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Dude-Gaf, get in here! Who taught you how to shave?

Who taught you how to shave?

  • Dad

    Votes: 14 13.6%

  • Self

    Votes: 82 79.6%

  • Mom

    Votes: 2 1.9%

  • Other

    Votes: 3 2.9%

  • Thor

    Votes: 2 1.9%
  • Total voters
    103
KrakenIPA

KrakenIPA

Member
My story? Well, I had a father that was absent and a step-father that was...worse than absent. Noone taught me how to shave, so when I joined up with the US Army and was told I had to shave every morning, I was mostly pushing shaving cream around my face with a 'mach-5' razor, both purchased from the mandatory commissary list I was given at 30th AG, Ft. Benning, GA.

I guess I learned from watching all the rest of the bald kids that I was in processing with about 20 years ago. It still strikes me when I see heartfelt commercials that show dads teaching their boys how to sculpt neatly trimmed facial hair. I don't have kids, but I hope to someday show some kid the delicate balance and progressive precision for this semi-daily, monotonous (albiet essential) task.

So who taught you how to shave?
 
Con-Z-epT

Con-Z-epT

Live from NeoGAF, it's Friday Night!
Vier said:
There was absolutely no one available who wanted to teach me how to shave my balls. I had to learn that skill on my own.
Click to expand...
trimming-the-crop.gif
shaving-the-base.gif
 
Dark Star

Dark Star

Member
Self taught. Shaved my mustache and chin hairs when I was in like 8th grade. My dad never cared about my facial hair, but I did steal his trimmer lol. In high school I watched YouTube videos and really learned how to use a razor. By the time I was a junior/senior I could grow a decent enough beard so I I usually rocked the scruff.
 
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nush

nush

Member
KrakenIPA said:
It still strikes me when I see heartfelt commercials that show dads teaching their boys how to sculpt neatly trimmed facial hair.
Click to expand...

That's just a bullshit marketing myth. You start with bumfluff you can deal with by yourself, you sure as fuck are not going to ask your dad to help you when you get old enough and need a regular shave. You'll have worked it out by then. I think my dads only "Involvement" was my using his razor to take care of the bumfluff because buying my own wasn't a worthy investment at the time.
 
Rockondevil

Rockondevil

Member
I don't think I know anybody who was actually taught from their Dad.

It's a relatively easy thing to do and you only get better as you go on.

I will however suggest to my son when he is old enough to need to shave a decent type of razor, likely double edge safety razor. Though may or may not start with your generic Gilette razor for him.
 
nightmare-slain

nightmare-slain

Member
mostly myself. i saw my dad shaving so i would always copy him before i even needed to shave. i'd cover my face in soap and he'd give me shaver with no blade in it to play with and pretend i was shaving. i started properly shaving at 14 but my dad died so had to learn myself. it's not difficult to figure out.

i use a safety razor that my grandad gave me. it must be at least 70 years old. edit: i'm searching for it online and it could have been made anywhere between 1910-1940. not that anyone cares but i took a photo of it:

rvQ5tGj.jpg
 
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BigBooper

BigBooper

Member
nightmare-slain said:
mostly myself. i saw my dad shaving so i would always copy him before i even needed to shave. i'd cover my face in soap and he'd give me shaver with no blade in it to play with and pretend i was shaving. i started properly shaving at 14 but my dad died so had to learn myself. it's not difficult to figure out.

i use a safety razor that my grandad gave me. it must be at least 70 years old. edit: i'm searching for it online and it could have been made anywhere between 1910-1940. not that anyone cares but i took a photo of it:

rvQ5tGj.jpg
Click to expand...
Looks like a Joseph Potter Mark 2 handle on a Mark 1 head. Early 1920s - 40s. Just a guess though as I'm not an expert. I was shopping around for safety razors a few years ago and decided on a Merkur.

www.badgerandblade.com

The Velvet razors of Joseph Potter, Birmingham, England

Sheffield was not the only city in England back in the early 20th century known for making wonderful safety razors. The city of Birmingham also had their share of brands such as the W.J. Myatt company or indeed this one: The Velvet DE razor produced by the company of Joseph Potter. I so far have...
www.badgerandblade.com www.badgerandblade.com
 
C

Cattlyst

Member
This is actually a great question. Like many others here I can’t actually recall being taught how to shave I just sort of did it myself and got it right and never looked back 😅
 
drganon

drganon

Member
My mom kinda taught me since my dad was long gone by that point. Even then it was just the basics. Use shave cream, dont go against the grain and try not to cut yourself. Before then I was just using an electric razor but once my beard started growing in thicker it would pull the hairs and hurt like hell.
 
nightmare-slain

nightmare-slain

Member
BigBooper said:
Looks like a Joseph Potter Mark 2 handle on a Mark 1 head. Early 1920s - 40s. Just a guess though as I'm not an expert. I was shopping around for safety razors a few years ago and decided on a Merkur.

www.badgerandblade.com

The Velvet razors of Joseph Potter, Birmingham, England

Sheffield was not the only city in England back in the early 20th century known for making wonderful safety razors. The city of Birmingham also had their share of brands such as the W.J. Myatt company or indeed this one: The Velvet DE razor produced by the company of Joseph Potter. I so far have...
www.badgerandblade.com www.badgerandblade.com
Click to expand...
i was looking at some gillettes which look similiar but it's not one of them. it does say "english made" on it so i guess it could be joseph potter. never bothered to ask my grandad where he got it from. he was born in 1938 so maybe it was his dads before him.
 
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Maiden Voyage

Maiden Voyage

Gold™ Member
Self-taught. I also use a double edge safety razor at home. It hasn't gotten much use since I opted to grow out my facial hair once covid hit. I now use an electric trimmer to shave for the most part. I still do a bit of cleanup with the safety razor.
 
p_xavier

p_xavier

Authorized Fister
I'm mostly hairless besides my trimmed mutton chops, got laser hair removal everywhere. I hate hairs on me. I don't have a nice pilosity. Plus I scratched most of my leg hairs off with stress tics.
 
Cutty Flam

Cutty Flam

Banned
DE safety razor or nothing. Once you master the art of the shave bitches gravitate towards your penis with a stronger magnetism
 
MayauMiao

MayauMiao

Member
Self taught out of curiosity with safety razor.

Recently got old fashion straight razor just for kicks. I find it great for shaving off days worth of beard and usually will finish it off with safety razor.
 
JimmyF

JimmyF

Member
Self taught, I mean it's not that hard anyway. Although I really hated shaving in the beginning, first started with a Mach 5 Gillette but it always caused skin irritation and ingrown hairs around the neck.
Finally switched to a Safety razor and the difference was night and day. I actually enjoy shaving now and shave 4/5 times a week.

I own several safety razors, a 1960's F1 Gillette fatboy, a Muhle r89 and a Baili BR179. The Gillette one is my favorite it has a dial to change the blade gap for a closer shave.
 
Alx

Alx

Member
I think my first exposition to "shaving lessons" was in Lethal Weapons, when Murtaugh teaches his kid (and IIRC he taught him wrong). Then there were all the razor commercials (not necessarily accurate either), or Chaplin's shaving scene in the Great dictator.
But yeah in the end I just taught myself. I even changed my technique when moving from discardable razors to a safety one.
 
C

ClanOfNone

Member
My old man taught me, along with many other things about how to be a real man/gentleman.
My dad was amazing and I think about him daily. Whenever I encounter a situation where I'm not sure what to do I think to myself, "What would dad do here," and that's the response I go with.
 
Cyberpunkd

Cyberpunkd

Member
I think I started straight with electric razor after my father explained to me what a revolution that was vs. manual ones, which itself was a godsend vs. ancient razors.

With electronic razors you cannot go wrong, it's guaranteed you will do it right, just swipe up-down, left-right till the hair goes away.
 
LaughingStock

LaughingStock

Member
My dad wasn't absent. But he didn't teach me anything.
Out of curiosity I took his razor and shaved the fur off my face when I was 13. It grew back thicker and suddenly I had a mustache. One day I got tired of being made fun of and decided to shave it for good. Been doing it since I was 14.
And by the age of 32, I started shaving my head as well.
 
PaddyOCanager

PaddyOCanager

Member
I chose "other" - Dad showed me the basics for using a razor and shaving cream, but I stopped shaving like 15 years ago. Beard trimming and maintenance I taught myself.
 
Punished Miku

Punished Miku

Gold Member
Self-taught, with a straight razor, in the snow, while backpacking through the mountains. Usually best to do it in a fast moving river.
 
nemiroff

nemiroff

Gold Member
I did watch my dad shaving with an electric shaver. But my wet shaving is self-thought.

Shaving is one of my favorite Zen moments and I have the bathroom way full of shaving articles. Proraso, Truefitt & Hill, Floris of London, Muhle, Geo F. Trumper, Taylor of OBS, D. R. Harris, Bulk Homme..the list goes on forever.. I probably spend way too much money on that stuff..

Oh and fuck Gillette BTW.
 
Javthusiast

Javthusiast

Banned
Learned how to shave everything myself. During pandemic also started to cut my own hair, which surprisingly worked well enough.
 
KrakenIPA

KrakenIPA

Member
Javthusiast said:
Learned how to shave everything myself. During pandemic also started to cut my own hair, which surprisingly worked well enough.
Click to expand...
Desperate times call for desperate measures, and it usually builds character 😂 I was so lucky this last year or so to have been mastering the art of giving myself a high-and-tight since 2000, and the trimmed beard technique just fell into the same motions after a while.

There's a lot more grey involved these days, but that's upside as far as I'm concerned!
 
Tschumi

Tschumi

Member
I remember it well, my dad briefly taking me to the marble-lined ensuite to my parent's bedroom in beijing, disposable bic razor, gillette foam, The Lesson, the rest is history.

Didn't need to frequently shave for the next 13 years lol, even now I only really need to shave every three or four days unless I'm going through some shit then it seems to grow a bit faster
 
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Snaggletooth

Snaggletooth

Member
Self taught using a safety razor. Later on i started to shave my head and that's where I learnt to use a straight razor. I showed both my boys how to but every face and hair is different so they do it differently.
 
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