Did anyone teach you to shave?

A

Adam D

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My Mum and Dad divorced when I was about 5 years old and then she re-married again when I was about 10, but he never taught me many things about being a bloke.

My earliest memory of shaving is around the age of 12/13 and noticing a bit of bum fluff on my upper lip and picking up a Gillette razor of some sort of shaving it off, must have been the early 80s.

I think that it was even later in life, say at university when I was almost 20 that I started to shave "properly" and even then it was a case of doing it myself with a cartridge and shaving foam.

I have two daughters and one son and he has blond her (like his Mum) and I reckon I could do away without indoctrinating him into the art of DE/SE shaving, but I don't think I should.

I reckon I should teach him how to do it.

Anyway, are you a DIY man or did someone teach you?
 
I had to teach myself, never asked my dad and he never asked me about shaving, then when i was about 15 or 16 we were talking about something completely different when my dad asked me out of the blue "so how long have you been shaving now ?" :oops:

my first experiment was with a gillette cartridge, around 1990-91, cant remember what it was maybe a sensor ???

love my mum and dad to bits, but they have never been ones to teach me "Mans" stuff :oops:

strange that 20 years ago i was learning my first steps with a Razor just to get rid of the fluff as fast as possible, and now twenty years on i am learning again but this time how to do things properly and to enjoy it at the same time.

owe alot to alot of people on here and another forum for opening my eyes to a now very enjoyable part of my daily routine ;)
 
Dad nerver taught me, he usually used an electric shaver, I used disposables until I got a mach3 and used that for about 10 years with gel. I found b&b/mantic a few years ago and went from there.

Can't say I taught my dad to shave but when I gave him his first de in 30 odd years he did have a lot of questions and I could talk endless shite about shaving, so that went well. Despite having a merkur hd, a new forest brush and some nice high end soaps, in two years he's not used anything but his superspeed, old boar brush and a shaving soap of unkown origin.
 
Nope - he used an electric razor & I got one for my 16th birthday from my auntie (she's my godmother & had always wanted to be the one to get me my first razor). Then when I was 17 I got a mug/single-blade plastic razor & mini-foam can as a present from my other auntie & uncle, so I decided to give it a go. Found out that I got a better shave from that so I'd alternate between the electric & that for a few years before I settled on the cartridge razor. Moved to the twin-blade, then the three-blade, then the 4-blade over the years until I went DE last December.

My dad still uses an electric, and doesn't fancy giving a DE a try despite my best efforts. He like sitting shaving and reading a book as he does it - he'd lose that if he had to make the effort that DE shaving involves!
 
No. I first started out with my dad's old Personna DE, then Bic disposables then a Gillette Contour. It was all trial and error.

I've basically learnt how to shave properly in the last month through buying a DE razor and actually researching.

For the last 20 years I've been using cartridges, cheap canned foam and one or two strokes ATG - never re-lathered. Also dabbled with electrics but not for me.

Shaving was always a chore every two days. Now it's become a daily pleasure.
 
No. Never really learnt any of that kind ofstuff from my dad. Was just left to figure it out and for myself, like most things. Over the last 18 months or so I noticed he was using the cheap Wilkinson Sword DE razor, so bought him a brush and some proper cream and upgraded him to a Tech. Still never discussed shaving with him though.
 
I wasn't tought either. Just did it!

I used to have issues with cartridge shaving as I used to nearly always have irritation with gel and my razor.

I used to actually hate shaving!

A few members over on another forum I am a regular on were talking about DE shaving and thought
I'd give it a go. I'm glad I did! Then I found mantic, so then I would say that he tought me how to shave really. Never looked back after that!

Now I get shaves that are better and with zero irritaion and also, they are now fun!
 
Nope Dad used an electric.

When my grandfather was in the final few weeks of his life somebody bought him a Phillips electric, as his skin had become extraordinarily sensitive and he couldn't bare to shave. When he died I was given his hardly used razor as I would need to start shaving soon I had it until I was about 18! But I did start using a blade as well.

I started off on the right track to be honest using my dads old shaving brush and a shaving soap and I had a 2 blade cartridge which I suspect was a Sensor but can't remember, I then went Wilkinson when they launched The 3 bladed Wilkinson Protector (so close it had to be kept behind bars! :D) I did use the electric through the week but had a wet shave at the weekends when I wanted to be smooth for the ladies.......

There was blood and I learned through trial and error. (That's the shaving not the ladies BTW.....well actually :roll: ....no, best not :mrgreen:)
 
Used to watch my dad when I was very young. :)
He had a Gillette razor, dont know which one and he always used Gillette blades.
Always Tabac soap but he didn't use aftershave very often unless we kids bought him some Old Spice for Christmas.
He used to lather my face sometimes and let me play with the razor, minus blade of course :D
Happy days and fond memories of a long time ago.
regards, beejay
 
My Dad was an electric razor shaver, and from '85 onwards he's had a beard. So, no, he didn't teach me to shave. It was a combination of me and Mantic!

Ian
 
beejay said:
Used to watch my dad when I was very young. :)
He had a Gillette razor, dont know which one and he always used Gillette blades.
Always Tabac soap but he didn't use aftershave very often unless we kids bought him some Old Spice for Christmas.
He used to lather my face sometimes and let me play with the razor, minus blade of course :D
Happy days and fond memories of a long time ago.
regards, beejay
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Very similar to me.
Dad had a twist to open that he would take the blade out of and let me scrap the lather of my face. Thought i was so cool at around 6-7years old.
Then as i got older had a bad experience with a foil electric. Then went on to disposables, progressed to multi blade cartridges and finally back to a Philips niva wet electric. All were crap, and due to this was a reluctant when ever it got uncofortable shaver.
Started reading on an archery forum about turckish shaving which brought back memories of a holiday experience.
This led me in the search of having a go with a straight, led me to here where i decided to go the DE route. Watched the videos listerened to all your thought and started enjoying myself, (and spending money). :lol:

I have now, for the first time, my very own bathroom cabnet filled with all of MY loverly face products. Result.
Just wish my face would allow me to enjoy it every day, but unfortunately i have to settle for every other.
You could say that The Shaving Room taught me to shave, and spend money, over the last 8 weeks or so.
 
Dad, who came from New Zealand, was a Marine Engineer who was only home for a fortnight every 7 months or so. From him I inherited a corroded old three piece (probs a Gillette) and a stash of pre used razor blades stowed away in the compartment in the rear of the blue Gillette holders in which blades were sold in those days. I just scraped away & learnt by trial & error. Can still recall when I first moved to Liverpool & money was really tight scraping used blades round trhe interior of a glass tumbler (it was reputed to resharpen the edge).

JohnnyO. :cool:
 
Self taught. My Dad had converted to the Phillishave long before I had anything to shave, so I got his Aristocrat Junior which was my only razor up till comparatively recently. I now realise that the AJ has quite a bite to it, so it was quite a lucky choice to start with.
 
I´m also self taught. I allways used to go to barbers when I was abroad (arabic countries and some other) and I decided many years ago that this was for me. After I was in Egypt I decided to start and shave with a shavette. I was pretty sure I would manage, I had watched very careful when the barber was working, very carefully, angels and prep. Needless to say it was a bloody event.
 
Self taught, I used to not have much to shave (still not that much!), and just used a cheap disposable without any prep/foam/soap for years. (yes that's barbaric!)
I found out recently (less than a year ago) that using foam, and later gel, was quite a bit better. I also started using 3 blade disposables (WS and Gillettes) but found the price a bit off putting to say the least.
So now I spend buckets of money on vintage stuff, and enjoy shaving a lot!

My dad used quite a few of the Gillette cartridges over the years, and now I'm trying to get him into DE's, he's got my 34c on loan right now with some soap and a boar brush.
I'm going to see him tomorrow, and I'll ask him how he's getting on!

Also teaching a friend of mine the joys of DE shaving (he's a fellow barbarian), he's got my superspeed on loan, with some Nanny's Lavender and some derbys.
He's been wowed just by the simple fact of using alum!

Max
 
Well... I can remember my dad using a DE, a SlimTwist I'm pretty sure, but then he moved over to the Gillette G-II and then after managing to accidentally lance a lump on his neck (while waiting for the NHS appointment) he switched to a Braun foil electric. He remains the only man I know that can cut himself (and I don't mean just a nick) with an electric foil shaver.

Back in about 1985, I started, using the Wilkinson Sword Protector (so sharp, they had to put it behind bars!) and gradually taught myself how to get the least worst shave possible with it... Over the next 22 years I tried just about every "new improved" razor there was, more or less every gel and foam and were it not for the fact that I can't stand the itch of a beard from day 3 onwards, I wouldn't have kept at it.

Then in 2008 a chance remark by a radio presenter about buying "one of those old-fashioned, heavy razors" on eBay lead me to look a little further... that research lead me to buy a Parker :? razor - pure serendipity meant it was one with even exposure, but still aggressive to the point of needing an ASBO. First shave was as near perfect as you could wish for, and then I started hoovering up vintage razors wherever I saw them.

So - taught myself everything I know, with some help from t'internet and an unhealthy obsession with improving it all the time.
 
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