So last week I entered the world of wet shaving, I did this using a shavette and have enjoyed it greatly, waking up most morning early to have a shave when normally I would only shave twice a week. So as you can tell I’m enjoying it alot! The only real down fall with a straight edge is the amount of time I seem to have to put into a shave and how many cuts I seem to leave the bathroom with. So I decided to start looking around for a double edged razor for general use during the week when I’m likely to have less time. This immediately led me to eBay where I considered buying Merkur, and then considered buying a wilkinson classic.

But on a recent trip into town I looked in my local boots chemist for some blades for my shavette, and also for the wilkinson classic which some supposedly stock. Unfortunately my boots didn’t appear to stock the wilkinson classic, but they do stock their own brand DE razor at under £4 including 5 blades. This got 2 birds with one stone so had me right there and then. I also managed to pick up some shaving soap sticks in town, one boots own brand and the other the palmolive shave stick. So I immediately rode home to give this thing a whirl, and boy was I impressed.

I started with a warm flannel across my face and got my face nice and hot and applied the boots own soap. My GOD! This thing is on another level to all the gillette crap creams I have used, the amount of lather was unbelievable. So I was all ready to shave and blade in hand I went for a few small strokes and couldn’t even seem to feel the blade moving across my face, but on a close inspection it definitely was and very well, and all this with-out much thought into what I was doing, and in much greater comfort. I had enough time to do a triple pass shave once with the grain, once across the grain and finally once against the grain. I felt the DE gave me much more confidence to shave both across the grain and against the grain, it also seemed to offer a similar result. I did manage one nick on my chin I suspect from possibly shaving over a cut already there but it was no biggie. This was all with the original blades as well, so when I manage to find a source of some other blades I’m 100% certain the shave will be even better!

Now I’m not saying DE shaving is a piece of cake because it really isn’t it still takes thought and prep but it seems much safer and less time consuming over all than shaving with my shavette. Of course these are just my experiences with a few cheap blades so I’m sure spending more will change some of my thoughts but for less than £4 I honestly don’t think you can get a better shave.

So will I be ditching my shavette? During the week when I’m a little more rushed for time definitely, but when I have more time to focus and enjoy a shave I will definitely continue to use my shavette until I can justify a full straight edged razor.

Finally a big shout out to the guys over on /r/wicked_edge, they have been a massive wealth of information and have inspired me and taught me so much in these past 2 weeks.