A really great straight razor shave

Today marks the date of my first really great straight razor shave. One surpassing what I can achieve with a new Gillette Mach 3 blade.

Here is a list of what went well:

• No nicks, no cuts, no blood.
• Lather at just the right stiffness to not splatter all over.
• No pulling, the razor was just as sharp as it needed to be.

All this with a razor I have bought from new. Honed myself on a combination of natural hones from Belgium and Japan and strapped on a leather strap.

Of course all this has cost me well past what a Gillette blade would have cost me, but taken well care of it can last me a lifetime. I haven’t yet used up my second block of shaving soap, and I started using that brand in the start of 2005. That will probably pan out to be about a block every three years. Try to beat that with a can of shaving gel.

Of course a straight razor has a somewhat steep learning curve, but all in all I have shaved less than 10 times before I reached this point. And many of the sub-par shavings I suspect comes down to me not having honed the razor to a good enough sharpness.

That’s all past me now. My last Gillette blade is lying unused in the back of the bathroom closet.