Vintage Razors and the Art of Shaving

I haven't had the chance to write about vintage shaving yet.  Most things I own and use are vintage so of course, I also shave with vintage razors blades.  In this day and age it can be quite daunting to find the razor that best fits your personality and face.  Since we are all different there is no one do-all razor that will be the best for you.  However I have found that in this case, vintage is often better.  You can get you 3, 4, or 5 bladed razors promising the closest shave ever and if that works for you then that's great.  However most men find these razors lacking when trying to live up to the wild claims they throw out in order to get us to purchase their products.  Such razors are great for the first 2 shaves and then what happens?  They start pulling or irritating and ofttimes the blades are spaced so closely together that a heavy growth of beard defeats the best blades modern science can throw at us.

An Ode To Old Time Shaving

I want to take a break from talking about vintage recipes and such to talk about something else near and dear to my heart, vintage shaving.  I first was interested in vintage wet shaving about 5 years ago.  Dissapointed by the poor quality of disposable razors I searched for something different that made sense and I discovered that vintage wet shaving was very much alive and well.  You can buy your mach5 or 8 bladed razors and what are they?  Manufacturers gimmicks meant to part you from your money with promises of the closest shaves ever. Complete and utter flummery in other words!  In reality, our grandfathers knew what we have forgotten... A old style razor fitted with a good quality double edge blade gives a better, closer shave than these new disposables can even hope to achieve... and at a fraction of the price as well!  You can also leave the men's facial washes in the drawer.  A good shaving soap or cream when applied with a good quality badger hair brush is supremely effective at exfoliating the skin.