Some old Photos for your enjoyment

[smokeywolf]

Bret, you might try Gillette Silver Blue or Feather blades for your double edge razor.

I too use a brush and shaving soap. I kind of switch around between using a straight razor, a double edge razor and an electric.

 

[Jeff H]

as a kid I always thought the blue stuff the combs were kept in was windshield washer fluid.... LoL
maybe it was in some places??

I've always sensed that you were older and wiser than I, so it brings me mush pleasure for ME to teach YOU something for once.

That blue liquid is HAIR FERTILIZER! It makes your hair GROW FASTER!

My barber, whom I've not seen in over a year (and is bald) swears it's not, but I'm convinced it makes your hair grow.

 

[Jeff H]

...............I hate shaving, but I detest having to pay $15 or $20 for 3-5 of the high tech razor blades..............

It's insane what they want for those things! I hate shaving too and just refuse to do it. There hasn't been a razor in my bathroom since the girls moved out on their own, but not everyone likes doing that. I get it and have no criticism for anyone who has that ambition and dedication.

The men in my family, on both sides, have ALWAYS shaved, EVERY morning, especially the Kentucky-side. Not shaving was a sign of laziness and being dirty. However, the "Virginie-side" were a hairy lot in the nineteenth century, having beards half way to their belly-buttons.

My favorite uncle (Kentucky-side) visited me several years ago and he said, in a smooth Kentucky accent, and with a kind, warm smile "you look like a mountain man!"

I was kind of flattered at first, and then it dawned on me that he didn't mean a western fur trapper mountain man. It was a soft, but sound rebuke for shaming the family.

He and I had both, as children, had suffered my grandma's (his mom's) method of ensuring a clean scalp on a kid - that of "scrubbin' yer haid" - with a stiff hairbrush in the tub, so the message on cleanliness was made clear in our family very early.

I love him to pieces, but I still don't shave. It's just so unnatural.

 

[Bret4207]

Bret, you might try Gillette Silver Blue or Feather blades for your double edge razor.

I too use a brush and shaving soap. I kind of switch around between using a straight razor, a double edge razor and an electric.

Tried Feather, they just don't hold up to my beard. I've never even seen the Gillettes you mentioned. I'll have to look.

 

[RicinYakima]

"The men in my family, on both sides, have ALWAYS shaved, EVERY morning, especially the Kentucky-side. Not shaving was a sign of laziness and being dirty."

I have pictures of a lot of my ancestors. The only one with a hairy face was my great great grandfather from KY who fought in the Mexican/American as a 16 year old and the 1st KY Cavalry (Union) in the Civil War. The only picture I have of him is about at age 70, a white haired old man with full beard down to his chest.

Cup/brush and double edged razor man myself after every shower. Buying blades from Duluth Trading Company made in Germany as I haven't seen a blade for sale here for many years.

 

[Bret4207]

Ebay Rich. Find out what brand those German blades are (I'm sure Duluth doesn't make them!) and chances are you can get them for far, far less than whatever Duluth wants. Last order I placed was 100 blades for $6 or $7 delivered.

I HAD to shave daily for work for over 25 years. I figure "retired" means I can shave if I want to, or not. It's got nothing to do with being lazy, but it does have a lot to do with chronic dry skin. OTOH, I can count the number if zits I've had on my face on one hand. Ya takes the good with the bad!

 

[Walks]

40 some years ago I worked downtown LA.
Rode the bus in, discovered a Barbershop that opened at 5:30 AM that did Hot Lather shaves for $45 a month or $5 each.
In 2yrs, never a nick. Touched up my mustache too.

 

[RBHarter]

I don't know the original source of the photo .
I was assigned Mr J C Owens to write a 5 page report on in school , probably for history . Among other things I had no clue who he was or what he had done that made him a significant individual . As misfortune would have it this Olympic athlete bailed me by passing away the same day or the day after the assignment was handed out .
Just a poor black kid that loved to run , that happened to be where he could be seen and made the 1939 US Olympic team .
So there's Jessie Owens on the gold step in downtown Berlin Germany for the summer games with a German on the silver step and a Japanese on the bronze .

In reflection he should have been terrified . No?

 

[RicinYakima]

Ebay Rich. Find out what brand those German blades are (I'm sure Duluth doesn't make them!) and chances are you can get them for far, far less than whatever Duluth wants. Last order I placed was 100 blades for $6 or $7 delivered.

Just checked the last bunch I bought, Rockwellrazors.com. These say Swedish steel. They have a good website. Mine are lasting about 12 shaves if right out of the shower. At Duluth, "$8.95 for 20/100 shaves"

 

[Ian]

Bret, I have had acne since I as 13-1/2. Both of my grandfathers had at least one pimple on their faces when they died in their 70s. I've used every method of lathering and shaving that there is. Finally, last November, being a sort of "cancer" survivor myself, I gave up the blade. Come December I didn't have a single pimple on my face and my perpetual neck rash had vanished.

Not being a fan of long beards (did that a few years ago, got about an inch, decided I looked ridiculous, and got rid of it) I got a new Wahl clipper set and keep it a #3 on the chin, #1 on the mustache, and #2 everywhere else. A couple months ago I gave up shaving my neck (VERY uncomfortable since half of it is totally numb from surgery) and now just go over it with the Wahl and no guard while touching up the ears and hair line. No more rash, no more ingrown whiskers, no more blackheads, no more pimples, and no more subscription to Harry's razors.

By the way, C. O. Bigelow makes the best shaving cream I've ever used. I got the stuff in a tube and used my old Colgate brush, but not the mug. Hit water on the brush, squeeze out a bit on the bristles, and lather it up directly on my face. I found the mug to be nothing but a breeding ground for mold and bacteria.

 

[RicinYakima]

Fairly common medical condition. Yazar Airfat and many other men have the same condition.

 

[Bret4207]

40 some years ago I worked downtown LA.
Rode the bus in, discovered a Barbershop that opened at 5:30 AM that did Hot Lather shaves for $45 a month or $5 each.
In 2yrs, never a nick. Touched up my mustache too.

Ah! Trimming the 'stache! I've worn one since I was 18ish, except for brief periods in the Corps and at the Academy. I've never been great at trimming it. I have decided that I should never trim it without at least 3 cups of strong coffee, with my glasses on and that stopping when you think it's almost there is better then trying for perfection and ending up looking like Hitlers upper lip hair. There was one lady barber in Okinawa that got it right every time, but that's kind of a long trip for a trim!

 

[462]

My 45-year-old son has never seen me beardless. I don't like shaving, but do so below the jawline.

 

[Walks]

I grew a beard and mustache as soon as I got out of the Service. At 21yrs old I still most of My hair. It left very fast.
Neither My Wife nor Daughter has ever seen me clean-shaven. Not in 47 yrs.

 

[Rick H]

After some 31 years of wearing my hair to conform with one uniformed service or another I swore when I retired I would grow a beard and grow my hair down to the crack of my......well, you know. Turns out that once my hair starts curling at the collar it drives me nuts...so I still keep it cut to regulation lengths (just barely). I do wear a neatly trimmed beard though.

 

[smokeywolf]

Tried pony tail length hair and a full beard when I was 19. Cut the hair short and shaved my beard before I turned 20. Had short hair ever since.
Mrs. smokeywolf cuts my hair now. Pretty simple; clippers and a #5 on top, a #1 around the ears and back/neck area and taper up.
Have worn a mustache most of my life. That was the only facial hair allowed when I was in law enforcement.

 

[JWFilips]

Beard and 18th C Tail here for many years ( the two do not go together however) Beards were near unknown in the 1700's But long hair was!
but the 1800 beards came into fashion but hair got shorter!
When I go out in public I put my tail in a 18th C queue ! Cant explain the non 18thC beard however

 

[Walks]

Well things have changed. I got clipped so close yesterday, that My Girls actually know what I look like. With White Beard and fair skin, WOW.

 

[JWFilips]

Well While not very old ( Early 2000's)
Here is a photo I found of Me Firing "Ginger" my swivel gunne!
It was a Halloween Ghost walk at Old Mill Village museum where I was the 18th Century Gunsmith.
It was a great time from my past! Used to scare the public walking the path near the haunted Gardens across the creek where my Gun shop was!

 

[BudHyett]

I missed shaving three times in my life since sixteen and needing to shave daily:

1. Twenty years old, working construction with much overtime and too tired. Didn't shave one morning, caught in a fire with second and third degree burns, hospitalized for a month, laying there I thought I should settle down. As a result, married, lasted six years, with another eighteen years of harassment.
2. Thirty-eight years old, severe concussion where I had to learn how to walk again, decided to settle down again, married, came home ten months later and found my second wife never divorced here first husband. Annulment. (Did you ever come home from work at 4:45 on a Thursday afternoon and find you had a husband-in-law?)
3. Forty-four years old, met a woman in the apartment complex, too much time with her and also working too much overtime, Went to the range on morning one Sunday with friends and they took me to the hospital. Ended up in the hospital with pneumonia. That time I only got engaged.

Believe me, I shave every day now. Life is much less complicated.