How much has yours Grown?

CjH

CjH

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804
Location
Bedford
So in 2018 I started my journey into the rabbit hole that is DE shaving.
I started with a Gillette Slim twist that my dad gave me.
Then bought another generic razor from the shaving shack. Then a brass Gillette old... Then a Wilkinson sword classic.... Over a few months, and kept them all in a little metal cupboard. I had a couple of brushes at the time I think, body shop original brush and a Hawkins and Brimble brush.
But now it seems to have grown somewhat.
However I have enjoyed every step of the journey.
IMG_20220523_090423.jpgIMG_20220523_090549.jpg
 
This is a touchy subject.

On the basis that I change my blade twice a week I have enough blades for over 6 years, enough shaving soap for at least the same time, plenty of brushes and razors and as much as I would like to support the stylish razor makers I find that I get the best shaves, for me, from a 1970 Tech which cost me all of £10.

The crazy thing is that I went back to De shaving because I thought Mach 3 blades were too expensive and poor value. I must admit that I enjoy the process of having of good shave.
 
I started back onto DE shaving at the beginning of 2016 and i have always noted spends in a list to keep an eye on it ( a habit from far too many years in the corporate world of allowable and non-allowable expenses hahahaha)

I reckon to have spend approx £300 total in that time, inc blades, soaps etc so roughly £50 a year, which isnt bad and is less than i was spending on cartridges alone.

I have got 250+ blades and a load of shaving creams, so am all set for Putins nuclear winter
 
flat at 4 razors (using only Rex Ambassador and ATT S1), bunch of different blades but settled on Astra blue, 3-4 soaps and settled on Mitchell's wool fat (2 years supply ordered)
Increasing now to 2 brushes to introduce a boar one (Semogue).
the danger in in the aftershaves... probably a couple of liters already in stock but still in the exploration phase, still not found the perfect one!
 
CjH said:
So in 2018 I started my journey into the rabbit hole that is DE shaving.
I started with a Gillette Slim twist that my dad gave me.
Then bought another generic razor from the shaving shack. Then a brass Gillette old... Then a Wilkinson sword classic.... Over a few months, and kept them all in a little metal cupboard. I had a couple of brushes at the time I think, body shop original brush and a Hawkins and Brimble brush.
But now it seems to have grown somewhat.
However I have enjoyed every step of the journey.
View attachment 88389View attachment 88390
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Nice collection but still reasonable... there is an italian guy posting on youtube witha >200 razors collection...
 
Shrunk! It does with age ... fnar :ROFLMAO:

I still have circa 300 in my collection, but that's a collection ... of nice objects. While I've had way over a thousand through my hands, at one point I was able to say I had more razors than days in the year.

My shaving rotation is really now centered upon the Muhle Rocca, Yaqi SE, Merkur 37C and Gillette Hybrid Tech as the razors that I'll shave with. Just added, though, is the Wilkinson Sword 'Sticky'. Most days, I shave with a Gillette Fusion. Soaps and splashes have been slimmed right down to vintage and a handful of those that I find most enjoyable. I'm not very interested in chasing every scent from every new "artisan" and I'm finding that I tend to prefer vintage anyway, for which I have probably another decade or more supply but which time things will have changed. Brushes, too, really stripped back and maintained as one in, one out.
 
More than I want to admit! :)

Although into DE wet shaving for more than 4 years now, I can say I haven't properly explored it until joining this forum. I can see myself reducing the den to a handful of razors once the urge of trying everything dies down (is it RAD they call it :unsure: ).

Soaps, ohhh that's a different matter. You have pictures to remind you of places you've seen, and spotify for reminiscing hits from early days. I find some of the soap scents transporting me back to memorable times of my life so I can only see the collection increasing.

Enough blabbering! To be specific to your question I had two razors and one shaving cream back in March 2021 and currently 16 razors and about 30ish soaps (not all with matching splashes ;))
 
Mine has blossomed from one dodgy straight razor, a cheap badger brush and a terrible strop, a WS black bowl puck plus whatever aftershave I already had.
Now I've got 5 straights (6 if you count the first, but it barely qualifies as a butter knife), a couple of decent strops, a 63 Tech, a 64 Slim and a Pearl Flexi. There are now 6 brushes (boar, badgers and synthetics) and I don't quite know how many sticks, pucks and creams I have. AS and EdT are now at about 8 or so. So not truly epic or extravagant, but certainly plenty to be getting on with!
 
About 14 months ago, I bought a Merkur 34C, 5 tucks of different blades to sample and some sandalwood soap and balm. Then, just about a year ago, I joined this forum, with just what I'd bought so far and then the explosion/rabbit hole journey began.

In a year I've gone from 1 razor + 2 brushes (1 very old) +2 soaps (1 very old) + 1 balm + 5 packs of blades to:

29 Razors:
19 x DE razors; 8 x SE razors; 2 x Shavettes

8 x Brushes (+2 donated to family as I didn't like them)
3 x Boar; 3 x Badger; 2 x Synth.

31 x Soaps / Croaps or creams

27 x A/S splash/balms + about 30 testers + about 10 A/S or EdT that I already had.

Blades - roughly enough for 5 years of shaving at current usage (approx. 4 days per blade, noting SEs I can get a good 10 days out of).
76 x tucks of 5 blades unopened; 4 x tucks of 10 blades unopened; 6 x tucks opened with various left in; 5 x tucks of vintage blades with various left in; 1 x 20 Parker SE - Not keen on the plastic magazine and key, but they were were included with the InjRzr; 1 x 7 Schick SE + 2 blades in a used magazine; 8 x GEM SE [That reminds me, need to order at least another pack.]; 12 x Feather Pro-Guard.

I need to start making a proper dent in this lot before I continue to splash out, unless some vintage razor takes my eye (thinking red-tip, blue-tip), or I feel that I have deserved to get myself the Rex adjustable.

I'm worried I've not been deep enough into the rabbit-hole when I see figures of 300+ razors though!!!!!!! :unsure:
 
Duffers782 said:
Makes me feel a little better that I didn't go all out on brushes, or soap for that matter, although if you now tell me that took you 10 years to amass, I may start to think my wife was right, in that I become obsessive/compulsive when I take up something new!! Thankfully, it's easing off slightly!
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Iv been 3 years mate.
Don’t get me wrong iv wet shaved all my life & over the last 20 years used decent enough products
i.e L’occitane, Molton Brown and a few others that escaped me.
However i only had one brush a supermarket Wilkinson sword & i only ever used one soap until it was done.
3 years later the obsession hasn’t wavered and i genuinely thought i was slowing down except for the 4 brushes i recently bought.
I don’t have any interest in New Razors that come out although obviously iv got a few & there’s only now a few vintage i’m after but not in any rush as i want the whole set in pristine condition.
If i don’t get what i’m after i’m not worried it dosent bother me but i will continue to buy soaps, aftershaves & balms.
Geo F Trumpers is my next port of call unless someone brings out soothat takes my eye
 
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