Best cheap shave?

London_Peculiar

London_Peculiar

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86
Location
South East London
Getting slowly back into wet shaving after a hand injury, and I'm having a change of heart.

Back in the day, I was all about quality at (nearly) any price, but I'm now thinking of getting back into wet shaving as cheaply as possible. Having a beard doesn't cost much!

Is there something you use that performs way above its modest price?

Could we assemble a razor, a blade, a soap or cream, and an aftershave or balm that are all hero products belying their lowly or under-appreciated status?

For starters, what about the Boots own brand shaving products? The shaving stick seems to attract some love.
 
London_Peculiar said:
Getting slowly back into wet shaving after a hand injury, and I'm having a change of heart.

Back in the day, I was all about quality at (nearly) any price, but I'm now thinking of getting back into wet shaving as cheaply as possible. Having a beard doesn't cost much!

Is there something you use that performs way above its modest price?

Could we assemble a razor, a blade, a soap or cream, and an aftershave or balm that are all hero products belying their lowly or under-appreciated status?

For starters, what about the Boots own brand shaving products? The shaving stick seems to attract some love.
Click to expand...
I'm currently doing a project on creating easier entry into sustainable shaving. Waiting for the post to be approved but your input would be appreciated.
As for razors, I use a 2nd hand straight razor found on ebay and sharpened it up. Use the Palmolive cream stuff in Sainsburys but would like to try some other soaps for my next batch.
 
London_Peculiar said:
Getting slowly back into wet shaving after a hand injury, and I'm having a change of heart.

Back in the day, I was all about quality at (nearly) any price, but I'm now thinking of getting back into wet shaving as cheaply as possible. Having a beard doesn't cost much!

Is there something you use that performs way above its modest price?

Could we assemble a razor, a blade, a soap or cream, and an aftershave or balm that are all hero products belying their lowly or under-appreciated status?

For starters, what about the Boots own brand shaving products? The shaving stick seems to attract some love.
Click to expand...

There really are many terrific inexpensive products that perform superbly; a few pointers from me would be to consider the following:

Razors: Baili TTO; Tech Clone; YAQI Mellon (available on AliExpress, each one less than £10 delivered); Razorock Old Type or several of their other head only options such as the slant. If you google any of the above you will see plenty of reviews. The stand outs for me are the Baili TTO and the Yaqi Mellon (sometimes referred to as the DOC or SLOC).

Soap: Palmolive sticks or Vitos Red (Palmolive can still be secured for about £75p per stick; Vitos is about £10 per kilo - both superb performers)

Balm: Nivea (readily available in many UK supermarkets

Brush: Any Omega small boar or for Badgers Yaqi and Maseto (again Aliexpress) and for synthetics (Yaqi).

I am sure other members will be along in a minute with other great inexpensive options.
 
Just forgot to say the wilkinson brush quite cheap too nothing special but does the job! I can see you are located at SE London! If you are around Catford/Bellingham pay a visit at TFC supermarket for some arko cream too!
 
London_Peculiar said:
Getting slowly back into wet shaving after a hand injury, and I'm having a change of heart.

Back in the day, I was all about quality at (nearly) any price, but I'm now thinking of getting back into wet shaving as cheaply as possible. Having a beard doesn't cost much!

Is there something you use that performs way above its modest price?

Could we assemble a razor, a blade, a soap or cream, and an aftershave or balm that are all hero products belying their lowly or under-appreciated status?

For starters, what about the Boots own brand shaving products? The shaving stick seems to attract some love.
Click to expand...

If you want to amass a good collection of items without spending too much I'd recommend having a look at the Classifieds here and the PIF's, for the latter in question sometimes people are giving near enough all relevant items in question (brush, soap, razor, blades) for free with occasions where no one seems to express an interest! Which happened to me on another forum.

But if you are going to buy something at full price, I'm of the opinion that whatever you buy at whatever cost if you actually use those items one will find their shaving to be cost effective.
 
Pelada said:
Just forgot to say the wilkinson brush quite cheap too nothing special but does the job! I can see you are located at SE London! If you are around Catford/Bellingham pay a visit at TFC supermarket for some arko cream too!
Click to expand...

Thank you very much for the TFC tip. Arko is on my list to try and that's a good way of picking up just one. My local barber has it, but wanted me to pay £5 for one stick!

I suspect a few Turkish products would make the 'best cheap shave' grade.
 
Missoni said:
There really are many terrific inexpensive products that perform superbly; a few pointers from me would be to consider the following:

Razors: Baili TTO; Tech Clone; YAQI Mellon (available on AliExpress, each one less than £10 delivered); Razorock Old Type or several of their other head only options such as the slant. If you google any of the above you will see plenty of reviews. The stand outs for me are the Baili TTO and the Yaqi Mellon (sometimes referred to as the DOC or SLOC).

Soap: Palmolive sticks or Vitos Red (Palmolive can still be secured for about £75p per stick; Vitos is about £10 per kilo - both superb performers)

Balm: Nivea (readily available in many UK supermarkets

Brush: Any Omega small boar or for Badgers Yaqi and Maseto (again Aliexpress) and for synthetics (Yaqi).

I am sure other members will be along in a minute with other great inexpensive options.
Click to expand...

Thank you. Never heard of the Vitos red, but it sounds very promising.

Will also look at Yaqi for a cheap synthetic.

Cheers!
 
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B. Men Shave Cream

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Yaqi 24mm Tuxedo:
ï¿¡7.84 | Yaqi Red Marble 24MM Men's Synthetic Hair Beard Brush Shaving Brush

Yintal Brass Razor:
ï¿¡10.57 8%OFF | YINTAL Men's Bronze Classic Double-sided Manual Razor Long Handle Safety Razors Shaving Replaceable Classic Razors
s.click.aliexpress.com

4.22€ 68% OFF|YINTAL männer Bronze Klassische doppelseitige Manuelle Rasiermesser Lange Griff Sicherheits Rasiermesser Rasieren Austauschbare Klassische Rasierer| | - AliExpress

Smarter Shopping, Better Living! Aliexpress.com
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Baili razors are cheaper than the Yintal but I think the Yintal gives you more razor. A good set-up for £25.
 
Hello mate - mostly to reiterate what others have said -

Razor - The Yaqi razors bought directly are superb for the money - well made - a big choice of styles.

brushes - again Yaqi - badger or synthetic - you'll get a choice of Omega and Semogue brushes for under a tenner.

hard soap - shave sticks probably offer the best cost/performance ratio in my opinion - Lea, Vie Long, La Toja, Palmolive & Wilkinson Sword - for instance.

cream - Lea, Palmolive, Omega & Nivea perform very well for the price.

soft soap - you can buy several classic Italian types in bulk - 3P, Cella & Vitos - for instance - bear in mind a kilo is a lot of soap - so unless you are particularly disciplined - you may well get bored of using one soap all the time. All excellent performers though.

post - anything made by Nivea punches way above the price point for me. Big range - splashes and balms - easily available - Tesco discount it heavily every few months - typically half price - so if it suits you, you could stock up.

blades - most non-Gillette Russian blades - Lada, Rapiras, Voshkods - that sort of thing - can be had in bulk via Ebay cheaply.

Have a wander around these sites - they will give an idea what is out there - with Connaught - if you look under the 'Vendor Offers' thread there is a discount code for members. With Gemstone - they do 'bundles' of mostly Spanish products - very good value for money.

Hope this helps - yours - I.

Welcome To Connaught Shaving

Connaught Shaving is supplier of quality shaving products including Proraso shave creams, Merkur & Parker safety razors & many brands double edge razor blades. UK Supplier of Feather New Hi-stainless razor blades.
connaughtshaving.com

Shaving - Page 1 - Gemstone Trading

gemstonetrading.co.uk gemstonetrading.co.uk
 
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Sid James said:
A Kilo of Vitos Red is difficult to beat in the price v performance stakes for sure.
This game is all about technique, not products.
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Agree. I'm finding my shaves seem to be better the greater I know the variables and consequently there's a golden window of having enough hard/soft ware to keep myself interested but not too much to always be learning/relearning how to use the variables.

Digimonkey said:
Hello mate - mostly to reiterate what others have said -

Razor - The Yaqi razors bought directly are superb for the money - well made - a big choice of styles.

brushes - again Yaqi - badger or synthetic - you'll get a choice of Omega and Semogue brushes for under a tenner.

hard soap - shave sticks probably offer the best cost/performance ratio in my opinion - Lea, Vie Long, La Toja, Palmolive & Wilkinson Sword - for instance.

cream - Lea, Palmolive, Omega & Nivea perform very well for the price.

soft soap - you can but several classic Italian types in bulk - 3P, Cella & Vitos - for instance - bear in mind a kilo is a lot of soap - so unless you are particularly disciplined - you may well get bored of using one soap all the time. All excellent performers though.

post - anything made by Nivea punches way above the price point for me. Big range - splashes and balms - easily available - Tesco discount it heavily every few months - typically half price - so if it suits you, you could stock up.

blades - most non-Gillette Russian blades - Lada, Rapiras, Voshkods - that sort of thing - can be had in bulk via Ebay cheaply.

Have a wander around these sites - they will give an idea what is out there - with Connaught - if you look under the 'Vendor Offers' thread there is a discount code for members. With Gemstone - they do 'bundles' of mostly Spanish products - very good value for money.
Click to expand...

A fine list, the majority of the shaving items mentioned above are ones I use on a regular basis.

I'd add one more category and that's splashes/post shave, with a few notable suggestions including Boots Witch Hazel, and some cheap splashes of Benjamins Bay Rum, the Turkish lemon and Tobacco ones, the Superdrug ones - all of these can all be bought between £2 to £3.
 
Keep your eyes open for PIFs where you can if lucky pick up everything from razors to soaps blades and brushes for nothing, all you have to do is put your name down and hope you win!
Some of the PIFs only attract a very small number of people so your chances of free gear can be high!
Don't overlook the trusty Gillette Tech that can be found for only a few pounds on eBay, a very good razor for next to nothing.
 
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