On my last birthday, my youngest son bought me a little package from Bespoke Post containing a Maalim safety razor and accessories. I had sworn off safety razors decades ago, preferring disposables, and recently had been using a Norelco and not using blades at all. I was fine with the not-really-great closeness of the electric, because it's easy and quick. I felt bad because he had wasted his money on something that would sit on a shelf in my closet.
In fact, I felt bad enough that I had to try it. I had some trepidation, since I had suffered many cuts when I was learning to shave with a safety razor 40+ years ago. The worst shaving cut I ever got, though, was with one of those old Bic single-blade disposables. Then I had used two-blade, three-blade, four-blade etc. disposables as time went by. This razor came with some Astra blades which seemed impossibly thin and delicate. Turns out they are also impossibly sharp, unlike the stainless blades of my youth. I don't shave every day, and even if I skip shaving for a week, these blades, in combination with this razor, just glide over my skin, and cut very closely. Haven't cut myself yet.
I had seen some BITOG'ers posting about using safety razors, and I thought it was just nostalgia. I was wrong. These modern safety razors are something very different from what I experienced in the past.
In fact, I felt bad enough that I had to try it. I had some trepidation, since I had suffered many cuts when I was learning to shave with a safety razor 40+ years ago. The worst shaving cut I ever got, though, was with one of those old Bic single-blade disposables. Then I had used two-blade, three-blade, four-blade etc. disposables as time went by. This razor came with some Astra blades which seemed impossibly thin and delicate. Turns out they are also impossibly sharp, unlike the stainless blades of my youth. I don't shave every day, and even if I skip shaving for a week, these blades, in combination with this razor, just glide over my skin, and cut very closely. Haven't cut myself yet.
I had seen some BITOG'ers posting about using safety razors, and I thought it was just nostalgia. I was wrong. These modern safety razors are something very different from what I experienced in the past.