A friend advised me to see some videos done about shaving today. This Movember challenge is eating up my face something fierce. So he pointed me to mantic59.blogspot.com. I started looking at these videos and my wife asked me if anyone taught me how to shave. As I recall, no one did. Maybe my dad gave me some tips. But I've had to learn on my own, which may explain having a beard since High School.

Well, this site looks very informative. It's going to help me immediately, learning how best to shave what I've got. But it's going to help me immensely in 15 years when the topic of shaving comes up for two teenage boys.

So who taught you to shave? Any funny stories?

My face is more broken out than any time since I was watching Molly Ringwald movies and trying to get to second base with Kate Mullen.

I don't remember learning to shave, but I do remember trying to shave around the pimply parts without topping every eruption like running a lawnmower through a field of ant piles.

getting some real clear flashbacks to that. And remembering why I grew a beard in the first place.

My understanding is that shaving scrapes all the 'impurities' off of your face and shoves them into any pores or openings in the skin, which is what causes breakouts. So, a good face cleaning is in order before every shave.

This stuff from Lab Series isn't cheap, but it works: bit.ly/atiImr

I wouldn't use it every day (unless you shave every day) especially in the winter, because it exfoliates your summer tan away. Just use it before you shave.

And put some kind of face moisturizer on your face after you shave, not aftershave. Lab Series and Zihr make good ones.

Trust me, I live in San Francisco. We know our stuff here when it comes to male grooming.

My dad had a beard, and my brother was at college, so I taught myself to shave. Then I went and got a proper hot shave and asked the barber for tips. I still use a safety razor, but one of these days hope to get the nerve to try a straight razor. I hear that once you're used to it, there's no going back.

Enchante of Austin, Texas
One American Center
600 Congress Ave, Suite G210
Austin, TX 78701

This company is owned by a shaving evangelist. I think an episode on "teaching your son to shave" would be appropriate. Whether you "let" your boy grow a beard or not, they'll need to shave before they leave the house. So it's worth learning how to do it right for their sake.

There was never any real "lesson" from my dad or 3 older brothers. I'm sure that I picked up a few things by watching them though. I'll definitely have to pass down whatever shaving knowledge I have to my son when the time comes.

A few months ago I grew a goatee. Except I don't really know how to trim it properly. After a few google searches I found this thing called the goatee saver. Pretty funny. It looks like something they would strap on Hannibal Lecter to keep him from biting someones face off. I think I'll stick with trial and error.

My dad taught me how to shave. I remember watching him shave every morning when I was a little dude and I couldn't wait to shave. Now as an adult, shaving is way overrated but I look a bit insane when I have facial hair as you can tell by my current look.
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@Ben

Thanks for the tip on Enchante. I'm going to reach out to them.

Good luck, Clay. I did say evangelist. As I see more and more references to him, he's quite a ... character. Probably good for a short video. Leave your wallet at home, though.

As luck would have it, I have a gentleman willing to barter a safety razor and brush for wet shaving for beer. I'm working up my offer for him. I can get into this obsession for next to nothing (since the beer I have right now aren't my favorite styles and were mostly paid for by people who wanted to try a particular style, my consulting fee being half the beer.

So I should soon be on the quest for a perfect wet shave before the month is out.

Forgive my ignorance @ben, but how do you define "wet shave." I assume something other than my rough work with the electric shaver.

Here's the current State of Stache.
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Welcome to Movember, DC!

Wet Shave: Wet shaving at its simplest, is just that – shaving with water, a razor blade, and some sort of lubricant (lather, soap, etc.) on your face. Men have shaved this way for centuries, starting early on with a sharp knife or stone, progressing to the straight razor, safety (double-edge) razors, and eventually cartridge razors from companies like Gillette, etc.

But the term implies using a cream or soap that is hydrated, not out of a can. That means using a brush or cloth to work up a warm, wet later and applying it at least three times through the sheving process.

Now, Method Shaving, which Enchante's owner "invented", takes that a step further. It's compared to Tai Chi. Really.

I'm off to shave.

Both my dad and grandfather took time to show me how to shave. My dad is more of an electric/disposable razor kind of guy, but my grandfather used a straight razor and real cream.

I never liked shaving. I grew a goatee in college, and now I rock a full beard.

So, of course this became an obsession for me. It's not like I had anything else to do. It's not like signing up for NaNoWriMo and working up a mess of sequences for the city's premier animated lighting display that will launch on Wednesday was anything much to do. IT just adds to the insanity that we have spent the last five days fighting a nasty virus that has had us all by the short hairs and the baby has been to the health clinic twice with full expectations of being sent to an ER for an IV.

Anyway, I dove in and researched shaving technique. I found loads and loads of YouTube videos on shaving with a DE (double-edge) safety razor, applying later with a brush and preparing the face just right. I've even managed to have a few comfortable shaves that were reasonably pleasant.

But then I fell. I found the site of this store in Austin, TX, which we all know to be the center of infectious, religious zealots. At this online devotional to the "Roberts Method of Wet Shaving" I was given "The Forms". Likened to Tai Chi and other martial arts forms, devotees claim an ability to harvest a sense of peace with the universe, a heightened sense of masculinity, and huge tracts of land... Well, they like it quite a bit. The peace and clam thing is for real.

So I've used the forms now. Twice, I think. And it's resulted in a pretty decent shave and a faster one, too. But it's still a work in progress.

This coming week, I will get a DE razor, a box of blades, a bar of shaving soap and a badger hair shaving brush. I need to get them before Dec 1, when my wife has set her line in the sand that my beard must make a full return.

Not much of a "hands-on guy," my dad. One day I just tried shaving, basically improvising. I'm still not sure if I'm doing it right...

@ben

You crack me up. Do you do ANYTHING without becoming an aficionado?

You're probably a master garbage extraction specialist, with research into the torsion and bearing characteristics of various polymers used in common receptacle liners. European and South American techniques for knotting twist ties.

Your takes are awesome.

@Clay
Anything worth doing is worth doing right. Motto for life.

BTW, European vs American isn't as much of a concern as N/S Hemispheres. In Oz, they load them from the bottom.

My research thus far seems to show a disconnect in shaving technique sharing. In the 1800s, a straight blade shave was for the very brave or professional barbers. When King Gillette (his real name, not a title) invented the safety razor in 1903 (or something like that) it became easier to do on your own. But still took instruction. In the World Wars, soldiers were instructed by the military on how to use their Double Edge Safety Razors, supplied by Gillette. In the 70's, Gillette had competition and they invented the disposable razor. With that, the military was still the principal instructor in the "art" of shaving. With the 80s peace and the invention of products that could be marketed as easy and safe, fewer people thought that instruction was necessary.

So, here we are. We look up things like shaving on YouTube and get taught by the most radical, the people who like something so mundane enough to produce a video about it. No. They don't make a single video. They make hundreds, because that's all they do. And any other way is sacrilegious or selling out. An Internet subculture of mundane activity evangelists develops. They buy matching shoes and eat some pudding... Just speculating.

But now I have a method of shaving that hurts less and doesn't cut my throat. I'm still using these damn disposables and mass market shaving cream until they're gone. I haven't bought in, yet.