My father's family fled Berlin with the rise of the Hitler madness. With a pocket full of cash, having converted everything they could into cash, they stopped in Solingen in 1936 until 1938. Thus I have my grandfather's daily set of straight razors, which were engraved with the day of the week and his name. Nice little case. I also have his matched set of hairbrushes from the same (destroyed) shop, also engraved. Among other things. Being Germans and on the wrong side of things as tensions mounted, they were a little short of destinations. But they got to Amsterdam, grandfather got an import-export job, and from there, moved to the Dutch East Indies - now Indonesia.
Luckily they became British subjects in Singapore. They got out from Hong Kong to San Francisco in Jan 1942, driving Route 66 to Chicago, arriving in Toronto in March. My grandfather had acquired a number of other engraved and monogrammed items. I have no idea why he brought his razors and this other stuff, as the Japanese were on the verge of coming in, and they didn't have much. But he did. He also was an inveterate shoe shiner. (Do properly polished shoes correlate with shaving properly?) I tried the straight razors in the 1970s and 80s for a time, on and off, but we were going mullet haircuts, handlebar moustaches and the grizzled northern bushman look. In those days, here, you either went bush or stayed city and Mao jacket and talked learnedly of the oppressed, capitalist running dogs (okay, yes, and sex). (My father had a collection of electric shavers, I never bit that bug).
In 1977 I got a Gillette handle and used it until I broke it in in May 2015. You can drop a razor one too many times, and actually bust them. I probably should have a picture I used whatever store blades were around. Mostly Wilkinson's. After I broke it, I got one of those 4 blade Fusions, an Atra and a large pack of disposables. I also grew a beard, but recreation of the 35 year ago beard doesn't work when the beard is going all salt and pepper with emphasis on the salt. So I bought a Parker 90R, a Merkur travel razor, and a couple of crappy others. Online shopping can get good prices. While I was at it, bought some blades. I have an adjustable Merkur coming, which I got another deal on. Thought maybe I could leave a razor collection as my legacy.
The Parker works well if daily shaving with Astras (light brown), if not for a few days Feathers (yellow package). Merkur blades I don't like: irritating. I have shaving brushes going back to the 1970s. I seem to go back and forth between a synthetic from then and a newer, firm badger silvertip I picked up in Guyana of all place, in the 1980s. In a pinch I just use bar soap. Generally have always used locally made soaps. (I also like to drink local beer) I haven't used a mirror for decades. It's a feel thing for me.
At any rate, unless I had broken my razor, you wouldn't have ever heard from me on this forum. Things have come quite a way since I tried grandfathers straight razors. (Probably could post photos of them, if that works on this forum, can't get people to look at them mostly).
A history from an old windbag (probably boring)
شارك عبر الماسنجر
