The Group's Dumbest Shaving Mistakes, From Toilets to Straight-Razor Scars
Aaron started it with a confession. He’d used his new Razorworks R1 a couple of times, boxed everything back up the way it shipped, and somewhere over the next few weeks the whole box went out with the trash. He didn’t notice until he went looking for the razor and came up empty. Gone. Not lost in a drawer, not loaned to a buddy, thrown out with the garbage next to a box that looked exactly like every other box in the house.
So he asked the group: what’s the dumbest thing you’ve ever done with your shaving gear? More than thirty replies later, the answers ran from mildly embarrassing to actual-ER-visit serious.
Bathroom Casualties
Stubble tried to do the responsible thing before a trip and hid his Overlander in the dirty clothes hamper, out of sight, out of the way. Then he grabbed clothes for packing without checking pockets or corners first. The razor went through a full tumble dry cycle before anyone remembered where it was.
Tim’s story is worse. He dropped his Gillette Slim straight into the toilet mid shave. Lee had a theory about what caused the splash.
Tim didn’t deny it.
Kryn’s entry needed no drama at all. He flew to the Philippines and left his brush at home. No injury, no story, just a guy lathering with his bare hands for the length of a trip because the one thing he actually needed didn’t make it into the bag.
Blood and Stitches
A few members learned the same lesson from opposite directions: never grab for a falling razor. Chris said the fix is simple now, if it slips, let it hit the floor. A scratched blade beats a trip to urgent care. Irena said almost the same thing, she went to catch a falling razor and came within a hair of needing stitches herself.
Mike wasn’t so lucky. He sliced his finger wide open shaking a DE razor dry after rinsing it, his first time ever needing stitches over a shave. Lee used a GEM razor with the blade sitting on top of the guard bar instead of behind it, and it tore him up badly enough to leave a permanent scar that traces something close to the number 11 on his cheek.
David’s version tops the list. He dropped a DE89L in the shower and caught it out of pure instinct before it hit the tile, palm open, blade first. He spent the rest of the day in the ER.
The straight razor crowd has its own casualty list, and it comes with its own kind of humor attached.
J. has a matching scar on the other cheek, from a straight razor and a bathroom door that swung open at exactly the wrong moment, on his way out to teach a class on how to shave properly. Chris turned a shavette touch up on his mustache into a gash next to his nose, a mark he wore for a week of questions from people who assumed a much better story than the real one.
If you’re newer to blades and any of this sounds like a reason to stick with cartridges forever, it doesn’t have to be. Our beginner’s path walks through picking up your first safety razor without turning your bathroom into a crime scene.
Money and Bad Calls
Not every mistake drew blood. Freddie’s cost him cash instead, he’d dropped hundreds of dollars chasing high end razors that shaved no better than gear a fraction of the price. Matt had a version of the same regret with a brush. He let a maker set a synthetic knot he’d never tried because it looked cool in photos. It turned out too stiff to actually enjoy using.
Sigurd dry shaved a full week of stubble growth with a Merkur Futur cranked to setting 6. No lather, no mercy, and by his own account, not a decision he’d repeat. Eric reached for a menthol heavy soap in the shower without accounting for how much the heat and the water running off would concentrate the cooling effect. He paid for that one. Mark’s entry was the joke of the thread: he used a Feather blade, he said, without a license or a spotter.
None of this is really about the gear. It’s about the two seconds before a bad decision, the one where you think “one more shave” or “I’ll remember which box that was” and you’re wrong. Every hobby with a blade in it collects stories like these. Shave Dad’s group just happens to keep receipts.
Smooth shaves out there.