Parker, 96R Graphite Gray Long Handle Butterfly Open Double Edge Safety Razor for Men, 5 Parker Premium Platinum Double Edge Razor Blades Included

I decided to upgrade my morning routine and give myself something to look forward to when I'm feeling lazy and thinking about sleeping in. I also felt like it was time to stop using an electric razor since it was leaving me with a very amateur-looking shave (lots of stray hairs that I couldn't get no matter how much I tried). I wanted to get the most out of the safety razor experience, so I did a lot of research into which products are needed and how to use them. I made all of the purchases together on Amazon and tried them out as a set. After using an electric for the past 10 years, I was pretty worried that I would get some serious razor burn, but to my surprise I had none whatsoever! I was pretty careful to not get too aggressive with the shaving, so I went WITH the grain and only made one or two passes on each area. The result was a shave that was 100X closer than an electric with no discomfort, nicks, cuts, or razor burn!Here's what I bought and why:Safety Razor: Parker 96R – Long Handle Butterfly Safety Razorhttps://www.amazon.com/dp/B002IFFSOS/ref=cm_cr_ryp_prd_ttl_sol_2This safety razor has a great weight to it, a long handle for a comfortable grip, and a black and chrome coloring that looks great with the other items on the list. The butterfly razors seem to be the easiest to open and close for changing blades.Razor Blades: Astra Superior Premium Platinum bladeshttps://www.amazon.com/dp/B00EXPTR0W/ref=cm_cr_ryp_prd_ttl_sol_4One of the great things about safety razors is that the blades are SUPER cheap. These Astra blades are some of the most popular and highest quality blades I could find. At $0.10 each, you can clearly see the cost advantage to regular razors. I have been told that one blade should last about a week. That means that 100 is nearly 2 years’ worth! Do yourself a favor and buy the best blades you can get. There’s no reason to save a few cents to get blades that dull quickly and give you razorburn.Brush: Perfecto 100% Badger Shaving Brush - Blackhttps://www.amazon.com/dp/B00VF1NI5M/ref=cm_cr_ryp_prd_ttl_sol_40This brush is a fraction of the cost of the higher end brushes and it felt GREAT and worked up a nice, foamy lather very quickly. I don’t see any reason to buy a more expensive brush, especially if you are just starting out and want to see if you enjoy this process before you commit to a high-dollar brush. Personally, I still wouldn’t get anything more expensive.Bowl: Schöne Stainless Steel Shaving Bowl with Lidhttps://www.amazon.com/dp/B00OQDEL8Y/ref=cm_cr_ryp_prd_ttl_sol_37I think this is a matter of preference and taste in aesthetics. This bowl matches the other items that I bought and has a lid, which I am hoping will allow me to make my soap last longer. It seems to be well made and is a great size for working up a lather with the brush and is shaped well for holding it in your hand while you apply the lather. I think there are a lot of options for you to choose from, so pick something that matches your style if this one isn’t for you.Razor and Brush Stand: SimplyBeautiful Deluxe Razor and Brush Standhttps://www.amazon.com/dp/B00AG92BXY/ref=cm_cr_ryp_prd_ttl_sol_35This stand looks great and is balanced well so that it holds my brush and razor without falling over. I chose black for two reasons. One: It matches the other things that I bought (razor and brush). Two: It should resist rusting better since it is coated.Pre-shave Oil: The Art of Shaving Pre-Shave Oil, Sandalwoodhttps://www.amazon.com/dp/B000FGTTTM/ref=cm_cr_ryp_prd_ttl_sol_3The Art of Shaving makes some great products, but some of them have changes in recent years, so you can’t rely on the ratings alone. I read through them and found that the pre-shave oil is still a very popular product and from my experience, it definitely helps prep your beard and skin for the shave. Applying the oil is step 1 in safety razor shaving.Shaving Soap: Taylor of Old Bond Street Sandalwood Shavinghttps://www.amazon.com/dp/B0007MW2ZW/ref=cm_cr_ryp_prd_ttl_sol_1TOBS shaving soaps are the highest quality soaps I could find based off of smell, quality of lather, and consistency of the product quality. This soap is more like a cream. I scooped out some with my fingers, put it in the bowl, added some hot water, and then worked up a lather. It felt and smelled amazing! In reality, I didn’t want to wash it off because it just felt so good!After-shave Balm: Truefitt & Hill Sandalwood Aftershave Balmhttps://www.amazon.com/dp/B004OWPW0I/ref=cm_cr_ryp_prd_ttl_sol_29This was my biggest splurge of the whole set-up and I did so for several reasons: First, using after-shave balm is said to be gentler on your skin than alcohol-based after-shaves. As I mentioned before, I switched from an electric to a safety razor with no skin irritation at all. This cream soothes the skin and makes it soft. It was the perfect way to finish my shave. Second, this stuff is rated as the absolutely best smelling after-shave balm out there and I can attest to that. It smells so great that I stopped using my cologne. Based on the small amount that is needed, this bottle should easily last for a year or more. Three, there are other “luxury” brand shaving balms that have been bought out by big brand companies and their formulas have changed significantly as a result. That means that some of the products out there have great ratings, but only because of the number ratings BEFORE they recently changed. If you look into other luxury shaving brands, then you will see what I mean.Razor Disposal Case: Feather Styling Razor Disposal Casehttps://www.amazon.com/dp/B00DWGEY1K/ref=cm_cr_ryp_prd_ttl_sol_36Even used razors are sharp, so I bought this little case to keep stray razors off of the counter, or better yet, off of the floor. Just drop in the used razor when it’s too dull for shaving. It holds over a hundred, so you can go without emptying it for a few years. It’s pretty cheap, so maybe you can just throw it away when it’s full? Your choice.That’s my whole set up. If you want to get into safety razor shaving, then I highly recommend the products on this list. All-in-all, you will spend about the same on this list than you would on a TAOS starter kit that only has the oil, brush, soap, and balm. I’m a morning shaver, so the sandalwood scent works great for me, but evening shavers may consider the same products in lavender scent if you want a relaxing experience to help you sleep.

I started using this about four years ago and it has worked very well for me, particularly compared with the cartridge razors most American men have to live with. I recently tried a different DE razor and, while smoother, it wasn't as efficient about removing hair as the Parker is. This is probably the right level of aggressiveness for me. DE shaving enthusiasts will probably tell you the razor blade and your face prep, soap and technique are actually all more important than the razor, full disclosure. Go to the wicked_edge subreddit for more info than you could want on DE shaving (Rockwell and vintage Gillette DE razors tend to get the most love there, with Gillette Silver Blues and Nacets tending to be the best-loved DE razor blades). I should also note that this razor is incredibly reasonably priced for what you get.Cartridges do suck, they are just a long-standing scam by Big Razor to make money--money they couldn't make with DE razor blades that cost pennies. I use German-made Wilkinson Sword razor blades with this razor--they are currently $18 for 100, you can't beat that. The butterfly top does mean there is a little difficulty getting just under the nose--you have shave at a little angle to do that area justice.

I love my Parker. I just bought another after almost 10 years of use. There are many others acting superior, I just spent $90 on another brand that shall go unnamed...the difference is that Parker doesn't irritate my skin. It is almost perfect. The only flaw is that the chrome plating did corrode and resulted in rusting which concerned me enough to replace it.

"Look pal, I didn't ask for your shaving life story."YEAH WELL YOU'RE GONNA GET IT ANYWAY.When I was maybe five or six years old, I received an AVON boy's toy shaving kit. I found a picture of a vintage one on Etsy: https://img0.etsystatic.com/000/0/6404262/il_fullxfull.286952360.jpgThe fake, chunky blue plastic 'razor' approximated what I saw my dad shave with daily -- disposable yellow-handle Bics. It was fun to pretend I was shaving alongside him.Fast-forward to ages twelve through fourteen. I got myself a Gillette "SensorExcel" twin-bladed razor to shave the little dirt-stache growing above my lip. That was my introduction into 'real' shaving and the modern disposable razor market. I used that type of razor for years, progressing along with the industry and its ridiculous push towards three, four, and five-bladed disposable razor heads. SNL skits about twelve-bladed razors seemed prescient when the market was still 'only' at three.Several years back in my mid-to-late twenties, I decided to ditch that wagon and started looking into straight razors. I bought and eventually sold a beautifully-designed and expensive razor after attempting to go the whole nine, strop and all. It was magnificent tool but required too much care and maintenance for my taste.I decided to pivot to the type of straight razor that my barber uses -- they aren't allowed to used fixed-blade razors for sanitary reasons, so they use what's basically a straight razor *handle* that accepts one-half of a disposable double-edged razor blade. I bought a Parker SR1 Stainless Steel Straight Edge Barber Razor and 5 Shark Super Stainless blades along with a bulk order of 100 blades and hadn't looked back since then.I'd been very happy with the Parker SR1 through my early-to-now-mid thirties, but at some point a few weeks ago it went missing. Not sure if it'd eventually turn up, I wanted to replace it but not with the same EXACT thing -- so I opted for a Parker DE razor instead. I'd been perusing DE razors back around the time I was originally researching straight razors, and decided now was the time to give one a chance...OH. OH MY. IT'S SO OBVIOUS NOW. IT'S ALL SO CLEAR TO ME.THIS is what I'd been raised on, yet took until adulthood to understand. That fake, chunky blue plastic razor I played with as a kid wasn't emulating my dad's crappy disposable Bic, it was emulating THIS, a DE-style safety razor. Those DE blades weren't made to be snapped in half and inserted into a shavette handle, they were made for THIS, to be dropped in whole and locked in place behind two butterfly doors.In my personal view... after using all sorts of razors, this basic DE safety razor design is the pinnacle of razor achievement. The razor industry fooled people with their cheapo handles and their expensive replacement blade cartridges. It should have stopped at the DE design of quality handles and cheap replacement blades, but "innovation" and capitalism go hand-in-hand. This type of razor is probably all I'll ever use now. It's much easier and safer to use than a straight razor / shavette, it accepts the same super-sharp and super-cheap replacement blades, and it's much easier to rinse and clean than those cheapo disposable razors that get clogged up on the inside after one stroke. For me, this is perfect.-----Now, with SPECIFIC regard to the Parker 96R model -- I don't know if this in particular is the pinnacle of DE safety razors, but I'm certainly happy with it. I'm surprised 'Long Handle' is in the title -- I'm a short dude and don't have especially large-sized hands, but this handle didn't seem particularly long to me at all. If *this* is a long handle, then do other DE razors have just a little nubbin of a handle and that's it? I don't know. The handle on this is... sufficient in length. It has a nice weight to it. The butterfly doors seem to open and close fine. I notice curves in the center hole of DE razor blades that aren't incorporated on the inside mechanism of the Parker, so I *imagine* it's possible that other DE razors do incorporate those into their design to lock the razor blade more evenly and precisely in place. On this one, it's possible to have one side of the razor jut out a fraction of a millimeter more so than on the other side. It hasn't been a big deal during use, just an observation.In retrospect, it's funny that the toy razor I played with as a kid approximated a better razor design than what I'd end-up using for the next ~25+ years of my life, and it took me literally this long to realize it. Even if I eventually find my Parker SR1, I'm pretty certain I'll be using the Parker 96R as my regular razor from now on.