Surprisingly, this little lifestyle change was quite easily achievable in Belgium. I dearly wanted to adopt the almost forgotten, largely lost, art of using a straight razor. Unfortunately a regular quality straight razor and the items required for normal maintenance were not to be found in South Africa. Another rare, neigh, impossible to find resource was a person to instruct and tutor me on the use and upkeep of the razor.
The essential items required are a good quality straight razor, a good strop for sharpening, a tensioned honing strop, ointments and pastes to maintain the strops, shaving cream to get a good lather on for shaving. I picked up all these things at a place called De Messenwinkel. The literal translation is The Knife Shop and it’s certainly worth a visit if you’re in Antwerp, Belgium. They even offer courses!
Something German or Swedish made for the straight razor is ideal. The quality of materials used in razors from China or the Middle East are not treated correctly and can lead to difficulty in sharpening the razor and horrible results when trying to shave.
A good strop with a cotton and leather side is ideal. Again, a good quality should be sought. The blade of a straight razor is a delicate and beautiful thing. If you treat it with a low quality strop, you’re going to get low quality results. You may even end up damaging your straight razor!
A honing strop can be useful for six-monthly blade honing can be useful but not absolutely obligatory.
Then there are two tiny tubes of ointment, one yellow for the treating of the leather of the strop so that it stays free of moisture and one red for the honing strop. When I say that I use a pinhead of the ointment every few months I’m being very generous. Absolutely tiny amounts of the ointment are used at a time and it is only applied every few months.
The methodology of shaving is a complete subject on it’s own and there are some great YouTube tutorial videos on the subject such as Best How to Shave Tutorial for Beginners by Lynn Abrams and Dovo Wet Shaving Tutorial by Geofatboy.
There are copious manly pampering and proper stuff out there from preparation treatments to post shaving treatments. I use the absolute basics of shaving cream and brush for generating a lather.
The initial price was steep but over the long term it’s incredibly affordable and in some instances, beyond value. I no longer use the commercially available multi-bladed rip-offs for a couple of reasons.
Price
The multi-bladed disposable head razors are expensive in themselves and even though you purchase a cartridge with multiple heads supplied, once they’re blunt they’re worthless.
When the straight razor gets a little dull, you can sharpen it yourself in under 10 minutes and at a maximum cost of a few euro cents for each sharpening at most.
Nooks and Difficult Spots
You’d think that with such a broad blade it’d be difficult to get to those difficult nooks on a face.
Not so.
For years I haven’t been able to really get a smooth shaved spot under my nose. The commercial blades have simply been too bulky to get into that nook. I even tried a commercial blade that had a single razor built onto the edge of the multiple razor. It was advertised that the single razor could get into those tight little areas. Unfortunately it couldn’t. With the straight razor? No problem! Those little “difficult spots” haven’t been a problem!
Clogging
Well, it’s a straight razor. It doesn’t clog no matter how much hair you have on your face. The multi blade commercial razors would clog up almost every time. More than one day’s growth and the blades would clog up like custard in a coffee filter. I’m certain this is deliberate in order to force daily use, hence quicker dulling of the blades and forced re-purchase.
My Razor and the Art
I have a Dovo Astrale straight razor which I will hand down to a worthy young one eventually. These razors, if looked after, will last generations. They are delicate, sensitive creatures made for one purpose – the manly morning grooming act of shaving. The movies have portrayed them as cool weapons to be whipped out from a boot or used to slit throats. Yes, they’d do this very well a couple of times but it’s not their purpose. You’d destroy a very delicate creature by not using it as intended.
It’s also a contradiction. A straight razor’s worst enemy is water but it cannot give a beautiful, clean and comfortable shave without plenty of water. Always be sure to dry your straight razor very well after use. The tiniest residue of moisture will rust the blade. I don’t even keep my straight razor with my other toiletries! It lives in my bedroom away from the steam and humidity of the bathroom.
It goes without saying (I hope) that a straight razor is dangerous and should be kept well out of reach of children! The slightest sideways slide can cause serious lacerations. Painless mostly but potentially deep and serious!
After my little Movember face squirrel moment, the removal of the face squirrel was a single-pass affair with the straight razor. No clogging, no multiple passes and no crazy razor burn.
I think I’ll use the Spanish face squirrel next year.
If you think this is something for you, I’d say go for it! I think it’s one of the best personal grooming things I’ve done in terms of cost, comfort and coolness.
Ciao for now.