My Very First Blog Posting!

If you are reading this, I welcome you and invite you to become a charter member and active participant in my blog.  This blog will be much less a sales/marketing tool and more a forum for opinions and exchanging information about the wonderful world of wet-shaving.  The Vintage Shaving Shoppe, LLC., of which I am the sole owner, is a leading seller of antique and vintage straight razors and Barberania (yes, it is a word!) which refers to the collecting of anything having to do with the history of shaving and the profession of barbers.  In addition to our website (which currently is our eBay store), we have a Facebook page on which I post new discoveries and other errata.  There may be some overlap between my blog and Facebook page - although I will try to keep all of my most interesting information on here.

One day last December, I got it into my head that I needed a way to slow myself down.  I am, by nature, a very busy person and left to my own devices, I would be active 24 hours a day.  So I gave it a bit of thought and VOILA - what better way to slow myself down than to put a deadly instrument to my throat on a daily basis!  I soon was researching straight razors and bought my very first - a Dovo "Best" off of Amazon - along with a puck of rather expensive shave soap (silly in retrospect) and a Pure Badger brush.

I washed my face and even went to the trouble of moistening towels and placing them in the microwave (not recommended) to give myself the full “barber shop” treatment.  I had heard that beard preparation is important and I did my very best to make sure that the hairs on my face would easily give way to the scythe-like blade. 

It was a bloodbath.

But if Clint Eastwood and Charles Bronson could dry shave with a piece of broken glass using the bottom of a tin pan for a mirror, I certainly was not going to give up on my first try armed with far superior equipment.

That first shave, as well as the shaves that followed it for a few weeks thereafter, provided me with lessons that will be of great value to you as you start on this great adventure.  They have also taught me some very important Do’s and Don’ts that I will pass on to you in future blog postings.

And yes, it did teach me to slow down.