I occasionally succumb to a desire to embrace what my daughter calls “retro”. It comes easy being a codger, but it is also a state of mind.
Mine is shaving. I was the beginning of the multiblade marketing tsunami, where entire generations were lectured that two blades was far superior to one, complete with animated pictures on television of the second blade neatly slicing the follicle off after it eluded the ever incompetent first blade.
As two blades went to three and Teflon doo-dads were added, (I think they tried lemon scented for a short while) the process of forced and dictated obsolescence was in full swing.
At five blades and costs approaching fifty dollars at Costco for a package of replacement blades, I decided to get off the merry go round.
Rather than go all the way back to my grandfather’s straight razor, which is still in my dresser drawer, having been used for a number of things except shaving under my ownership, I dialed it back to my father’s generation, the safety razor.

I acquired a fine German made razor and a fine English made one, both with heritages of their brands going back a ways. I found a Japanese blade brand which is excellent. I acquired some Italian shaving soap, the requisite badger hair shaving brush and drying stand and commenced my new ritual. (Amazon is a modern wonder)
What I found was I enjoyed shaving, actually looking forward to it. The equipment was best of breed, like a Waring blender or a DC-3 and did it’s job quietly and competently.
My cost dropped to 10 cents a week, essentially blade and soap cost , assuming I depreciate the gear over twenty years.
My forty year old son adopted it, mostly to stop paying a fortune to Gillette.
So that is my retro quirk. I used to change my own oil and do my own tune ups, but they have either priced or automated that retro hobby out. My last carbureted car was in 1985
I assume somewhere we all have some little part of us that sticks with a ‘classic’ or old fashioned part of our daily life. I expect it serves to anchor us , to connect us to the saga, to link to people who came before.




“My cost dropped to 10 cents a week, essentially blade and soap cost , assuming I depreciate the gear over twenty years.”
Is anything worth parting with 10 Cents?
View it as an investment. Some dimes must sacrifice to save many more dimes. A noble endeavor.
As Dickens said. “It was the Best of Dimes, It was the Worst of Dimes”.
Why does the little guy always have to suffer for the vanity of the rich? It was a close shave for you but I ain’t coming back. The Dickens you say!!!
Paging through a breviary for my daily prayers – ditto for the Scriptures – and letting a set of beads move through my fingers. (Though I have apps for all three.) :-)
***
A rosary app? I could have used that when I was an altar boy. Also the latin responses during the Mass.
We used to teach the new kids latin phonetically (Jesuit thing, they assumed immigrant Irish and Polish kids were too dumb to learn the Mass, so it was rote memorization of sounds.)
One Mass I heard two kids giving responses that sounded off. Being the senior , I had to ask them after Mass what the heck they were saying instead of “Liberamus Domine”. They sheepishly answered that they forgot , but decided “Liver On A Stormy Day” was close enough. I have since heard that claimed elsewhere, but the Priest had a laughing fit for a full half an hour after I told him.
*** & (-: For the Latin responses for Mass and the daily offices, check out “Universalis” in the app store…For the Rosary and other goodies, “Chaplets” in the app store…
What about a Schick Injector? It is time to go high tech.
New fangled claptrap. Try and slice garlic with it. With a real blade, all you need is a matchbook cover and you have a household tool for slicing your herbs and opium.
But can you sharpen the scourge of mankind, a Pencil?
Pencil? A sharpened bird feather was good enough for your forebears. Harumph.
I am a chiseler.
Agree. And watch what you’re saying about our Pencil-pal…She’s already so sharp she’ll separate warp from weft, O Sock-Hosen.
I like Pencil. I hear she is working at a stake house.
Now I know why your kids call you Poppy, TKC.
My kids never call me. All they do is text.
Do they ever use the L word as in TLC?
L word? The Lord Christ? The Lousy Curmudgeon? The Loose Cannon? Tomato, Lettuce and Canadian Bacon?
Thou art speakest in codes and ciphers, my dear Centime. Speak plainly in the house of the BDB or have your wisdom fall on dense ears.
*
Retro. In today’s day of striker-fired weaponry I still carry a hammer-fired on. Sometimes even a JMB-designed 1911 – over 100 years old and still going strong.
I have been using the straight razor exclusively for about 2 years. I enjoy it much more and doubt I would know how to use one of those 5 bladed disposable contraptions.
I even dug out my wet stones from my woodworking days and hone my razors.
Speaking of which they (two) could use a few laps on the North 8000.
Try Prorasso Shaving Soap- great stuff, one jar last for months.
thank you
I use a three blade Gillette. It just seems silly to go to five blades. Silly but that is how people buy things. They fall for “new and improved” every time.
The Mach 3 was introduced in 1998:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gillette_Mach3
That means all its patents are either expired or about to expire.
Bring on the clones!
Gillette spent a ton on Mach 3 patents. If memory serves, there were significant patents on the wear-resistant blade coatings, on the angles of the blades and on the way the blades are held. There probably were less significant (but critical for clones) patents on the handle and head-to-handle mounting.
I have used every main Gillette product since Trac II/ Good News: Atra/Good News Pivot; Sensor; Mach 3; Fusion.
Each until Fusion was a noticeable advance, with Atra and Mach 3 being the biggest. Fusion seemed to be little improvement over Mach 3. In fact, there were conspiracy theories that with the Fusion introduction Gillette cut back on the quality of metal or wear coating of Mach 3 blades to make Fusion seem better.
I remember the ancient SNL fake ad for the Triple Trac. The first blade cuts it off, the second blade cuts it while it’s still extended, and then the third blade comes along and pulls it out!
Then there is the Onion’s infamous Gilette parody:
http://www.theonion.com/blogpost/fuck-everything-were-doing-five-blades-11056
And MADtv
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjAZnGeBcgg
The fourth blade removes the hair bearing epidermis.
Is shaving something that has been foisted upon us by the Matriarchy? I am asking for “a friend”.
I blame the magic and comedy duo of Penn & Teller. Note the last name of the big one.
I still don’t get how Teller makes the money come out of the boxes at banks. Is there a little man inside? What’s the trick?
I’m all about the retro tech. A classic metal safety razor is on my to-try list. I’m interested in the dieselpunk movement (think steampunk, but set in the 30’s-40’s, retrofitting the best of modern tech into the art and machines of the between wars era). A little fantasy of mine is making myself an art deco-ish home office and getting one of the old Western Electric black bakelite deskphones. From what I’ve read, they”re still usable if you cut and splice the old wire into common phone wire (several online how-to guides on doing it are available). I’m also fond of the custom art deco computer cases and desks that have hidden mounts for the guts of your PC, but in a container that Howard Hughes would appreciate. Like so: http://technabob.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/Aerodyne_Art_Deco_Mini_PC_02.jpg
For the razor I recommend a Merkur long handle from Germany or and Edwin Jaeger from England, also long handle.
For Blades, try the Japanese Feather brand- like samurai swords five to a package.
Prorasso shave soap and a real badger hair brush.
All availale on Amazon. I use the Merkur daily and the Edwin Jaeger for travel.
TKC, I take it that you have used both so what is the difference between the old style blades and the new style blades. Is it easier to cut oneself with the old way?
Yes, you learn the light and firm touch needed quite easily, but the first week you may need a styptic pencil once or twice.
These are adult tools, not shaving by Fisher Price.
After-shave, or no?
The retro way was talc.