Note: Now with pictures as requested by Barndoor! Only a couple as it is too dark in the mornings to take good pictures.

Since people other than just my friends seem to be looking here I better put up more shaving advice! It seems there are a few people in NZ wanting to give up the multi-blade rat race and go back to the good old days of gentlemanly shaving.I should really talk a little bit about what wet shaving actually involves. Most people should know the basic idea by now. You throw away your expensive multi-blade Gillette or Schick or whatever plastic razor and go back to using the plain, simple, single edge razor blade. You also give up using shaving goop in a can and start using real soaps and creams and a proper badger brush to make your own lather.Of course you don’t HAVE to do all these things. Some people prefer using a Mach 3 or canned shaving foam which is fine but for me I didn’t consider myself a ‘proper’ wet shaver until I had the razor, the brush and the soaps and was doing things totally the ‘old ways’.What follows is basically how I do things. This is what works for me. It might not work for anyone else and other people have their own ways of doing things of course. I don’t think any one way is more right than another. That’s half the fun, experimenting and finding out what works for you. The combinations of prep/blade/razor/brush/soap/post shave/etc are endless really so there is plenty of room for variations.

I always shave in the mornings and my basic procedure is as follows.

First I load a blade into whatever razor I am using that morning (I will post about the different razors I have later). I take the blade out of the razor after I use it and leave it out to dry. Keeping them in the razor can lead to them rusting and it is probably less hygienic than letting them air dry in the open. Typically I will use a blade for around 5 shaves on average but blades are cheap enough (if you buy from overseas) that I just change them when they start feeling dull.

Next I put the razor and my badger brush into my shave mug. I sit the mug in the sink and fill it with hot water. The hot water warms the razor and brush. Sitting the brush in water will allow it to soak the water up and soften the bristles.

Brush and razor soaking in hot water.

I also choose whatever soap I am going to be using that day (I prefer the hard soaps to creams). I have all my soaps in little screw top plastic containers. I take off the lid and put a little hot water on top of the soap and let it sit.

Next I shower. Obviously you clean your face in the shower but the other important thing that is happening is the hot water and steam will be softening the beard and making it easier to cut.

After the shower the razor, brush and shaving mug should all be warm. The soap should be softened and will be much easier to get onto the brush. I tip the water out of the mug, gently squeeze most of the water off the brush. The amount of water you keep on the brush depends on which soap you are using. I also tip the water off the top off the soap container. I don’t tip all of it away though as I put a little of the soapy water into the bottom of my shaving mug. Again the amount depends on what soap you are using.

A slight variation I have been trying here is wrapping a hot towel around my face while I am making the lather. The easiest way is to take a flannel and wet it. You don’t want it dripping water but it needs to be damp. Then you microwave it! I find 50 seconds to a minute is enough. I then tie the flannel around my lower face bandit style. The steam and heat from the flannel really softens the beard nicely. It also has the interesting effect that with a flannel around your face you can’t smell the soap while making the later. As soon as you take the flannel off though you get the scent of the soap full strength! This works really well with a strong smelling soap such as Tabac.

Next you start making your lather. I take the brush and gently rub it around on top of the soap in the plastic container. The idea with this step isn’t to make later. Rather you are trying to get a nice loading of soap on the brush bristles. You want  the tips of all the bristles to be covered in soap. I then put the lid back on the soap container and put it away.

Loading the brush with soap.

Now you switch to using the brush in your shaving mug. You swirl the brush around in the mug whipping up a nice lather. There are various techniques to doing this and again it can depend on the soap you are using. I generally swish it about until I have a nice lather formed and I find I can usually tell when it is getting ready as it seems to thicken up (a lot like making whipped cream). Once I have a nice lather I refill the sink with hot water, sit the shaving mug and razor in the water (to keep them hot) and brush a layer of lather on my face.

Making lather in the shaving mug (OK, coffee cup).

At this point you could start shaving right away but I prefer to allow the later to sit a while to allow it time to soften the beard. Generally I use that time to put in my contact lenses and go make myself a coffee. One word of advice, if you accidentally drop a contact lens into the lather be sure you rinse it extremely well before sticking it onto your eyeball (don’t ask how I know)!

Finally, after the lather has sat a few minutes, we get to the actual shaving part. It may seem like a lot of effort to get to this stage but really it doesn’t take that much time.

I usually dip the brush in the hot water and use that over the lather on my face already just to make sure it is properly hydrated. Typically when I shave I do three passes. When shaving we talk about the direction of the passes with respect to the grain of the beard.

Grain it the direction that the hairs are growing on your face. It varies for everyone and will vary on different parts of the face. It is important to know what your grain pattern is so you know the most comfortable way to shave. To determine your grain pattern you can either let you beard grow for a few days and then look to see which direction the hairs are growing or you can simply rub your fingers across your beard in different direction. Going with the grain will feel much smoother than going against the grain.

I typically use a three (plus tidy up) pass shave. The order you shave the parts of your face can vary too. Generally the hair on your cheeks is softer than the hair on your chin. So you shave your cheeks first and save the tricky chin area to last to allow the later more time to soften the bristles in those areas. I shave each cheek, then each neck area under my cheeks, then move onto the chin and under the nose. I typically only follow that pattern for the first two passes and I figure by the third everything should be nice and soft and so the order doesn’t matter as much.

The direction of each pass varies as we progress. The first pass is done with the grain (WTG in shaving bulletin board shorthand). If I am using an adjustable razor I have it set to a milder setting (typically 5 on a Fatboy). After each pass I rinse my face in the hot water and apply fresh later before the next pass.

The second pass I do across the grain (XTG). I will usually dial an adjustable razor up to around 7.

The third pass is done against the grain (ATG) and with an adjustable set on 9 (which si opened right up to the most aggressive setting).

Again these settings are what works for me. Some people find they can’t do an ATG pass at all without causing irritation. I find though is I want a BBS (baby butt smooth) shave I have to do an ATG pass and I can do so without irritating my face. A lot of people starting out think the idea is to get a BBS shave every time. This isn’t really the case. You should aim for the best shave you can get without irritation.

I then usually have to do what is known as a tidy up pass to get all the little places I have missed. I find that under my jaw line and neck usually need some touch up. The easiest way to see where needs touching up is to run your hands across your face ATG. Any rough spots should be easy to feel. I just lather up those spots and re-shave them.

After shaving I rinse my face in cold water. The cold water helps close the pores in the skin and helps sooth the face after the shave. Sometimes, I rub my face with an Alum bar. This is a naturally occurring mineral you wet and rub over your face and it acts as an antiseptic and an astringent. It helps close up any small nicks or cuts you may have suffered. I find it is a good indicator of how irritating the shave was as it will tingle or sting as you rub it on depending on how much irritation there was to your skin . I find I don’t use it as much these days as I am getting close and irritation free shaves.

After rinsing I apply an after shave balm. I use Nivea sensitive skin balm and find this works very well. You should stay away from alcohol based products as the alcohol can cause the skin to dry out.

I rinse the razor and brush in cold water and remove the razor blade. I usually dry off the razor with a towel (make sure the blade isn’t in it first!) and using a flicking motion get as much water off the brush as possible. The brush then gets put, handle up, in the shaving mug to dry. Standing it up that way lets the water drain for the base of the bristles. A good badger hair brush should last for years when it is looked after.

And that’s basically it! It sounds like a lot of work but generally the whole routine described above takes me 30 minutes. It’s a very relaxing way to start the morning and your skin does end up being better off for it. And it turns something that was a chore into an interesting activity!

Soon I will describe the razors and soaps I like to use.

Interesting that on the day I do my first shaving post this story appeared in the NZ Herald. It’s a very vague compassion between modern multi-blade (here a Gillette Fusion razor) and traditional straight razors (actually not traditional as they use a barbers razor with disposable blades). As with most NZ Herald stories the reporting can hardly be considered in-depth. Seems to have been written by a woman but with help from a bloke who tried a Gillette shave on one side and a straight razor shave on the other. Perhaps his hands were shaking too much after the shave to write it himself?

There is no mention of DE single blade shaving so the story presents just two views. One from a 22 year old barber who has been giving straight shaves for a year. He says (well the article says he says): “cut-throat razors gave a better result than multi-bladed razors, provided the customer didn’t have sensitive skin”.

They then present another view from a barber of 40 years who runs the Mr Barber Training Center. He is quoted as saying: “Today you are competing with razors that have four or five blades in them, are self-lubricating … even the old-style cut-throat with one blade isn’t going to compete with a razor with four or five blades in it.

The modern ones will cut closer than the old-fashioned one. Technology has got so much better. People romanticise the old cut-throat shave but it’s not a patch on modern gear.”

Now I can’t get as close a shave with my scary Feather Artist Club straight (yet, but I am practicing – I sliced my cheek with it just this morning) as I can using a 1970 Gillette adjustable with a single DE blade but I know my DE gives a better shave than the Mach 3 ever did. Would be interesting to try a Fusion but I imagine it will beat that hands down too!

It just annoys me the article is basically a fluff piece heavily favoured towards the modern razor. Funnily enough the end result was the guy deciding that straight shave was better!

I don’t think the whole wet shaving renaissance has hit NZ quite yet.

I remember when I first started shaving I used electric razors. I guess for most people that is the easiest and quickest way to start. Somewhere along the line I progressed to disposable cartridge razors. These are your Gillettes and Schicks that are common today. Usually most people using these will use either foam or gel from a can (hence the name ‘canned goo’ on shaving forums) and shaving typically consists of slapping some (cold) goo on the face, a quick scrape with the razor then you’re done. I used to be like that too.

Somewhere along the line I picked up the idea that the lather is really supposed to be generated with a shaving brush. Preferably a badger hair brush. I am not sure how someone first came up with the idea of rubbing soggy badger on their face but it was a damn fine discovery they made. Badger hair is used for brushes since the hair fibers will hold a lot of water. And water is of course very important when wet shaving. Good badger brushes can be tricky to find here in NZ but boar hair brushes and/or synthetic brushes can be found quite easily in most supermarkets. My first brush was one of these supermarket and not very good but still a step up from canned good straight on the face.

It was on a trip to New York for a friends wedding that I got my first real badger brush. Even that took some tracking down but eventually I found one in a Crabtree and Evelyn shop on 5th Ave. I got a ‘best’ badger brush which refers to the quality of the hair used. These brushes can be quite expensive but they will last a long, long time if looked after properly. At this point I was still using my brush with the canned goo and cartridge razors but the quality of the lather was much better and the brush is much better for your skin. The brushing of lather on the face helps lift and wet the stubble and the bristles of the brush gently massage and exfoliate the skin too. When I got back to NZ I did discover there is a Crabtree and Evelyn shop here in 277 in Newmarket, Auckland. This was a lucky discovery as it turned out as that was the first place I bought my first ‘real’ shaving soap from. But that’s getting a bit ahead of myself.

At this point I was starting to get the closer the the idea of traditional shaving. Several things were still missing. I was still using a cartridge razor at this point (a Gillette Mach 3) and I was still using canned good. As it happens I got rid of the razor first. I was watching TV one day when an advert came on for the new Gillette Fusion. This is the razor with 5 blades on it. 6 if you count the extra blade on the back supposedly there because a single blade gives you better precision and control for tricky bits. Or something. I remember thinking at the time that was just bloody ridiculous. 3 blades, sure, they had me convinced (and the Mach 3 is a good cartridge razor). Then Schick came out with a razor with 4 blades. Hmmm, starting to get a bit silly now and then finally Gillette came out with the new 5/6 blade thing. At this point things were just ridiculous. So much so this ridiculousness was even predicted over a year earlier buy The Onion!

It was then I thought enough of the marketing crap and my descent into the world of real shaving began. It was then I began looking around online for alternatives (when in doubt turn to the Internet – everything on the Internet is true) and came across the idea of using ‘old fashioned’ razors. These are also known as DE (double edge after the blades used) or safety razors.

It turns out that there is somewhat of a resurgence going on in the world of shaving. I guess many other people started getting sick of the modern razor marketing hype and are returning to the old ways. Modern safety razors are still being sold and there is increasing interest in old razors too. Unfortunately, as in most things, New Zealand is somewhat behind the times. As far as I know there is only one place that sells modern safety razors in NZ, the Shaver Shop on Pitt street in Auckland. Their selection is rather sparse and they sell only Nanji or Feather razors. You will also note they only sell two brands of razor blades too. More on that later. I knew from my Internet research neither of these was considered particularly great razors (although if you want to start cheaply and dabble certainly try them).

Luckily though we live in a world of international commerce and online shopping and I knew from my afore mentioned research that a good starting razor to get was a Merkur HD (also known as the 34C). This is a simple, all metal safety razor made in Germany. I found out later this is often recommended to beginners on shaving forums as a great starting razor. I decided to buy one online and eventually got one from Classicshaving.com who will do international orders and ship to New Zealand.

Blades are another matter and this is where we in NZ are almost totally screwed. The brand of blade you use makes a surprisingly big difference to the whole shaving experience. The different ‘feel’ of one brand of blade to another is quite surprising once you experience it. DE blades are surprisingly difficult to get here. In fact in most chemists or pharmacies that I ask in they don’t even know what I am talking about. In all my looking about for them I have only come across four types that seems to be available here.

The first two are available in supermarkets. Most supermarkets carry their own home brand blades. I have no idea where these come from but they are not good! I think they are made out of old recycled Fisher and Paykel washing machines somewhere in Asia. Oddly enough the famous New Zealand washing machines themselves are now also made in Asia! A 10 pack of these nasty blades costs today NZ$4.88

The second type is the Wilkinson Sword blades. I have only seen these in one supermarket (Countdown in Lynfield, Auckland) and they seemed to be priced at NZ$15 for 10 blades. These may actually be alright blades but I have never tried them due mainly to the cost.

Speaking of costs one of the major advantages of safety razor shaving is the cheapness of the blades. Especially when compared to cartridge razors. Currently an 8 pack of Mach 3 Turbo cartridges costs around NZ$26 and the latest Fusion blades are around NZ$20 for 4. Typically I would get one weeks shaving from a cartridge when I did use them and I currently get one week of shaving from each DE blade.

The other two blades are fairly well known blades and both are good quality. These are the two blades I previously mentioned as being available at the Shaver Shop. They sell both in 5 packs for NZ$5 per pack.

The first are the Astra blades. These are made in Checzoslovakia. These are my preferred blade to use. The second type are the Feather blades and these are made in Japan. These are also excellent blades with a well deserved reputation for their extreme sharpness. These blades can make mince meat of your face if you are not careful with them or use them in too aggressive a razor (more about that later). They aren’t recommended for beginners!

As you can see the DE razor blades, although hard to find, are considerably cheaper than the new cartridges. Even so here in New Zealand we are still being somewhat overcharged for these blades. I recently discovered that Astra blades (exactly the same as those available here) can be bought in the states for US$11 (about NZ$14) per 100 blades! Of course you must pay shipping on top of that and I am not sure that particular supplier will ship to New Zealand. Excellent deals can be found on blades on eBay too although you need to be a little careful that you are buying legitimate blades from a respected supplier. Most of the blades commonly available and referred to in the shaving forums (Dorco, Personna, Derby) are available online or on eBay. Some places also offer sampler packs which are a good idea since they allow you to try the different blades before buying 100 or more of them (for me that’s about 2 years supply)!

So, now I was set up with brush, razor and blades. The final missing ingredient was soap (or cream). This is one of the most important aspects of shaving and it also offer a lot of scope for experimentation and testing of different products and types. The purpose of the soap is to wet and lubricate the beard and skin and to moisturise the face. The choice of whether or not you should a hard shaving soap or a cream is a personal one. It is generally considered easier for beginners to get a good lather using a cream over a hard soap but with practice I find the soaps are no harder to use and I actually prefer them. Obviously with a hard soap you will need a brush to generate lather. With a cream you can generate a lather by rubbing it directly on the face with your fingers.

Shaving soaps or creams are yet another area where we here in NZ are a bit lacking in choice. Certainly avoid the canned goo. The very nature of the stuff means it isn’t nice to your skin. It contains some nasty chemicals and propellants and also coming from a pressurised can means it comes out cold (expanding gas cools down – the entire principle behind my famous Jet Powered Beer Cooler). And would you want to use something that is used for cleaning old tombstones on your face! Generally when shaving you get better results when everything is warm and wet. A lot like sex really.

There are a few basic soaps and creams available in NZ though as well as a few of the better brands. Again the Shaver Shop is a good place to start. A good basic soap they do have is Col. Conk. This is a glycerin based soap and it does provide a nice later and a good shave. It is also cheap at around NZ$13. I notice they have what they say is a higher end Vulfix (who are famous badger brush makers) cream for around NZ$30 although I haven’t tried this particular cream. It is worth noting that a typical can of goo is about NZ$8. When you consider that a tub of cream or a block of hard shaving soap will last considerably longer than the canned goo despite the higher initial cost it does work out to be cheaper over the long run (and lets face it you’re probably going to be shaving until you die which is the longest run you can have).

My first hard soap came from Crabtree and Evelyn in Newmarket. I bought one of their soaps in a bowl which sell here for around NZ$23. Another very good soap can be obtained from Smith and Caughey’s on Queen Street, Auckland (as an aside it’s worth calling them on +64 9 377 4770 just to hear their IVR system which is so over the top posh it’s bloody hilarious). They sell Tabac soap for NZ$ 27 which is generally considered to be a very good soap although it does have a very strong smell I find. A not unpleasant smell. Just strong.

Expensive (relatively), higher end creams and soaps are harder to come by here. Perhaps the most well known high end products are the so called three Ts – Trueffitt & Hill, (Geo. F.) Trumper, and Taylor of Old Bond St. All three are old school British companies selling what I would call ‘posh’ products.

The only one of these I have been able to try so far is Trumpers. They provide a sampler set you can buy (basically you pay shipping – the samples are free). Unfortunately in the drop down box in their online store New Zealand doesn’t exist so you have to contact them directly to order from them. They very kindly sent me samples and a nice glossy catalogue and they also answered some questions. I discovered that Trumpers have one distributor in New Zealand, a shop in Christchurch. On calling them though the don’t carry all of the Trumpers shaving soap range and also their prices were somewhat ridiculous.

I ended up buying a Trumpers Lavender shaving soap refill from a UK company, The English Shaving Company for around NZ$30 including shipping. The shop in Christchurch (who didn’t have the Lavender anyway) wanted NZ$45 and that’s not counting postage up to Auckland! So far I have found this to be my best shaving soap. It lathers up well and seems to hold a lot more water than the other soaps. The Tabac would be a close second with the Crabtree and Evelyn behind that.

One thing to note is the hard soaps often come in funny little wooden bowls. I tend not to buy these now (I only actually bought one – my first soap) but instead get the refills they sell for them. This is much cheaper and allows me to put all my soaps into similarly sized plastic containers that are much easier to stack (an issue when you start building up a collection of soaps). A good trick with the Col. Conk soaps is that because they are glycerin based you can actually melt the soap by sticking it in the microwave for a few seconds (try 10 and just keep an eye on it). That allows you to melt it into the container instead of having a small puck of it rattling about in the bottom of one.

So once you have the razor and blades and brush and soaps the one final thing you need is a shaving mug or scuttle. You can use the brush and either lather in the soap container itself (another reason not to use the wooden bowls as they are too shallow) or lather with the brush direct on the face. I prefer to make lather in a mug and I use a simple latte cup I got cheaply from one of the homeware type stores. You can sit the mug in a sink full of hot water to keep everything warm.

Now you have all these things you can actually start shaving. That will be covered in an entirely different post later. We haven’t even got onto the different types of razors yet!

As to the shaving forums I mentioned here there are several around and a Google search on anything wet shaving related will lead you to them. The one I use though is BadgerAndBlade which is well worth reading if you are interested in anything I have been ranting about here.