Making the Jump from DE Razors to Straights
I shaved with double edge safety razors (and also a few single edge safety razors such as the Schick Injector) for nearly 20 years before I worked up the courage to try the cutthroat. I’m sorry I waited so long. Giving yourself a close, comfortable shave with a modern or antique straight razor will give you a sense of accomplishment that you can get in few other ways. Shaving with a straight razor is as close to mindful exercise as personal grooming gets.
If you currently shave with modern cartridge razors, I recommend you first get at least a few months’ experience shaving with a DE razor before you make the transition. This will teach you how to use the mug and brush, how to lather a shaving soap or cream, and—most important—how to set the blade on your face at the proper angle. The plethora of internet banter about straight razor shaving makes it sound overly complicated—particularly the accessories. However, if you already wet shave with a DE or SE safety razor now, you probably have most of the gear you need to get started.
If you wet shave now, you likely already have a mug, a brush, and shaving soap or cream. In truth, the only thing you need to add is a straight razor and a strop.
If you choose to buy a new straight razor, look to spend about $150 for a quality blade. At this writing, there are a lot of new budget straight razors available on Amazon and Etsy that just aren’t worth your attention. I suggest you buy from a name company that’s been making razors for a while. I own two straights that I bought brand new when just starting out: a Dovo “Barbarossa” and a Le Grelot “Medaille d'or Paris 1931” by Thiers Issard. I highly recommend either. Between them, these companies have over 200 years of experience making cutlery.
My Barbarossa has a Spanish point. Dovo also offers this razor with a round point (also called a Dutch point). Whatever razor you choose, I recommend starting with a round point, as in the hands of a beginner the Spanish point tends to bite. With some experience, the Spanish point will allow you to do precision work.
An option to buying a brand new razor is to buy a good vintage razor. I’ve gotten some excellent restored razors off eBay and Etsy in the $70 range. You really can’t go wrong with a razor made in Sheffield, England, or Solingen, Germany. Just make sure the razor is listed as “shave ready”—that is, the seller has put in the work to restore the blade to its former glory and functioning.
For your first straight razor there’s no need to consider buying a hone (razor honing is a subject unto itself). Many sellers of straight razors offer honing services (some, like Matt at Griffith Shaving Goods, offer this service for free when you buy a new razor). Alternatively, you can send your razor to a professional honer. I paid around $30 for this service (from Howard at The Perfect Edge) when I bought my first straight razor. This might sound pricey, but a professionally honed razor might give you 60 or more comfortable shaves before it needs to go back to the stone. By then you will have decided if shaving with a straight razor is for you, and you can decide then if you wish to invest in honing stones.
To maintain your razor’s edge between shaves you will need a strop. Typically made of leather, a hanging strop is a belt-like strap about 3 inches wide or less that fastens to a fixed point—a barber’s chair in days of old. You grab the strop at the other end and pull it taught. Then you run the blade over the leather toward the fixed point, leading with the razor’s spine. When you get near the end of the strop you flip the blade over and draw it toward you—again leading with the spine. To simplify, stropping realigns the razor’s delicate edge between shaves and keeps it sharp.
Some strops are double-sided, the leather backed with woven cotton or hemp. This fiber can be used for stropping as well.
A paddle strop uses a flat wooden plank, usually with a handle at one end, and the leather is mounted to the surface of the paddle.
My personal strop is a leather-only hanging strop that I bought for less than $40 and has served me well for two years. Before each shave I strop the razor 50 laps on each side of the blade.
The only other piece of gear I might suggest is a small magnifying mirror (a small makeup mirror works well). I use this for a final inspection to spot any missed whiskers or stubble, particularly around the lips or chin, which are the most difficult areas to shave.
To be sure, there’s a learning curve to using a straight razor, but it’s nothing to fear. As a beginner, and even an experienced shaver, you’ll occasionally draw a drop or two of blood—but you’ll do that with a DE or any other blade. Today, I nick myself with the straight only occasionally, and actual cuts have all but disappeared completely. More often than not I get a close, comfortable shave that’s free of nicks or irritation. To quote Moneypenny from the James Bond movie Skyfall, “Sometimes the old ways are the best.”
A Word About “Shavettes"
As a boy of five I remember my father getting shaved with a genuine straight razor by old Mr. Cobb, who owned the barber shop close to my house in the small New England town where I grew up. I can still see the pile of fishing and hunting magazines on the table next to one of the waiting chairs. I can hear the swish of steel on the old hanging strop and smell the hot lather and bay rum aftershave. That was in the late 1960s. Since then, laws have been enacted to prevent the spread of bloodborne pathogens. Each customer must get a fresh blade. Razors with disposable blades became standard. These disposable-blade straight razors have come to be known collectively as “shavettes,” though Shavette is a trademarked product created by Dovo in 1986.
The most common type of shavette on the market today takes half of a double edge blade (with the blade still in its paper wrapper, you snap the blade in half lengthwise. If you order a straight razor shave at your local barbershop today, this is the type of razor the barber likely will use. Even if the barber is highly skilled, a shave with a DE blade does not approximate a shave with a genuine cutthroat.
Still unsure about committing to a traditional straight razor, I purchased a Dovo Shavette. The Dovo Shavette comes with three plastic inserts that hold three different blades: half of a DE blade; half of a Tondeo-style blade (similar to a DE blade, but about twice the length); and a Personna hair-shaper blade (longer and thicker than a DE blade). Depending on what blade you use, you slide the plastic insert into the hollow spine of the Shavette.
I’m not saying that the Dovo Shavette doesn’t shave well—it does—but it’s just not the same as shaving with a traditional straight razor. First, the Shavette is much lighter than a traditional straight razor: You don’t have the weight of the blade helping the cutting edge to glide down your face. Also, any shavette is much less forgiving than a traditional straight. At the beginning, I cut myself much more with a shavette than I did with a traditional straight.
If you insist on starting with a shavette—or if you decide to add a shavette to your straight-razor arsenal—I suggest you purchase a Weck Sextoblade. This disposable-blade straight razor is the grandfather of all modern shavettes. Patented in 1909 by Edward Weck, a German cutlery maker who had immigrated to Brooklyn, New York, the Sextoblade used a carbon steel blade that slid into a groove on the spine. A new Weck razor came fitted with a new blade in the groove and a box of five replacement blades—hence the name “Sext.” Although the blades were ultimately disposable, you could extend their life with use of a cushion strop and proprietary honing outfit.
Each Sextoblade came with a removable guard that fit over the spine of the razor, similar to the straight or toothed comb of a DE razor. And like the comb of a DE razor, the guard on the Weck offered some protection to the shaver’s face. However, most straight-razor aficionados today never use the guard.
The original Sextoblade came fitted with celluloid scales. Weck also produced a version for the military, used for surgical prep, the “Orderly,” that had stainless steel scales imprinted with the Medical Service Corps caduceus. I believe these were in service as late as Vietnam.
As the years went by, the Sextoblade went out of favor for face-shaving, and the company retargeted the razor and blades as “hair shapers” for the salon industry. So iconic were these razors and blades that most hair shapers on the market today are knockoffs of the Weck, and blades identical to the disposable Weck blade are still produced by Personna, Fromm, and Diane, to name only a few companies. These modern hair shaper blades (now made out of stainless steel) still fit the original Sextoblade razors.
You can still find the Weck Sextoblade and the virtually identical Weck Hair Shaper for sale on auction sites and in antique shops at very reasonable prices. I own a number of these and shave with them regularly. Hands down, my favorite blade to pair with them is the Kismet hair shaper blade. These are produced in Germany; they’re difficult to get in the states and expensive when you can find them. Blades are packed six to a box. The Kismets are sharp as hell. In fact, I find it takes at least three shaves for the blade to smooth out and stop drawing blood. I’ve gotten as many as 20 two-pass shaves from a single blade—no stropping required. A Sextoblade paired with a Kismet gives me my closest shave.
As you’ll see if you go down the straight razor rabbit hole, shaving with a Sextoblade is not identical to shaving with a traditional straight—but it’s as close as you’re going to get.
