So my first pass at a safety razor shave came last night with my beautiful new Truefitt & Hill Ebony Safety Razor, and it was quite an interesting experience.

First, my thanks and apologies to mantic59, the Badger & Blade veteran with the YouTube tutorials on safety razor shaving. Thanks for the vidoes; apologies for mentioning your name in this post as it will trigger your Google alerts any second now.

After massaging in some Pre-Shave Oil and applying my trusty Truefitt & Hill Shave Cream with a badger brush, I took my first swipes with the razor. I was amazed how easily the razor wiped up the shave cream & hairs -- I didn't feel anything. Everything was going smoothly until my dad called to get directions, at which point, I stopped mid-shave, talked on the phone, and returned a couple minutes later. At this point, some of the shave cream had disappeared (hopefully not onto the living room carpet). I returned to the bathroom and thought I'd just keep going, but I could really feel the pulling of the razor on the hairs. I tried a couple of strokes, and then decided to reapply more shave cream.

What a HUGE difference. The shave was instantly more pleasurable, and I finished my first Safety Razor shave with just 3 small nicks on my neck -- much better than I anticipated. If you really do get better with practice, I suspect I'll be enjoying my shave again at 1/25th the cost per blade! Assuming I live another 50 years, and shave at least 4 times a week, and each blade gets me 3-4 shaves, I am looking at a lifetime savings of $13,000. And if my dad taught me this when I started shaving...well, I'd have lost it all in the market last week anyways!