At least for the first pass, a North-to-South stroke will get rid of most of your stubble without irritating your skin. If you want a closer shave, wet your face again, lather up again, and shave very lightly upward, against the grain, in a South-to-North direction. Most men's skin is too sensitive to stand up to an against-the-grain shave without redness, razor burn, and even ingrown hairs, but if you can deal with it, go gently.
Once you're done shaving, rinse your face with cold water to close the pores, thoroughly rinse your shaving brush of lather and shake it dry, and store it in your medicine cabinet on it's handle, not lying down. This will let the bristles air-dry without damaging them, so your brush will last 20 years or more.
Pat, not rub, your face dry with a clean towel, and finish up with a good non-alcohol-based after-shave or moisturizer – I use and recommend Trumper's “skin foodâ€, but any good moisturizer will be better than that stinging alcohol-based stuff that we've all suffered with.
CAUTION: if you've been shaving with a disposable razor or one of the modern multi-blade cartridge systems like the Mach3, be aware that switching to a single-blade DE will require that you un-learn all the bad habits that modern razors are designed to let sleepy, lazy guys get away with. Mainly, that means slower, more careful strokes, and guiding the razor's head over your skin WITHOUT PRESSING DOWN.
Corey Greenberg is often credited with jump-starting the re-surgance in traditional wet shaving, when he appeared on the NBC Today programme advising men to bin their cartridge razors and canned shaving foam in favour of traditional wet-shaving (Merkur 34 and TOBS). It was a powerful few minutes of advocacy that fuelled a renewed interest in wet shaving with a double edge razor and brush, and no doubt many vendors owe him a debt of gratitude. Sadly the video does not appear to be on YouTube anymore.
Copied from elsewhere...
Corey Greenberg on NBC's Today Show The Perfect Shave - The last Sunday in January of '05, Corey Greenburg, Tech Editor for the NBC Today Show, did a wet shaving article and TV segment about wet shaving that hit the air waves. That show caused an immediate impact and increase in our Em's Place, Inc. business. It was like being placed back into the holiday selling season, but without the inventory buildup. We were placing emergency orders with our international vendors to meet the demand. Further, with his focus on the double edge razor, even the main manufacturer we work with, Merkur/Dovo, ran out of stock for many items. This was not just something our company experienced - it had an impact on all the wet shaving merchants we know about here in the states, as well as on many product makers worldwide. This national exposure to traditional wet shaving with a brush and double edge razor escalated the desire to try a different shaving technique and exposed a whole new generation to a more traditional shave by making lather with a shaving brush. (approx. 5 min.)
Wet shaving has come along way in 15 years...
This is an early article from Corey's blog which I suspect us many "experts"
would now probably have things we would disagree with...How to get that perfect shave
Jan. 30, 2005, 5:34 PM GMT / Source: Weekend Today
By By Corey Greenberg
Ever since prehistoric man first scraped a seashell across his cheek so prehistoric woman would let him dance cheek-to-cheek, shaving has been a part of the male experience. But even with today's high-tech razors, lots of men still get nicks, cuts, and razor burn. Today's Tech Editor Corey Greenberg is here with the latest trend in male grooming that promises a better shave by going back to the old school.
Q: What is the perfect shave and why do most guys get it so wrong?
A: The perfect shave is what all men strive for every morning when they bring their razor up their chin – an effortless shave (that's) baby smooth, and without any of the usual skin irritation, redness, and that burning sensation most guys seem to feel is par for the course when it comes to shaving.
Why do so many guys find this so hard to achieve? Because proper shaving has become a lost art. Shaving is one of those glorious male traditions that used to be passed down from father to son, but somewhere along the line, when shaving became more about cheap, disposable razors than a nice, precision-made metal tool in your hand, it became a brainless routine to rush through in the morning without even thinking about it. A dull disposable razor dragged across a layer of foam or gel on your cheeks is a step backward from the past, not an improvement. Now that men of all ages are paying more attention to their appearance, it's no wonder that the hottest trend right now in male grooming is a return to the traditional wet shave – and millions of men have been shocked to discover that the “old fashioned†method of shaving they thought went out with the Hula Hoop is actually the best quality shave you can get.
Q: What is “wetshaving†and how is it different from the way most men – and women – shave today?
A: Wetshaving is just what the term implies – keeping your face (or for women, their legs) wet with plenty of hot water before, and during, the entire shave. In fact, you should always shave after a hot shower, not before (if you need to shave without taking a shower, washing your face with hot water for a few minutes will suffice). With a layer of hot water between your skin and the lather, the blade skims the surface instead of dragging on it, which is the main cause of irritation, redness, and “shave bumpsâ€.
Wetshaving gives you more effective shaves and better looking skin. The hot water opens the pores of your skin and relaxes your facial muscles, and it softens your whiskers for more effective cutting. Believe it or not, but your whiskers are tougher than the edge of a razor blade, and shaving “dryâ€, or mostly dry as with the vast majority of shaving creams, foams, and gels on the market, means you're literally tugging on each and every hair on your face instead of neatly slicing it at the skin's surface and moving on without irritating your skin. The key to proper wetshaving is keeping your face as wet as possible at all times during the shave. Even if you keep your current tools and routine, you'll marvel at how much closer and more comfortable shaving can be when you keep your face hydrated at all times with lots of hot (not scalding) water.
Q: What are the basic tools you need for wetshaving?
A: The perfect shave has three ingredients: a good razor, a good brush, and glycerin-based shaving cream. But the biggest difference between wetshaving and the way most guys shave today is the use of a shaving brush. A good badger-hair shaving brush is the single most important ingredient in getting the perfect shave -- if you change no part of your shaving routine except to add a good shaving brush to the mix, you'll be astounded at how much better and more enjoyable your shaves become.
Take it from a guy who used to use his fingers to smear cheap shaving gel on his face that smelled just like his deodorant – using a fine badger hair brush to brush high-end English shaving cream that smells like fresh-cut violets onto your face and neck isn't just about treating yourself nicely after years of the ol' slice'n'dice. It's also the best possible way to prepare your skin and whiskers for the closest, most comfortable shave.
A shaving brush isn't just a paint brush for your face. A good brush – and the best brushes are made of badger hair and start at $25 – absorbs hot water and then, after you dip the tip of the brush into your tub (yes, not a can, but a tub – I'll explain later) the brush releases and mixes the hot water with the shaving cream as you skim the brush back and forth across your face and neck in and up-down motion. The combination of hot water mixing with the cream and getting beaten by the brush all over your face delivers a thicker, richer, more emollient lather (that's) impossible to get with your fingers alone. A shaving brush also gently exfoliates, or removes the dead skin, from your face before shaving, which gets rid of anything coming between the blade and your whiskers. Finally, the up-down brushing lifts your whiskers and suspends them standing upright in the thick lather, which exposes the maximum whisker length to your blade as it skims along your face.
Genuine badger hair shaving brushes come in all sizes and hair types, costing anywhere from $25 for a basic pure-grade badger model to $550 for a monster-sized, high-end English hand-made job containing only the hair from the badger's neck, which is said by some (though not by me) to be the finest and most rarefied expression of water-holding bristle known to man or badger. Do you need a $550 shaving brush? Unless you're Mr. Burns, the answer is no.
I've gone through a lot of shaving brushes over the years, and as long as you stick with a genuine badger hair brush (cheaper brushes often use boar's hair, which is much stiffer and pricklier than badger, and not nearly as comfortable on your face), the only things that matter are size and price. Bigger brushes hold more water and tend to make better lather faster and more easily, but really, the difference in lathering between a small $25 badger brush and that crazy $550 giant is negligible as long as you know what you're doing, which means that if you can soak a brush in a sink full of hot water for a second or two, dab some shaving cream on the tips, and then swipe it up and down on your face and neck till you work up a thick, opaque layer of lather, you know what you're doing. I recommend the English-made Vulfix brushes, which are much more reasonably priced than a lot of high-end British shaving brushes which don't begin to approach the quality of the Vulfix models. They're easily the best shaving brushes I've come across, despite being the most reasonably priced.
http://www.classicshaving.com/page/page/800550.htm
The next tool you need for wetshaving is a razor. And by razor, I mean whatever high-quality, NON-DISPOSABLE razor you feel most comfortable with. I know, I know, disposables are cool because (that's) what they hand out in jail, but they're extremely hard on your skin because the quality of the blades isn't as good as a cartridge razor, or better yet, the kind of razor that serious wetshavers use: the classic double-edge safety razor!
A DE razor is the kind that takes a single, disposable razor blade, and it's the same type of razor that your father, your grandfather, Cary Grant, Lee Marvin, JFK, and John Wayne used, and in the opinion of many shave-o-philes, the classic DE wipes the floor with any modern razor. I entirely concur – ever since I switched to using a DE razor, instead of a multi-blade cartridge razor, I get much closer and more comfortable shaves, my face doesn't burn at all anymore, and all the red irritation on my neck I thought was there for good went away completely.
DE razors are also the best choice for African-American men, many of whom suffer from “shave bumpsâ€, which occur when their tougher whiskers are cut too aggressively by modern mutli-blade razors, causing them to grow back underneath the skin and turn into ingrown hairs. Switching to a DE and using a shaving brush to exfoliate the skin and prep the whiskers is good for men of all races, but African-American men in particular find that shaving with a safety razor clears up their skin and makes shaving a pleasure again.
The men's grooming boom has created a huge resurgence of interest in DE razors, and guys are snapping up vintage models on eBay for ten and twenty times what these razors sold for back in the 50s and 60s! But if you don't want to shave with a razor (that's) got a half-century under its belt, new safety razors are available that bring back the spirit of the classic Gillette adjustable DE razors, which many shaving connoisseurs consider the finest double-edge razor ever made. The German company Merkur offers a whole range of extremely high-quality, precision-made safety razors and platinum-coated blades, from a reissue of the 1904 Gillette DE to the super deluxe $120 Vision, the coolest, most futuristic-looking razor on the planet. The biggest bang for the buck is Merkur's $27 HD “Hefty Classic†safety razor – it's an excellent razor to start with if you've decided to take the DE plunge.
http://www.classicshaving.com/page/page/522941.htm
Once you've got a shaving brush, a razor, and some quality shaving cream, you'll need a sink full of hot (not scalding) water. After you emerge from a nice, hot shower, fill the sink with hot water and let your shaving brush soak in the water as it fills the sink. Splash some more hot water on your face to keep it maximally wet. The key to wetshaving is keeping your face as hydrated with hot water at all times as possible.
Remove your brush from the water, hold it upside down until water stops pouring out of it, and then you're ready to apply the cream. If you've got a tub of shaving cream, swirl the wet tips of your brush around in a circular motion on the surface of the cream until you get a small amount of visible white lather. You don't need a lot of cream, but you you don't want too little either. After your first few shaves, you'll begin to get a feel for how much is just right.
Now you want to paint your face up and down, up and down all over the areas of your face and neck you'll be shaving. Keep at it for a minute or so until you've got a thick, opaque layer of rich lather covering the shaving area. Then set your brush handle-down on the counter and pick up your razor.
You want to shave downward on your face and neck, WITH the direction your whiskers grow. At least for the first pass, a North-to-South stroke will get rid of most of your stubble without irritating your skin. If you want a closer shave, wet your face again, lather up again, and shave very lightly upward, against the grain, in a South-to-North direction. Most men's skin is too sensitive to stand up to an against-the-grain shave without redness, razor burn, and even ingrown hairs, but if you can deal with it, go gently.
Once you're done shaving, rinse your face with cold water to close the pores, thoroughly rinse your shaving brush of lather and shake it dry, and store it in your medicine cabinet on it's handle, not lying down. This will let the bristles air-dry without damaging them, so your brush will last 20 years or more.
Pat, not rub, your face dry with a clean towel, and finish up with a good non-alcohol-based after-shave or moisturizer – I use and recommend Trumper's “skin foodâ€, but any good moisturizer will be better than that stinging alcohol-based stuff that we've all suffered with.
CAUTION: if you've been shaving with a disposable razor or one of the modern multi-blade cartridge systems like the Mach3, be aware that switching to a single-blade DE will require that you un-learn all the bad habits that modern razors are designed to let sleepy, lazy guys get away with. Mainly, that means slower, more careful strokes, and guiding the razor's head over your skin WITHOUT PRESSING DOWN.
