What was your first shaving equipment?

Mach 3 and Edge gel.

My first DE was a RazoRock Black Tie, my first soap was RR Don Marco, and my first brush was an Escali, which was quickly replaced by an Omega boar.

Maggard MR22, Escali brush, and TOBS Sandalwood cream. I have since given the razor to a new wet shaver to begin his journey, the brush was lost in a move, and the TOBS has about 4-5 uses left until it is gone. My journey has at times been a slippery slope, but it has always been enjoyable.

Maggard MR22, Escali brush, and TOBS Sandalwood cream.  I have since given the razor to a new wet shaver to begin his journey, the brush was lost in a move, and the TOBS has about 4-5 uses left until it is gone.  My journey has at times been a slippery slope, but it has always been enjoyable.

Oh, my friend, welcome to the club.

My very first shaver was my Dad's backup electric razor (probably from the 1940s or 50s). Used it for a few months while saving my pennies then bought a Norelco rotary which didn't work for me. Next up was a Wilkinson injector-type which I found tuggy and uncomfortable so then I turned to a Braun electric. That tickled and irritated and lasted just a few months, so then I started with Gillette and Schick handles and blades. By now I was about 15 or 16 and despised shaving. Had beards on and off for many years from my late teens into my mid to late 20s when I picked up on using disposables in the shower. That was my method for the next 20+ years.
   My first trad shaving gear was a Merkur long handle and a cheapo brush. The brush is long gone but I still have and use that Merkur head, now on a different handle.

August of last year I bough a worthless $13 badger shaving brush and a tub of TOBS Sandalwood. I'm amazed that I stuck with the hobby given that I was using a Gillette Mach 3 with a crummy lather of a good cream, but the next month I bought an EJ DE89 and some Proraso aftershave and preshave. Soon thereafter I bought some Clubman Pinaud aftershave, Proraso cream, and ultimately Proraso Green soap. I then discovered the artisan soap makers and got an acute case of SAD. A year later I have 50+ soaps/creams, a dozen DE razors, 6 brushes, 2 dozen + aftershaves/balms, and I lost my TSA precheck status by keeping DE blades in my carry on one too many times!

My first DE purchase was a couple old Gillette Super Speeds from the flea market in the summer of 2012.
Since I got them I purchased a VDH soap/brush/mug set and 100 Feather blades from the bay.
I also picked up some sticks of Arko online shortly after and up until this past month that had been my minimal shave setup.

I got by ok but now there is actual joy in shaving and that is great.

My very first razor was a Gillette black handle superspeed back in '69/'70ish. That attempt was unsuccessful, but I still had the razor stashed away. The latest attempt, successful this time due to the online forums, saw that same Gillette, and some other razors I'd acquired somewhere over the years. I had a GEM Featherweight, and a Valet Autostrop, again, both from an unremembered source. Blades for the Valet would have to wait until I got further into the hobby. So I started with the first 2 razors. I can't remember how long ago that was, 4-5 years ago surely, but no more than 8 years. I'd been shaving for awhile before even contemplating starting Krampert's Finest and I started that in '11, and it was just a gleam in my eye for at least a year before it actually began.

But back on subject... For soap and brush at the beginning I bought a VDH kit from the pharmacy. The same pharmacy also supplied the GEM blades. It took a bit longer for the DE blades to arrive from what I remember, but I was in business with the GEM. Maybe that's why I still favor the stiffer blade razors to this day. That initial kit was all I used for quite some time while I nailed the craft down. My slippery slope with ADs began with a Gillette Slim and a huge blade sampler. The rest is just a blur as it went flashing by.

My dad taught me to shave around 1963, with a Fatboy, Gillette blade, and canned Gillette Foamy. (I don't remember him ever using a brush.) Within a couple years I had switched to a cartridge razor because I could shave a lot faster on school mornings, and I didn't return to a traditional double edge until many years later.

In 2010 fed up of the carts I'd been using I bought a Wilkinson Classic DE with blades, a cheap Chinese badger brush and a tub of tobs sandalwood. It all spiralled out of control from there.


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I started wet shaving with an êShave brush, cream, and pre shave oil in 2002, adding a bowl of AOS tallow soap in '03. But I continued to use cartridge razors (Schick) until 2010, when I picked up a Merkur 34C after a long discussion about "method shaving" with Charles Roberts at Enchanté in Austin.