Shaving Gear
If you must shave, this is the way to do it. My old shaving brush (which boar bristle) was looking pretty sorry and felt even worse, so I got a badger-hair brush (which is supposed to be much better than boar bristle). In the same order I got a double-edged (aka safety) razor and a round of bay rum soap. I balked at the expensive shaving stands, but not wanting my new gear to suffer the same fate my old brush did, I knew I needed one. So I planned on making my own. The internet is good to the DIY-inclined, like myself, and provided me all the information I needed to make one of two styles: the coat-hanger stand and the PVC stand.
Today I whipped up a stand out of a coat hanger, but it differs from the Instructables version in several ways. First of all, I wanted to save space and integrate my mug into the stand, so the over-the-center bit had to change. Second, I wasn’t nearly as fastidious in my coat hanger bending technique, so mine isn’t nearly as pretty. Third, I don’t have anything that can cut coat hanger and so I just used the whole thing. Luckily, I had a hanger with less metal lying around—the kind with a cardboard tube for the pants (like you get from the dry cleaners). It worked out to be about perfect in length.
So, I got out my pliers, straightened the hangar, started bending, and a few minutes and several rebendings later I had this:
It’s working better than I anticipated. I didn’t doubt a quality stand could be achieved with coat hanger, but I did doubt my haphazard free-form bending would produce one. Amazing stuff, coat hanger.
As for the actual shaving, give me a couple of days or weeks and I’ll post my experience with the badger brush and DE razor. If you’re interested in wet shaving, the article linked above is a good start, as is this article and this excellent series of videos on YouTube. If you only watch one video, and only get a brush and soap or cream (and skip the safety razor bit), this video will serve you well.