First Shave: The Setup.

And even I got one! So they clearly don’t mind sending some love to not-so-esteemed shaving bloggers.

The Review
Let’s start with the science: Bluebeard’s Revenge contains an ingredient they call Decelerine. This is supposed to inhibit beard growth giving you more time between shaves. It’s also paraben-free.

Couldn’t care less.

What I want to know is: Does it make good lather, and do I get a good shave with it?

The answer to both questions is a resounding yes.

I usually shave with soap, and face lather. It sticks in my mind that one should make cream lather in a bowl, and that’s what I started to do with my first The Bluebeard’s Revenge shave. But TBR is so dense, it just kind of smeared around in the bottom of my mug. I quickly abandoned the bowl mixing idea for normal face lathering. It might work better in a scuttle with the grooves in the bottom.

This cream made lather like you wouldn’t believe. It reminded me of those snake fireworks, you know the kind where you start with a little lump and the snake just keeps growing and growing? I had to offload excess lather into the mug while I was mixing on my face.

It will take a couple tries to get your starting product amount figured out with The Bluebeard’s Revenge. Like Brylcreem, a little dab’ll do ya. This stuff is thirsty. It takes a lot of water to get your lather going.

And the lather is thick. This isn’t foam. It’s a creamy, cushiony, dense lather that lasts a long time. I would recommend this to straight (cutthroat) razor guys, who are always looking for good cushion. For shaving, I mean.

Seen below, my lather after four passes and a touch-up. It’s probably twenty minutes old here, and has been whomped in the bowl a number of times (I face lather, but charge up the lather in the bowl, which also keeps it warm). It’s beginning to break up a little. Most lathers would be gone, sucked into the brush by this time. Note the peaks still showing down in the bowl (Long-time readers will note that I still use my poor-man’s shaving scuttle).

TBR lather after twenty minutes.

I’ve used TBR with both a Tuckaway razor with an Israeli/Crystal blade, and a Red Tip with a Feather. I got outstanding, close irritation-free shaves with both setups.

Now, if you like to be transported to tea with Alice and the Mad Hatter on a soft breeze of dreamy lavender when you shave, or imagine yourself running through exotic jungles of sandalwood, TBR is going to disappoint. Scent is not its long suit. It’s light, and just a touch, well, to me citrusy. I’m thinking Wool Fat meets Arlington. Really more of a soap scent than what many chaps associate with cream.

Bottom line: The Bluebeard’s Revenge is a dense, thick shaving cream that produces one of the best lathers I’ve ever shaved with. Don’t object to the price, because it doesn’t take much product to get the lather blooming. If your beard growth slows as a result of committed use, hey, it’s all to the good. You’ll save even more.

Two snaps up. Loved it.

P.S. You can lose the battle-drum-Klaxon horn sound effect on the website, blokes. That’s just annoying.

C.O. Bigelow Shaving Cream, as Proraso is sold in the U.S.

The weather in my area today is supposed to reach 104 degrees F (that’s 40C) today. Hot. I mean hot. Almost too damn hot to shave with hot water.

Luckily for wetshavers, it gets hot in Italy, too. This is the time of year I appreciate Italian shave products. Nothing cools the face like a dense lather of Proraso cream. It contains eucalyptus, something you won’t find in the English or German products… where it doesn’t get so damn hot.

As much as I love Tabac lather, sometimes I’m just not up for that powdery scent when the sun is blazing.

Cella soap, also from Italy, does well in the heat. Its sharp almond scent isn’t too cloying, when the streets are melting outside.

Proraso can be purchased in the U.S. under the C. O. Bigelow label at Bath and Body Works, or you can spring for the real stuff online.

The Roberts Method relies on the use of products designed by Mr. Roberts and available through his shop, Enchante. The products stress natural ingredients minimizing the use of chemicals. All Method products are meant to keep the maximum amount of water on the face and beard, saturating the whiskers to their utmost potential.

Strict ‘forms’ of whisker cutting are observed, making Method Shaving almost a martial art in execution.

While devotees of Method Shaving are few, they are loyal and their numbers are growing.

I’m not going to pretend to be an expert on the Method, as I haven’t tried it. I do want to add information about Method Shaving to the Wet Shavers Blog for the record, and give you a handy jumping-off point to find out more about it.

Here’s a list of links to sources of details on the Roberts Method. First off is of course a video by Roberts’ fellow Texan, Mantic.

Mantic’s Concepts of Method Shaving Part One

Hydrolast products forum

Method shaving board at The Shave Den forum

Enchante shop online

Shaving scuttles have been around as long as men have been shaving themselves. There are some cool vintage ones on Ebay at any given time.

The idea is to keep your lather warm by keeping hot water in the bottom portion of a ceramic dish, while your soap/brush rests up above.

Some entrepreneurial potters out there are making very cool scuttles aimed at the modern wet shaver market. I like them, but at an average price tag of 45 bucks American, I can’t justify a purchase with three mouths to feed and an uncertain employment future.

I do like warm lather, though. What to do?

Fill a ceramic dog bowl with hot water. Set a free promotional latte mug in water, let brush stay warm in there.

Total cost of scuttle: about two Fusion cartridges worth.

Poor wet shaver's scuttle.

When I was a kid, I used to like the commercial for Norelco featuring Santa riding one of their razors down a slope as though it were a sled. The brand name at the end would morph into the spelling “Noel co”. Fun.

This year, we have the Braun Series 7 with ‘pulse-a-riffic’ technology. This thing sends out some kind of pulse that makes the skin ripple, thus providing a closer shave. Somehow.

I checked this little number out on Amazon. While it lists for $269.95, you can get it now for a mere $225, though that price is so low they aren’t allowed to show it unless you click a special link.

Two Hundred Twenty-Five Dollars for an electric shaver. Just wow.

Ladies, Wet Shavers Blog would like to provide you a service if shaving is your goal for your man’s gift this year.

On the right sidebar, you’ll see selections pulled out of Amazon and gathered in one handy stop, all related to old-style wet shaving.

Nip in there and pick out:

• Razor. I’d go Merkur brand. The HD (Heavy Duty) is probably the best choice for a beginner.
• Blades. The razor will likely come with a couple of Merkur blades. Grab another pack just in case.
• Brush. Go wild here. A wet shaver’s first brush is a starting point. You needn’t put too much thought into this. Somewhere between $50 and $100 would secure a high-quality shaving brush that will last a lifetime.
• Cream or soap. For the $225 that Braun is going for, we have enough room left in our budget for a top-shelf shaving cream. Check out the George F Trumper’s or Taylor of Old Bond Street classic English shaving creams and see what scent you’d like, or think he’d like. These are among the finest shaving creams in the world.

If you like, grab some cologne or maybe a nice thick stoneware bowl or mug that he can make lather in. The bullet points alone will get enough gear to allow your man to have a shave Christmas morning; and start him down the path to a lifetime of enjoyment.

I’m sure ‘sonic-pulsing-gizmonics’ electric shavers are nifty items. I’m not sure guys love them the way they do wet shaving.

Take a chance and be a little different this year. I’m virtually certain you and he will be glad you did.

"Mmmmm, nice shave."

I’ve mentioned that lots of guys get into wet shaving initially because they’re sick of paying through the nose for overpriced cartridge blade shaving systems, a la the Gillette Fusion.

Yeah, you come for the money savings. Then, you get used to the sheer pleasure of warm lather being worked into your face with a soft, silvertip badger shave brush. Before you know it, you’ve got Wet Shaving Acquisition Disorder and you’re all over the Net bidding on Fat Boy adjustable Super Speeds, looking at the fine English soaps and creams, checking out the Rooney and Vulfix brushes, ordering blades by the gross and wondering how you’re going to explain all this stuff coming into the house to your wife.

Been there. It happens to us all.

Wet shaving is such a pleasurable hobby, it’s hard not to go a little overboard when you get into it. Yes, I said hobby. It’s strange how a routine that used to be a dreaded chore becomes an anticipated ritual. You put a lot of thought, time, and money into it. Shaving becomes a hobby.

That’s because it feels so damn good.

So good, that I’ve seen more than one stogie-chomping, Marine Corps serving, muscle car-driving, deer hunting, bar brawling tough guy turn into a Nancy Boy-shopping metro after taking up wet shaving. OK, maybe I exaggerate a bit. But not by much. Pampering oneself a bit is enjoyable. Nothing wrong with it.

You start taking better care of your skin and grooming overall. Maybe you invest in some real bathing soap when you learn that deodorant bar you’ve been using for years isn’t really soap at all, it’s detergent. You might get serious about losing some weight (happened to me) and keeping your hair a little better barbered than you used to. You invest in some nice cologne or aftershave and finally put on those clothes she bought for you that you wouldn’t have been caught dead in.

Next thing you know, your partner gets that gleam in her eye again when she looks at you and you’re getting some of the best sexing up you’ve had since you started dating.

All because you got fed up with paying Gillette too much money for a shave you hated doing anyway.

Yes, yes. Come for the savings. Stay because it feels good.

Photo credit: Mark J. Sebastian

Regardless, the fact that they feel they have to stress the cost-effectiveness of the Fusion cartridges shows that Gillette knows people think these things are ridiculously overpriced. The reason many wet shavers got started with the habit was the high cost of cartridges.

So, how much do you figure your shave costs per week?

In the previous post, I mentioned about forty-five cents max. That would include fixed costs of the DE razor and brush, premium blade like a Feather, cream or soap and water/water heating cost. The average wet shaver gets about a week out of a DE blade and they are available at far less than a Feather would run. A quarter a week total cost would be easy to achieve. Straight or ‘cut-throat’ razor shaving would be even less.

Come on over to the Dark Side, Fusion users. You’ll save a hell of a lot of money and we have cookies.

A dollar a week? Lol.

Using the most premium blade available, like the Feather, and including the fixed costs of making soap or cream lather, shaving brush wear (almost none), DE razor (Merkur x about $40 spread over a lifetime), water and energy, you’re looking at maybe 45 cents a week for a far superior shave.

The mighty Proctor and Gamble could have embraced wet shaving. Instead, they are taking a pot shot at it. Their call.

Interesting that the trend seems to have finally officially hit the radar screens on Madison Avenue.

Essential oil is captured by distillation from the parent plant. Steam is passed through the plant material, distilled and voila! Essential oil.

EO’s are easy to come by at the drugstore or online. They are potent, so care needs to be used not to get it directly on your skin.

I like to mix up a little with unscented shave cream like Kiss My Face brand, or put some in a spritz bottle of witch hazel.

Glycerin soaps can be (carefully, slowly) melted, some EO stirred in and allowed to cool creating a custom-scented soap.

In my early days wet shaving I experimented a lot with this. I was going for a scent made popular by the Nancy Boy company: Lavender, peppermint, and rosemary. I’d melt a little Van Der Hagen soap and stir in some oil. I got a mix I liked but it took a few tries.

We have some hand soap around now, that’s really slippery and smells like chewing gum. Nothing I want to shave with, but it’s fine for hands. No need to waste perfectly good soap just because it’s got more peppermint scent than I anticipated.

Essential oils differ from fragrance oils in that fragrance oils contain some synthetics. I’m not sure whether they would do any harm mixed with soap; probably not.

Using your own essential oil, there is no limit to the possibilities of scent in your morning shave.

During my shave today, the thought occurred that without world peace and free trade, we wet shavers would really be over a barrel.

Consider the global representation involved in the shave:

• Russian blade.
• German razor.
• Lather made with Turkish soap and Italian cream.
• British brush with badger hair from China.
• Towel from Vietnam… or was it the Philippines? I need to double check that.
• Finished off with French cologne (mmmm…. Guerlain Vetiver)
• and oh yeah, I did splash some American witch hazel as a toner.

So yeah, I think it would be worthwhile to pursue this. ‘Wet shaving for World Peace’, or ‘Shave Aid’, or ‘Global Shave-in for Peace’.

Anybody know Bob Geldof’s email address?

Bay Lime Shaving Cream

Making lather is what separates old school wet shaving from ‘wet’ shaving using canned foam or gel. Once you’ve experienced the feel of rich, warm lather being spread on your face by a quality shaving brush, rarely is there any going back.

So how do you make lather?

Using a bowl or large mug (a latte mug is great for this), start by soaking your brush for five minutes or so in warm water. Lots of guys set the brush soaking before they get in the shower.

When the brush is well-soaked, dump the water from your bowl. Shake most of the water from your brush. It wouldn’t even hurt to give the brush a gentle squeeze to rid it of excess water. It seems counter-intuitive, but there’s plenty of water stored in the bristles of the brush after a good soaking.

If you’re using cream, drop an almond-sized dollop into the bowl. Start whipping the cream using circular motions of the brush. When you’ve got a paste going, it’s now time to start adding water. This should be done carefully, as lather that’s too wet runs off the face and is pretty useless. Add water a half-teaspoon at a time, and keep whipping with the tips of the brush.

After a couple of minutes, you should get the result you’re looking for: a meringue-like lather with nice pointed peaks coming out of the brush. This is a perfect lather; not too dry, not too wet. Spread the lather on your beard. Once the beard is coated, it’s a good idea to ‘paint’ the lather over the beard area to get an even coating.

Some cream makers advise leaving the lather in place for a couple of minutes to aid in softening the beard. You can certainly do this; but it’s still a good idea to do a thorough prep first.

Making lather with soap isn’t too much different from making it with cream. A soap puck will be in a mug or bowl (lots of soaps can be purchased in their own fancy wooden or ceramic bowls). Some guys put a few drops of water on the puck while the brush is soaking to soften the top layer.

Once again, take the brush and shake and/or squeeze it to rid it of excess water. Swirl the brush tips around the soap puck until you get a good coating on the bristles.

Here’s where paths diverge on the best way to lather with soap: some men make the lather in a bowl or mug just like a cream, others like to start whipping the lather right on the face. Either way, keep whipping and adding water bit by bit until you achieve the ‘peaks’ on the brush indicating it’s ready.

Which is better: soap or cream? This is a point that can be discussed endlessly. It’s really a personal preference. If you’re into a variety of scents, cream is probably the way to go. There are many, many scents to choose from, giving you an olfactory kick while you’re enjoying the warm lather goodness.

Soaps are probably a bit more economical as they will tend to last longer.

Most wet shavers will start out with cream. I did. Proraso cream from Italy, sold in the U.S. at Bath and Body Works under the C.O. Bigelow brand, was the starter lather base for myself and hundreds of other wet shavers. It’s hard to go wrong using this as your wet shaving lathering kickoff.

I’ve now swung to the other side of the fence: I like soaps, and lather on my face. I like the exfoliating scrub I get from the brush while the lather is building.

Face lathering gives prep an extra boost. You get that couple of minutes with lather on the beard while you make it. Also, to keep the lather warm, a few drops of hot water on the bristles does the job nicely.

One can even combine the best of both worlds. ‘Superlather’ is the term for a lather made with a mix of soap and cream.

Let your imagination run wild, enjoy the luxury of warm lather you made, and get the shave of your life.

That’s not done just because it looks cool in the movies, or so the shavee can’t see the hit man who’s coming in the barbershop to ‘whack’ him.

Attention to preparation before wet shaving pays off great dividends in the comfort and quality of the shave.

As we’ve seen, hot water is the basis of wet shaving. Why is this?

A hair (whisker) shaft is made mostly of protein. The inner portion of the shaft is called the cortex. The outer layer, which concerns us shavers, is the cuticle.

The cuticle can be thought of as a fish’s scales, or maybe a stack of styrofoam cups. Each hard ‘plate’ covers part of its neighbor, protecting the soft cortex and giving the whisker its strength or armor.

As heat and moisture are applied to the whisker, the protein chains that hold the ‘scales’ in the cuticle together are broken. Water gets into the shaft of the whisker, swelling it and breaking the bonds of the cuticle further.

The result is a saturated, swollen, soft and damaged whisker that is ready to be mown down by our razor!

If you don’t mind taking a couple extra minutes to prep your beard for a great shave, here’s how it’s best done:

• Don’t wash your face beforehand (unless you’re covered in engine grease or something).
• Apply hot water to the beard.
• Using your shaving brush, coat the beard with the soap or cream of your choice. Rub it in well with your fingers.
• Apply a hot, not enough to burn, but noticeably hot, wet washcloth or hand towel to the beard area. Let this sit for a couple of minutes.
• When removing the towel, wipe off the soap residue. Along with this will come the facial oil that’s combined with the warm moisture and soap to soften the whiskers.

You are now ready to lather up using circular motions with your shaving brush and your favorite soap or cream.

Last step: enjoy the smoothest, closest, most comfortable shave you’ve ever had.

Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee enjoys a wet shave while on the Presidential campaign trail. SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images

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Bay Lime Shaving Cream

The razor itself is usually metal and made to last a lifetime. Double edge blades are steel. After use, they can be recycled or even if disposed of, will rust in short order.

The blades are quite often packaged in simple cardboard boxes, each blade wrapped in paper (all recyclable).

The vast majority of shave soaps and creams are made from pure, natural ingredients. You can feel confident that what is washing down the drain will quickly degrade. No need to worry about introducing chemical or detergent waste into the environment here.

Even the use of hot water, an essential part of wet shaving or at least the pre-shave when the beard is softening, can be minimized to save energy. The steps involved in pre-shaving are for another post, but the gist is that just enough water is used to soak a washcloth or hand towel that is then applied to the face. I use a hand towel as it covers more area and does a better job of holding the heat. During the shave, some people fill the sink or a bowl to rinse the razor. Others use a quick stream of water (which doesn’t have to be a full-strength blast). Rinsing is best done with cool water to close the pores.

Compare this to modern cartridge blade shaving. The handle is plastic. The cartridges are plastic. They come encased in a plastic box.

How many cans of shave foam and gel are thrown away every year? Wet shaving soap bowls are refillable. The creams are often in plastic, but a tube or tub of it goes a long, long way. Only about an almond-sized dollop is used for the typical shave.

Lots of guys like to shave in the shower using their Fusions. It’s convenient, and a hot shower feels good, but it does use a lot of energy. If you shave in the sink, do you leave the hot water running during the shave? This is something wet shavers can look at as well.

Among the many benefits of wet shaving is the fact that you can feel good about helping to keep the planet green by significantly reducing product waste and energy consumption.

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Bay Lime Shaving Cream

OK, that sounds a little flip. That is, however, the simple definition of wet shaving. Shaving, using copious amounts of hot water which helps lubricate the skin and breaks down and softens the whiskers.

Lather for wet shaving is made from shaving cream or soap. The lather is whipped to proper moisture and consistency using a shave brush, the bristles being made of either boar or badger hair. Badger is usually considered the better material for a shave brush as it is somewhat softer than boar hair and holds more water.

While using a Mach III or Fusion cartridge razor technically fits within the definition of wet shaving, the tool most often used to remove the whiskers is either a straight razor of the traditional barbershop shave, or a double-edge (DE) safety razor.

Almost pushed to the forgotten margin of history by the shaving Powers That Be (I’m looking at you, Gillette and Schick), wet shaving staged a roaring comeback after a segment on the Today Show done in 2005 by its tech editor and wet shaving aficionado Corey Greenberg.

Overnight, sales of shaving creams, soaps, and brushes skyrocketed and sellers of old DE razors on Ebay were seeing bidding wars erupt over items that before had expired with nary a look.

Why would one bother? Why not slap some canned goo on the cheeks and scrape it off with a disposable plastic cartridge razor, getting the shaving chore over with as quickly as possible?

There lies the rub.

Once you have relived the process that men practiced for generations, scrubbing warm, rich lather into your mug, skillfully removing the stubble and then admiring your baby’s bottom smooth cheeks, it is difficult to go back.

The side effects of straight or DE wet shaving: smoother shave than you thought possible, reduction or elimination of acne, the disappearance of that red irritation under your jaw you had accepted would be there forever, are fringe benefits.

It’s the feeling of pampering yourself a bit, regaining a lost connection to your forefathers, reveling in the skill of gliding the edge through the stubble at just the right angle and pressure, that keeps you hooked.

It’s that feeling that just might turn what had been a daily chore grudgingly performed, into a ritual looked forward to, or even a hobby.