WetShaving
This is a community of enthusiasts, hobbyists and artisans who enjoy a traditional wet shave: brush, soap, and safety or straight razor. We are a part of the WetShaving community found on Reddit, Discord, and IRC.
New subscribers welcome!
Please visit our wiki, which is always and forever a work in progress.
While this server is funded by personal contributions, we'd like to thank Zulip for giving us a Community subscription to their chat software (available at https://chat.wetshav.ing/).
๐ช Check out these alternative front-ends for this server:
https://gem.wetshaving.social/ - a nice modern interface
Our sister Mastodon instance is https://wetshaving.social/.
๐ช Track the uptime of our various services here:
https://uptime.selfhost.ing/status/wetshaving
๐ช Community Rules
Rule 1 - Behaviour and Etiquette
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Be Respectful. Do not bully, flame, or harass others.
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Malicious comments are not allowed but heated discussion and salty banter is okay.
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Low effort replies and complaints about content will be removed.
Rule 2 - Content Guidelines
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Mail Calls, Simple Questions, and SOTD posts belong in the recurring weekly threads.
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Posts must have sufficient content to generate a meaningful discussion.
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Images, links, or videos must include additional text that summarizes the topic.
Rule 3 - Reviews and Disclosure
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Use [First Impressions] in the title if your experience with the product is limited.
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Use the [Review] in the title if you can provide comprehensive details with enough familiarity to answer follow-up questions.
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Disclose how the product being reviewed was acquired (e.g., PIF, loan, or purchase). If the product was provided to you directly by the maker or vendor free of charge or at a discount, you must disclose this fact even if the item will later be returned to the maker or vendor.
Rule 4 - Advertising
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Vendors are to keep marketing within the biweekly Deals/New Products threads.
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Non-vendors may post topics about products if it will foster a compelling discussion.
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Do not solicit donations or share fundraisers without mod approval.
Rule 5 - Inappropriate Content
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All NSFW/L content must request mod approval and be flaired appropriately.
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Non-shaving related NSFW/L content is not allowed.
Rule 10 - Moderator Discretion
- The rules may not apply perfectly to every situation. The mods have final discretion.
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Had a Merkur 34C as my first closed comb DE razor. I hated it. Tried various blades (Persona blue/red, Feather, Shark, generics from the NEX or Navy EXchange store on base, Gillette Silver Blue) and I could never get a BBS from it. I hated that closed comb razor.
Still, after 20+ years in DE wetshaving, I didn't learn my lesson and decided to shell out +/- โฌ100 for a Pearl Flexi (Indian company) closed comb DE razor. I hate it, too, for the same reasons.
Can you see I'm steering you away from closed combs? There was one exception over my 20+ years: my 1955-1960 Gillette Red Tip Super Speed. I loved it so much, I paid a company (Back Roads Gold in the US) to clean, repair, and replate it. Lost it moving overseas. I loved her so.
I'm assuming you are using open comb now. I never tried one, are they really aggressive?
Closed comb vs open comb does not play into aggressiveness as much as people think. There might be a correlation just based off the fact that most open comb razors sold are also aggressive... but it's not a hard and fast rule.
This picture does a great job explaining the geometries involved, and it applies to open comb and closed comb alike.
People might enjoy open comb razors for other reasons. They're sort of designed to let long whiskers get through to the blade easier, but even that is debatable.
Either way, there are mild and aggressive open comb razors, and there are mild and aggressive closed comb razors. A vast majority of safety razors are closed comb.
To answer your question about suggesting a razor, can you clarify what you mean by mildly aggressive? Do you want something mild and efficient? Something with blade feel? Something in the middle?
I just started shaving my head 2 years back and have been using an indian brand called Pearl, for the price it's fine. I also tried another brand called Hajamat which was also okayish. I use Gillette platinum blades mostly. I wanted to try something like Merkur, Edwin Jagger or Parker since I got a bigger budget now, but not sure which one to go for.
I wonder if in your technique,
/ universal "you" /
Well, I've had only 2 open combs to date, but have had 9 closed combs over the years. Mostly vintage Gillettes.
It's important that when you're doing A-B comparisons, that you stick with a blade you've had great success with, so you can track how well that razor works for you. When I started my journey, I was all about the Derby blades. Having honed my technique, now I'm a Feather guy. It took 20+ years to find my matches, technique can never be stressed enough.
The best advice I can give: go slow and steady (you want to maintain a 30ยฐ blade angle to your skin), be sure to use a good quality shave soap or cream (Proraso and Tabac are great for me), don't use Barbisol or aerosol cans, and remember to have fun and enjoy the experience! I love my shave routine, it's Zen for me.
There's a great site that still holds strong to this day for all things wetshaving: BadgerAndBlade.com