Entries Tagged 'Books, videos and websites' ↓

Absolutely fascinating stuff and interesting to compare with the Edwin Jagger brush making video I posted earlier. This one is in Portuguese, but you can still see what is going on. The Edwin Jagger video didn’t show knot manufacture so taking the two together gives a good overall view of how our shaving brushes are made.

Peanut butter as shaving cream:

The banned gay cat advertisement:

W. C. Fields Shaving Scene from “It´s A Gift” (1934)

Kids do dad shaving impression

The Big Shave 1967 Martin Scorsese

Shave game at the Northside church of Christ Sweethearts Banquet.

Charlie Chaplin from The Great Dictator – The Shaving Scene

Xtreme Shaves – Shaving Extreme !!!

Barber Shaves With Feet

Fastest Straight Razor Shave On Youtube

Girl shaves every part of a man’s body

The Siren Girls at Frank’s Chop Shop

Sometimes it looks like the big shaving companies have an excellent sense of humour and that their marketing departments are just stringing the world’s males along for their own amusement. So it is hardly surprising when real comedians strike back. And remember, many a true word is spoken in jest.

This is actually pretty interesting. Obsidian is a form of volcanic glass that has no crystalline structure and as a result can easily form edges that are of molecular levels of sharpness. In other words incredible sharp. Mankind has been shaving for at least 5,000 years and this video shows that the tools are out there in nature if you know where to look for them. But I certainly know that my technique is nowhere near good enough to try this.

In this blog I have pushed the excellent Mantic59 videos. These really set a very high standard for informing about traditional, real, shaving and it is well worth spending some time looking at them. However other people have had a go at explaining how to shave properly, using a double edged razor. And I thought it would be good to bring some of these to your attention.

Today I thought you would enjoy these videos of masters of the shaving craft at work. You don’t have to visit Turkey to enjoy this treatment, there are plenty of Turkish barbers in other countries.

Turkey also produces some great shaving kit: Derby blades, Arko soap and Jaguar brushes.

If you are into real, traditional shaving and hang around the interweb you are eventually going to come upon this. I have no need to explain it myself as Mantic59 has done a great video:

Now this isn’t for me as it takes away the fun of experimentation and of using a wide range of equipment and techniques. It is just far too regimented. Here is a video of Charles Roberts using the technique:

As you can see the barrier that his Hydrolast products put up is so good that he can go at his face with a razor at 2,000 miles an hour, which is quite impressive. However he seems to shave areas of his face around 20 times, which makes me think that perhaps this same barrier is preventing the razor from working so well.

Anyhow if you are interested there are plenty of Method Shaving videos on YouTube. And here is a link to the Enchante website where you can find much more detail and buy the products.

Beware, this contains excessive and unnecessary profanity. But the message he gets over is right. Many millions of men are victims of some very clever marketing.

Real shaving, with a DE safety razor, is just like real ale in that big business tried to kill them both off so they could make more profit and both times the consumer fought back. With real ale it was with the organisation CAMRA, with real shaving it is with the power of the internet. There are lots of real shaving blogs, forums and vendors. Because in the real world there is very little to be found, just a handful of upmarket grooming shops in London’s St James’s. If I go into Coventry or Leamington there is only the bare minimum of real shaving kit that can be bought at physical retailers. Yet online there is a huge rich world where a vast range of products from all over the world are available.

One huge advantage of online is that it is global. If you live in Uruguay, Botswana, Macau or Lichtenstein you have exactly the same access to goods, services and knowledge.

This list is not meant to be in any way definitive. In fact I have left off lots of “me too” men’s grooming suppliers. But it is a good start to exploring the amazing diversity of the real shaving world. And it enables you to get your hands on some truly amazing products.

Online retailers

SafetyRazors.co.uk modern and vintage shaving equipment.
The English shaving company. For Edwin Jagger and much more.
The gentleman’s shop. All sorts of stuff. Currently selling original Somerset Simpson’s shaving brushes.
Connaught shaving. Excellent range of real shaving swag. Good for razor blade sample packs.
Shaving Shack. Another huge range of everything for real shaving.
Diamond Edge. Excellent for Simpsons and Vulfix shaving brushes.
Carter and Bond. Huge range of grooming brands.
Badger and hone. New UK online retailer with good range.
BarberBlades.co.uk. Very low priced barber’s supplies. 200 DE blades for £6.
The Dutch Shaving Shop. Lots of difficult to get hold of European stuff. Fascinating to browse. In English.
TuttoItaliaOnline. Dutch vendor with lots of Italian shaving products. In Dutch.
Irish Barber. A huge range.
Shaving.ie. Another impressive range.
New Forest Brushes. Niche shaving brush specialist.
Nanny’s Silly Soap Company. Artisan shaving soaps and creams.
Gifts and Care. Lots of good Spanish stuff. Horse hair brushes.
Vintage Scent. More exotic European swag. Semogue brushes. La Toja soap. And much more.

St James’s gentlemen’s grooming shop’s websites.

Trumpers.
Taylors of Old Bond Street (TOBS).
Truefitt &Hill.
D R Harris.
Floris.
Penhaligon’s.
Czech & Speake.

And in America

West Coast Shaving. Huge range of everything for real shaving. Blade sample packs.
BullGoose shaving supplies. Another huge range with blade sample packs.
The Gentlemen’s Quarter. Artisan soaps, creams and much more.
Vintage Blades. Cut-throat razor oriented. But lots of other stuff.
Superlather.com. European products in America.
Mama Bear’s Soaps. Artisan soaps.
Bob’s Razor Works. Artisan brushes and razors.

Forums

Real shaving is badly served by forums. Like a religion most are the result of schism after arguments. Some have hidden agendas and delete anything that doesn’t conform, others are the playpens of cliques. Many of the key people in the real shaving world today are banned from one or more forums for totally spurious reasons. Many of the very best vendors, some of whom you will find on here, are banned from forums with disingenuous and misleading reasons given for the ban.

There are much, much more resources out there, this is just picking the low hanging fruit, so if you want to know more use Google and browse.

If you want to buy blades then they are so cheap that it is best to buy them by the hundred from some of the above suppliers, Amazon or eBay.