Ultimate man tools – the straight razor

There is nothing quite like a straight razor when it comes to manliness in an implement – they are well crafted, useful and just a little bit dangerous. Being skilled with one takes time and dedication in addition to a few other materials that aren’t necessary with cartridge or safety razors. For most of its history, the straight razor shave has been the sole domain of the barber and made up a large component of the curriculum taught at barber college. However, with a renewed resurgence in traditional wet shaving, the straight razor is beginning to make a big comeback. While quite pricey up front, once the equipment is purchased the only thing that the shaver then needs to keep buying is shaving cream. This saves money in the long term as well as the environment since there is nothing to throw out except for the occasional tube of strop paste and your shaving cream container.

Video feature – Machine on the sides: A portrait of the American barber

 

The manly art of wet shaving

I’m the first to admit that I have always hated shaving. I’ve seen it as an annoying chore that I wanted to get done as quickly as possible and which always left me with stinging skin and a neck characterised by the ugly and uncomfortable rash known as razor burn. I thought vibrating razors and 5 blade cartridges were the answer, all they did was make the problem worse while robbing me blind. $20 for a 4 pack of cartridges, yikes! I hated the hole in my pocket from buying those things almost as much as actually using them. That all changed when I stumbled across a post on http://www.styleforum.net (which is a great site by the way) where a poster complaining of razor burn was recommended to look into DE razors. “What the hell is a DE razor?” I thought as my curiosity was immediately aroused. I ended up finding out on a shaving forum (yes that’s right, there are actually forums dedicated to shaving out there) along with a plethora of fantastic information.