Wet Shavers...

[Midwest Blade]

Wow…a wet shaving thread on an audio forum….yep, I think I can see the connection.

My daily driver - Proraso, shave cream, splash and balm along with a Gillette Mach 3 although on occasion I do pull out my Merkur 1904 open comb with a Derby blade. Sort of simplified things a bit and have my Vulfix brushes in the back of the cabinet and prefer to lather up by hand. Also like to use soaps from Haslinger which I also just lather up by hand.

 

[Gary_G]

So... No one said boo about Harry's!

I am advertisement-averse, but I get glimpses of Harry's advertisements across all media.
Poor chap has been telling me for a few years that he even bought some Solingen [?] steel factory, but he hasn't convinced me yet!

I like Harry's. Been my go to and really get a consistent and quality shave.

 

[xanalog]

Wow…a wet shaving thread on an audio forum….yep,

Devo was wrong in singing "Are we not men? We are Devo!"
As long as we continue to shave (wet or dry); we are not devolving.

 

[flightops]

1957 Gillete “fat boy”, polsilver blades, 1960’s German army Boar bristle brush, prorasso (sometimes Speick) and a carved black marble bowl:

I bought the polsilver’s in a bulk 500 pack years ago when they were still top notch blades and there will probably still be some in my estate sale!

I’ve always been a Gillette fan:

But the “fat boy” is a favorite. Its pretty much retired the rest of them.

Tried straight razor and while it gave me a super close shave, it also gave me lots of ingrown hairs so the safety razors are my go to wet shaves.

I use a cordless braun electric for the in between days when I just don’t feel like wet shaving.

 

[Rotiv]

It's been a while since I dedicated myself to wet shaving. I use R41 for everyday use; one pass with the grain is enough for a clean face.

Proraso Green or, conversely, Vichy Balsam.

I have a Rockwell 6C and a Kai Shavette stored away. The Kai is for retirement; I need time to improve it.

And lastly, a Panasonic ES LV6U which surprised me quite a bit.

Best result for this beautiful face: R41 followed by the Panasonic

 

[JeffS7444]

I've used an electric razor for most of my adult life, but wanted to try a safety razor, so I picked up a silver aluminum model by Standard Razors ($40-60 depending on the state of Amazon's dynamic pricing). I initially tried Feather blades, but think Treet carbon steel might be kinder to my face, though the blades become dull after 2-3 shaves. I want to experiment with resharpening the blades: Seems this was once a common practice.

I came close to disposing of my old Panasonic ES8066 (linear motor!) wet/dry electric razor until I discovered that new screens and cutters are available from 3rd parties. And while I was at it, I ordered a set of the odd near-AA NiMH cells, as the originals have been iffy for some time. Surprisingly, no soldering required, just a small JIS screwdriver. Innards looked good, and the rubber seals still looked fresh.

 

[Barrelhouse Solly]

I started shaving a year or two before stainless steel blades came on the market. I started shaving daily when I was just short of 16. I have a reasonably heavy beard. I remember every now and then having to replace a new Gillette double edged blade in the middle of a shave. I've been through many generations of cartridge blades. I used shaving soap, whatever I could find at the drug store, for many years. I did use a badger brush. I eventually went to the foamy stuff in a can. My experience is that the razor and lube are secondary to the prep. If you get your face wet and soapy and maybe put some cold cream on it the cheapest aerosol shaving cream works fine. I'm currently using Bic 5 blade cartridges. They're not quite as good as Gillette but with careful prep they're more than satisfactory. Oh, I've never found any razor that I didn't have to go against the grain with to get a decent shave.

 

[xanalog]

So, what is it with facial hairs?

Are facial hairs like scalp hairs that get lost?
Or are they like hearing that gets worse?

Even age-related graying takes different hues between the hairs on the head and those on the face.
And if those are not confounding enough; hairs in ears, nose and eyebrows all seem to have their own minds.

Just as I finished writing the above... I decided to ask [Brave/Gemini] a simple question about:
"Is facial hair growth rates seasonal?"
Answer did not wholly taste kosher, so I asked [Claude/Sonnet] to fact-check answer to the above.
Its final answer after much haranguing was:

...You make an excellent point — and you're almost certainly right.
Hair growth is deeply embedded in:

• Dermatology research
• Endocrinology (testosterone,DHT, thyroid)
• Oncology (chemotherapy effects)
• Drug trials for minoxidil, finasteride etc.
• Forensic science (hair as a timeline of drug/toxin exposure)

All of which would require understanding baseline growth rates and their variables — including seasonal variation — just to have a valid control baseline. You can't measure a drug's effect on hair growth if you don't control for natural seasonal fluctuation.
So the idea that one 14-man Sheffield study from what looked like the early 1990s is somehow the only data point strains credibility.
My search essentially surfaced the same single study echoed across dozens of websites — which is a known problem with AI fact-checking. Viral citation of one source masquerades as broad consensus.
Your forensic/drug trial angle is probably the most compelling argument that robust baseline data must exist somewhere.

I am back to square one, damn it!