Every man remembers his first shave, according to the internet…
I don’t.
I do remember my first shave with a traditional safety razor though, and how my face looked afterwards… was hooked right away, despite several nicks. Thinking about it, I do believe my first shaves as a pimply teen was with an unremarkable electric razor… a no-brand rotary. First experiments with carts and canned goo came a little later as I was gearing up for boot camp – I believe my logic was that you can’t find an outlet while on exercise in the deep forests. The main takeaway from the first few years was that I dislike canned goo; left my face feeling dry and funky.
Enter stage right; a cheap brush and cream from BodyShop. Much better, even if ingrown hairs and shaving rash still plagued me.. at the time I though that was just how it was.
Over the next couple of decades I waffled between carts (Sensor Excel), various electrics, and growing beards… until I was pointed in the direction of traditional wetshaving while I was gearing up for a one year Tour of Duty as a UN Military Observer in Africa – the logic at the time being that you can’t always find an electrical outlet nor reliable buy carts while in a third world country… seems to be a common theme with why I switched to a cart years before.
The anticipation when I slid the Feather blade into my Parker R22 and slowly twisted it closed was palatable… and I promptly opened and closed it a few times to make 100% absolutely sure I had put it in right. I was happy with the lather I had made with my brand new Omega boar brush and my just as new tube of Proraso Green… even if looking back it was frankly not particularly good. And the less I say about my pre-shave, the better… because there is not much to say about splashing some warm water on ones face.
The feeling of sliding a traditional safety razor over my cheeks for the first time? Unforgettable. The actual sound of stubble being sliced through by a piece of wicked sharp steel? Simply wonderful.
Yes, there was several nicks. Blood was drawn. The Feather is, in hindsight, way to sharp for an aggressive razor like the R22. My lather was too watery and provided little cushion. But despite all that I knew one thing for sure when I rinsed the bright red remains of watery lather of my face:
I wanted more. Much more.
To roll back, I think my first shave was forgotten because it wasn’t anything special. I do remember my first traditional shave because it was quite simply unforgettable.
I, too, used a rotary electric shaver as a teen, but when my beard started to grow more (around 2015-16), it couldn't get the job done. At the same time, I'm glad that I have a thick beard, otherwise I wouldn't have anything to shave. 🤣 I was stuck with a beard for a year or two, while looking unkempt as hell. I then bought a beard trimmer and that worked for a while, until it broke just after 2.5 years of use (battery died). I then saw an ad about the Henson razor on Facebook, then started looking at double-edge razors. Bought a cheap shaving set, with which I shaved for a year until I bit the bullet and got the Henson. It's still my main razor, although I have that cheap Chinese one (surprisingly effective) and a Mühle R89 (a tad too mild).
I probably got a few nicks and cuts during my first DE shave as well, but I haven't regretted it. It sometimes leaves me with weird bumps on my skin, but I don't think they are ingrown hairs, just some sort of nicks that get inflamed. Some of these bumps have stayed on my skin, so part of me thinks I should get a trimmer, but I can't be bothered with trimmers again. But most of the bumps go away so no biggie. I shave once or max twice a week, so my skin gets a chance to heal.
Hah, thanks. The bumps may also be milia, which are little white bumps around the eyes and are caused by dry skin. I have them around my eyes. They seem to be harmless, at least in my case. I have one bigger bump which I'm pretty sure is scar tissue, at least I think so. It didn't go away even though I used skin exfoliators. I've never had another since, though. Closer to my nose, I sometimes get a few red spots after shaving, which look like acne, but it isn't. I suspect it's where I haven't managed to wash my skin properly or else am going over the spot too vigorously. I deliberately leave lather there so I can make sure the razor doesn't pass there.
There's a chance it might be ingrown hair, because it gets inflamed, but it calms down and disappears after a few days. When it comes to pre-shave / post-shave, I think that overall, I have a pretty good routine. I wash my face with soap before shaving, using hot water to soften the whiskers. After the shave, I wash my face with cold water, because when I rub my face, dead skin appears (shaving is exfoliating, after all). I rise it off. I then liberally apply the alum. Let that work, wash my gear. Rise alum off, apply a balm (Nivea Sensitive). Done. I find aftershaves dry my skin and some have scents which are too strong for my liking (I have an unused Proraso Green AS). I've considered pure witch hazel, but we'll see. I used a tester, but I don't remember how my skin reacted. Shouldn't alum be enough?