Wet Shaving Resources

Learning to wet shave with a traditional double edge razor? Researching collectible vintage safety razors made by Gillette, Schick, Gem, or Ever-Ready? This page curates links to the best resources we've found on these topics.

We don't intend these to be comprehensive lists. Instead, what you'll find here are only the very best resources, ones we have learned from and used ourselves.

How to Wet Shave

  1. Shave HQ's Vintage Value Starter Kit comes with our own introduction to shaving with a double edge razor, a shaving brush, and shaving soap. Called Wet Shaving is Easy, it is a short booklet that covers the basics you need to get started.
  2.  Michael Ham, known online as LeisureGuy, literally wrote the book on wet shaving: LeisureGuy's Guide to Gourmet Shaving the Double-Edge Way. The Guide is an in-depth look at the tools and techniques of wet shaving. Despite its comprehensive detail, it is written in a way that is very approachable for newcomers. Ham also discusses his daily shaves as well as trends, new products, and many other topics on his personal website. Here are his shaving-specific posts there.
  3. Video is an excellent medium for showing shaving techniques that might be difficult to capture in text. The videos I learned from are on Mantic59's YouTube channel. His Introduction to Traditional Shaving playlist is a great place to start, and his Shave Technique playlist is full of helpful tips.
  4. Michael Freedberg is another YouTuber with a range of incredibly helpful shaving videos. His set of Wet Shaving Tutorial videos is excellent, and his video on how to make lather with a shaving brush and shaving soap is the best, most clear information on the topic I have found.
  5. Mantic59 also maintains Sharpologist, a frequently updated source for wet shaving news, product reviews, tutorials and more.

Information on Vintage Razors

  1. Mr-Razor has comprehensive information on the history of Gillette safety razors, including photos of countless variations of each model Gillette sold over the years.
  2. This document, with contributions from members of reddit's r/WetShaving community, provides recommendations for those new to vintage razors.
  3. Gillette Adjustable Razors: A Reference Resource and Historical Archive dives deep into Gillette's various adjustable razors.
  4. Charts on dating Gillette razors based on their serial number or date code are available on several websites. The information is the same regardless; I tend to use Jayaruh Shaving's page on the topic.
  5. The Schick Injector Razor History, Development and Identification Guide has the best info on identifying and dating injector razors.
  6. This forum post and its replies represent the most complete information on Gem-style single edge razors that I've found in one place.
Additionally, the Daily Questions threads on r/WetShaving are a great place to get answers on any of the above topics