What Wet Shaving Actually Is
Wet shaving is the traditional way to shave, a brush, a soap, a single-blade razor, and water. Here's why people still do it.
The short version
Wet shaving is what your grandfather did. A small bowl of water, a soap or cream, a brush to whip the soap into lather, and a single-blade razor, usually a double-edge safety razor (DE) or a straight razor. That’s it.
It’s not a hobby in the sense that it requires expensive gear. The whole starter kit, razor, brush, soap, blades, fits in a small zip pouch and runs about $55-80 (about $100 if you start with a Merkur 34C). The reason people stick with it is that it does three things modern multi-blade carts don’t:
- It’s often gentler on skin. A single sharp blade lifts the whisker once and slices it. Many shavers find multi-blade cartridges grab and tug the hair before cutting it. Dermatologists who treat razor bumps often steer people to a single blade too, mostly because it shaves a little less close. The evidence isn’t settled, and plenty of people shave happily with cartridges.
- It costs less over time. A pack of 100 DE blades is $10-25. A cartridge head for a Mach 3 / Fusion runs about $3 to $5 each.
- It gives you a meditative ten minutes in the morning. Whether you want that is up to you. Most wet shavers find out they did.
What you don’t need
You don’t need a hundred-dollar straight razor, a $200 silvertip badger brush, or an artisan soap from Etsy that sold out three weeks ago. A starter kit can be a Merkur 34C, a synthetic brush, a tub of Stirling Soap, and a tuck of Astra blades. That’s the whole thing.
The rest of the Beginner’s Path will walk you through each piece.
What you’ll need to learn
Three skills, and they start to click within the first few weeks of daily shaves:
- Lather. How to load a brush and build a thick, slick lather on your face or in a bowl.
- Angle. How to hold a DE razor: rest the cap flat on your skin, then tilt the handle until the blade just starts to catch, roughly 30 degrees, so the blade glides instead of scrapes.
- Pressure. Almost none. The razor weighs enough on its own, you guide it, you don’t push it.
That’s the whole curriculum. Now let’s get you a kit.
Frequently asked questions
What is wet shaving?
Wet shaving is shaving with water, a soap or cream, a brush to whip that soap into lather, and a single-blade razor, usually a double-edge safety razor or a straight razor. It is what your grandfather did, and the whole starter kit fits in a small zip pouch.
Is wet shaving expensive to start?
No. A complete starter kit of razor, brush, soap and blades runs about 55 to 80 dollars, or about 100 dollars if you build it around a Merkur 34C. It also gets cheaper over time: a pack of 100 double-edge blades costs 10 to 25 dollars, where a single Mach 3 or Fusion cartridge head runs about 3 to 5 dollars.
Why do many people find a single blade gentler than a multi-blade cartridge?
A single sharp blade lifts the whisker once and slices it. Many shavers find multi-blade cartridges grab and tug the hair before cutting it. Dermatologists who treat razor bumps often steer people to a single blade too, mostly because it shaves a little less close. The evidence is not settled, and plenty of people shave happily with cartridges.
What do I actually need to learn?
Three things, and they start to click within the first few weeks of daily shaves. Lather, meaning how to load a brush and build a thick slick lather. Angle, meaning resting the cap flat on your skin, then tilting the handle until the blade just starts to catch, roughly 30 degrees. And pressure, of which you want almost none, because the razor is heavy enough to do the cutting on its own.
Most of the gear in this path is at The Wet Shaving Store, Shave Dad’s official outfitter.